NORTH AMERICA: Platform Watch: 'Midnight Special' Expands with $581K; 'Everybody Wants Some!!' Debuts with $323K, 'Miles Ahead' Starts with $123K in NY/LA

on April 03, 2016

By Daniel Garris

In its third weekend of platform release, Warner's Midnight Special took in an estimated $581,000 from 58 locations. That gave the Jeff Nichols directed sci-fi film starring Michael Shannon a per-location average of $10,017 for the frame. Midnight Special was up 481 percent over last weekend, when the film was playing in just 5 locations. Midnight Special has grossed $994,235 through 17 days of platform release. The film is running well ahead of the $272,521 17-day platform take of 2011's Take Shelter and will zoom past the $1.73 million final gross of Take Shelter before long.

Paramount's Everybody Wants Some!! debuted with an estimated $323,000 from 19 locations, for a per-location average of $17,000. The Richard Linklater directed comedy has grossed $371,457 since its debut on Wednesday (the film played in 5 locations on Wednesday and Thursday). Everybody Wants Some!! didn't deliver the same type of platform launch that Linklater's Boyhood did back in 2014, when that film opened with $387,618 from 5 locations (for a per-location average of $77,524). This weekend's performance was much more in line with the $391,672 platform launch of 2006's A Scanner Darkly from 17 locations (for a per-location average of $23,039). Everybody Wants Some has received strong critical reviews, as the film currently boasts a 90 percent Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is scheduled to receive expansions on April 8 and on April 15.

Sony Pictures Classics' Miles Ahead was off to a very encouraging platform start this weekend with an estimated $122,751 from four locations in New York and Los Angeles. That gave the Miles Davis biopic starring and directed by Don Cheadle a per-location average of $30,688, which was the strongest per-location average of any film this weekend. Critical reviews for Miles Ahead have been relatively mixed, as the film currently has a 71 percent Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. Miles Ahead is scheduled to receive expansions on April 8, April 15 and April 22.

Fellow Sony Pictures Classics release I Saw the Light was far less impressive upon expanding into moderate release with an estimated $745,435 from 741 locations. That gave the Hank Williams biopic starring Tom Hiddleston a per-location average of just $1,006 this weekend. I Saw the Light has grossed $806,672 in ten days, as poor critical reviews have clearly limited the film's potential.

Chongqing Hot Pot started out with an estimated $197,000 from 20 locations. The Mandarin-language comedy thriller from China Lion Film generated a per-location average of $9,850 this weekend. Chongqing Hot Pot is scheduled to expand into an additional 20 locations on Friday.

Meanwhile, Cinema Libre Studio's Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe made an impact this weekend with an estimated $22,000 launch at the Angelika Film Center in New York. The anti-vaccination documentary directed by Andrew Wakefield recently made headlines for being included in and then being removed from this year's Tribeca Film Festival schedule.

In its second weekend of release, IFC's Born to Be Blue took in an estimated $85,200 from 20 locations, for a per-location average of $4,260. The Chet Baker biopic starring Ethan Hawke was up 84 percent over last weekend, when the film was playing in just 3 locations. The ten-day platform total for Born to Be Blue stands at $153,377.

Tags: Midnight Special, Everybody Wants Some!!, Miles Ahead, I Saw the Light, Chongqing Hot Pot, Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, Born to Be Blue, north-america

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