Brian Brooks is managing editor of MovieLine.

Specialty movies openers bowed mostly middling at at best, and a couple of pictures may have suffered residual Hurricane Sandy trauma. Adopt Films’ Café De Flore took the per-theater-average crown with $10K in one location. Entertainment One’s A Late Quartet bowed in 9 theaters with a fairly solid average of 8,433, although the distributor suggested the figure was lower than it might have been if The Sunshine in Manhattan’s Lower East Side had been able to re-open sooner. The cinema regained power midday Saturday. TWC’s This Must Be The Place hit the skids with a $3,526 average in a pair of locations, while Radius’ The Details managed only a modest $1,427 average. Roadside/Lionsgate’s art-thriller The Bay bottomed out with a $932 average from 23 theaters. But Anchor Bay’s Vamps fizzled with $500 in one theater. Magnolia Pictures opted not to report numbers for its opener Jack And Diane because it didn’t open in NYC until today because of the continuing aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Jean-Marc Vallee’s Café De Flore bowed in Florida at the 144 Coral Gables Art Cinema with a cool $10K. Adopt Films’ Jeff Lipsky avoided the NYC Sandy situation by taking the pic to the Sunshine State for its debut. He praised the venue’s GM Robert Rosenberg for his “indefatigable efforts to spread the word” and co-star Kevin Parent for “running around the country.” The film will head to New York and L.A. on November 16th.

Regarding A Late Quartet, one of its NYC venues, The Sunshine, opened midday Saturday to slow business. eOne’s Dylan Wiley said they ”would have expected Lincoln Plaza-like grosses had they been open all weekend”.  Uptown at Lincoln Plaza, the film grossed $31,123 with multiple sold-out screenings. “On our 5 screens in the field (Boston, Chicago x2, SF, DC), grosses increased by an average of 138% from Friday to Saturday, indicating really strong adult attendance and positive word-of-mouth,” added Wiley. The film will head out to 25 markets November 10th.

One of TWC’s This Must Be The Place’s screens was also booked at the stymied Sunshine, contributing to the film’s sluggish opening. The Sean Penn starrer will head to additional markets on the 11th, 16th and 21st as it continues a traditional exclusive platform release.

Among second weekend holdovers, Sundance Selects’ The Loneliest Planet added 7 locations, averaging $2,400. That’s down from its two-theater debut average of 10,200, but to be fair, one of its theaters was the IFC Center in Greenwich Village, which also didn’t open until mid-weekend. Going into its third weekend, Fox Searchlight’s The Sessions added 49 theaters with an average of $6,609. The Sessions expands to more than a dozen additional markets next week.

NEW

The Bay (Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate) NEW [23 Theaters] Weekend $21,429, Average $932

Café De Flore (Adopt Films) NEW [1 Theater] Weekend $10K

The Details (RADiUS-TWC) NEW [14 Theaters] Weekend $19,981, Average $1,427

A Late Quartet (Entertainment One) NEW [9 Theaters] Weekend $75,899, Average $8,433

This Must Be The Place (The Weinstein Company) [2 Theaters] Weekend $7,052, Average $3,526

Vamps (Anchor Bay) NEW [1 Theater] Weekend $500

RETURNING / 2ND WEEKEND

The Loneliest Planet (Sundance Selects) Week 2 [9 Theaters] Weekend $21,600, Average $2,400, Cume $40,500

The Other Son (Cohen Media Group) Week 2 [50 Theaters] Weekend $101,933, Average $2,039, Cume $278,047

HOLDOVERS / 3RD+ WEEKENDS

Brooklyn Castle (Producers Distribution Agency) Week 3 [13 Theaters] Weekend $30,261, Average $2,328, Cume $90,392

The Flat (Sundance Selects) Week 3 [20 Theaters] Weekend $74K, Average $3,700, Cume $161K

Holy Motors (Indomina) Week 3 [5 Theaters] Weekend $15,078, Average $3,016, Cume $83,509

The Sessions (Fox Searchlight) Week 3 [69 Theaters] Weekend $456K, Average $6,609, Cume $931K

The Big Picture (MPI Media Group) Week 4 [7 Theaters] Weekend $23,007, Average $3,287, Cume $97,664

Middle Of Nowhere (AFFRM/Participant) Week 4 [8 Theaters] Weekend $16,317, Average $2,039, Cume $192,724

Smashed (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 4 [21 Theaters] Weekend $35,993, Average $1,714, Cume $200,586

Simon And The Oaks (The Film Arcade) Week 4 [13 Theater] Weekend $31,692, Average $2,438, Cume $121,922

The House I Live In (Abramorama) Week 5 [11 Theaters] Weekend $14,733, Average $1,339, Cume $133,535

The Paperboy (Millennium Entertainment) Week 5 [42 Theaters] Weekend $51,670, Average $1,230, Cume $631,452

Wuthering Heights (Oscilloscope Laboratories) Week 5 [11 Theaters] Weekend $5,101, Average $463, Cume $70,425

The Other Dream Team (The Film Arcade) Week 6 [5 Theaters] Weekend $5,599, Average $1,120, Cume $129,753

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (Summit Entertainment) Week 7 [622 Theaters] Weekend $1,256,000, Average $2,019, Cume $13,073,350

Arbitrage (Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate) Week 8 [110 Theaters] Weekend $132,417, Average $1,204, Cume $7,546,685

The Master (The Weinstein Company) Week 8 [138 Theaters] Weekend $180K, Average $1,304, Cume $15,510,795

Samsara (Oscilloscope Laboratories] Week 11 [62 Theaters] Weekend $70,348, Average $1,135, Cume $2,305,601

Searching For Sugar Man (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 15 [105 Theaters] Weekend $162,675, Average $1,549, Cume $2,424,127

The Imposter (Indomina Releasing) Week 17 [10 Theaters] Weekend $14,378, Average $1,438, Cume $857,448

For more estimates listed by title, see box office results here...