NORTH AMERICA: ‘Interstellar’ Gets Healthy Start w/ $1.35M from Film Screenings; ‘Nightcrawler’ Slides to Second Place on Wednesday

Paramount reports that Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar picked up a solid $1.35 million start from its 249 locations in a first place victory on Wednesday, including Tuesday night’s first screenings. The per-theater average was $5,423. The film is playing exclusively in IMAX, 35mm, and 70mm film formats ahead of its nationwide release on Friday. Direct comparisons for this sort of release are nil, but the closest comparison may be that of Skyfall–it earned $2.2 million from 463 IMAX and large format screen locations ($4,752 per location) one day before its wide release this same weekend two years ago.

Nightcrawler added $0.87 million to its first-week haul, giving the thriller a $13.5 million 6-day start. That puts the film 8 percent off the pace of 2011’s Drive, a similarly niche film that garnered strong reviews with a fall release.

Fury eased 25 percent from last Wednesday to $0.85 million yesterday. The war drama has earned $2.95 million through 20 days of release.

John Wick tallied $0.74 million yesterday, down 35 percent from the same day last week. Keanu Reeves’ actioner has now tallied $30 million through 13 days.

Rounding out the top five, Gone Girl added $0.724 million on Wednesday for an 18.5 percent week-to-week drop. The hit adaptation has taken in $138.6 million domestically in all.