Gay cowboys at US movie summit

WHO’S afraid of a couple of gay cowboys? Not American moviegoers, who helped Brokeback Mountain post the highest per-screen average over the film-flush holiday weekend.

The Ang Lee film, which follows the 20-year forbidden romance between two roughneck ranch hands, earned €11,488 per theatre, compared with €7,861 for weekend winner King Kong and €6,948 for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The big question is whether Brokeback can maintain its momentum as it moves from selected cities, where audiences are receptive to the subject matter, to suburbs far and wide, where that might not be the case.