Specialty Box Office: ‘Moonrise Kindgom’ Continues To Soar; ‘Hotel’ Hits $25 Million
New films didn’t make much of a dent this weekend, yet the specialty box office continued to soar thanks to breakouts “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” Each posted very impressive numbers in their second and fifth weekends, respectively.
Their performances overshadowed a group of generally unremarkable limited debuts – “5 Broken Cameras,” “Hardflip,” “High School” and Oscar-nominated animated film “A Cat in Paris.”
Check out the full rundown below.
The Debuts:
“5 Broken Cameras” (Kino Lorber)
Palestinian-Israeli documentary “5 Broken Cameras” — which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year — debuted with an exclusive run at New York’s Film Forum. It grossed $6,500 over the weekend, and $8,412 since opening last Wednesday. Distributor Kino Lorber will expand the film to San Francisco, Boston and DC later this month, with further expansion through the summer.
“High School” (Anchor Bay)
Adrien Brody-starrer “High School” was released on an aggressive 200 screens this weekend care of Anchor Bay and the results were not good. Averaging just $403 per screen, the John Stalberg, Jr.-directed comedy took in only $80,600. There’s unlikely to be much more where that came from.
“A Cat in Paris” (GKids)
GKids released an English-dubbed version of Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol’s Oscar-nominated animated film “A Cat in Paris” on six screens this weekend, and it took in $36,100, averaging a mildly respectable $6,017.
“Hardflip” (Rocky Mountain)
Johnny Remo’s skateboarding drama “Hardflip” didn’t fare that well this weekend either, taking in $55,400 from 22 screens in its opening frame. Its estimated average was just $2,518.
The Holdovers:
“Moonrise Kingdom” (Focus Features)
Focus Features-released “Moonrise Kingdom” held up very nicely after last weekend’s record breaking debut, expanding from 4 to 16 theaters and jumping 62% in grosses. It took in $849,000, which made for a massive $53,060 — by far the best second weekend average for any specialty release this year. That gave the film a total gross of $1,709,000 despite an extremely limited release. It also impressively jumped 42% from Friday to Saturday, which bodes very well.
“‘Moonrise’ continues to generate outstanding results this weekend,” Focus Features said in a statement. “Saturday’s large increase over Friday (42 per cent) reflects theaters adding more seats in response to demand (there were sellouts throughout the day). The estimated $53K theater average defines the film’s powerful box office momentum.”
The film is having another expansion this upcoming Friday, and if it can continue the momentum of its first 10 days, Focus Features could be looking at a major indie breakout. The last film to post a higher average in its second weekend was Oscar-favored “The King’s Speech,” which averaged $54,086 from six screens back in 2010. That film went on to gross $135 million.
“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Fox Searchlight)
John Madden’s older-audience skewing “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” continued to also prove itself one of 2012’s true indie breakouts this weekend care of Fox Searchlight, crossing the $25 million mark.
On 1,294 screens (up slightly from 1,233), the film — which stars Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson as a group of seniors retiring in India — dropped just 28% to gross a fantastic $4,600,000 over the weekend. That gave it a $3,555 per-theater-average and put it in the overall top six. The film’s total now stands at $25,496,605.
The film is now the highest grossing indie of 2012, and a final gross north of $40 million is quite possible. It’s already grossed over $100 million worldwide (more on that here).
For a report on other holdover releases, including “The Intouchables,” “Bernie” and “First Position,” continue to the next page.
“The Intouchables” (The Weinstein Company)
Also doing very well this weekend was Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s “The Intouchables,” which went from 4 to 50 theaters for its second frame. It jumped 238% in the process and grossed an estimated $350,186, averaging $7,004. That gave the film a new total of $516,798 as it heads into further expansion.
The film is already a massive hit overseas, taking in over $343 million — including $166 million in its native France alone.
“Bernie” (Millennium Entertainment)
Starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey, Richard Linklater’s dark comedy continued to do good business in its sixth weekend. Expanding from 194 to 302 theaters, the film jumped 8% as it took in another $937,296, averaging $3,104. That gave it an impressive new total of $3,650,696. The film has already tripled the gross of Linklater’s previous film, “Me and Orson Welles.”
“Hysteria” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Tanya Wexler’s Victorian-era romantic comedy (about the invention of the vibrator) went from 32 to 65 screens this weekend for Sony Pictures Classics (19 of the screens were in Canada, where it’s being released by E1). Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Felicity Jones and Rupert Everett, the film managed a decent $189,956 gross over the weekend averaging $2,922. Its total now stands at $473,653.
“Polisse” (Sundance Selects)
A year after debuting at the Cannes Film Festival, French import “Polisse” went from 14 to 21 screens in its third weekend care of Sundance Selects. Directed by Maïwenn, the film centers on the Child Protection Unit in Paris, and a photographer who is assigned to cover the unit. It took in $31,500 over the weekend, averaging a weak $1,500. Its total now stands at $134,000.
“Elena” (Zeitgeist Films)
Another Cannes 2011 debut, Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Elena” went from 2 to 6 screens this weekend. The result saw it take in $11,030, averaging $1,839. Its total is now $53,108.
“Where Do We Go Now?” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Sony Pictures Classics expanded Nadine Labaki’s Lebanese import “Where Do We Go Now” from 25 to 37 screens in its fourth weekend (16 of which were in Canada, where the film is being released by Mongrel Media). The result was a $81,125 gross, up 39% from last weekend. Its average was $2,193, and the film’s North American cume now stands at $247,540.
“First Position” (Sundance Selects)
Finally, Bess Kargman’s ballet documentary “First Position” expanded from 56 to 58 theaters in its fifth weekend and continued to find good numbers. The film took in $87,000 over the weekend, averaging $1,500. The film has now totalled 693,000, with the $1 million mark a strong possibility.
Peter Knegt is Indiewire’s Senior Editor. Follow him on Twitter and on his blog.
Indiewire tracks independent/specialty releases compiled from Rentrak Theatrical, which collects studio reported data as well as box-office figures from North American theatre locations. To be included in the Indiewire Box Office Chart, distributors must submit information about their films to Rentrak at studiogrosses@rentrak.com by the end of the day each Monday.
