Letter: ‘Brokeback’ a hit at box office, actually

Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006 | 8:57 a.m.

I'm writing to correct some misleading information that Linda Caterine listed in her Dec. 30 letter headlined, " 'Brokeback' is a mountain of hype." First, Ms. Caterine neglected to mention that the box-office amount of $544,549 for the movie "Brokeback Mountain" was in only five theaters. That is $108,909 per screen, which is a box-office record for an opening weekend.

The second week "Brokeback Mountain" ended up No. 8, showing on only 69 screens -- by far the smallest number of screens of movies in the top 10. After four weeks and expanding to just 269 theatres, "Brokeback Mountain" is still the top grossing movie per screen of the top 20, with $18,020 per screen. It is far from a box-office flop.

Second, Ms. Caterine implies that this movie is just for the gay community and that the "majority of people are just not going to be interested." If Ms. Caterine bothered to attend the movie and look around at the audience, she would quickly see that gay people are the minority of the audience.

Here in Park City, Utah, I was pleased to see many straight couples -- old and young -- in attendance. Many of them were obviously touched by this movie.

"Brokeback Mountain" is a beautiful film fully deserving the praise and awards that it has received. If Ms. Caterine doesn't wish to see the movie, that is her choice, but please refrain from passing judgment on something until you are at least informed.

Ted Clayton

Park City, Utah