Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” averaged a sizzling estimated $1.38 million over the three day weekend, landing in the No. 10 spot at only 36 locations. Focus says “Milk” notched the best three-day average — $38,375 — for any film ever opening on 30 to 40 screens, doing especially well at San Francisco’s Castro ($154,848 since opening on Wednesday) and New York’s Chelsea ($104,109). Another heavyweight Best Picture contender, Fox Searchlight and Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” was right behind in 11th place with $1.36M as it expanded to 49 screens. Which gives both movies a boost with the academy, since they’re connecting with audiences in a way that, say, “Australia” isn’t. Meanwhile, over at The Envelope, puckish Tom O’Neil points out that getting assassinated as Harvey Milk may help Sean Penn win a second Best Picture Oscar. He offers a list of five past winners whose gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual characters died onscreen: Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia”), Hillary Swank (“Boys Don’t Cry”), Nicole Kidman (“The Hours”), Charlize Theron (“Monster”) and William Hurt (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”). He tallies 28 Oscar-nominated LGBT roles and notes that 10 of those characters ended up dead. One notable non-winner was Heath Ledger for “Brokeback Mountain,” who got beaten by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was also playing a gay character in “Capote.” Tom points out that while Truman Capote survives at the end of that movie, we all know “he’ll end up croaking from pills and booze someday.”