Brokeback Mountain - Commercial Success

Commercial Success

Brokeback Mountain cost about US$14 million to produce, excluding its reported advertising budget of $5 million. According to interviews with the filmmakers, Focus Features was able to recoup its production costs early on by selling overseas rights to the film.

The film saw limited release in the United States on December 9, 2005 (in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco), taking $547,425 in five theaters its first weekend.

Over the Christmas weekend, it posted the highest per-theater gross of any film and was considered a box office success not only in urban centers such as New York City and Los Angeles, but also in suburban theaters near Portland, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, and Atlanta. On January 6, 2006, the film expanded into 483 theaters, and on January 13, 2006, Focus Features, the film's distributor, opened Brokeback in nearly 700 North American cinemas as part of its ongoing expansion strategy for the film. On January 20, the film opened in 1,194 theaters in North America; it opened in 1,652 theaters on January 27 and in 2,089 theaters on February 3, its widest release.

Brokeback Mountain's theatrical run lasted for 133 days and grossed $83,043,761 in North America and $95,000,000 abroad, adding up to a worldwide gross of more than $178 million. It is the top-grossing release of Focus Features, ranks fifth among the highest-grossing westerns (since 1979) and eighth among the highest-grossing romantic dramas (1980 – present).

The film was released in London on December 30, 2005, in only one cinema, and was widely released in the rest of the United Kingdom on January 6, 2006. On January 11, Time Out London magazine reported that Brokeback was the number one film in the city, a position it held for three weeks.

The film was released in France on January 18, 2006, in 155 cinemas (expanding into 258 cinemas in the second week and into 290 in the third week). In its first week of release, Brokeback Mountain was in third place at the French box office, with 277,000 people viewing the film, or an average of 1,787 people by cinema per week, the highest such figure for any film in France that week. One month later, it reached more than one million viewers (more than 1,250,000 on March 18), with still 168 cinemas (in the 10th week). Released in Italy on January 20, the film grossed more than 890,000 euros in only three days, and was the fourth highest-grossing film in the country in its first week of release.

Brokeback Mountain was released in Australia on January 26, 2006, where it landed in fourth place at the box office and earned an average per-screen gross three times higher than its nearest competitor during its first weekend despite being released in only 48 cinemas nationwide. Most of the Australian critics praised the film. Brokeback was released in many other countries during the first three months of 2006. The film was released in Peru and in the Netherlands on February 16, and opened in Germany on March 9. It premiered in Brazil on February 3 and quickly topped the charts with more than 100,000 viewers. The film was released in India on March 10.

During its first week of release, Brokeback was in first place in Hong Kong's box office, with more than US$473,868 ($22,565 per cinema).

Brokeback Mountain was the highest-grossing film in the U.S. from January 17 through January 19, 2006, perhaps due primarily to its wins at the Golden Globes on January 16. Indeed, the film was one of the top five highest-grossing films in the U.S. every day from January 17 until January 28, including over the weekend (when more people go to the films and big-budget films usually crowd out independent films from the top-grossing list) of January 20–22. On January 28, the film fell out of the top five and into sixth place at the box office during that weekend before entering the top five again on January 30 and remaining there until February 10.

The film was released on January 20, 2006, in Taiwan, where director Ang Lee was born. It ran until April 20.

The pair of shirts from the film sold on eBay on February 20, 2006, for US$101,100.51. The buyer, film historian and collector Tom Gregory, called the shirts "the ruby slippers of our time," and intends never to separate them. The proceeds will benefit California children's charity Variety, which has long been associated with the film industry.

The shirts (still entwined and on the original hanger) are currently on loan to the Autry National Center, where they are on display in the Autry's Imagination Gallery. On December 11, 2010, in association with Focus Features, the Autry screened Brokeback Mountain to commemorate the film's 5th anniversary, followed by a staged reading based on the book Beyond Brokeback, written by Members of the Ultimate Brokeback Forum and adapted for the stage by author and producer Gregory Hinton. This program was presented as part of the Out West at the Autry series. Conceived by Hinton, consulting producer for the series, Out West at the Autry was inspired not only by the installation of the iconic Brokeback shirts but also by the permanent inclusion of the International Gay Rodeo Association's (IGRA) archives into the Autry Library (both facilitated by Hinton). The Autry National Center is the first major American museum to recognize the contributions of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community to the American West.