The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser, sets record for Best Limited Opening – Box Office Special in 2022

Darren Aronofsky The whale from A24 swam to the biggest limited opening of the year in New York and LA this weekend, beating the pro-screen record the indie distributor set in late spring Everything, everywhere, all at once.

The Brendan Fraser-starrer sold out in all six theaters over the weekend, earning an estimated $360,000 for a $60,000 per-screen average — the highest PSA of 2022, the second-biggest limited opening since 2020 and Aronofsky’s best premiere since Black Swan.

Beginning with its world premiere in Venice earlier this year and running through the fall season, Fraser’s show has been praised by critics and audiences alike. Fraser, the former action star of The Mummy Franchise stars as an overweight English teacher struggling to reconnect with his estranged daughter. The film received a standing ovation in Venice, which echoed throughout the weekend during questions and answers. Exits shows extremely strong word of mouth among all viewers for Fraser and co-stars Sadie Sink and Hong Chau.

It will remain on six screens for the coming weekend, before a moderate nationwide hiatus on December 21. The number has not yet been determined, but could be around 500 screens.

Earned $159,000 as of Friday; $111,800 Saturday; $89,000 Sunday.

Opening weekends have been a difficult predictor of future box office results. However, a new record is always a ray of hope in a challenging and difficult specialty market.

Everything everywhere at once opened to $50,000 per screen and grossed over $100 million worldwide. Other great ads include Searchlight Pictures’ Banshees of Inisherin, also for $46,000 tar of focus functions and The Fables from Universal, both for around $40,000. All three started on four screens. Banshees is 19 million US dollars worldwide. tar earning about $5 million and The Fables is $6.5 million.

MGM Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1970s teen comedy from United Artist Releasing Liquorice Pizza released a massive opening screen average of $83.8k in four theaters in November 2021.

In other openings, according to Comscore: Searchlight Picture’s Empire of Light opens domestically in a limited 110 locations and earned $160,000.

Attractions along the way are open Until the end in 120 spots for a debut of $11,290.

atlas distribution The average opened at 162 locations and grossed $220,000.

GKIDS open Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.01 three times ago last Tuesday and the film, which opened on Sunday this weekend, earned just $280,550 and now has domestic sales of $755,267 through Sunday.