The AfterElton.com Ranking Round-Up: Gay indie movies mostly tanking

Welcome to the AfterElton.com Ranking Roundup, a regular feature where we round up the rankings from various sources as to what is, and isn't, hot in gay male entertainment!

Top Gay-Related Theatrical Releases

(From Variety: weekly gross/total gross to date/per-screen average)

1. High School Musical 3: Senior Year ($2 million; $86.9 million after 5 wks; $868 per screen)
2. Zack and Miri Make a Porno ($1.6 million; $29 million after 4 wks; $1314 per screen)
3. Dostana ($220,179; $985,433 after 2 wks; $3016 per screen)
4. Were the World Mine ($19,192; $21,786 after 4 wks; $6,397 per screen)
5. Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom ($18,729; $482,638 total after 5 wks; $3,746 per screen)
6. Breakfast With Scot ($770; $36,919 total after 7 wks; $770 per screen)
7. Tru Loved ($745; $7,892 total after 6 wks; $373 per screen)
8. Otto; Or, Up with Dead People ($240; $6,793 total after 3 wks; $240 per screen)
9. Cthulhu ($32; $15,213 total after 14 wks; $32 per screen)

 

There's plenty of gay indie fare on the list this week, though most of the movies are playing in very limited engagements in only a smattering of cities. Success is decidedly mixed. The festival hit Were the World Mine is packing 'em in as it expands from a single theater to three, with an impressive $6,397 per screen average, and Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom continues its solid release. But those gay indie movies that have taken critical drubbings, including Breakfast With Scot, Tru Loved, and Otto; Or, Up with Dead People, are doing disastrously, with total grosses in the low double or even single digits.

Cthulhu, the gay horror movie starring Tori Spelling, made only $32 for the whole week, at a single theater at the tail end of another disappointing run. Dostana is a gay "Bollywood" movie that debuted impressively last week, though receipts have plunged 71% in this its second week, suggesting word-of-mouth may not be strong. Is the gay content upsetting Indian-American audiences?

More ratings and analysis after the jump!

DVD Bestsellers

(At Giovanni's Room Bookstore in Philadelphia)

1. Boystown
2. Dante's Cove, Season 3
3. Bangkok Love Story
4. Shelter
5. Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon
6. Bulldog in the White House
7. Dog Tags
8. Before I Forget
9. Strange Fruit

 

There is Oliver Stone's W, and then there is Bulldog in the White House, a 2006 movie that portrays the Bush administration as "a cabal of lustful and traitorous gay men" in a film that splits "the difference between political commentary and gay porn." Well, I give them credit for good marketing. Strange Fruit is a 2004 film that tells the story of a gay African American lawyer who returns to rural Louisiana to explore the lynching of a childhood friend.

Bestselling Gay Books

(At Giovanni's Room Bookstore in Philadelphia)

1. Out of the Pocket by Bill Konigsberg
2. Sarah by J.T. LeRoy
3. Unspeakable by Michael-Christopher
4. Skip Lane by Neil Bartlett
5. Got ‘til It’s Gone by Larry Duplechan
6. Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
7. Finlater by Shawn Stewart Ruff
8. Indian Clerkby David Leavitt
9. Hotel de Dream by Edmund White
 

This week sees new works by heralded gay authors such as Leavitt, White, and Maguire, whose Lion Among Men is the third novel in the series that began with Wicked.