Precious

TORONTO -- Lionsgate plans an aggressive expansion to more than 600 theaters for Lee Daniels' "Precious" over Thanksgiving after the inner city woe drama cranked out a buzzworthy $1.9 million on 18 screens on its opening weekend.

The Vancouver-based mini-major is wasting no time with its platform release of "Precious" as it continues Friday in five additional markets, including Washington and San Francisco, to "a couple hundred" screens.

During a conference call with analysts Tuesday, Joe Drake, president of Lionsgate's motion picture group, said "Precious" would move to 800-1,200 screens from Nov. 20. Drake said "Precious" has already generated word-of-mouth not normally seen until the sixth or seventh weekend of a prestige film title's theatrical release.

After the enthusiasm of the analyst call, a cost-conscious Lionsgate later in the day revised its projected Thanksgiving dates for "Precious" down to "over 600 screens."

Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer cautioned it was too early to predict boxoffice gold for the indie film phenomenon, but added: "The $5.5 million investment in 'Precious' looks set to prove profitable."

(This report comes from the Hollywood Reporter.)