Specialty Box Office: ‘Stoker’ Scores Best Debut; ‘Quartet’ Hits $11 Million
After two months of generally slow weekends for 2013 releases (most of the top performers were holdovers from 2012), this weekend kicked off a month of anticipated new specialty releases likely to change the tide.
Park Chan-wook’s “Stoker” was certainly the most high-profile new release this weekend, and also by far its top performer. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, and Nicole Kidman, the psychological thriller — released by Fox Searchlight — grossed $158,822 from 7 theaters in 5 markets (LA, NY, Boston, Chicago and Toronto) for a strong $22,689 average. Clearly, the film’s real test comes as it expands in the coming weeks (it expand within the markets noted next weekend to 18-20 theaters) but its a respectable start.
“Stoker” topped six other reporting openers, all of which came with significantly lower expectations. The best performer of the lot was Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s doc “Leviathan,” which grossed $10,018 from a single screen at New York’s IFC Center. Distributor The Cinema Guild said the film played to multiple sold out shows and will expand to other markets throughout winter and spring.
Among holdovers, The Weinstein Company went for it with Maggie Smith-starrer “Quartet” — expanding it to 725 theaters from 356 and seeing it jump 56%, taking in $1,760,000 to push its total impressively past the $11 million mark. That makes it the first 2013 release (though it had an Oscar qualifying run in 2012) to cross the $10 million mark.
Full list of numbers for reporting openers and holdovers below, ranked by per-theater-average.
The Debuts:
1. Stoker
Distributor: Fox Searchlight
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $158,822
Theaters: 7
Average: $22,689
Cumulative Total: $158,822
2. Leviathan
Distributor: Cinema Guild
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $10,018
Theaters: 1
Average: $10,018
Cumulative Total: $10,018
3. Hava Nagila
Distributor: International Film Circuit
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $9,521
Theaters: 1
Average: $9,521
Cumulative Total: $9,521
4. War Witch
Distributor: Tribeca Film
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $10,260
Theaters: 2
Average: $5,130
Cumulative Total: $10,260
5. Welcome To Pine Hill
Distributor: Oscilloscope
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $4,000
Theaters: 1
Average: $4,000
Cumulative Total: $4,000
6. A Place at the Table
Distributor: Magnolia
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $84,000
Theaters: 35
Average: $2,400
Cumulative Total: $84,000
7. The End of Love
Distributor: Variance Films
Weeks in Release: 1
Gross: $2,400
Theaters: 2
Average: $1,200
Cumulative Total: $2,400
The Holdovers
1. No
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Weeks in Release: 3
Gross: $110,144
Theaters: 11 (up from 6)
Average: $10,013
Cumulative Total: $317,175
2. The Gatekeepers
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Weeks in Release: 5
Gross: $255,255
Theaters: 46 (up from 19)
Average: $5,549
Cumulative Total: $685,373 (includes Oscar qualifying run)
3. Quartet
Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Weeks in Release: 8
Gross: $1,760,000
Theaters: 725 (up from 356)
Average: $2,428
Cumulative Total: $8,911,064
4. Like Someone In Love
Distributor: Sundance Selects
Weeks in Release: 3
Gross: $14,000
Theaters: 7 (down from 9)
Average: $2,000
Cumulative Total: $83,000
5. Amour
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Weeks in Release: 11
Gross: $522,283
Theaters: 333 (up from 329)
Average: $1,568
Cumulative Total: $5,921,762
7. The Impossible
Distributor: Summit
Weeks in Release: 11
Gross: $153,000
Theaters: 151 (down from 253)
Average: $1,013
Cumulative Total: $18,315,827
