Box Office: “The Kids Are All Right” starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore off to strong start

Yeah, The Twilight Sage: Eclipse and Toy Story 3 are still making gobs of money and the new animated flick Despicable Me had a stunning $60 million debut this weekend, but I’m more interested in the box office returns of The Kids Are all Right.

This movie has gotten the kind of acclaim that Oscar hopefuls dream about. It opened in just seven theaters and managed to gross a stellar $505,000. That means each theater showing the film grossed an average of $72,127 over the weekend – the highest per theater average of any movie released so far in 2010.

Kids stars Annette Bening and Julianne Moore (both four-time Academy Award nominees) as a longtime couple raising two children. Their lives are turned upside down when their daughter, about to leave for college, tracks down her sperm donor father (Mark Ruffalo).

Focus Features acquired the film at the Sundance Film Festival for $5 million and it looks like the studio will make that back and more at this rate. They plan to expand the movie into 37 theaters on Friday as word-of-mouth momentum continues with a wider release a few weeks away.

By that time, everyone will want to see The Kids Are All Right.