Winners
Rachel Getting Married (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Duchess (Paramount Vantage)
Fireproof (Samuel Goldwyn)

Riding a wave of positive buzz and the rising stardom of Anne Hathaway, Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married crushed all comers, earning $33,667 per screen at nine theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Hathaway appeared everywhere to promote it, even gamely spoofing herself as host on Saturday Night Live. (Loved her as Mary Poppins!)

Too much attention may be paid to Keira Knightley's ribs, but she was undoubtedly the reason that The Duchess made $7,047 per screen as it expanded to 127 locations in its third week. Keira and costume dramas seem to be the right fit; I wouldn't be surprised if this one drew an older audience that consistently attends British historical flicks.

Still ignored by the mainstream press (in contrast to Bill Maher's Religulous), faith-based Fireproof dropped just 40.5% (about the same as Eagle Eye) and took in $4,776 per screen at 852 theaters in its second week. So far the film has grossed more than $12 million. Was it ever advertised on TV? Or was the marketing done entirely through church groups? Whatever the case, with a reported budget of only half a million dollars, Fireproof appears to be a healthy success story.

Sex Still Sells
Elegy (Samuel Goldwyn)
Frozen River (Sony Pictures Classics)

Elegy, the 'old professor in love with a younger woman' adaptation of a Philip Roth novel starring Ben Kingsley and a sometimes naked Penelope Cruz, is in its ninth week of release and still playing in 70 theaters. The theater count is dropping, but the film has grossed more than $3.3 million.

I'm not partial to overtly subjective reviews, yet I can't seem to find any better way of relating my response to Isabel Coixet's latest film, Elegy, an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel "The Dying Animal," which follows the romance between a college professor and his much younger former student. First, though, a note of appropriateness: early in the film, this professor, the Roth regular David Kepesh, who previously appeared in the novels "The Breast" and "The Professor of Desire," is lecturing about how literature, specifically Tolstoy's "War and Peace," will be appreciated differently by a reader at different points in his or her life. In ten years, for example, it may seem like a new book entirely.

Perhaps in ten years, then, or more likely in thirty, I will be able to watch Elegy again and have a new perspective. Maybe I will be able to relate to Kepesh, here portrayed by Ben Kingsley, when I am in my sixties and have similarly lived and experienced as much. Yet the fact that Coixet's film is so depressing makes me almost hope that I never actually live so long to find out. I should have known, what with the filmmaker's past films, such as My Life Without Me, with their gray atmospheres and dreary dealings with illness and death. While appearing on the outside to be a sexy drama about how one lecherous old man discovers love, Elegy is on the inside really just a slow, uninteresting depiction of a selfish fool who possibly too-late realizes that he's grown old before he's actually grown up.

Despite dropping more than 50% in its second week of release, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Picturehouse) outdrew all other specialty releases over the weekend, earning $21,200 per screen at five theaters, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo.

Directed by Canadian indie veteran Patricia Rozema (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, When Night is Falling), Kit Kittredge has clearly benefited from a devoted fan base that convinced thousands of their parental units to fork over $20 per ticket -- which, to be fair, includes a limited-edition t-shirt -- to see the movie in advance of its wide release tomorrow. That's a very good performance when you consider its main competition was not, actually, a French-language flick that skewed very adult, but actually a heavily-advertised animated film.

Catherine Breillat's The Last Mistress (IFC Films), starring Asia Argento, took in $17,600 per screen at two locations, which probably owes as much, if not more, to the name recognition of Argento as that of the often-confounding Breillat.

A poorly-reviewed movie easily fought its way to the top of the weekend box office. That's almost standard practice for big-budget Hollywood studio product, but is quite unusual for an indie film. Joshua Seftel's comedy / drama War, Inc. (First Look) earned $17,650 per screen at two locations, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo, despite receiving mostly negative reviews -- Rotten Tomatoes pegged the critics at only 24% positive. Writing for Cinematical, Joel Keller described it as "an ambitious film that fails miserably at everything it attempts to be." John Cusack co-wrote and stars along with Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley and Hilary Duff.

Roger Spottiswoode's drama The Children of Huang Shi (Sony Pictures Classics) did not fare any better with our critic, Nick Schager, who felt that the film is "a TV movie in disguise, a handsomely staid affair that prefers skin-deep elegance to psychological or historical substance." Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars as a reporter that helped a school of orphaned children in 1937 China; Chow Yun-Fat plays a rebel and Radha Mitchell a nurse. Opening at seven theaters, The Children of Huang Shi averaged $6,036 per screen.

Good returns were also enjoyed by Joachim Trier's Reprise (Miramax), which expanded to 14 theaters in its second week and took in $6,614 per screen, and Claude Lelouch's Roman de Gare (Samuel Goldwyn), which added 11 more locations in its fifth week and increased nicely to $4,485 per screen.

Two new indie releases fared well, while two others struggled. Hailing from Norway, Reprise (Miramax) earned a very good $15,500 per-screen average at three theaters, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Our own James Rocchi gushed in his review: "Directed by Joachim Trier, Reprise is one of the most brilliant, heartfelt, exciting and exuberant feature film debuts in recent memory."

Mexican film Sangre de mi Sangre (AKA Padre Nuestro) (IFC Films) nestled into the #2 spot, earning $8,500 at one theater in Manhattan. The film follows two teenagers, one honest, one dishonest, trying to reach their disparate goals (reuniting with family, making money). Eric D. Snider noted: "The trouble is that the film is so bleak as to be almost hopeless ... Its grimness is not matched by its excellence."

Cinematical's Erik Davis raved about German director Christian Petzold's Yella (Cinema Guild) when he saw it at the Berlin film festival last year: "Like a drug, Yella slowly creeps on you long after the end credits roll, takes hold of your body and doesn't let go until you're convinced it was one of the best films this year's Berlinale had to offer." Opening at two theaters, the film made $3,450 per screen.

Despite good reviews (82% positive at Rotten Tomatoes), Georgina Garcia Riedel's How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer (Maya Releasing) failed to make an impact, opening at 84 theaters and marshaling just $1,040 per screen, per Mr. Klady's estimate.

A French master topped an American actress' directorial debut this weekend. Claude Lelouch's Roman de Gare (Samuel Goldwyn) opened at two theaters in Manhattan and grossed $25,500, for a very nice $12,750 per-screen average, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. The French-language thriller scored 73% positive at Rotten Tomatoes, though a number of critics had reservations about its twisty, playful nature.

Helen Hunt's comedy/drama Then She Found Me (ThinkFilm) hauled in $8,266 per-screen at nine locations. Hunt plays a teacher who must deal with an unlikely fiancee (Matthew Broderick), a volatile love interest (Colin Firth), and the unexpected appearance of her mother (Bette Midler). Ryan Stewart felt that the story is "as old as the hills," but that it was "still executed with style."

Standard Operating Procedure (Sony Classics), the latest doc by Errol Morris, has generated controversy not only because of its subject matter -- the story behind the notorious Abu Gharib prison photos -- but because Morris has admitted to paying some of the interviewees. Reviews were mostly positive (79%, according to Rotten Tomatoes). Opening at two theaters in Manhattan, the film averaged $7,450 per screen.

Two holdovers continued to perform well. Tom McCarthy's excellent The Visitor (Overture) expanded into 76 theaters nationwide and averaged $6,684 per screen in its third week of release. Stephen Walker's heartwarming music doc Young @ Heart (Fox Searchlight) expanded from 23 to 56 locations and grossed an average of $4,017 per screen.

"A damn fine film with a good heart and some really excellent performances" finished atop the indie weekend box office charts. The quote is from our own Scott Weinberg's review of Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (Overture), and I agree wholeheartedly. The film earned $22,000 per-screen at four theaters, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Richard Jenkins stars as a college professor who strikes up a friendship with an immigrant couple he finds living in his NYC apartment. It's even better -- and deeper -- than that description might sound.

An elderly chorus sings a repertoire of modern pop and rock songs in Stephen Walker's documentary Young @ Heart (Fox Searchlight); audiences responded to the tune of $13,075 per screen at four locations. Cinematical's James Rocchi wrote: "Even for all its flaws and failures it still succeeds in showing us friends who -- through song and art and community and, yes, love -- are doing their best to face it with everything that they've got."

David Ayer's Street Kings (Fox Searchlight) should be included, I suppose, because it's distributed by an studio specialty division known for its indie releases, though not much about the police drama screams "indie." By the per-screen numbers, it finished third, earning an average of $4,864 at each of 2,467 engagements. "As yet another tale of dirty criminals and even dirtier cops," Scott Weinberg opined, "Street Kings works well enough, albeit strictly in a 'been there, seen that' sort of way."

Nearly a year after its international premiere at Cannes, My Brother is an Only Child (ThinkFilm) opened at the top of the indie weekend box office returns, according to Box Office Mojo. Playing at just one theater in Manhattan, the film grossed $10,500. My Brother "follows two brothers through years of Italian history, with their personal and political travails echoing down the years," Cinematical's James Rocchi wrote last year. "Even with it's merits as a light-but-sentimental story of family in 1960's Italy, it also reminded me of the soaring, sweeping, astonishing La Meglio Gioventù (The Best of Youth) -- and wound up completely winning me over." The film will roll out to other cities over the next three weeks, per the distributor's web site.

Immigration family tale Under the Same Moon (Fox Searchlight / The Weinstein Co.) continues to perform well, earning $5,771 per screen as it expanded to 390 theaters in its second week. Leonard Klady at Movie City News commented that the film is "playing in a mix of Hispanic, art and mainstream locations but with rare exception is working best in the former venues." Also in its second week, Love Songs (IFC), Christophe Honoré's French-language modern musical, held onto most of its audience, averaging $6,800 at two Manhattan theaters.

One of the surprises at this year's Fantastic Fest in Austin was the first public screening of the recut version of Southland Tales, which will be released in theaters starting in November. The film was written and directed by Richard Kelly, and a longer, unfinished version premiered at Cannes in 2006. Kelly is probably best known for his previous film, Donnie Darko, although since then he also wrote the script for Domino. Kelly attended the Fantastic Fest screening of Southland Tales, and Cinematical was able to sit down with him for a few minutes before he left Austin. (And yes, that's the actual Bone Shack sign from Planet Terror/Grindhouse that he's standing under, in the photo above.)

Cinematical: What made you decide to bring Southland Tales to Fantastic Fest?

Richard Kelly: It was Harry [Knowles, of AICN] -- Harry's been a great friend over the years. This is the first time anyone's seen the finished version, and we wanted to show it to the right audience, and at this festival people are very receptive to adventurous material. Harry had a great way of summing it up: he said it was a "science-fiction noir thriller." I love that description, because it crosses different genres. And for me, it's a comedy. We literally just finished it, and we weren't ready for Toronto -- we didn't know if Toronto was the best place, but Fantastic Fest felt right.

Cinematical: The version we saw here in Austin is the one that will be in theaters in November?

RK: Absolutely.

If I cut two or three paragraphs from the middle of this Southland Tales review, tossed in some random sentences from other articles about this film and others by writer-director Richard Kelly, burst into song about two-thirds of the way through and didn't reveal what the movie was about until near the end, you might get a very good sense about my experience of watching Southland Tales. The difference is that you would probably give up on reading that review quickly and not wait for the payoff, but Southland Tales managed to captivate and hold my attention despite the fact that I sometimes felt lost or confused.

Richard Kelly's long-awaited second film (Donnie Darko being the first) premiered at Cannes in 2006 to a number of unfavorable reviews, including complaints that the movie was difficult to follow and structurally a mess. Since then, Kelly removed about 20 minutes of footage (involving Janaene Garafalo and Kevin Smith's characters) and added special effects that he felt the movie required. The new cut, which will hit theaters in November, premiered at Fantastic Fest in Austin at a "secret screening" on Saturday night. The recut film may still be difficult to follow and occasionally difficult to enjoy, but audiences who are willing to pay close attention and focus on the world of the film for more than two hours are rewarded by something extraordinary.