Wes Anderson’s MOONRISE KINGDOM Has Record Setting Opening Weekend For Live-Action Film

Focus Features’ Moonrise Kingdom, the critically applauded new movie from director Wes Anderson, opened this past weekend and posted the highest recorded per-theater average for a live-action movie released domestically. Focus CEO James Schamus made the announcement today.

Surpassing the record set for a live-action (e.g., non-animated) feature in a regular theatrical run in December 2006 by Dreamgirls, with its $126,317 opening weekend average at 3 theaters, Moonrise Kingdom this past weekend averaged $130,752 at its 4 theaters for a total gross through yesterday (Sunday) of $523,006.00; the estimated 4-day weekend gross is $669,486.00, for a per-theater average of $167,371.00. Focus’ Brokeback Mountain, released in December 2005, had held the record prior to Dreamgirls. The Dreamgirls record was broken by Moonrise Kingdom in advance of today’s Memorial Day holiday grosses and averages, and therefore reflects an exact 3-day-to-3-day comparison.

Moonrise Kingdom world-premiered earlier this month as the opening-night film of the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival. The theaters currently playing Moonrise Kingdom are, in New York City, AMC Theatres’ Lincoln Square and Regal Cinemas’ Union Square Stadium 14; and, in Los Angeles, Pacific Theatres’ ArcLight Cinemas and Landmark Theatres’ The Landmark. Focus, which holds worldwide rights to the movie, will be adding theaters in additional cities domestically each weekend through June, expanding Moonrise Kingdom to several hundred screens.

Mr. Schamus said, “Moonrise Kingdom is a story of love’s improbable triumph, and for Wes Anderson and his team a labor of love from start to finish. How wonderful it is to congratulate him, on behalf of everyone at Focus, for this remarkable, record-breaking opening.”

Moonrise Kingdom is the new movie directed by two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rushmore). Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two 12-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore – and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in every which way. Bruce Willis plays the local sheriff, Captain Sharp. Edward Norton is a Khaki Scout troop leader, Scout Master Ward. Bill Murray and Frances McDormand portray the young girl’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bishop. The cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and Bob Balaban; and introduces Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as the boy and girl. The movie, MPAA-rated “PG-13,” is written by Mr. Anderson & Roman Coppola. The producers are Mr. Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, and Jeremy Dawson.

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