Darren Aronofsky scores career high opening with Black Swan

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

The week after Thanksgiving isn’t known for its good box office business, but the industry is always unpredictable. BLACK SWAN ruffled some feathers this weekend by taking in $1.4 million at 18 theaters for a $77,444 per-screen average. These counts are estimated; exact numbers are due this afternoon.

These impressive figures are the second highest of its kind this year (behind last week’s opening of THE KING’S SPEECH). Not only is this a record for Fox Searchlight, but it also tops director Darren Aronofsky’s previous efforts. In terms of the almighty box office rankings, it opened at #13.

The film will play at least 60 locations next weekend, with an incremental expansion planned for future weeks. In light of the strong performance, Searchlight senior vice president Sheila DeLoach says that number may grow:

“We may increase that further, based on the weekend. But this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. So we don’t want to just blow it out, but we may do a few more theaters than we had planned next weekend.”

So if you missed the film this weekend, your chance to catch it is likely coming soon. BLACK SWAN stars Natalie Portman (above) and Mila Kunis (below) as rival dancers. Arrow already raved about it, and most other critics are doing the same.