Miramax‘s “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” led the iW BOT this weekend, according to initial estimates from Rentrak early this afternoon. The holocaust drama, directed by Mark Herman and starring Asa Butterfield, Vera Farmiga and David Thewlis, grossed $255,000 on 17 screens for an impressive $15,000 average. “Pajamas” will expand to 31 screens next weekend, where it will face off against the iW BOT potential of “Slumdog Millionaire.”
“Pajamas” outpaced the weekend’s other openers, Darren Lynn Bousman‘s horror-musical “Repo! The Genetic Opera” and Mabrouk El Mechri‘s “JCVD,” which stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as himself. “JCVD,” released through Peach Arch Entertainment, grossed a decent $23,300 from 2 screens, while “Repo!” grossed $51,578 for on 8 screens for a more mild $6,447.
Among holdovers, Sony Classics‘ “Synecdoche, New York” and “I’ve Loved You So Long” both held on very nicely in their third weekends out. Charlie Kaufman‘s “Synecdoche” grossed another $314,957 after expanding from 9 to 34 screens. And despite this expansion, its average only fell around 15% to $9,263. If numbers hold, “Loved You” actually gained in per-theater-average this weekend, grossing $187,511 from 22 screens (up from 20) and averaging $8,523. The films’ totals stand at $693,848 for “Synecdoche” and $740,601 for “Loved You.”
Also notable was a film that is holding up remarkably in its seventh weekend. On a stead 872 screens, Christians and Christian-curious filmgoers continued to come out in large numbers for IDP/Samuel Goldwyn Films‘ “Fireproof.” The film – which cost just $500,000 to make – grossed another $1,614,261 for a $1,851 average. That takes its total to $28,356,365 and makes it of the highest specialty grossers of 2008.
indieWIRE will publish its weekly box office column on Monday evening and the full iW BOT chart on Tuesday afternoon. Get the latest in the indieWIRE Box Office section.
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