Amazing ! ‘Atlas Shrugged’ Earns $1.7 Million

Amazing ! ‘Atlas Shrugged’ Earns $1.7 Million

SM*SH - Did conservatives make “Atlas Shrugged – Part 1,” a low-budget adaptation of Ayn Rand’s famous 1957 novel, a box office hit? While the film’s opening weekend sales didn’t reach blockbuster levels, earning $1.7 million from about 300 theaters, the film’s backers are enthusiastic about the results.
“We’re at the upper edge of our expectations,” said “Shrugged” producer Harmon Kaslow. “And we’re a way above what the industry expected us to do.”
Independently produced and distributed, “Atlas Shrugged” had a fairly solid per-theater average of $5,590, in line with the weekend’s other indie success, “The Conspirator,” a historical drama about the trial of Abraham Lincoln’s assassins, which earned a similar $5,550 per-venue average across 700 theaters.
According to Kaslow, the film over-performed in some markets – including Atlanta, New York, Nashville, and Portland – generating as much as $12,000 to $25,000 per theater. The film did not do as well in some locales, such as Pensacola, Fla., and Mobile, Ala.
Working with distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures, which is known for its Christian-targeted releases, Kaslow hopes next weekend to increase the film’s reach from 300 to 1,000 theaters, and from its current 80 cities to around 250, which would include smaller towns in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Montana.
In an email, Rocky Mountain Pictures’ Randy Slaughter said, “In my 40 plus years in the business I haven’t seen anything like the diversity of what cities and theatres did well”—he cited locations from Phoenix to Washington DC to San Jose—”and others that I was disappointed in.”
“There’s enormous community level support for the film,” said Kaslow. “We think this is the tip of the iceberg, and there’s an enormous amount of support that will build over the coming weeks.”
But Box Office Mojo president Brandon Gray is skeptical. “For a pure independent release, ‘Atlas Shrugged Part I’s opening was fine. But for the first ever adaptation of Ayn Rand’s popular and influential novel that had far more media hype than any other independent movie could dream of, it was disappointing,” he said, via email.
Still, Kaslow maintained the opening sales bode well for the film and their plans to produce the second and third installments of the trilogy.
“We’ve received an acknowledgment of the film’s commercial value, both in theaters and from the industry,” he said, noting that major studios have since contacted them, expressing interest in representing the film for overseas, television, DVD and VOD sales.
Whether the movie does break out or not, evidence of its potential impact can be felt on the increasing popularity of its source material: As of Sunday, Plume’s paperback edition of “Atlas Shrugged” was the No.4 bestselling book on Amazon.com.
source :
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/04/17/atlas-shrugged-earns-1-7-million-at-weekend-box-office/