Box Office: Moonlight Fever
Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 1:00AM What did you see this weekend?
For the box office charts this week, let's focus in on the platform releases out there since the mainstream offerings were uninspiring. Moonlight had a miraculous opening selling out its shows all weekend long at 4 locations on the coasts. That resulted in one of the strongest per screen averages of the entire year.
The top 20 films in limited release are after the jump...
TOP TEN LIMITED
under 800 screens excluding previously wide releases
01 Denial $954K (cum. $1.9) 648 screens Review
02 I'm Not Ashamed $927K NEW 505 screens
03 Desierto $499K (cum. $1.1) 168 screens Review
04 Moonlight $402K NEW 4 screens Review
05 A Man Called Ove $258K (cum. $797K) 97 screens
06 Priceless $257K (cum. $1.1) 294 screens
07 American Pastoral $149K NEW 50 screens
08 Certain Women $139K (cum. $226K) 41 screens Review
09 The Dressmaker $121K (cum. $1.5) 103 screens
10 Luck-Key $113K NEW 21 screens
The Handmaiden. Have I told you how much I love this movie?
11 The Handmaiden $92K NEW 5 screens Go See It!
12 Operation Mekong $78K (cum. $700K) 22 screens Review
13 American Honey $71K (cum. $523K) 96 screens Review
14 The Beatles: Eight Days a Week $69K (cum. $2.6) 82 screens Review
15 Miss Hokusai $68K (cum. $103K) 84 screens
16 Aquarius $55K (cum. $57K) 17 screens Review
17 Michael Moore in Trumpland $50K NEW 2 screens
18 Harry & Snowman $45K (cum. $224K) 25 screens
19 Christine $34K (cum. $53K) 12 screens
20 No Manches Frida $32K (cum. $11.4) 37 screens
Michael Moore in Trumpland and The Handmaiden also had strong per screen averages in extremely limited bows. It wasn't rosy for everyone, though. The animated feature Miss Hokusai failed to attract new audiences despite expanding to over 80 theaters with a rough per screen average under $1000 (so it's not likely to expand further). Aquarius and Christine , both with critically acclaimed leading actresses, haven't quite found their audiences either but we hope they can continue to expand through word of mouth and critical interest.
Moonlight, box office
Reader Comments (17)
I watched 13th. You never know which way the documentary branch is going to go this early, but it feels pretty safe to say that Ava DuVernay will soon be an Oscar nominee.
Lion. A real tearjerker with several great performances and images. It dragged for me in the middle, though. Weird that Kidman and Lupita are competing for Best Supporting Mom this year. (And they're not alone.) Even weirder watching Rooney Mara as the Supportive Girlfriend. And weirdest of all: Dev Patel got hot.
Highlight was the Q&A with Kidman after the screening. She's just lovely.
Saw Moonlight at the Dome yesterday. Love it. Need to see it again with friends and family. The Little segment was too brief ruining the potential for Ali to actually win the nominations he'll receive.
Things are looking good for Ava and Viola.
So it seems we'll have three black actresses in supporting: Davis, Harris and Nyong'o!
Cal, you still think N'yongo will happen after the film vanished? Feels similar to when Octavia Spencer looked like an easy get for Fruitvale Station off of a win, but the film didn't ignite. Which is a shame. That was also the year of Oprah's miss, which I'm still peeved about.
That gross for THE DRESSMAKER is looking awfully close to a figure that should see them launch a campaign for Best Costume Design (I reckon they'd go there if the film was campaigned).
So happy to see MOONLIGHT do so well. Hopefully it's closer to PRECIOUS than, say, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS or THE MASTER.
I saw the doco on Iris Apfel. I loved it. I want to be Iris!
I also saw those pics of Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock on the set of Oceans 8 and I am officially excited for that film!
It's incredibly exciting to see a movie like Moonlight doing so well at the box office... this is really important. A queer, black independent film showing movie execs that it can make money on top of being critically acclaimed? Damn.
I hope there's a campaign push for The Dressmaker if for no other reason than to get more people talking about The Dressmaker. It's amazing and terrible and beautiful and ugly and breathtaking and absurd all at the same time. I love it. And yes, the costumes deserve a nomination, absolutely. Kate, too, but that might be a pipe dream.
Cal Roth: There's also Octavia Spencer in "Hidden Figures". Other websites place her among the top five. But I don't think Kidman and Michelle Willmans will be shut out. So that leaves room for only 3 black actresses. Two of which are already Oscar winners! I'm hoping Davis, Harris and preferably Nyong'o, to show a lesson to those who thought her previous win was not merited.
There are actually a lot of black potential nominees this year. Actresses especially.
Saw Aquarius and Moonlight, both fantastic. I'm excited by Moonlight's box office, and at my screening in Boston they had turn away over 200 people. I hope that's a sign it stays as strong in wider release.
Saw DENIAL this weekend and while it plays, it's taste level makes for some unintentionally funny moments. Two characters have the same argument three times in the span of maybe twenty minutes.
I'm so thrilled that MOONLIGHT did so well because now A24 is bumping up the nationwide release to earlier than expected! Yay for less waiting time!
Only the rest of Luke Cage, which I loved. Can't wait for Harry & Snowman (although those Jo Nesbo books are dark dark dark) and A Man Called Ove (yay, more movies based on Scandinavian literature!). Any details when those two might be widely released?
I saw Moonlight over the weekend and The Handmaiden last night.
Moonlight was really fantastic on just about every level. I was so moved by it and I doubt it will leave my thoughts for a long, long time. However, I had a HUGE inappropriate, unintentional laugh: When the title card for the third part, "Black", came up, some man said "YEAH, he black now!" Not really loud, but just loud enough to hear. Thankfully the two girls sitting next to me also got a good chuckle out of it.
The Handmaiden is GLORIOUS. It's a little long, particularly in the first part, but I found myself being slowly seduced by it until I noticed that it had me completely wrapped up in its coils, unable to move. It's absolutely ravishing visually, and it's completely unafraid to GO THERE every time it has the chance. The second part in particular is one of the most fearless, braezn, crazy things I've ever had the pleasure of seeing on the big screen, and I loved every delirious second of it. And the sex scenes. THE SEX SCENES. Afterwards, I kept thinking of how much better this movie is at all the things it was doing than any similar film, and kept inserting it into other titles: The Handmaiden is the Warmest Color. Fifty Handmaidens of Grey. Black Handmaiden. I want this team to go back and remake all those movies I loved this one so much.
Saw The 13th. I knew it would be moving but I didn't expect to be completely blindsided by new information about current policy-making. I don't think they always present the facts in the most effective way, but overall it's pretty powerful and has stayed with me.
"West World" seems to be loosing steam... Georges Franju's " Les Yeux Sans Visage" ( Eyes With Out A Face) (1960) a still shocking creepy horror movie.