Theater Counts: Summer Hits Get New Lease of Life

August 24, 2017

With not much by way of new releases this weekend, the studios are taking their chance to grab back some screens for their Summer hits. Wonder Woman, for example, has the rare distinction of being the movie with the biggest increase in theaters in its 13th weekend in release. Baby Driver also gets kicked back into wide release in its 10th weekend. This movement tells you pretty much all you need to know about the new wide releases.

The film opening in the largest number of theaters is animated family film Leap!, with Weinstein Co. getting it into 2,575 locations—up somewhat from the their projection last weekend, but still modest, especially when compared to The Nut Job 2, which opened in 4,003 movie houses and will still be playing in 3,090 this weekend.

Birth of the Dragon launches in a respectable 1,617 theaters, and could find a decent niche audience. Also coming more onto the radar this weekend is Wind River, which Weinstein is expanding into 2,095 theaters. Indie distributor Neon will have their widest release ever this weekend as Ingrid Goes West expands into 647 locations.

If you think this weekend’s offerings look a little thin though, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Next weekend, the film appearing in the most new theaters won’t be playing in its 13th weekend… it’ll be celebrating its 40th anniversary. Yep, the re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind tops the list of newcomers with a pretty modest 700 theaters. Tulip Fever is expected in 600 locations, and Hazlo Como Hombre will pop up in 370 or so. Getting such a thin set of new releases will happen on the weekend after Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year. So, technically, the last time we had a weekend this poor for new releases was December 30 last year. Excluding those special cases, we have to go back to October 31, 2003 to see so few theaters being given to new releases, and that’s a special case itself, because Brother Bear had its first weekend of wide release after playing an exclusive engagement in just two theaters the weekend before.

So the last time we had a really comparable weekend was September 21, 2001, when the studios pulled back on releasing films in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Glitter was the widest new release then, in 1,202 theaters. If you want to find the last non-post-holiday weekend where no film opened in, nor expanded into, over 1,000 theaters, I think you have to go all the way back to May 16, 1997, when Sprung was the widest release, in just 780 theaters.

Bruce Nash

Filed under: Theater Counts