Box Office: Almodovar’s Best Opener; “Precious” Shines In Shadow of “New Moon” (UPDATED)

Another high profile opener came with Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” released through tiny distributor First Look.  On 27 screens, the well-received black comedy - which stars Nicolas Cage as a corrupt, drug-addicted cop - grossed a decent $257,000, averaging $9,519.  Herzog’s last narrative film, 2007’s “Rescue Dawn,” grossed $5,490,423 in North America.

Other openers included Alexander Sokurov’s “The Sun,” which took in an impressive $11,588 from its sole New York screen (and topped off at $15,122 since opening Wednesday); Lukas Moodysson’s critically challenged Michelle Williams-Gael Garcia Bernal starrer “Mammoth,” which grossed a fair $4,531 from its NYC screen; Yoav Shamir’s critically acclaimed doc “Defamation,” which disappointed by averaging only $1,181 from its 4 screens; and John Woo’s “Red Cliff,” which grossed a reasonable $13,104 from 2 screens, averaging $6,522.

Among holdovers, Sony Classics slowly brought Lone Scherfig’s awards contention “An Education” to its widest release yet in week seven.  Going from 120 to 303 screens, the film saw a 38% rise in grosses, taking in $915,000.  That was a good enough for a $3,020 average (not bad for a film in its seventh weekend), and a $4,357,000 cume as it heads into a likely boost from December’s Oscar precursors.

Also expanding was Oscilloscope’s release of “The Messenger,” which went form 4 to 31 screens in its second frame.  The well reviewed film, which stars Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton, grossed $120,000 over the weekend, resulting in a fair $3,870 average. Sell out shows continued in New York as well as other regional cities (in was in a total of 15 markets), and the film will expand to 10 more cities for Thanksgiving.  “The Messenger”‘s total stands at $177,000.

Finally, Frederick Wiseman’s self-released doc “La Danse” expanded after two amazing weekends in New York City and held on reasonably well. On 7 screens in NYC, Chicago and Los Angeles, the film grossed $31,150 for a per-theater-average of $4,450. The film takes on Washington DC next weekend in addition to select expansion in the New York tri-state area. For more on “La Danse,” check out indieWIRE‘s new “Box Office 2.0” column profiling its stunning debut at New York’s Film Forum.

Three other debuts - John Woo’s “Red Cliff,” Lukas Moodysson’s “Mammoth” and Alexander Sokurov’s “The Sun” - have yet to report estimates, but check back with indieWIRE for an updated version of this article that includes them.

indieWIRE:BOT tracks independent/specialty releases compiled from Rentrak Theatrical, which collects studio reported data as well as box-office figures from North American theatre locations. To be included in the indieWIRE Box Office Chart, distributors must submit information about their films to Rentrak at studiogrosses@rentrak.com  by the end of the day each Monday..