An addendum to Sergio’s box office report this weekend…

I should note that Shadow And Act 2011/2012 Black Filmmaker To Watch, Rashaad Ernesto Green’s feature film debut Gun Hill Road – a film we’ve been talking about for about a year now – finally made its stateside theatrical debut this past weekend, opening in just 3 theaters in New York City, with a gradual rollout across the country in successive weeks… depending on how well it does early on.

So, how did it do its opening weekend?

Fairly well actually, grossing $37,800, but again, it’s only playing on 3 screens in NYC; so that brings its average to about $12,600 per screen. In comparison, Rise of the Planet of the Apes which cost maybe 1,000 times the budget of Rashaad’s film, opened on almost 4,000 screens nationwide, and managed a per screen average of just over $15,000

So, with that news, I expect it’ll expand to 2 or 3 more cities this weekend, or soon thereafter.

The film made its debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and was quickly acquired for distribution. Since then, it’s been traveling the glove, screening for diverse engaged audiences, building buzz along the way, and Rashaad has been there right alongside each trip, documenting his efforts. This is what one must do when there isn’t a significant marketing budget to pay for TV spots, billboards, and other pricey marketing materials.

And, if you’d like to assist in the film’s release marketing efforts, Rashaad personally requests that you switch your Facebook and Twitter profile pictures with the poster for Gun Hill Road which you can grab below (just save it to your desktop and upload to whatever social networking site (or sites) you use, and swap with your current photo).

I interviewed Rashaad via a livecast last week Wednesday evening. We spoke for about 30 minutes. You can listen to that conversation HERE.

Here’s the poster: