Theater Counts (Updated): Despicable Me 3 Sets New Record for Widest Opening Ever

June 29, 2017

Universal are pulling out all the stops this weekend, getting Despicable Me 3 into a monumental 4,529 theaters, and thereby setting a new record for the widest opening of all time. The record was previously held by The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which debuted in 4,468 locations back in 2010.

After the launch of Eclipse, the studios became more selective about the theaters they booked, and its record has been fairly safe until the past year or so, when the trend towards wider-and-wider openings has been reinvigorated. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice arguably restarted things in March, 2016, with a release in 4,242 theaters, and this will be the 15th opening in over 4,000 theaters in the last twelve months.

Obviously Despicable Me 3 has enough theaters to do some serious damage at the box office, but a number of films have had similarly wide openings and missed $100 million over their first three days. The most notable recent example is The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which posted $91.6 million from 4,324 theaters in 2014. Speaking of which, Sony reports that Spider-Man: Homecoming will open in approximately 4,000 theaters next weekend, and add itself to this record-setting run of gigantic rollouts.

This weekend’s other two wide debutants will both have very respectable screen counts. Baby Driver rolls out in 3,226 theaters, while The House will be betting on success from 3,134.

- Widest opening weekends

Bruce Nash

Filed under: Theater Counts