MOONRISE KINGDOM SETS PER-THEATER RECORD

Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, starring Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and Frances McDormand, may have come away empty handed as a competitor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which it opened, but it shattered the per-theater record when it debuted at four locations over the Memorial Day weekend. The film, which received warm applause and much praise from critics at Cannes, averaged $130,752 per theater for a four-day gross of $669,486. That broke the previous record set by Dreamgirls in 2006, when it opened with $126,000 per theater in three venues. Focus Features has indicated that it will gradually expand the number of screens to several hundred by the end of June. “Moonrise is a story of love’s improbable triumph, and for Wes Anderson and his team a labor of love from start to finish,” Focus chief James Schamus said in a statement. “How wonderful it is to congratulate him, on behalf of everyone at Focus, for this remarkable, record-breaking opening.”