Bella Sees Strong Sales on Opening Weekend, 2nd Highest Per Theater 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 28, 2007
Hollywood, CA (LifeNews.com) — Bella, the pro-life themed movie that has the potential to change hearts and minds on abortion, opened solidly with $1.3 million over the weekend in a limited release in just 31 cities. Though other movies achieved higher gross sales, they needed significantly more theaters to do so.
The film stars Eduardo Verastegui as a former soccer player who learns the value of human life and helps a pregnant waitress, played by Tammy Blanchard, appreciate the value of the baby she’s carrying.
The number one movie this weekend, according to initial figures, was "Saw IV," a Holloween horror flick that took in $32.1 million.
The movie had the highest per theater average of any in the top ten with $10,087 per theater over 3,183 theaters across the nation.
Bella firmly established itself in second place with $7,784 on average at each of the 167 theaters where it opened this weekend.
That’s well ahead of the projections for any of the other movies in the top ten that played at 10-20 times more theaters such as Disney’s romantic comedy “Dan in Real Life," the horror movie “30 Days of Night” or Disney’s other top movie “The Game Plan."
In fact, Bella boasts a higher opening screen average than previous Latin releases this year such as “El Cantante” which generated $1,993 per theater at 540 cinemas and “Ladron que roba el ladron” which grossed $1,393 per theater from 340 across the country.
A third movie geared towards Hispanics, “Feel the Noise,” only took in $1,110 per engagement from a whopping 1,015 theaters.
Bella opens in another 12 cities on November 9, including Albuquerque, Des Moines, Duango, Colorado, El Paso, Green Bay, Honolulu, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh and Tucson.
The sales figures could prompt its distributor to move to a larger release in the coming weeks.
