Independent Box Office: 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' Parties Hearty

Summit Entertainment's teen-targeting "Perks of Being a Wallflower" starring Emma Watson scored big in its debut, rolling up $244,000 from four locations in New York and Los Angeles.

That gives it a $61,000 per-screen average, the fifth-best specialty film debut of the year.

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Watson of Harry Potter fame, Logan Lerman ("Percy Jackson") and Ezra Miller ("We Need to Talk About Kevin") star in the film, based on a novel of the same name. Author Stephen Chbosky wrote and directs the film adaptation of the 1990s Pittsburgh-set tale about an introverted high school freshman (Lerman) taken under the wings of two seniors (Miller and Watson).

Summit hit its demographic target. The audience was 70 percent female and 60 percent of those who went were under 25 years of age.

In its second week, Roadside Attractions' "Arbitrage," took in an estimated $1,283,900 on 244 screens. That's a $5,221 per-screen average for the Wall Street tale starring Richard Gere, and an overall gross of $3.9 million.

Last weekend, the Weinstein Company's "The Master" rang up a $145,949 per-screen average in its debut on five screens, the year's best. "Moonrise Kingdom," Wes Anderson's quirky 1960s story of tween love, rolled up a per-location average of $130,752 while playing in four theaters over three days on Memorial Day weekend.

Other top specialty openings this year include Woody Allen's "To Rome With Love," which averaged $75,874 on five screens when it bowed in June, and Mike Birbiglia's semi-autobiographical "Sleepwalk With Me," which took in $65,000 at a single New York engagement.

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