By Phil Contrino

By posting the best location average of any film this weekend, Milk took a significant step in the direction of winning that much-needed mainstream acceptance.

It's going to be very interesting to see how Gus Van Sant's film plays outside of major metropolitan areas. As always, it all comes down to the fact that at least part of the audience that made Four Christmases the number one movie this past weekend needs to take a chance on something less traditional.

Focus has been doing an excellent job marketing Milk so far and I don't expect them to drop the ball now as it moves closer to a wide release. I'd say that Milk could reasonably expect to gross somewhere in the range of $20-$30 million before all the nominations are announced and if it successfully lands in some of the bigger categories then you can add another $20 million or so to that figure.

Meanwhile, Slumdog Millionaire is movie along nicely. According to weekend estimates, it increased 44% from last weekend.

As some of the bigger would-be Oscar contenders such as Australia lose steam, movies such as Slumdog will only gain momentum.

Slumdog's success is going to be all about word-of-mouth. It has to become that little film that everybody tells their friends to go see. Unfortunately, Fox Searchlight may have to chose whether or not it gives most of its attention to either Slumdog or The Wrestler, which is also inspiring a lot of buzz.