Searchlight Pictures’ Poor Things from Yorgos Lanthimos’ earned a stellar $72K per-screen average opening weekend in nine theaters and four markets, for an estimated three-day total of $644K. In a competitive season, this marks the fall’s best limited opening on ten or fewer screens and is in the year’s top three.
The other two for 2023 were heavy hitters Asteroid City by Wes Anderson, from Focus Features, which had a $100k+ PSA in six theaters in June; and A24’s Beau Is Afraid by Ari Aster that took in $80K per screen last spring at four locations. Both had notable activations like Focus’ takeover of the Landmark Sunset, and Beau starting out on Imax. For Poor Things, Lanthimos and the film’s stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe and Ramy Youssef have been out doing Q&As in NYC over the weekend, with tickets for these showings selling out.
In an abundance of riches this weekend, Waitress The Musical from Bleecker Street will pass an estimated $3.2 million in its opening weekend on 1,214 screens in the U.S and Canada. More on that. It’s no. 8 at the domestic box office.
A very lively awards season is seeing specialty films showings olid traction with the young demos that distributors and arthouses have been wooing since Covid, as well as starting to lure back the more elusive older audience (The Holdovers for instance) with great acting and storytelling.
Poor Things, a fantastical feminist tale of a young woman (Stone) brought to life by an eccentric scientist (Dafoe) skews young with 70% under 35, according to exit polls at five of the opening theaters. Audiences skewed 56% male, 62% Caucasian, 17% Hispanic, 14% East Asian/Pacific Islander, with a 68% Excellent rating and a 75% Definite Recommend. Over half of the audience would tell others to see Poor Things “in a theater right away,” the distributor said of the polls.
The polls — from the AMC Lincoln Square 13 (New York), Alamo Brooklyn (New York), AMC Burbank 16 (Los Angeles), and AMC Metreon 16 (San Francisco) — saw ratings and recommend scores well above industry norms, consistent across age and gender. It nabbed an A- CinemaScore. Its also certified fresh at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 88 Metacritic score.
Also playing at Regal Union Square in NYC, AMC Century City, AMC The Grove in LA; the Alamo Drafthouse Mission in San Francisco and the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar Austin. It will expand in current markets and add 17 new cities next week including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, DC, Portland, Orlando, Toronto, Vancouver, then move to about 80 markets Dec. 22.
Poor Things debuted at Venice where it won the top prize — Searchlight’s third Golden Lion win after The Shape of Water and Nomadland, both of which took the Oscar for Best Picture. Was named a top film of the year last week by AFI and the National Board of Review.
Other strong specialty openings this year: Amazon Studios/MGM Studios and Emerald Fennell’s quirky Saltburn saw a $45k PSA at seven theaters; Dream Scenario and Priscilla, from A24, both had PSAs or $35.9k on six screens; The Holdovers saw $33k on four. (The latter from Focus Features opened before the SAG-AFTRA strike ended without the benefit Paul Giamatti out touting the film). A24’s Past Lives by Celine Song had a $58k PS at four theaters. MGM’s Bottoms opened at ten theaters with a $46k per theater average.
Last year’s phenomenon, Everything Everywhere All at Once, had an opening per screen average of $50.1k in 10 theaters.
Other new openings this weekend: Origin from Neon took $117k on just two screens for a $58.5 PSA, a stellar debut for the film by Ava DuVernay in qualifying runs. “This is an incredible result for Origin, bringing in the 4th highest PSA of 2023, but it’s an especially meaningful achievement given that this is only a one week qualifying release. We look forward to the film’s true theatrical run in January.,” said Neon distribution president Elissa Federoff. It opens Jan. 19.
Also from Neon, Eileen starring Anne Hathaway expanded to 532 screens in week two for a $615k weekend and a $746k cume.
Another great showing, Sideshow and Janus Films opened Wim Wenders’ Anselm in 3D in New York this weekend at the IFC Center and Film at Lincoln Center to an estimated gross of $43.3 and PSA of $21.65k. This marks the second highest per screen average for a non-concert documentary this year after Wild Life ($47k on two screens.)
Anselm premiered at Cannes and was also featured at Telluride, where Wenders received the Silver Medallion Award. Opens exclusive engagements in Los Angeles next weekend before expanding to cities across the country in January. Sideshow’s Jonathan Sehring said the opening is comparable to Pina’s 12 years ago. “We are excited to roll this out slowly over the next several weeks as we did with Drive My Car and EO.”
More to come…
