Petrelis Files

"Brokeback" Cracks Top 10 Box Office List UPDATED

Time for some numbers crunching on "Brokeback Mountain" and its fabulous performance at the box office since opening back in December. BoxOfficeMoJo's figures for January 3 place the film at number nine on the list of top grossing films.

Yippee! Our gay cowboys have broken another movie-land barrier.

I find it amazing the film is at number nine on the list considering it's playing in only 269 theaters.

"Brokeback Mountain" also had the best per screen average of the top films; $2,472. Total amount taken in thus far: $15.7 million.

Let's hope this terrific performance at the box office gets the attention of Oscar voters, who should mark their ballots in several nominating categories for the film, its stars, the writers and director, along with the cinematographer.

Sure, the Oscars are about artistic merit, but the industry also likes to award prizes to films that do well with audiences, and based on the mounting box office receipts for "Brokeback Mountain," I'll be shocked if the movies doesn't receive at least eight major nominations later this month.

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UPDATE:

The new box office numbers for "Brokeback Mountain" show it's moved up a notch. It's now at number 8 on the top 10 list. Go, gay cowboys, go!