Normally, Screengrab doesn’t go in for box office figures. After all, most of the movies that top the weekend standings are mediocre at best, and it gets downright depressing when you consider how many shell out their hard-earned wages for Meet the Spartans. Besides, the movies with the highest grosses usually play on upwards of 3,000 screens, so of COURSE they rake in the dough.
Better, I think, to use the yardstick of per-screen averages. Not only does this weed out the overhyped junk that’s playing to 25%-full houses in every mall multiplex from Schenectady to Sheboygan, but it allows some more interesting and esoteric fare to enjoy some time in the sun. And you all know how Screengrab is about esoteric fare. So, we've decided to bring back a feature from back in the day- The Indie Box-Office Charts. Then we decided to throw in the word "Roundup" after it was suddenly dropped from its regular Trailer Roundup gig. We felt so terrible seeing ol'Roundup moping around on the sidewalk in front of Screengrab Tower that we had to find it a job again, to keep it out of trouble and the like.
Moving on... this week’s per-screen winner was Focus Features’ In Bruges, the debut feature from Martin McDonough starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes. While we’re happy that the talented McDonough (to say nothing of Screengrab favorite Gleeson) looks to have an arthouse hit on his hands, much of the film’s draw comes from the name cast.
Of greater interest are the films that reside just below it on the list. Both #2 film The Band's Visit and #4 film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days were unceremoniously snubbed by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film branch (albeit for different reasons), but it would appear that the controversies have only helped their grosses. 4 Months is a particularly interesting case- last year’s Palme d’Or winner, Cristian Mungiu’s film has also been released on IFC’s On Demand network, so who knows how much better it would be grossing if the big screen was the only option.
Rounding out the top 5 are a pair of single-screen releases: Pere Portabella’s The Silence Before Bach and Jia Zhang-ke’s 2006 Venice winner Still Life. The most widely-released film in the top 10 is Persepolis, currently playing on 125 screens. The wide (1,000+ screens) release with the highest average gross is There Will Be Blood, which is currently sitting at #13, pulling in $2,456 per screen on 1620 screens.
Top 10, Weekend of February 8-10:
1. In Bruges [Focus Features] ($16,330 per screen)
2. The Band's Visit [Sony Pictures Classics] ($9,642 per screen)
3. The Silence Before Bach [Films 59] ($8,814 per screen)
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [IFC First Take] ($5,996 per screen)
5. Still Life [New Yorker] ($4,755 per screen)
6. Caramel [Roadside Attractions] ($4,319 per screen)
7. The Witnesses [Strand Releasing] ($4,260 per screen)
8. Summer Palace [Palm Pictures] ($3,410 per screen)
9. Bab'Aziz [Typecast Releasing] ($3,286 per screen)
10. Persepolis [Sony Pictures Classics] ($3,042 per screen)
Source: IndieWire.