Brokeback Mountain still riding high

In its fourth weekend of release, the Golden Globe-nominated gay romance Brokeback Mountain continues to rack up impressive box-office numbers. Variety reports that the film's weekend take jumped an impressive 61% from the previous week despite adding only 52 theaters. The three-day weekend gross for Brokeback was $4.8 million dollars, with a per-screen average of $13,407.

Most promising, the film is playing well in midsize cities between the coasts, taking in $37,000 in Nashville; $44,000 in Columbus, Ohio; and $32,000 in Milwaukee. Brokeback's lowest grosses are at suburban cineplexes, where the movie's weekend takes are in the mid four digits, akin to the draws of only moderately successful films like Memoirs of a Geisha and Rumor Has It.... Distributor Focus Features plans to open Brokeback in an additional 120 theaters Friday as part of a slow monthlong expansion.

"The process is working, but we still have to judiciously select our new markets and the ones where we expand," Jack Foley, Focus distribution chief, told Variety. "It's a matter of timing and restraint to let the major competition get out of the marketplace." (Advocate.com)