Specialty Box Office: ‘Of Gods And Men’ Win Cesar and Wins at U.S Box Office

Weekend Box Office: February 18th through the 20th

With the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday and the Oscars on Sunday, all eyes were on the tons of acceptance speeches. Denmark’s “In a Better World” took home Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars while “The King’s Speech” won Best Foreign Film at the Spirit Awards and had it’s big night yesterday. One short-list nominated film and Cannes winner (final nine) that was noticeably absent from the winner’s circle was Xavier Beauvois’ Of Gods and Men which debuted domestically this past weekend (on the same weekend it picked up the Best Film award at France’s Oscar ceremony equivalent). The French film released by Sony Pictures Classics raked in $66,900 in only three locations (good enough for a $22,300 average). The numbers look good for further expansion come next weekend.

In a more aggressive effort, Samuel Goldwyn Films released The Grace Card on 352 screens. The drama from director David Evans features the story of two policeman battling differences in race and perspective on the streets of Memphis. It made over $1 million, but with only a $3,099 average, expansion only in the religious belt looks likely.

U.S Indie:
“Black Swan” which won the Best Picture award at Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards and Portman obviously won Best Actress gold, managed to hold its position on the box office food chain from last week. The Fox Searchlight release maintained a $2,188 in its 13th week. It will unlikely see much more following “The King’s Speech” Best Picture win, but $100 million grossed is much more than anyone could have ever anticipated for Aronofsky’s latest film.

Another Fox Searchlight release, “Cedar Rapids,” saw a 21.5% decline in its third week but is still holding on with a fairly solid $5,257 average. Director Miguel Arteta’s comedy is the first movie from this year’s Sundance Film Festival to be released in theaters and has met box office expectations so far. With $2.4 million already in the bank, it looks good for “Rapids” to expand past at least the 200 theater mark.

In its seventh week, “Barney’s Version” was one of the few specialty films with a positive increase (albeit only 6.3%). The film grossed an additional $659,000 but is struggling with a low average. This Sony Classics release definitely hit its peak a few weeks ago following Giamatti’s Golden Globe win for his performance in the film.

World Cinema:
Obviously, “The King’s Speech” has been the biggest box office success for specialty films in recent months, but last night, the film also took home Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Actor after an amazing 12 nominations. It was also the only film this past weekend in the top ten to post positive numbers from the week before (16.7%). The Weinstein Company release has made $114 million to date and maintained a $3,193 average. Tom Hooper’s period piece will now only get stronger going into its 15th week as it harnesses buzz from the Oscar gold to make more money at the box office.

IFC Films also released a French film this past weekend. Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats is about three young friends entangled in a love triangle. The film grossed $7,300 in only one location.

Specialty Box Office Top 5

Box Office Top 10

Next Weekend:
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, I Saw the Devil, The Human Resources Manager, The Adjustment Bureau, Beastly, Rango, Take Me Home Tonight