Arthouse Audit: 'Fair Game' Expands with Modest Results
Thanks to a substantial expansion, Fair Game managed to wrest control of the arthouse scene from last week's leader The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Inside Job nearly quadrupled its theater count, though its earnings didn't follow suit, and 127 Hours showed a little fatigue in its second weekend.

Fair Game was up 57 percent to $1.02 million at 175 locations (from 46 last weekend). This translated to an uninspiring $5,832 per-theater average and a ten-day total of $1.92 million. Distributor Summit Entertainment has another expansion planned for this weekend.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest fell 30 percent to $520,085 at 208 locations, which is the highest theater count ever for the Millennium series. This was a step down from The Girl Who Played with Fire's third weekend, though, and Hornet's Nest's $2.8 million total now trails Fire by over $122,000.

Inside Job expanded from 66 to 250 theaters, though it was only up 80 percent to $478,767. While this was a higher weekend than similar financial indictment Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room had in its entire run, its $1,915 per-theater average doesn't come remotely close to any of Michael Moore's movies. Since opening in early October, Inside Job has netted $1.57 million.

Following a pattern of gradual expansion, 127 Hours added 18 locations for a total of 22 and earned $438,539. Its per-theater average of $19,934 was comparable to Into the Wild's second weekend average, though 127 Hours was less impressive considering it played at 11 fewer venues. It was also much less successful than director Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which averaged $29,619 at ten more theaters. In ten days, 127 Hours has grossed $811,528.

Bollywood comedy Golmaal 3 fell a relatively standard 60 percent to $253,586. Since opening last weekend, the movie has made $1.03 million.

Waiting for "Superman" had its biggest drop yet, falling 46 percent to $215,210 at 204 theaters. This represented a $1,055 per-theater average, which was also its lowest so far. While it appears the Davis Guggenheim documentary is in full retreat mode right now, it did at least reach a minor milestone: on Friday, it passed Spellbound to crack the list of the 20 highest-grossing documentaries on record with a $5.89 million total.

There were a few new releases this week, though none of them had significant initial earnings. Global warming documentary Cool It was the weekend's biggest disappointment, debuting to just $26,847 at 41 locations. That's an awful $655 per-theater average for the Roadside Attractions release. IFC comedy Tiny Furniture, which won the Jury Prize at this year's South by Southwest Film Festival, earned a solid $21,235 at one venue, which was the best per-theater average on the weekend. The re-release of Jean-Luc Godard's 1980 drama Every Man for Himself debuted to $7,926 at one venue. This was much weaker than the opening for the last Godard re-release, Breathless. Finally, drama Helena From the Wedding made $2,692 at one theater.

Last Arthouse Audit

'127 Hours' Has Harrowing Debut

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