“No Other Choice” Highlights Christmas Special Box Office With Limited Opening To $625,000
Along with the plethora of large-scale releases, some theaters have also benefited from several specialty releases attempting to capitalize on the holiday season. Leading the limited release pack is Neon/CJ Entertainment’s “No Other Choice,” which opened in 13 theaters in five cities and grossed a four-day total of $625,656 for a per-theater average of $48,127.
Directed by Park Chan-wook, the critically acclaimed satire is an adaptation of Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel “The Axe” and stars Lee Byung-hun as Man-su, a veteran paper company employee who loses his job. Desperate to keep his family in his childhood home, Man-su sees only one way to ensure he gets a job at another paper company: murder.
Critically acclaimed when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival, “No Other Choice” received three Golden Globe nominations and is South Korea’s selection for the Academy Award for Best International Film.
Also playing on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, Searchlight’s “The Testament of Ann Lee” grossed $111,000 over four days, for an average of $27,750. The film stars Amanda Seyfried in a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award-nominated performance as Ann Lee, the leader of the radical 18th-century Christian movement known as the Shakers, who preached abstinence as a fundamental principle and believed that God would return to humanity as a woman.
Searchlight also expanded Bradley Cooper’s comedy-drama “Is This Thing On?” » at 33 theaters in 10 cities, adding $203,000 over a 3-day period for an average of $6,151 and a cumulative total of $511,000. Neon’s “The Secret Agent” added $290,000 in its fifth weekend, for a total of $1.43 million.
Of course, the big hit of the weekend was A24’s “Marty Supreme,” which, after earning the best limited opening in nine years last week, earned a 4-day opening of $27 million for a total of $30.1 million. Its $18.5 million 3-day opening is the second highest ever for A24 behind last year’s $25 million opening for Alex Garland’s “Civil War.”
