Ewan McGregor in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer (top); Tomm Moore's The Secret of Kells (bottom)
This weekend at the North American box office, a major blockbuster — that's Alice in Wonderland — had the highest per screen average among the top 40 or so hits found at Box Office Mojo.
The closest to the $16,631 average achieved by Tim Burton's fantasy adventure was the $10,300 earned by Tomm Moore's animated The Secret of Kells at one single screen.
Despite positive notices and a surprise Best Animated Feature Academy Award nomination, The Secret of Kells is doing rather poorly, having lost nearly three-quarters of its take from last week. Apparently, North American audiences only care about animated films if they're made, distributed, and massively advertised by Pixar and/or Disney. A small, foreign-made animated feature, no matter how well received — 91% positive reviews, as per Rotten Tomatoes — has little-to-no chance.
Doing considerably better in limited release is Roman Polanski's thriller The Ghost Writer, starring Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor, and Kim Cattrall. Now playing at 224 screens, The Ghost Writer earned an estimated $1.231 million, for a good $4,496 average on its fourth weekend. Total to date: $4.2 million.
At 272 screens, Michael Hoffman's The Last Station grossed $466K for a total of $5.3 million after nine weeks. The period drama stars James McAvoy and Academy Award nominees Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren.
Jacques Audiard's Cesar winner A Prophet, a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee, earned $218K for a 3,633 per screen average and $786K after 17 days. An Oscar win would probably have helped this tough prison drama, which has done quite well in France. The film stars Cesar winner Tahar Rahim.
Bradley Rust Gray's drama The Exploding Girl opened at one theater, grossing only $6,000. Bong Joon-ho's Korean drama Mother grossed $36K at 6 screens in New York and Los Angeles, for a per-screen average of $6,000.
Other totals to date: A Single Man ($8.8 million), An Education ($12.3 million), The White Ribbon ($1.8m), My Name Is Khan ($3.9m), Youth in Revolt ($15.2m), Broken Embraces ($4.6m), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus ($7.5m), The Messenger ($1m), Terribly Happy ($97K).
Photos: The Secret of Kells (GKIDS); The Ghost Writer (Guy Farrandis / Summit Entertainment)