Oscar-nominated Glenn film opens strong

Buoyed by three Oscar nominations,Albert Nobbs took a solid 772,730 in its first weekend of wide release.

Buoyed by three Oscar nominations,Albert Nobbs took a solid 772,730 in its first weekend of wide release. The Roadside Attractions movie,which earned Glenn Close a best actress nomination,Janet McTeer a best supporting actress nomination and the make-up team a best make-up nomination,opened at 245 locations. Including its Oscar-qualifying numbers in December,the R-rated movie has taken in 822,981.

Thats a per-location average of 3,154. Academy Award nominations were good for a raft of indie films recently: The Weinstein Companys The Artist,nominated for 10 Oscars,including best picture,and The Iron Lady,nominated for two,each passed 15 million at the box-office. The Artist,now in its 10th weekend in release,took in 3.3 million at 897 locations. It has grossed 16.7 million. The Iron Lady took 3.2 million at 1,244 locations,for a total of 17.5 million. That movie is in its fifth weekend.

And The Descendants,nominated for five Oscars,including best picture,best director and,for George Clooney,best actor,had its best weekend since its debut 11 weeks ago.

Fox Searchlight expanded the film by 1,441 locations,to 2,001,and saw its numbers increase by 176 percent to 6.55 million. Thats good enough to put it at No. 7 at the overall box-office. This is a great result for the Academy-nominated movie that has benefitted big time from the award season and has become the darling of the general movie-going audience, Sheila DeLoach,Fox Searchlights executive VP distribution said. When you nurture these pictures on this journey and then they break through like this to the general audience,it becomes such a special movie.

It is also about to break a few records. With its new total of 58.8 million,The Descendants is now the top-grossing independent film released in 2011. Sony Pictures Classics Midnight In Paris also a best picture nominee had been No. 1 with 56.43 million. Descendants is on the way to becoming director Alexander Paynes top-grossing film. His 2002 About Schmidt grossed 65 million,and his 2004 Sideways took 71.5 million.

Another Oscar nominee,Wim Wenders Pina,broke the million-dollar mark recently.

The 3D film,nominated for best documentary,is about dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. It expanded from 10 locations to 35,and now has grossed just short of 1.05 million.