Fox Searchlight's 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejifor, triumphed this weekend at the box office during its limited opening in 19 theaters, grossing $960,000, Deadline Hollywood reports.
Suggested Reading
Searchlight said Sunday that the film, produced by New Regency, reached an "incredibly diverse audience," adding, "We have been attracting both the Art/Specialty cinephile crowd as well the African-American audience. CinemaScores have come in with an overall grade of ‘A' with a fairly wide spread in terms of age and demographics."
To put in perspective, SPC's Blue Jasmine opened in 6 theaters in August, averaging just over $102K ($31.97 cume); Focus' The Place Beyond The Pines bowed in April with 4 runs, averaging $69,864 ($21.4M cume); A24's Spring Breakers opened in a trio of runs, averaging $87,667 ($14.12M cume), while the distributor's August release The Spectacular Now opened with a $49,354 average in 4 theaters ($6.8M cume).
This is indeed good news for a film about which, as Teresa Wiltz writes in a review at The Root, "No doubt about it, it's a hard, hard slog, disturbing and despairing, gnawing at the spirit long after the last credits have rolled off the screen. You should see it anyway."
Read more at Deadline Hollywood.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.