By Simon de Bruyn
Prior to its weekend debut in Cannes, Samson and Delilah has ended its first week in cinemas with a very healthy $281,000 across just 12 screens.
According to MPDAA figures, the film’s box office total is $302,000, including $20,000 in previews. The $1.6 million film has made more in its first week than the $8.5 million Two Fists, One Heart made in its entire theatrical run.
Over the week, Samson and Delilah took a whopping $23,410 screen average, easily the highest of the week among both limited and major releases. The closest film was Star Trek, which took a screen average of $19,000 across 317 screens.
Samson and Delilah will start to expand onto more screens on May 21, following intense demand from exhibitors.
Closed for Winter and The Combination added small amounts to their tallies, while Mary and Max continued to soldier on, tallying up a new total of $1.15 million. The new figures for Prey are not available.
| Film | Budget | Distributor | Opening w/e | Box Office |
| Mary and Max | $8m | Icon | $217,176 | $1,155,265 |
| Love the Beast | unknown | Madman | $241,982 | $771,147 |
| The Combination | $1.169m | AFS | $188,054 | $727,116 |
| Samson and Delilah | $1.6m | Para/Trans/Footprint | $199,163 | $302,275 |
| Two Fists, One Heart | $8.5m | Disney | $96,999 | $292,810 |
| Beautiful | $2m | Kojo/Jump Street | $22,406 | $51,008 |
| Closed for Winter | $2m | Omnilab Media | $19,449 | $43,974 |
| Crush | $2m | Filmscope/Odin’s Eye | previews | $13,051 |
| Salvation | unknown | Hopscotch | $2,262 | $3,182 |
| Prey | $4m | Damage Releasing | $1,089 | $1,089 |
Sources: MPDAA, Nielsen EDI and Inside Film