Will The Beaver Finally Break $1 Million This Week?

A browse through this weekend's screen counts reveals a few intriguing upswings (The Tree of Life nearly doubling its theatrical presence; watch out, Avon!), a few frustrating downswings (the underseen drama Beautiful Boy tumbling out of theaters almost entirely), and at least one eye-opening surprise: After two consecutive weeks of poorly performing retreat, The Beaver is making a comeback. Will this be the week the troubled Jodie Foster-Mel Gibson dramedy finally clears the $1 million mark?

According to figures at Box Office Mojo, The Beaver has earned $941,191 domestically since Summit Entertainment debuted the film May 6 in limited release. Its highest saturation -- in the week beginning May 20 -- amounted to 168 screens. It had shed all but 23 of those by last week, when its meager $788 per-theater average nevertheless represented a 47 percent increase over the week before. It's not clear if or how that minor boost played into Summit's strategy for this week (the studio did not respond to Movieline's requests for comment about its week-eight plans), but starting today, The Beaver has expanded dramatically, now appearing in 66 theaters nationwide.

One can only presume that nobody at Summit HQ wants to have Foster's labor of love swept out of theaters in the relentless undertow of Gibson's disgrace. And all things considered, a seven-figure tally shouldn't be that hard for a film co-starring Foster, Jennifer Lawrence and Anton Yelchin to attain. But a study of the box-office record reflects that the film just cracked a total of $73,000 the last week it was on more than 60 screens. And again, it has averaged only about $650 per screen in the last two weeks combined. So even with a relatively aggressive expansion -- and despite the continued lack of marketing behind it -- The Beaver isn't a sure thing to hit $1 million by this time next week. Anything but, in fact.

Of course it won't likely go from 66 screens to zero next week, so The Beaver will cross the threshold eventually. Would anyone care to guess a date? Or maybe wish it luck? It could use it.

· The Beaver [Box Office Mojo]