Oscar hopeful “Silver Linings Playbook” is off to a fast start with $458,430 from 16 theaters in its limited box-office debut this weekend.
That’s a $28,652 per-location average for the David O. Russell-directed film, which stars Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro.
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Focus Features rolled out its awards hopeful "Anna Karenina" in 16 theaters this weekend. Directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law, it grossed $315,395 for a solid $19,712 per-theater-average. That's behind the $24,504 that Wright and Knightley’s last collaboration, “Atonement," managed on 32 screens in 2007.
The Weinstein Company last week shifted gears on “Silver Linings Playbook,” which was to expand into 2,000 theaters on the day before Thanksgiving. Instead, it will go into about 440 locations on that date.
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The buzz around the film — which won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival — has been strong. The Weinstein Co. has opted for a more gradual platform release that it believes will allow the film to build awards momentum. The company employed a similar strategy with the last two Academy Award Best Picture winners, "The King's Speech" and "The Artist.
Both "Speech" ($88,863) and "The Artist" ($51,220) had higher first-week per-screen averages, but they were in just four theaters and didn’t face the kind of mainstream competition that “Silver Linings Playbook" did this weekend.
In its fifth week, Fox Searchlight's surrogate sex tale "The Sessions" raised its overall gross to $2.8 million by taking in $900,000 from 516 theaters, a $1,774 per-screen average for the drama starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt.
Among holdover films, Tribeca Films’ “The Comedy” grossed $13,150 from a single theater in its second week.
“Chasing Ice” from Submarine Deluxe averaged $8,191 from 10 locations in its second week.
“Holy Motors,” from Indomina, took in $48,576 from 23 theaters for a $2,112 per-screen average in its fifth week.
Cohen Media Group’s “The Other Son” averaged $1,182 per screen from 45 locations in grossing $84,709.