Theater Counts: Rogue One Will Open in Massive 4,157 Theaters
December 15, 2016
Finding tickets might be a challenge in some cases, but finding a theater that’s playing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story this weekend won’t be hard, with Disney announcing early this afternoon that the Star Wars spin-off will debut in 4,157 theaters, just a shade more than the 4,134-theater opening that helped The Force Awakens to all those box office records this time last year. Rogue One isn’t expected to hit those heights—our weekend prediction is $143 million—but it will certainly be the second-biggest opener in December. Its target on the all-time best openings in December chart is the $149 million earned by Episode VII in its second weekend. Anything more than that would be outstanding, even by this franchise’s impossibly high standards.
We’re still waiting on a few theater counts, but we do know that Collateral Beauty will be the second-widest opener this weekend, playing in 3,028 theaters. It’s struggling to make any sort of impression. Manchester by the Sea is expanding into 1,208 locations, and stands a better chance of making headlines come Sunday, although it won’t top the theater averages. That claim to fame will almost certainly go to La La Land, which earned a prodigious $176,000 average last weekend from five theaters, and expands into a total of 200 this time around.
Looking ahead to next weekend, we have a very crowded schedule. The two standout films in terms of theater counts are Sing, which debuts in about 4,000 locations on Wednesday, and Assassin’s Creed, which also arrives on Wednesday, and will play in about 3,000 theaters. We don’t yet have an official number from Sony for Passengers.
Theater Counts for Weekend of December 16–18
Estimates for Weekend of December 23-25
Movie Distributor Estimated
TheatersSing (opens 12/21) Universal 4,000 Passengers (opens 12/21) Sony Pictures 3,300 Assassin's Creed (opens 12/21) 20th Century Fox 3,000 Why Him? 20th Century Fox 2,800 Hidden Figures (opens 12/25) 20th Century Fox 25 Patriots Day (opens 12/21) Lionsgate 7 A Monster Calls Focus Features 4 Silence Paramount Pictures 4 Live by Night (opens 12/25) Warner Bros. 4
Filed under: Theater Counts, Star Wars