Theater counts: Otto overtakes Way of Water to become this week’s widest release

January 19, 2023

After spending five weeks as the widest release, Avatar: The Way of Water finally drops into the second spot, going from 4,045 locations last week, to 3,790 this week. In its place, the widest release this week will be A Man Called Otto. After expanding into 3,802 theaters last week, the film retains that count this week. The Tom Hanks comedy-drama has earned just over $25 million since debuting in just four cinemas on December 30.

New to theaters this week is the thriller Missing. Starting out in a respectable 3,025 venues, the film stars Nia Long as a mother who disappears while on vacation in Colombia, while her daughter (played by Storm Reid) must creatively use all the latest technology at her fingertips to try and find her before it’s too late. Also making its North American debut this week is the latest from Crunchyroll, in That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime: Scarlet Bond. The Japanese anime film is projected to arrive in about 1,700 movie houses.

Rounding out the top five for the week is M3GAN, entering its third weekend at the box office, this week in 3,628 theaters. After taking in over $60 million domestically, Universal Pictures announced on Wednesday that a sequel, M3GAN 2.0 will arrive in theaters on January 17, 2025. Coming in as the fourth-widest release of the week is, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which is enjoying a long and leggy run. The film is still widely available this week, showing in 3,601 locations. Finally, last week’s newcomer Plane enters its second week in a solid 3,060 cinemas.

There are once again plenty of options arriving in limited locations this week. Debuting in 13 venues is the British drama, After Love, starring Joanna Scanlan. The film follows a widow who discovers that her recently-deceased husband has a secret just twenty-one miles across the English Channel in Calais. Also opening in limited release this week is the LGBTQ+ drama In from the Side, Sundance comedy drama When You Finish Saving the World from A24, and Rialto Picture’s re-release of 2001’s Brotherhood of the Wolf.

Looking ahead to next week we see two new wide releases make their theatrical debut in the horror feature, Fear, and the sci-fi horror film Infinity Pool, the latter directed by Brandon Cronenberg, and starring Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, and Cleopatra Coleman.

Note: The theater count for That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime The Movie: Scarlet Bond is an estimate from Box Office Pro.

Theater Counts for January 20

Bruce Nash

Filed under: Theater Counts, Avatar, M3GAN, Tom Hanks, Nia Long, Alexander Skarsgård, Cleopatra Coleman, Brandon Cronenberg, Mia Goth, Joanna Scanlan, Storm Reid