THE ARTIST RETURNS — BUT NOBODY CARES

Oscar winner The Artist did OK at the box office in its initial run, earning $44 million, even without ever hitting the top ten. But it earned nearly twice that amount overseas. So executives at the Weinstein Co. figured that there must be a bigger audience for the movie at home, too, and they decided to release it a second time over the weekend, figuring that it was the kind of movie that moms would love to see on Mothers Day. They were wrong. Released in more than 700 theaters, the film grossed just $161,000 total, for a per-screen average of just $241. Older moviegoers did find one film worth pushing through the crowds of The Avengers fans for — The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The film grossed around $2.6 million, averaging nearly $15,000 per theater. That per-theater average beat every other movie at the box office over the weekend with the exception of The Avengers.