Pointing to some of the many articles that have been written about Kid, Evans said, "The L.A. Times on Friday had two pieces on me. And the Sunday New York Times last week had a big piece and this week has a big piece. Last week was in the Styles section. This week's is in Arts & Leisure -- a whole page. That you can't buy. And we have many other things coming out (in the media), too."

Looking at Kid's impressive first weekend business, Foley observed, "This has opened as a splendid art film opening. The demographics we're seeing in the theater range from seniors down to teenagers and people in their early 20s. It's males and females evenly across the board. It's got to be a response to all the hard work that Bob Evans has done on the film along with Bret (Morgen) and Nanette (Burstein) as well as the amazing publicity job (by Focus).

"This is the same weekend as Austin Powers and (we've achieved) a $22,000 print average. We had real (discussions at Focus) about whether this was the way to go or not, but this dispels all the myths about the summer -- that art films shouldn't go in the summer and shouldn't open up against a monster event film like Austin Powers. It dispels all the myths. It broke all the rules and set new standards -- just like Bob Evans' legacy."

Asked how Focus will expand the film's release, Foley said, "Right now, we're going to hold tight this next week. We'll probably go one run more in Los Angeles in Orange County. Then on Aug. 16 we're going to go into 10 additional markets. The way the reviews are coming in -- because they're all splendid -- we might ramp that number up a bit. What we were trying to do is launch ourselves in between what looked to be formidable competition (in the specialized distribution world), but that seems to be waning.

"So if I can fill in that spot on Aug. 16, I will and will then build from there (with) a new wave to finish out the summer. And then there's a whole opportunity that we can exploit for Labor Day weekend for expansion and just keep riding into September. If the film continues to open at this level, it is going to be a real smash art film success."

The company's plan, Foley said, "is to remain conservative and just let it sit there and continue to do what it's doing and prove to exhibition that this is a vitally important commercial film for them. It's astounding. One of the really good things is that the Regent in Westwood (in L.A.) is going to probably do around $20,000 for the weekend.

"As far as breaking ground there, this is up there with the Monsoon Wedding opening. So Westwood is showing itself to be very, very serious (in terms of responding to specialized films). In fact, it's going to out-gross the Lincoln Plaza (in New York)."

Paramount Classics' R rated crime comedy Who Is Cletis Tout? kicked off poorly to an ESTIMATED $70,000 at 18 theaters ($3,893 per theater).

Written and directed by Chris Ver Wiel, it stars Christian Slater, Richard Dreyfuss, Portia de Rossi, RuPaul and Tim Allen.

Sony Pictures Classics' PG rated comedy Happy Times arrived to an unhappy ESTIMATED $31,000 at 6 theaters ($5,177 per theater).

Happy is directed by Zhang Yimou, director of Raise the Red Lantern and The Road Home.

SNEAK PREVIEWS

There were no national sneak previews this weekend.