Theater Counts: Furious Continues to Dominate in Theaters
April 20, 2017
No less than five wide new releases are vying for attention this weekend, but they are all looking at fairly modest theater counts. In fact, they’re all playing in between 1,000 and 2,500 theaters, with the widest of the lot being Unforgettable, which debuts in 2,417 locations. The last time we had this many films opening at that wide a distribution was almost ten years ago—the weekend of October 3, 2008 to be precise. That weekend was quite the scramble, with a total of seven films opening or expanding wide, and another opening in over 500 theaters. This weekend isn’t quite as crazy, but no-one can complain about a lack of choice.
All the new activity won’t do much damage to The Fate of the Furious, which adds 19 more theaters this weekend, to play in 4,329. The Boss Baby and Beauty and the Beast won’t lose many theaters either (46 and 277, respectively), which accounts for the struggle for new films to find screens.
Behind Unforgettable’s 2,417, comes The Promise, which launches in 2,251 locations. Then Phoenix Forgotten, from fledgling distributor Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, takes off in 1,588 movie houses. Disney’s film for Earth Day this year, Born in China, gets 1,508 venues, and finally Free Fire opens in 1,050 for A24.
Just to make things even more crammed, Gifted will expand by 840 theaters, to play in almost 2,000 this weekend.
Next weekend’s big new release is The Circle, which STX will be opening in 2,800 or so theaters, according to their estimate today.
Theater Counts for Weekend of April 21-23
Estimates for Weekend of April 28
Movie Distributor Estimated
TheatersThe Circle STX Entertainment 2,800 How to Be a Latin Lover Lionsgate 1,000 Sleight High Top Releasing 550
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