"The Grand Budapest Hotel" broke the record for the per-theater average for a live-action film over the weekend, making $800,000 in four theaters. The per-theater average record was formerly $200,000.
As if those first weekend numbers weren't good enough news for Wes Anderson, his new film is also scoring rave reviews. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" currently has a 90 percent aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes with the critical consensus that it's: "Typically stylish but deceptively thoughtful, 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' finds Wes Anderson once again using ornate visual environments to explore deeply emotional ideas."
"The Grand Budapest Hotel's" success also comes after its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival where it opened the event and won the Grand Jury Prize, also known as the Silver Bear.
With all the buzz the movie is also being called the first major Oscar contender and has been placed on many early prediction lists. The buzz is also not a surprise given the fact that Fox Searchlight, the film's distributor, recently won the Oscar for Best Picture for Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave."
Additionally, Wes Anderson's last film, "Moonrise Kingdom," received buzz when it was released and ended up scoring an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. That movie was also a financial success and an early release.
The downside to the early buzz is the movie's March release date. It is rare to see a March film score Oscar nominations even if it is a financial success. Last year Focus Features had a huge hit with "The Place Beyond the Pines" and even campaigned the movie but was not successful when it came to the Academy. A24 was equally unsuccessful with "Spring Breakers." The film won a number of Best Supporting Actor awards for James Franco but couldn't manage to break into the Oscar nominations.
The second big question that the film still faces is whether it can maintain its box office success. Two years ago the Weinstein Company opened "The Master" to big numbers in limited release but the film ultimately flopped when it was released in mainstream theaters. The Paul Thomas Anderson film had recently won the Venice Film Festival's Best Director and Best Actor award and had a lot of Oscar buzz surrounding it. However, the movie ended up making a miserable $16.3 million.
CBS Films faced a similar case with Joel and Ethan Coen's latest film "Inside Llewyn Davis." The film opened to an outstanding $405,000 after winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was a huge Oscar contender. The movie ultimately bombed with a domestic gross of $13 million.
Interestingly both films also failed to receive Best Picture nominations at the Academy Awards. "The Master" settled for three acting nods, while "Llewyn Davis" was only nominated for two technical categories.
"The Grand Budapest Hotel" may not face the same fate financially as it is a lighter film, but its early release could hurt its chances at the Oscars.
Fox Searchlight now plans to expand the movie to 65 theaters in hopes of building on its early success; the movie will eventually open nationwide.