Alex Wilson

With a promising limited debut this weekend (in only four theaters), “127 Hours” has given Fox Searchlight about 266,000 reasons to look forward to the holidays. The per-screen average comes out to about $66,500 (an average second only to “The Kids Are Alright” released by Focus Features). Boyle must be experiencing déjà-vu after the successful limited debut of “Slumdog Millionaire” two years ago on Nov. 12th where it put up a $36,002 per-screen average and went on to gross upwards of $141 million.

No surprises this weekend as “Saw 3D”, the latest in the gore-friendly series that began in 2004 topped a weekend without debuts from any of the major studios. While the seventh (and final) installment of Lionsgate’s most successful franchise of all time made $24.2 million instead of the projected $28 million, its final chapter overcame poor reviews with the help of 3D sales that accounted for 93% of its total gross.