AMERICAN HUSTLE MAKES YEAR’S BIGGEST PER-THEATER DEBUT

In limited release, David O. Russel’s American Hustle opened with $690,000 in six theaters for a per-theater average of $115,000, making it the biggest debut of the year for any independent film, topping Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, which opened with a per-theater average of $102,000 last July. The “dramedy,” set during the Abscam scandal during the 1970s, had received seven Golden Globe nominations earlier in the week, including best picture in the comedy/musical category. The Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis expanded to 15 theaters in its second weekend, taking in $344,000 and bringing its ten-day total to $897,500. CBS Films said that it expected the significant drop to $23,000 per theater this weekend from $100,500 last weekend, given the competition from The Hobbit sequel as well as strong performances by such other indie films as The Weinstein Co.’s Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which earned $31,809 in four theaters in its third week and Paramount Vantage’s Nebraska, which earned $850,000 from 250 theaters in its fifth week.