The Grand Budapest Hotel is already a record-breaking film. The movie made a record $200,000 per theater in its opening weekend, making it the highest-grossing limited live action debut of all time and far surpassing Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, which averaged $147,000 per theater during its record-breaking weekend in 2012.
The record isn’t new for Wes Anderson. Moonrise Kingdom owned the record prior to The Master. Moonrise Kingdom averaged $131,000 in four theaters.
In total, The Grand Budapest Hotel made $800,000 in four theaters in two cities (New York and Los Angeles) last weekend. Rave reviews are being written everywhere, so there’s no reason to think the positive momentum won’t continue when the movie expands to 1,000 screens over the next five weeks.
American Laundromat Records is releasing a Wes Anderson tribute album. You should add it to your store! (My interview with ALR founder Joe Spadaro is available via the website link on this comment.)