Theater Averages: Pets have Fantastic Average earning $23,879

July 13, 2016

Captain Fantastic

There were only two films in the $10,000 club this past weekend and they had nearly identical averages, despite having wildly different openings. The Secret Life of Pets earned first place on the overall chart and the theater average chart with an average of $23,879 in more than 4,000 theaters. On the other end of the spectrum, Captain Fantastic was playing in only 4 theaters earning an average of $23,456. I feel that Sultan deserves an honorable mention. It earned an average of $8,375 in 283 theaters over the weekend, but it opened on the Wednesday and its five-day average was $11,952. It is very rare for a film playing in nearly 300 theaters to do this well.

The rest of the new limited releases had a wide range of results, mostly positive. Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You earned an average of $8,456 in two theaters. Our Little Sister was close behind with an average of $8,373 in three theaters. Under the Sun managed an average of $7,727 in two theaters over the weekend and a five-day average of $10,533, which is greast for a documentary. Cold War 2 was playing in nearly two dozen theaters earning an average of $7,154. Indian Point struggled with an opening of $3,186 in its lone theater. Zero Days earned an average of $2,728 in 18 theaters, but it was also playing on Video on Demand, so that’s a mitigating factor. There were no films that missed the Mendoza Line, but Men go to Battle came the closest with $2,087 in its one theater. It too was playing on Video on Demand.

This past week also saw milestones reached for a few Per Theater Chart alumni:

  • Our Kind of Traitor hit $2 million over the weekend. While its theater average is low enough that its theater count will start to shrink, it will have no trouble getting to $3 million very soon and $4 million is also well within reach.
  • Swiss Army Man got to $2 million before the weekend and $3 million over the weekend. However, its theater average is low enough that its theater count will be slashed.
  • By the time its opening weekend was over, Sultan was already at over $3 million. However, Indian films tend to have weak legs, so I’m unwilling to predict where it will end. $5 million is a very safe bet, but $10 million is probably out of the question.
Weekend Box Office Results