'Pan's Labyrinth'
After a tough autumn at the B.O., specialty pics are showing some life this winter.
Picturehouse's "Pan's Labyrinth," in its second weekend, continued to score some impressive returns, with a per-screen average of $16,524 off 44. Spanish-language pic by "Hellboy" helmer Guillermo del Toro, about a lonely child growing up in fascist Spain, has so far taken in $1.8 million.
Tally comes at a time when foreign-language fare has generally been struggling. "Pan's" was named the National Society of Film Critics' top pic over the weekend.
Warner Independent's drama "The Painted Veil," meantime, starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, jumped 32% in biz. Pic, playing 75 engagements, averaged $6,667 per screen to take in $480,000 and bring its cume to date to $1.24 million.
Warner indie banner will up "Veil" to 200-plus runs in the pic's next expansion.
Miramax's "The Queen" jumped another 10.2% in biz over the year's first frame. Pic starring Helen Mirren brought in another $1 million off 323 to raise its cume to almost $30 million in a slow-boiling 15 weeks of release.
Fox Searchlight's Patrick Marber-adapted drama "Notes on a Scandal" averaged a healthy $11,328 per screen in its most recent weekend. Pic is playing 93 engagements and took in $1.1 million. Cume stands at $2.3 million.
Searchlight will send "Notes" into 20 more markets, and 150 additional locations, next weekend.
MGM, meantime, expanded its "Miss Potter," the Beatrix Potter biopic starring Renee Zellweger, to 24 screens. Pic played to $123,000 and a per-playdate average of $4,731.
New Line's "Little Children" is another specialty pic that's been hanging in there. Still playing 103 screens, suburban drama took in another $350,000 to bring its total tally to $2.95 million without a wide expansion.
Next weekend, a slew of specialty pics will expand further as the Golden Globes and Oscars loom. Warner Bros. is still playing "Letters From Iwo Jima" in five locations. Pic won't expand until next weekend, when it goes to 30 screens. Studio's "The Good German" also has been playing in just five locations and will go wider Jan. 19.
"I think the general market is wider open, and that after the holidays people are ready for something different than the formulas," said Picturehouse topper Bob Berney of the year-end niche pic boomlet. "The fall was so crowded, and we wanted to stay away from the fray (of specialty films) and the studios' more upscale product."
Distrib -- a co-venture between New Line and HBO Films -- will put "Pan's" into more than 200 runs on Friday and head for more than 500 later in the month. "Pan's" has been booked in multiplexes where Picturehouse is hoping fans see the pic as a del Toro fantasy film rather than arty niche fare.
Par and DreamWorks' English-lingo, European-made "Perfume" so far hasn't been the hit here that it was abroad. Pic, playing in 280 locations, took in $55,000 over the frame to raise its domestic cume to $649,000.
Lit adaptation raked in close to $100 million in Europe as a regional hit in Germany, France and other territories.
Like "Pan's," Pedro Almodovar's Penelope Cruz starrer "Volver" is another Spanish-language project that has been performing well in limited release, via Sony Classics. Pic has played to $5.97 million in 10 weeks as it waits for awards recognition before expanding much beyond its current 109 screens.
Sony Classics' "Curse of the Golden Flower," by Zhang Yimou, has taken in $2.23 million after three weeks in 55 playdates. Its most recent per-playdate average was $6,436.
Miramax's other current Brit pic, "Venus," hasn't caught on as hotly as its "Queen" bee. Toplining Peter O'Toole as an aging thesp, pic dropped almost 25% of its biz over the weekend playing three screens. Cume is $165,000.
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