The first Precious box office totals are quite impressive. Finding Precious show times were difficult, but the film already made $1.8 million in its opening weekend in theaters. The most remarkable thing about the Precious box totals was that that the film was only playing in 18 theaters over the weekend. It means that on average, each theater made $100,000 off of showing Precious, proving that the film definitely should have placed in a wider range of theaters for this opening weekend. The decision to limit Precious showings could also create even more buzz for the film, but it’s still frustrating a lot of people who want to see the movie right away.

There were five new movies that got released to theaters this past weekend, including A Christmas Carol, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and The Fourth Kind. With all of those new releases, it could have been the reason that there weren’t that many theaters to show Precious in its limited release. Small films typically are released in this fashion, with the intent to create a good word-of-mouth that will cause more people to go to theaters in later weeks. This way a film isn’t thrust into too many theaters too quickly, but with the buzz surrounding Precious, it seemed like it could have been a good idea to put the film into more theaters in the first weekend.

Precious is based on a novel by Sapphire called Push. The film itself takes place in Harlem, and shows the life of a disadvantaged teen that has struggled through life to that point. Her struggles aren’t over, but when she is invited to enroll in an alternative school it could point her life in a brand new direction. The film covers the struggles of the lead character, and all that she must overcome to achieve her goals. There are quite a few supporting cast members that people will recognize, including Mariah Carey, Mo’Nique, and Sherri Shepherd just to name a few. In the lead role there is a new actress by the name of Gabourey Sidibe who will be quite memorable for her portrayal.

If the opening weekend is a sign of things to come for Precious, then potential audiences are going to be in for a treat. Early reviews of Precious are also turning out to be quite positive, and the film actually has a little bit of Oscar buzz going around from the early audiences. Hopefully the distributors take a look at these early returns and push Precious into a much higher number of theaters in the coming weeks.

Source: Associated Content