While the box office is in the midst of a hushed two-week period, Fox Searchlight has found success with “The Favourite,” which continues to perform well after setting a new top per screen average for 2018 last weekend.
The black comedy starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz in a tale of 18th century palace intrigue in England expanded to 34 screens, giving Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest an impressive $1.1 million this weekend, scoring an average of $32,500. The film now has a total of $1.67 million, with an expansion into 12 more markets next week and a screen count of 80-100.
Two new releases also posted solid averages. Orion’s holiday-themed zombie musical “Anna and the Apocalypse” grossed $50,000 from its five-screen debut. Starring Ella Hunt as a teen trying to survive the zombie apocalypse in her snowy Scottish town, the horror-comedy has an 84 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Also releasing on 313 screens is the Indian import “2.0,” a sci-fi film about an android who fights to save humanity from an evil professor that has turned the world’s cell phones into flying weapons. The film opened to $2.9 million in the U.S., earning an average of $9,258.
Among holdovers, National Geographic’s “Free Solo” has become the fourth documentary this year to reach the $10 million mark, adding $305,000 from 158 screens to bring its total to $10.1 million after 10 weekends. Focus’ “Boy Erased” added $590,000 from 660 screens in its fifth weekend, giving it a total of $5.58 million.
Finally, Mamoru Hosoda’s acclaimed anime film “Mirai” only made $62,500 from its limited engagement screenings through Fathom Events and GKIDS. The film was released on 780 screens nationwide, but only had a limited number of screenings depending on location.