I completely forgot about this earlier this week – the so-called specialty box office for last weekend; and what a weekend it was to miss, because The Intouchables, the award-winning French buddy comedy starring Omar Sy, openned on 4 screens last week Friday, in the USA, and went on to gross $137,000 over the 4-day holiday weekend.

That number might not seem impressive at first, but when you take the number of screens it played on, there lies a tale worth telling. It's all in the averages. And The Intouchables averaged a whopping $34,000 per screen!

That figure made it the second best performing film (if looking at per screen averages) last weekend, behind Wes Anderson's well-received Moonrise Kingdom – a film that had far more brand recognition we could say, in terms of the director, the starring cast (Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, and others), and it's English-language film, unlike The Intouchables. 

Its per screen average even beat out the number 1 grossing film last weekend, Men In Black 3, which opened on 4,244 more screens than The Intouchables did. 

And this weekend, as expected, The Weinstein Company (distributors of the film) added another 46 screens, for a total of 50 screens around the country where the film is playing; I'm looking forward to seeing how it does this weekend, now that it's wider release. 

I won't be surprised if its number of screens increases next weekend as well.

But, suffice it to say that the film is doing well. At least, it opened strong, meaning there's a lot of interest in it. I'm curious to know what its audience demo is.

I saw it a few weeks ago, and reviewed onm S&A last week, before it opened. You can read my review HERE if you missed it (I didn't care for the film much); also, Jasmin interviewed the star, Omar Sy himself, earlier last week, in which he addressed the backlash the film has received here in the USA, against what some consider racist depictions of black people (specifically, the character he plays) in the film; read that interview HERE if you missed that as well.

The film is enjoying a 77% Fresh rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

So check your local listings this weekend if you're interested in checking it out for yourselves; it might be playing somewhere close by.