While The Dark Knight battled The Mummy on the mainstream charts, indie fans enjoyed much cooler movies. In its third week of release, Brad Anderson's Transsiberian continued its strong run, raking in $15,100 per-screen at the two locations where it's playing, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. The film has grossed $125,000 so far. Also set in a cold clime, Frozen River, Courtney Hunt's "single mother smuggles illegal immigrants" drama, took in $10,471 per screen at seven locations on its opening weekend.
Two other debuting indies had decent results: black and white romantic comedy In Search of a Midnight Kiss made $7,300 at the two theaters where it opened and British comedy Sixty-Six scored $5,700 per-screen at its two engagements. No figures were reported to Box Office Mojo for documentary America the Beautiful or for Japanese melodrama Love and Honor.
indieWIRE highlights the success of holdover Man on Wire, James Marsh's completely charming and suspenseful doc, which earned $12,500 per screen at four locations. They also point to the returns of two films in their second week of release: period drama Brideshead Revisited ($5,284 per screen at 94 theaters) and high school doc American Teen ("a rather disappointing" $4,487 per screen at 39 locations). I saw the former on Sunday afternoon (packed, people lined up for the next screening) and the latter on Saturday afternoon (maybe 15-20 people). Different crowds, definitely, but Brideshead Revisited is much more likely to gain as it opens further.
1. Both "Transsiberian" and "Frozen River" are great films. I've always been a fan of Brad Anderson since I found "Session 9" tucked away in a corner of my local Hollywood Video.
I wrote a review for "Transsiberian" when I scoped it at Sundance 2008 and I would appreciate the reads:
http://www.zoom-in.com/blogs/sundance-film-festival/transsiberian-review/
Also, if you want to hear an interview I conducted with Courtney Hunt, director of "Frozen River," check it out here:
http://www.zoom-in.com/sundance/podcasts/on_the_circuit_frozen_river
Cheers!
Posted at 2:29PM on Aug 5th 2008 by Jim