Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” grossed $335,000 in four theaters in 70mm this weekend l and generated an astounding per-theater average of $83,852. A pandemic-era record. The film will expand to 1,800 theaters on Christmas Day, the largest release for any PTA film.
Meanwhile, Princess Diana biopic “Spencer” is just not the box-office success many were predicting. All this, despite Kirsten Stewart remaining the Best Actress Oscar frontrunner.
Over its fourth weekend of release, “Spencer” made just $610 per theater in 346 locations. The weekend take was a limp $211,028. The theatrical run for “Spencer” seems to be coming to a close now. It briefly played in 1,200 theatres, then NEON retreated it to 954, and it was then cut by two thirds this weekend. Its total is now $6.6 million on an $18 million budget.
This means K-Stew is not a sure thing to win Best Actress. There are numerous contenders that have been grabbing its leftover momentum these last few few weeks, those include Nicole Kidman in “Being the Ricardos,” Frances McDormand in “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” and Olivia Colman in “The Lost Daughter.” Not too far behind are Jennifer Hudson in “Respect” and, gulp, Lady Gaga in “House of Gucci.”