Brian Brooks is Managing Editor of MovieLine.
Quartet crooned atop the specialty newcomers for its opening in two theaters. Tribeca Film’s Struck By Lightning starring Glee‘s Chris Colfer and Phase Four Films’ The Baytown Outlaws with Billy Bob Thornton and Eva Longoria have yet to report their numbers, but if/when they do, they’ll have stiff competition from Quartet which also happens to be Dustin Hoffman’s official feature directing debut. In a pair of runs in NYC and LA, the film averaged a solid $25,017. Zeitgeist had a tougher time with its foreign-language release Let My People Go! The boutique distributor opened the film about a French-born Jewish man who ends up back with his zany family in Paris after a quarrel with his Finnish boyfriend at a single NYC venue that took in an estimated $2,299 for the weekend weekend.
Quartet had a short awards-qualifying run last month, but came into its theatrical own in the second weekend of the New Year at the Paris Theater in New York and the Landmark in Los Angeles. Quartet star Maggie Smith gave a little jab to the film establishment last year in the wake of one of her last big screen success, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, saying Hollywood treats cinema-goers like “5-year-olds.” TWC said its core audience would be “mature” for Quartet and the film had a good rollout. Downton Abbey‘s Dowager Countess knows best. Quartet‘s next expansion will be to 75 markets and about 350 locations January 25.
Sony Pictures Classics widened its Oscar Best Picture and Best Foreign-Langue Film nominee Amour to 15 theaters after three weeks with hefty runs in only three locations. The film, which was honored last night at the LA Film Crtitics Association event in Century City, held strong with an $18,038 average vs last weekend’s $21,199. Lionsgate moved The Impossible into 236 additional runs in its 4th weekend for a PTA of $3,156 across 808 cinemas. In 572 theaters last weekend the film averaged $4,852.
IFC Films did not run On The Road this weekend. It said the three weeks it hit theaters was a “qualifying run” and the movie will have its full release March 22 around the country. Spring is better for a road trip anyway.
NEW
Let My People Go! (Zeitgeist Films) NEW [1 Theater] Weekend $2,299
The Baytown Outlaws (Phase Four Films) NEW Figures Not Reported
Quartet (The Weinstein Company) NEW [2 Theaters] Weekend $50,033, Average $25,017
Struck By Lightning (Tribeca Film) NEW Figures Not Reported
RETURNING / 2ND WEEKEND
56 Up (First Run) Week 2 [ Theater] Weekend Figures Not Reported
HOLDOVERS / 3RD+ WEEKEND
Promised Land (Focus Features) Week 3 [1,647 Theaters] Weekend $1,316,151, Average $799, Cume $6,916,231
West Of Memphis (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 3 [2 Theaters] Weekend $2,935, Average $1,468, Cume $46,414
Amour (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 4 [15 Theaters] Weekend $270,575, Average $18,038, Cume $651,851
The Impossible (Lionsgate-Summit Entertainment) Week 4 [808 Theaters] Weekend $2,550,000, Average $3,156, Cume $6,864,089
Not Fade Away (Paramount Vantage) Week 4 [177 Theaters] Weekend $41K, Average $232, Cume $574,787
Zero Dark Thirty (Sony) Week 4 [2,937 Theaters] Weekend $24M, Average $8,172, Cume $29,480,807
Hyde Park On Hudson (Focus Features) Week 6 [246 Theaters] Weekend $704,619, Average $2,864, Cume $4,289,164
Hitchcock (Fox Searchlight) Week 8 [127 Theaters] Weekend $83,800, Average $660, Cume $5,643,296
Rust And Bone (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 8 [79 Theaters] Weekend $197,871, Average $2,277, Cume $1,135,039
Anna Karenina (Focus Features) Week 9 [144Theaters] Weekend $220,661, Average $1,532, Cume $11,927,148
Silver Linings Playbook (The Weinstein Company) Week 9 [810 Theaters] Weekend $5M, Average $6,173, Cume $41,305,705
The Other Son (Cohen Media Group) Week 12 [8 Theaters] Weekend $10,720, Average $1,340, Cume $1,220,807
Holy Motors (Indomina) Week 13 [13 Theaters] Weekend $16,788, Average $1,291, Cume $588,099
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (Lionsgate-Summit Entertainment) Week 17 [100 Theaters] Weekend $64K, Average $640, Cume $17,578,769
Searching For Sugar Man (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 25 [22 Theaters] Weekend $27,174, Average $1,235, Cume $3,096,128
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