Highest grossing live action film for an opening weekend per-screen

During its opening weekend in just five cinemas, The Master (USA 2012) grossed an average of $145,949 (£89,958) per screen. Written, directed and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson (USA), the movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as drifter who joins a cult led by "The Master", played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. The reason for the movie's limited opening was its format: it is the first film in 16 years to be shot in 65-mm (using Panavision System 65 cameras), and very few screens are equipped to project this size; four of the five cinemas showed it in 70-mm, while the fifth opted to show a 35-mm version. The movie's producers claim that any connection to the story of Scientology is purely coincidental. It beat the previous record of $130,749 per screen held by Moonrise Kingdom (USA 2012).

This record is for the highest per-screen gross of any live action (non-animated) movie in history. The highest per-screen gross of all time is an incredible $793,376 (then £515,694) from just two screens showing The Lion King (USA 1994).