Source: The Mercury, 26 November, 1996, p.13 Source: The Mercury, 26 November, 1996, p.13
San Diego THE acclaimed Australian movie Shine opened to packed theatres in Los Angeles and New York last weekend, earning more money per screen than any of the big budget films in release. The overall box office stakes in the United States were easily won by the eighth Star Trek movie, First Contact, which beamed up $A37.50 million. Michael Jordan's Space Jam was second with $20.44m in ticket sales followed by Mel Gibson's thriller Ransom, which raked in $16.87m. But the film industry also gauges box office success by how much a movie earns for each theatre, and Shine, playing in just six theatres, quietly outsold the big guns in it's very limited release. It earned an average of $28,863 for each screen it was show on compared with $13,336 for First Contact, $7714 for Space Jam, and $6095 for Ransom. None of the top 10 movies came close to the Shine performance in per screen average earnings, a measurement of how busy the theatres are. The Shine first week box office total of $202,000 was just a taste of what's in store for the critically-acclaimed movie. It opens in Chicago next weekend and is scheduled for wider re- lease throughout the US closer to Christmas. The prediction is it will be in between 500 and 700 theatres by January.
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