Box Office: ‘The French Dispatch’ Sets Pandemic-Era Record Theater Average - Hollywood Reporter

Wes Anderson’s film features an A-list cast that includes Bill Murray, Benicio Del Toro, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand and Timothée Chalamet, among others.

In a win for the arthouse market, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch posted the top opening theater average of the pandemic era.

The previous best three-day opening weekend average of the pandemic era  belonged to Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($21,309) and, before that, Black Widow ($19,400).

Before the COVID-19 crisis, the opening performance of a specialty or indie film was judged by its location average since these titles started off in a small number of sites.

The latter category included Anderson’s 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel, which made history with an opening weekend average of $202,791 from four cinemas.

The French Dispatch raises the bar in a significant way after doing impressive business in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Austin and other strongholds for arthouse audiences.

In the film, Bill Murray plays the editor of a fictitious American magazine in a quaint French town, whose staff assembles to prepare their final issue in this valentine to literary journalism.

The French Dispatch will test the bounds of its commercial appeal when expanding into more than 600 locations next weekend.