‘Babies’ a happy arrival

“Iron Man 2” may have soared to the top of the box office this weekend, but “Babies” crawled to a respectable start as well.

Focus Features opened its documentary with a title as self-explanatory as they come at 534 theaters, nowhere close to the record-breaking 4,380 for “Iron Man 2” but enough for a presence in most major cities and suburban markets. It sold a studio-estimated $1.6 million worth of tickets.

On Friday night, most of the movie’s money came from highbrow art-house theaters that typically play documentaries. But on Saturday, receipts improved substantially in suburban locations, where the film drew a broader audience.

Focus was hoping for a particularly strong performance on Sunday given the picture’s thematic tie-in with Mother’s Day — 70% of those who saw “Babies” over the weekend were women, according to exit polls.

Most documentaries open in only a handful of theaters and then expand based on word of mouth. It remains to be seen whether “Babies” will continue to play well in the coming weeks or if Focus essentially compressed most of the film’s potential business into its opening weekend.

Either way, the picture, for which Focus acquired distribution rights last year, should end up at least a modest success. After foreign pre-sales, the indie division of Universal Pictures had about $500,000 at stake on “Babies,” along with marketing expenses.

Ben Fritz