Aside from the fact that Think Like a Man is now officially the year’s surprise hit, the box office for wide releases this weekend has been totally uninteresting, with openers The Five-Year Engagement, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Safe, and The Raven all performing worse than expected. Thus, if there’s a story to be told, it’s that the small dark comedy Bernie, starring Jack Black and directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Waking Life), is selling like gangbusters in its initial three theater release.
Bernie, in which Black plays a mortician who kills a widow and goes to extreme lengths to cover up her death, made $90,000 – a very strong figure for only three sites, selling out several shows. It’s even more impressive given that the distributor, Millenium Entertainment, had yet to score a strong opening – their prior career-best was Rampart with Woody Harrelson, which made an OK $60,000 from five theaters. One thing’s for sure: Bernie should expand to more cities very soon with such a strong platform opening, so those outside Austin, Los Angeles, and New York need not wait much longer.
If you’re still here for the boring Top 10 wide releases on the weekend, check out the chart after the jump…
| No. | Title | Weekend | Per Theater Average | Total |
| 1 | Think Like a Man | $18.0M | $8,993 | $60.7M |
| 2 | The Pirates! Band of Misfits | $11.4M | $3,395 | $11.4M |
| 3 | The Lucky One | $11.3M | $3,567 | $39.9M |
| 4 | The Hunger Games | $11.3M | $3,149 | $372.5M |
| 5 | The Five-Year Engagement | $11.2M | $3,800 | $11.2M |
| 6 | Safe | $7.7M | $3,407 | $7.7M |
| 7 | The Raven | $7.3M | $3,291 | $7.3M |
| 8 | Chimpanzee | $5.5M | $3,484 | $19.2M |
| 9 | The Three Stooges | $5.4M | $1,739 | $37.1M |
| 10 | The Cabin in the Woods | $4.5M | $1,705 | $34.7M |
Source: Box Office Mojo