‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ has decent debut, but ‘Lola’ struggles

At the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, the quirky time travel dramedy “Safety Not Guaranteed” debuted to an enthusiastic audience. The film got a more muted response in theaters five months later, as it opened this weekend with a good-but-not-great $100,000, according to an estimate from distributor FilmDistrict.

Playing in nine theaters, that amounted to a so-so per-location average of $11,000. The movie, about a magazine writer investigating a man who wants to travel back in time, features filmmaker-actor Mark Duplass and “Parks and Recreation” star Aubrey Plaza. Next weekend, the film will expand to 50 theaters, and will be in about 120 cinemas nationwide by June 22.

“Lola Versus,” Fox Searchlight’s romantic comedy featuring Greta Gerwig, fared even worse on its opening weekend. The film debuted in four theaters but collected only $34,097, which means the per-location average was a disappointing $8,524.

The picture, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, was based on the yearlong break-up of real-life couple Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein. The pair, both in their 20s, wrote the movie together, while Wein directed and Lister-Jones acted.

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Follow Amy Kaufman on Twitter @AmyKinLA