Specialty Box Office: Much Ado About ‘Nothing’ Indeed As Joss Whedon’s Shakespeare Take Opens Big
Sure, they aren’t “The Avengers”-size numbers, but Joss Whedon had a fantastic debut for his micro-budgeted take on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” The film — distributed by Roadside Attractions (already having a great summer thanks to “Mud” and “Stories We Tell,” which both had great weekends as well) — opened in 5 theaters in New York, LA and San Francisco. It took in $183,400 as a result, averaging $36,680. That’s slightly above the $34,350 another recent black-and-white indie hit averaged in its first weekend, “Frances Ha.”
Notably the film broke the house record Saturday night at the Film Society of Lincoln Center with a $15,027 gross there, and managed the best opening weekend overall to date.
“Reviews were terrific and anecdotally we’re getting a great mixture of the Joss Whedon fans and the classic arthouse and Shakespeare fans,” Roadside’s Howard Cohen told Indiewire. “The film had a great festival run starting at last years TIFF, and then fantastic 2013 festival run including SXSW and a huge sellout screening as the opening film of Seattle Film Festival. Joss and his ensemble cast did a mammoth amount of PR including festival appearances, an appearance at Wonder Con, the talk show circuit and a plethora of screenings and online interviews.”
Roadside is expanding within the three markets on June 14th, and then opening nationwide on a moderate pattern in the 200-300 screen range on June 21st.
Another strong debut came care of Rick Rowley’s “Dirty Wars,” which Sundance Selects released in 4 theaters in New York, LA and DC. The result was a potent $66,000 gross, averaging $16,500. The film played to sold out shows in all venues, and will expand to the top 10 markets next weekend.
In terms of holdovers, “Before Midnight” led all non-openers in terms of per-theater-average, having perhaps its most impressive weekend yet in its third frame. The third film in the “Before” series collaboration of Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, the film went from 31 to 52 screens this weekend and saw its per-theater-average drop only slightly from $13,042 to $11,243. That shows the film is having serious staying power as it expands and bodes well for the film to easily surpass both its predecessors.
READ MORE: Box Office: ‘Before Midnight’ Carries ‘Lowest-Grossing Trilogy’ to New Heights
All fairing reasonably well were Zeitgeist’s “Hannah Arendt,” Fox Searchlight’s “The East” and CBS Films’
“The Kings of Summer,” each of which had strong debuts last weekend.
All three had respectable averages between $5,000-$6,100 as they expanded to 5 (“Hannah”), 41 (“The East”) and 44 (“Summer”) screens, respectively. “The East” was the most impressive of the three, taking in $247,000 for a $6,024 average. Its total now stands at $354,441 and it outgross the final total of director/co-writer Zal Batmanglij
and actress/co-writer Brit Marling’s previous collaboration “Sound of My Voice” any day now. That film ended its run with $408,015.
Meanwhile, IFC Films saw “Frances Ha” become the second specialty film (after “Mud”) to cross the $2 million mark this summer. Expanding to 234 screens, the film grossed $589,680, averaging $2,520 and taking its total to $2,376,860. The film will continue to open in all markets and expand to the suburbs of existing ones.
Continue to the next page for grosses
for reporting debuts and holdovers below.
The Debuts:
1. Much Ado About Nothing
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $183,400
Theaters: 5
Average: $36,680
Cumulative Total: $$183,400
2. Dirty Wars
Distributor: Sundance Selects
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $66,000
Theaters: 4
Average: $16,500
Cumulative Total: $66,000
3. You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $7,000
Theaters: 2
Average: $3,500
Cumulative Total: $7,000
4. Wish You Were Here
Distributor: eOne Films
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $25,723
Theaters: 11
Average: $2,338
Cumulative Total: $25,723
5. The Prey
Distributor: Cohen Media Group
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $6,310
Theaters: 5
Average: $1,262
Cumulative Total: $6,310
6. Violet & Daisy
Distributor: Cinedigm
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $10,250
Theaters: 17
Average: $603
Cumulative Total: $10,250
The Holdovers
1. Before Midnight
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Weeks in Release: 3
Gross: $574,648
Theaters: 52 (up from 31)
Average: $11,243
Cumulative Total: $1,518,332
2. The East
Distributor: Fox Searchlight
Weeks in Release: 2
Gross: $247,000
Theaters: 41 (up from 4)
Average: $6,024
Cumulative Total: $354,441
3. Fill The Void
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Weeks in Release: 3
Gross: $78,048
Theaters: 13 (up from 6)
Average: $6,004
Cumulative Total: $259,759
4. Hannah Arendt
Distributor: Zeitgeist Films
Weeks in Release: 2
Gross: $30,000
Theaters: 5 (up from 1)
Average: $6,000
Cumulative Total: $97,627
5. The Kings of Summer
Distributor: CBS Films
Weeks in Release: 2
Gross: $220,000
Theaters: 44 ( up from 4)
Average: $5,000
Cumulative Total: $301,608
6. Frances Ha
Distributor: IFC Films
Weeks in Release: 4
Gross: $589,680
Theaters: 234 (up from 133)
Average: $2,520
Cumulative Total: $2,376,860
7. Stories We Tell
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Weeks in Release: 5
Gross: $156,520
Theaters: 70 (up from 39)
Average: $2,236
Cumulative Total: $1,105,923
8. Love Is All You Need
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Weeks in Release: 6
Gross: $221,877
Theaters: 101 (up from 71)
Average: $2,197
Cumulative Total: $998,080
9. Mud
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Weeks in Release: 7
Gross: $1,209,400
Theaters: 510 (down from 511)
Average: $2,078
Cumulative Total: $18,600,987
10. We Steal Secrets
Distributor: Focus World
Weeks in Release: 3
Gross: $35,350
Theaters: 24 (up from 11)
Average: $1,473
Cumulative Total: $127,913
11. What Maisie Knew
Distributor: Millennium
Weeks in Release: 6
Gross: $161,406
Theaters: 122 (up from 101)
Average: $1,323
Cumulative Total: $783,454
12. Kon Tiki
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Weeks in Release: 7
Gross: $113,000
Theaters: 75 (up form 74)
Average: $1,507
Cumulative Total: $1,076,483
13. The Iceman
Distributor: Millennium
Weeks in Release: 6
Gross: $67,871
Theaters: 67 (down from 123)
Average: $1,013
Cumulative Total: $1,852,909
14. Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf’s
Distributor: eOne
Weeks in Release: 6
Gross: $25,516
Theaters: 29 (down from 38)
Average: $880
Cumulative Total: $442,144
15. The Sapphires
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Weeks in Release: 12
Gross: $39,500
Theaters: 55 (down from 58)
Average: $718
Cumulative Total: $2,209,378
16. The Place Beyond The Pines
Distributor: Focus Features
Weeks in Release: 11
Gross: $73,255
Theaters: 134 (up from 103)
Average: $546
Cumulative Total: $21,236,984
