Lust, Caution smashed records in its exclusive opening weekend iat New York’s Lincoln Plaza Cinema. according to Variety:
“Lust,” carrying the ultra-restrictive NC-17 rating and clocking in at 158 minutes, grossed an estimated $61,688 for Focus Features in its exclusive run at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. Among exclusive openings, it nabbed the best debut ever for a foreign-language film, as well as one of the best showings ever for a live-action film.
Per-screen average is the best on the books for an NC-17 film, whether in an exclusive or limited run. Focus topper James Schamus co-penned the screenplay based on a story by Eileen Chang.
“What does this mean? It means that the running time, the foreign language and the rating just didn’t have an impact on the opening,” Focus prexy of distribution Jack Foley said. “It just cranked to that level.”
Ang Lee’s film goes into wider limited release Friday.