Per Theatre Charts - No Illusion

August 29, 2006

The Illusionist was able to climb to the top of the per theatre charts this week despite seeing its theatre count nearly triple. The film's average of $12,745 was significantly, but not overwhelmingly ahead of second place Suicide Killers, which earned $10,601 in its lone theatre. Half Nelson, which led the charts the previous two weeks, slipped to third but still managed to maintain its $10,000 per theatre average with nearly $211,000 in 21 theatres for an average of $10,036.

The only other new limited release to make the top ten was Princesas with $5,147 over the weekend and $7,007 since Wednesday, all in one theatre. The rest of the new releases all finished between $4,000 and $3,000. The Quiet earned just $27,546 in its 7 theatres for an average of $3,935, which is not enough to justify its planed expansion. Meanwhile, Old Joy earned $3,310 in one theatre while Queens earned an average of $3,299 in five.

This past week also saw milestones reached for a few Per Theatre Charts alumni:

  • Strangers With Candy managed to reach $2 million during the midweek, but that's as far as the film will go. However, the TV show it was based on had a decidedly cult following, so this result should be enough to make the studio happy.
  • The Illusionist made it to $1 million during the midweek while over the weekend hit the $2 million and $3 million milestones. By this time next week it should have $5 million, where it goes from there depends heavily on how well it performs in smaller markets.
  • Bon Cop, Bad Cop apparently slipped below $4 million during the midweek before reclaiming that milestone over the weekend. It's like the Canada movie industry has become so dysfunctional that we've lost the ability to accurately track the box office returns. The more likely explanation is it's a matter of currency exchange confusion.
  • Little Miss Sunshine again had its best weekend, topping $20 million in the process. This will be the last milestone mentioned here, as the film has expanded enough to graduate from this list.

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Filed under: Little Miss Sunshine, The Illusionist, Bon Cop, Bad Cop, Half Nelson, The Quiet, Old Joy, Queens, Princesas