Box Office

Well, Brokeback Mountain continues to do surprisingly well at the box office, despite showing on fewer than 700 screens. On Friday, it was still in ninth place, despite showing on half as many screens as any other film in the top 14 (Casanova, at number 15, is showing on about 1100 screens, compared to Brokeback Mountain on 683.)

The most amazing stat is that Brokeback Mountain is making much more, per screen, than any other film.

What does that mean? It means that, where the film is showing, it is selling out almost all the time. If you've been to see it, you know that this is the case. Why is this important? Despite the film's critical success, there are many folks out there who will be quick to criticize this film, mostly without seeing it, as "liberal Hollywood pushing the homosexual agenda on the American people," and lack of box office success would make that criticism more powerful, because then they could argue that "the film didn't make any money, which shows that people weren't buying."

It's clear that people are buying, at least in the theaters where the film is showing.

Btw, if the film were released more widely, it would make even more money, although its per screen gross would certainly fall into the range of "mainstream" Hollywood pictures like Rumor Has It or The Family Stone.

My review.