"A Single Man" Doesn't Reach "Brokeback Mountain" Heights in Opening Weekend

For those of you who track these sorts of things, the box office for A Single Man didn't exactly hit a home run over the weekend. Call it more of a double. Opening in just nine theaters, A Single Man grossed $216,000 for a a per screen average of $24,000. That's not terrible by any means especially for an art house movie. In comparison, Disney's The Princess and the Frog opened Friday on 3,434 screens totaling nearly $28 million for a per screen average of $7,280.

But movies opening in limited release usually tend to pull in much higher per screen averages due to pent up demand from moviegoers eager to see new releases, especially critically acclaimed ones. For instance, George Clooney's Up in the Air opened on 72 screens this weekend and managed $34,000 per screen. Even Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones scared up a $38,000 per screen average on its three screen release despite decidedly mixed reviews. 

Naturally, folks are comparing A Single Man to Milk which opened last year as well as Brokeback Mountain from 2005. The comparison isn't entirely fair as both movies opened with considerably more media attention, especially BM, and both had somewhat more mainstream appeal. Milk opened in November  of last year and on its limited release scored a $40,000 per screen average. As for Brokeback Mountain, it become clear from the very first weekend that the movie was going to be something special as the Ang Lee tearjerker nailed nearly $110,000 per screen average on just five screens.

Obviously, it's far too soon to predict much about A Single Man's future as a large part of its fate rests not only on word of mouth, but on how it fares in the award sweepstakes which kicks off this Tuesday with the Golden Globe nominations. Fans of the movie should keep their fingers crossed for a best acting nod for Colin Firth to help the flick build momentum.