Coming to a Theatre Closer to You

Last weekend, Mike Nichol's film Closer opened. (That's how it's referred to--as Mike Nichol's. Forget that it's based closely on Patrick Marber's play, with a screenplay by Patrick Marber. Of course, to most people, it's really Julia Roberts'.)

Over at Showbizdata, they claim it performed better than expected with a huge per screen average of $16,193. Well, that would be great if it opened on 2000 or 3000 screens, but because it only opened on 476, in places where a modern romance (if that's the proper word) starring Julia Roberts had a built-in crowd, the number is good but not spectacular.

My guess is the producers are dismayed. The overall number is fine, but internals are weak. Most films show a significant rise in take from Friday to Saturday, often over 50%. A 30% rise is weak. Closer only rose 11%. This suggests horrible word of mouth.

It'll open wide soon, but if the numbers don't get better, Closer will close even faster. (By the way, I haven't seen the film but am not a big fan of the play.)