After winning the top prize at the Oscars last week, Fox Searchlight’s “The Shape of Water” returned to 1,555 screens this weekend and made $2.4 million, bringing its domestic total to $61 million. It will cross $150 million worldwide in the coming week.
It’s a solid result for Guillermo del Toro’s big winner, up 63 percent from the $1.4 million it made on Oscar weekend. It is also just a hair above what “Moonlight” made after its Best Picture win last year, with $2.3 million. In total, “The Shape of Water” has made $3.5 million since Oscar Sunday, and was the only Best Picture nominee to make over $1 million this weekend.
Meanwhile, indie studios are starting to return in full force to arthouse cinemas with the Oscars in the rear view mirror. Leading the way is IFC’s “The Death of Stalin,” which has set the early bar for highest per screen average of 2018. Opening on four screens in L.A. and New York, the film made $181,000 for a per screen average of $45,250.
Written and directed by “Veep” creator Armando Iannucci, the film stars Steve Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev in a darkly satirical take on the power struggle in the Soviet Union following Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953. While it was banned in Russia and other former Soviet countries, the film has earned critical acclaim with a 96 percent Rotten Tomatoes score.
Focus Features has their own dark satire, Cory Finley’s “Thoroughbreds,” on 549 screens. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy as a rich girl who plans to kill her loathsome stepfather with the help of her unfeeling best friend (Olivia Cooke), the film had a tepid start with $1.22 million for a PSA of $2,229. The film was received well with an 84 percent start on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sony Pictures Classics also entered theaters with “The Leisure Seeker,” which stars Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as a couple traveling in an RV to Ernest Hemingway’s home in Key West. The film made $119,573 from 28 screens for a PSA of $4,270. Directed by Paolo Virzi, the film has been received poorly with a 32 percent RT score.
SPC got brighter news for “A Fantastic Woman,” which won the Best Foreign Language category at the Oscars last week. After expanding slightly to 166 screens, the film picked up $287,000 for its best weekend in American theaters, pushing its total above $1 million to $1.17 million