BIRDMAN SCREENINGS SELL OUT

Fox Searchlight’s Birdman sold out most of its screenings in two New York theaters and two in Los Angeles over the weekend, earning about $424,397 or an average of $106,099 per theater. (By contrast, Fury, the No.1 film at the box office, averaged $7,470 per theater.) Birdman, which has received sterling reviews at film festivals, is frequently mentioned as a probable Oscar contender (its star, Michael Keaton, is regarded as a shoo-in for a Best Actor nomination), but it’s still too early to tell whether it will be able to translate its acclaim among cineastes to box office success. Last year’s Inside Llewyn Davis, which also was a crowd pleaser at film festivals, opened in four theaters with an average of $101,353 but wound up earning an unimpressive $13.2 million throughout its entire run. Next weekend Birdman expands to 18 new cities and adds screens in New York and Los Angeles to bring its total theater count to 45-50 screens.