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Quartet crooned atop the specialty newcomers for its opening in two theaters. Tribeca Film’s Struck By Lightning starring Glee‘s Chris Colfer and Phase Four Films’ The Baytown Outlaws with Billy Bob Thornton and Eva Longoria have yet to report their numbers, but if/when they do, they’ll have stiff competition from Quartet which also happens to be Dustin Hoffman’s official feature directing debut. In a pair of runs in NYC 
and LA, the film averaged a solid $25,017. Zeitgeist had a tougher time with its foreign-language release Let My People Go! The boutique distributor opened the film about a French-born Jewish man who ends up back with his zany family in Paris after a quarrel with his Finnish boyfriend at a single NYC venue that took in an estimated $2,299 for the weekend weekend.
Quartet had a short awards-qualifying run last month, but came into its theatrical own in the second weekend of the New Year at the Paris Theater in New York and the Landmark in Los Angeles. Quartet star Maggie Smith gave a little jab to the film establishment last year in the wake of one of her last big screen success, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, saying Hollywood treats cinema-goers like “5-year-olds.” TWC said its core audience would be “mature” for Quartet and the film had a good rollout. Downton Abbey‘s Dowager Countess knows best. Quartet‘s next expansion will be to 75 markets and about 350 locations January 25.
Sony Pictures Classics widened its Oscar Best Picture and Best Foreign-Langue Film nominee Amour to 15 theaters after three weeks with hefty runs in only three locations. The film, which was honored last night at the LA Film Crtitics Association event in Century City, held strong with an $18,038 average vs last weekend’s $21,199. Lionsgate moved The Impossible into 236 additional runs in its 4th weekend for a PTA of $3,156 across 808 cinemas. In 572 theaters last weekend the film averaged $4,852.
IFC Films did not run On The Road this weekend. It said the three weeks it hit theaters was a “qualifying run” and the movie will have its full release March 22 around the country. Spring is better for a road trip anyway.
NEW
Let My People Go! (Zeitgeist Films) NEW [1 Theater] Weekend $2,299
The Baytown Outlaws (Phase Four Films) NEW Figures Not Reported
Quartet (The Weinstein Company) NEW [2 Theaters] Weekend $50,033, Average $25,017
Struck By Lightning (Tribeca Film) NEW Figures Not Reported
RETURNING / 2ND WEEKEND
56 Up (First Run) Week 2 [ Theater] Weekend Figures Not Reported
HOLDOVERS / 3RD+ WEEKEND
Promised Land (Focus Features) Week 3 [1,647 Theaters] Weekend $1,316,151, Average $799, Cume $6,916,231
West Of Memphis (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 3 [2 Theaters] Weekend $2,935, Average $1,468, Cume $46,414
Amour (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 4 [15 Theaters] Weekend $270,575, Average $18,038, Cume $651,851
The Impossible (Lionsgate-Summit Entertainment) Week 4 [808 Theaters] Weekend $2,550,000, Average $3,156, Cume $6,864,089
Not Fade Away (Paramount Vantage) Week 4 [177 Theaters] Weekend $41K, Average $232, Cume $574,787
Zero Dark Thirty (Sony) Week 4 [2,937 Theaters] Weekend $24M, Average $8,172, Cume $29,480,807
Hyde Park On Hudson (Focus Features) Week 6 [246 Theaters] Weekend $704,619, Average $2,864, Cume $4,289,164
Hitchcock (Fox Searchlight) Week 8 [127 Theaters] Weekend $83,800, Average $660, Cume $5,643,296
Rust And Bone (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 8 [79 Theaters] Weekend $197,871, Average $2,277, Cume $1,135,039
Anna Karenina (Focus Features) Week 9 [144Theaters] Weekend $220,661, Average $1,532, Cume $11,927,148
Silver Linings Playbook (The Weinstein Company) Week 9 [810 Theaters] Weekend $5M, Average $6,173, Cume $41,305,705
The Other Son (Cohen Media Group) Week 12 [8 Theaters] Weekend $10,720, Average $1,340, Cume $1,220,807
Holy Motors (Indomina) Week 13 [13 Theaters] Weekend $16,788, Average $1,291, Cume $588,099
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (Lionsgate-Summit Entertainment) Week 17 [100 Theaters] Weekend $64K, Average $640, Cume $17,578,769
Searching For Sugar Man (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 25 [22 Theaters] Weekend $27,174, Average $1,235, Cume $3,096,128
For more estimates listed by title, see box office results here...
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OK, the below is a really crazy/mendacious spin:
“IFC Films did not run On The Road this weekend. It said the three weeks it hit theaters was a “qualifying run” and the movie will have its full release March 22 around the country. Spring is better for a road trip anyway.”
The trailers all said it would widen this month. That was always clearly the plan. Seems like they didn’t foresee terrible reviews and getting clobbered by far more appealing adult-oriented year-end films. Whatever plan they are hatching up to reintroduce the film after the “qualifying run” (qualifying for what? If it was Oscars it would have just been a week) is probably doomed to fail. Unfortunately with bad reviews, tired subject matter that nobody under 30 knows or cares about, and a star (Kristen Stewart) that nobody over 30 cares about, I don’t see how it’s suddenly going to make a killing just because it’s March. You can kind of see what IFC was thinking when they bought it at Cannes – cool/retro! Kristen Stewart! Fans of the book (and readers in general) will flock to it! Hey, maybe even an Oscar! but it just didn’t congeal on any level.
Yes, it was a dumb plan. Should have just released it in March or April, and it could have at least had a chance at making some coin. IFC was way overzealous…mixed reviews, and it never stood a chance in this heavy season. Also, how on earth was the budget 20 mil plus? I remember reading that KStew worked on it for something like $240,000.
They plan to release On The Road in spring? Release it again? First time it was released for screening in Cannes in May. Then it was released for screening in December for unknown reason. And now it will be released in March for the third time? Hilarious.
I have doubts that they will release it in March. How many screens? Because no on will see it. It’s a long, quite boring movie. And Twilight fans showed that they don’t support other movies of the actors. Which begs the question – why release it at all in March? Will it have some 800 screens and 2 millions after few weeks?
….three weeks it hit theaters was a “qualifying run”….
Well – that just proves what everybody suspected after all those countless promos and appearances from Kristen Stewart in December. She was for serious campaigning for Best Supporting Actress! Like she really thought that she was worth the nomination on Oscar or SAG. She thought she has a chance. Over Amy Adams, Sally Field, Anne Hathaway, Helen Hunt, Jacki Weaver, Nicole Kidman or Maggi Smith…
Oh God, girl just confuses tabloid fame with talent. And those critics, they kiss her in reviews (like with Timberlake), they won’t say out loud: “You can’t act honey. You were awful”. No, they just will politely say that she was bearable. And then Kristen thinks that indie movie + famous book + long and boring movie = praise from critics and awards nominations…
Well she get multiple Razzi nominations after all. I suspect that Kristen thinks that indie movie automatically means it will get praise from everybody.
I swear, some people are delusional in their love/hate for the Twilight stars. Do you honestly think KStew went “oh hey, IFC, run the film 3 weeks just for me please?…Pretty please, spend money on a small campaign for me and Garrett Hedlund?” By the way, a qualifying run is usually only one week. IFC purchased the film because Salles + Subject Matter + Sam Riley (who everyone thought was going to blow up a few years ago). It had the added bonus of KStew (whom the tabloids inexplicably love despite the fact she’s boring and bland) and pretty boy Garrett Hedlund. Then, Hedlund got fantastic reviews and yes, KStew got good reviews for her tiny, flimsy part (not just people saying she was “passable”). So IFC got overzealous and saw maybe a chance for Hedlund and maybe even Stewart…and then they came to their senses pretty quickly. Stewart and Hedlund went to a handful of things, they never truly campaigned. Elle Fanning, DeWitt, etc. actually campaigned.
On The Road being a IFC Film release will likely be available on demand in addition to its limited theatrical run planned for March. The previews were not that compelling & will be quickly forgotten. I’m going to go back & take in a 2nd viewing of Silver Linings Playbook. I’m not sure Bradley Cooper deserved the Best Actor nomination over Johns Hawkes for The Sessions. He got robbed.
Quartet and Maggie Smith were fantastic. Love that Amour is still doing well.