The Descendants - Shame Box Office Nothing To Be Ashamed About
Demonstrating -- at least in the 10 venues where it was shown -- that an NC-17 rating is not the kiss of death that it is often made out to be, Fox Searchlight's Shame opened with $361,181 over the weekend, for an average of $36,118 per theater, far higher than any other movie currently in release. In fact, several films in limited release posted solid receipts while the rest of the box office sank. The Weinstein Company's silent, black-and-white movie The Artist earned $206,000 at six theaters, for a per-theater average of about $34,000. Even more impressive was the performance of The Descendants, which expanded to 574 theaters in its third week and grossed $5.2 million, for a per-screen average of more than $9,000.
