Fox Searchlight’s The Favourite, one of the year’s best and most enjoyable films, opened in four venues in New York and Los Angeles, generating a hefty $420,000.
That is an average of $105,500 per location, ranking as the best theater average since “La La Land” ($176,221) almost two years ago.
The Favourite now holds the biggest screen average since Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me By Your Name” ($103,233) in 2017.
That showing marks one of the strongest openings in Fox Searchlight history, behind just Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which generated $202,000 per screen in 2014 and “Birdman,” Alejandro Inarritu’s best picture winning black comedy that picked up $106,000 per location the same year.
Prior to “The Favourite,” the best screen average of 2018 belonged to “Suspiria,” Guadagnino’s gory arthouse remake of the 1977 Italian supernatural thriller. It generated $179,806 when it debuted in two locations, translating to an impressive $89,903 per venue.
Other notable screen averages this year include National Geographic’s documentary “Free Solo” with $75,201 per location, Bo Burnham’s coming-of-age drama “Eighth Grade” with $63,071 per venue, and Anderson’s stop-motion animation “Isle of Dogs” with $60,011 per screen.
