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Specialty Box Office: John Turturro’s ‘Gigolo’ Far From Fading With Year’s Second Best Limited Debut

Specialty Box Office: John Turturro's 'Gigolo' Far From Fading With Year's Second Best Limited Debut
Specialty Box Office: John Turturro's 'Gigolo' Far From Fading With Year's Second Best Limited Debut

John Turturro’s “Fading Gigolo” brought some very good news to distributor Millennium Entertainment this Easter Sunday. The film — which stars Turturro, Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sofia Vergara, Vanessa Paradis, and Liev Schreiber — grossed a fantastic $198,399 from just 5 theaters over the weekend, averaging $39,680. That’s the second best limited debut of the year, after “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

“Fading Gigolo is performing better than we had even hoped,” Bill Lee, CEO Millennium Entertainment, said. “Propelled by fantastic word of mouth we saw a spectacular jump from Friday to Saturday – which goes to show that audiences were craving a funny and heartfelt film. That fact that Woody Allen is featured in a hilarious lead role was clearly a big draw.  John Turturro has created a romantic comedy that is truly speaking to audiences- young, old, male and female. We’re proud to be part of bringing this very special film to as many people as possible.”

“Gigolo” will begin its expansion next weekend.

As far as holdovers went, Jim Jarmusch’s very well reviewedOnly Lovers Left Alive” held on decently. The story of Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), two retro cool vampires, “Only Lovers” expanded from 4 to 17 theaters to take in $134,588 and average $7,917. That took the Sony Pictures Classics-released film’s total to $267,760.

Fairing similarly was The Weinstein Company’s second weekend of “The Railway Man.” The film took in $176,092 from 26 theaters (up from 4), which made for a $6,773 per-theater-average. Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky, the film stars Colin Firth as a man suffering from psychological trauma after being captured by the Japanese during World War II. With the help of his wife (Nicole Kidman), he decided to find and confront one of his captors.  Considering its two A-list leads, its gross could have been stronger, though how it fares in the coming weeks of expansion will be a truer test of its potential. For now, the film’s total stands at $264,242.

Roadside Attractions saw David Gordon Green’s “Joe” hold on to the 48 theaters it debuted on to disappointing results last weekend, and drop a respectable 27%.   Starring Nicolas Cage as an ex-con who develops a relationship with a 15-year-old boy, the film grossed $77,140, averaging $1,607.  Its total stands at $229,634 — less than both “Lovers” and “Railway” despite a lot more theaters.

Also in their second weekend were a pair of films from IFC Films/Sundance Selects. IFC released doc “Dancing In Jaffa” — which follows a man who takes his ballroom dancing program to Jaffa, teaching Jewish and Palestinian Israelis to dance and compete together — in 9 theaters (up from 2 last weekend) to a $18,000 gross, averaging $2,000 per theater. Sundance Selects, meanwhile, set Liza Johnson’s “Hateship Loveship” — which stars Kristen Wiig — in 3 theaters and found a $9,000 gross.  The film’s totals stand at $36,726 and $17,329, respectively.

In its third weekend Jonathan Glazer’s first film in 10 years, “Under The Skin,” crossed the $1 million mark. The A24-released film — which stars Scarlett Johannson as an alien roaming around Scotland preying on men found its way under the skin of enough filmgoers to gross $467,373 from 175 theaters — up from 50 last weekend. That amounted to a respectable $2,656 per-theater-average and a new total of $1,086,241.

Not fairing quite so well was Jude Law-led black comedy  “Dom Hemingway,” which failed to rack up much business in its third frame. Released by Fox Searchlight on 129 theaters (also up form 42), the film grossed just $142,000 for a $1,101 per-theater-average.  Its total stands at $296,760.

But both Law and Fox Searchlight can take serious solace in the fact that their previous collaboration, Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” was still going strong. Despite dropping 187 theaters (to 1,280), the film lost only 16% of its audience, taking in another $3,425,000 for a $2,676 average. That brought the film’s total to $44,967,492 after 7 weeks and still gives it a very good shot at topping the $52,364,010 that “The Royal Tenenbaums” grossed in 2001 to become Wes Anderson’s highest grossing film ever.

Peter Knegt is Indiewire’s Senior Writer and box office columnist. Follow him on Twitter.

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