Wes Anderson is on the Mount Rushmore (pun intended) of indie filmmakers who can consistently open their movies to a small but loyal group of core fans.
All 12 of his films (with the exception of “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” which debuted on Netflix) have opened in a limited, platform release on just a handful of screens before expanding to over a 1,000, or in the case of “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” as many as 2,000+ screens. And you’d be hard-pressed to find many other filmmakers (perhaps contemporaries like Paul Thomas Anderson or Quentin Tarantino) who film after film have as impressive of per-theater averages from those humble beginnings.
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With an estimated $570,000 from just six screens in New York and Los Angeles, Anderson’s twelfth feature “The Phoenician Scheme” has a per-theater average of $95,000 which, per data via Comscore, would be the fourth-highest PTA of his career, behind “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Asteroid City,” and “Moonrise Kingdom.” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” had the best PTA of all, bringing in a whopping $202,792 PTA from just four screens. It too is the best-performing film of Anderson’s career, with $59.3 million domestic and $175.6 million worldwide, per Comscore.
As Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian explained, Anderson’s films appeal to that core audience but also expand very well and “tend to earn a staggering multiple of that opening limited release revenue,” mainly because of the sheer number of screens they add in Week 2.
“Wes Anderson has enjoyed a longevity and box office consistency within the specialized film realm that is unique among filmmakers working today,” Dergarabedian told IndieWire.
It doesn’t necessarily translate to “The Phoenician Scheme” being a hit. Like his past films, “The Phoenician Scheme” next weekend will open wide to approximately 1,500 screens, and it’s already expanded internationally, to date having earned $6.2 million abroad. That’s in line with how 2021’s “The French Dispatch” performed internationally up through this point, and in some markets it’s nearing the pace of “Asteroid City” or “Isle of Dogs.”
Still, finding comps among Anderson’s own films isn’t easy. His last theatrical feature, “Asteroid City,” was also released by Focus Features, and it too was a summer release following a bow at Cannes. Its opening weekend gross of $853K translated to a multiple of roughly 33 per Comscore, finishing at $28.1 million domestic. “The French Dispatch” opened on a wider 52 screens in its first weekend in October 2021, so its multiple of roughly 12 to wind up at $16.1 million domestic isn’t necessarily indicative of how
“The Phoenician Scheme” should do either, but it potentially provides a low range for where it ends up. And while IndieWire considers it one of Anderson’s weaker movies, reviews for “The Phoenician Scheme” have been in line with “Asteroid City” and “The French Dispatch.”
A more accurate comp might be A24’s “Friendship” starring Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson. That film had a PTA of $74,000 back in May and has since made $12.3 million domestic, and “The Phoenician Scheme” is already outpacing that.
Whatever it does, this is another continued sign of strength for the box office, which is now up 26 percent from 2024 year-to-date. That’s a number that can be reached not just when “Lilo & Stitch” and “Mission: Impossible” do well, but the Wes Andersons of the world too.
