Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris grossed $1.35 million in its second week with a mix of arthouse and commercial theaters among top 10 locations and a nice hold from its opening weekend (-31%). Cume to date is $4.65 million for the film starring Leslie Manville as a British housekeeper who dreams of owning a Christian Dior gown. It was No. 10 in North America for the weekend in 1,001 theaters.
Cinemas like the Plaza Frontenac in St. Louis, Avalon Twin in Washington, D.C., and Camelview in Phoenix joined commercial venues in the top 10. Ticket sales in Week 2 expanded outside the coasts. Demos were similar, with a hefty 44% over 55, and 71% female.
“The biggest takeaway is that we are starting to get older audiences back into theaters,” Lisa Bunnell, distribution president of Focus Features, said Sunday. And, “The top 10 this weekend was a good mix of commercial and specialty theaters that we don’t see consistently anymore.”
Bunnell called Mrs. Harris an upbeat movie with good word of mouth. “People are starting to talk about it, and going back to the movies, which is what we need in order to see the specialized market come back,” she said. Overall, “We are starting to see more normalized moviegoing habits.”
Outside of specialty, having the original IP and R-rated Nope top the weekend is “not the easiest thing in the world to do” and encouraging, Bunnell said. So is the fact that each of the top five films (again) grossed over $10 million, indicating “what I would would consider to be [more] consistent moviegoing habits.”
Mrs. Harris, directed by Anthony Fabian, also stars Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo and Rose Williams.
Elsewhere in specialty:
New opening My Donkey, My Lover & I from Greenwich Entertainment started in 51 locations to a $30,000 weekend, or a per-screen average of $588. The French film by Caroline Vignal stars Laure Calamy, who plays Noémie, the comically eccentric assistant to Mathias Barneville in Call My Agent!.
A holdover, Neon’s Fire of Love, has an estimated three-day tally of $131,174 on 99 screens in Week 3 for a PSA of $1,325 and a cume of $281,198.
Sony Pictures Classics’ Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song took in $64,101 in Week 4 on 64 screens (up from 25) for a PSA of $1,002 and a cume of $226,268.
A24’s Marcel the Shell With Shoes On continued to expand in Week 5, posting a weekend total of $846,950 on 590 screens for a cume of $2.87 million.