Variety has a really interesting article on Black Swan’s success (although what’s up with using “aud” for “audience” and “perf” for “performance” though? Variety are lazier than me) as it passed $50 million overseas and should top $100 million domestic shortly.

Early testing of the movie showed it to be most popular with the under-25 crowd, especially women, an indication borne out when the film opened. “I wasn’t surprised that young females liked the film,” Oliver said. “I was surprised that they’d be our No. 1 demographic.”

To help broaden the film’s appeal to men, Utley said Searchlight started marketing the film as a date-night movie of sorts by assembling TV ads for “co-viewing periods.”

“We didn’t go out and buy sports programs, but we did go out and buy ’30 Rock,’?” Utley said, adding that Searchlight targeted most of the popular network shows. “We were able to put together TV spots that were attractive to both men and women.”

However, I have to disagree with this.

“I think the largest factor in the film’s success is originality,” Searchlight prexy Nancy Utley told Variety. “People love to go to the movies and see something they can’t put in a little box,” she added.