Theater Counts: Taking the Weekend Off
September 1, 2017
There are many ways of measuring how slow things are in movie theaters this weekend: the fact that there are no new wide releases, for example, or that we’re quite likely going to see the worst overall weekend at the box office in 20 years. But one that encapsulates the poor options for theater owners right now is that Cars 3, which is pretty much a dud by Pixar’s standards, and is entering its fourth month in release, will be playing in the most “new” theaters this weekend, as it expands back from 214 to 2,445 locations. When a film that earned $787 per theater last weekend gets that kind of expansion, you know things are really bad.
Meanwhile, the widest “new release” is the 40th-anniversary re-issue of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which will be in 901 theaters. Tulip Fever (which feels nearly as old, given all the delays in getting it into theaters) will debut in 765 movie houses. Hazlo Como Hombre starts out in 382 locations, and the list of films with announced theater counts is rounded out by A Boy Called Po in 10 theaters, and Viceroy’s House in four.
With that meagre selection, most moviegoers won’t be tuning in again until next weekend, when It launches in approximately 4,000 theaters, and is tipped to be a potential record-breaker.
Theater Counts for Weekend of September 1-3
Movie | Distributor | Theaters | Previous Theaters | Change |
The Hitman's Bodyguard | Lionsgate | 3,370 | 3,377 | -7 |
Annabelle: Creation | Warner Bros. | 3,358 | 3,565 | -207 |
Dunkirk | Warner Bros. | 2,752 | 2,774 | -22 |
Leap! | Weinstein Co. | 2,705 | 2,575 | +130 |
The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature | Open Road | 2,651 | 3,090 | -439 |
Wind River | Weinstein Co. | 2,602 | 2,095 | +507 |
Cars 3 | Walt Disney | 2,445 | 214 | +2,231 |
Despicable Me 3 | Universal | 2,128 | 2,116 | +12 |
The Emoji Movie | Sony Pictures | 2,108 | 2,374 | -266 |
Spider-Man: Homecoming | Sony Pictures | 2,036 | 2,122 | -86 |
The Dark Tower | Sony Pictures | 1,820 | 2,338 | -518 |
Wonder Woman | Warner Bros. | 1,808 | 2,210 | -402 |
Kidnap | Aviron | 1,689 | 1,693 | -4 |
Birth of the Dragon | BH Tilt | 1,633 | 1,618 | +15 |
Girls Trip | Universal | 1,605 | 1,777 | -172 |
Baby Driver | Sony Pictures | 1,463 | 1,757 | -294 |
The Glass Castle | Lionsgate | 1,360 | 1,298 | +62 |
The Big Sick | Lionsgate | 1,270 | 706 | +564 |
War for the Planet of the Apes | 20th Century Fox | 1,041 | 1,114 | -73 |
Close Encounters of the Third Kind | Sony Pictures | 901 | | new |
All Saints | Sony Pictures | 846 | 846 | 0 |
Tulip Fever | Weinstein Co. | 765 | | new |
Atomic Blonde | Focus Features | 737 | 989 | -252 |
Good Time | A24 | 635 | 721 | -86 |
Ingrid Goes West | Neon | 625 | 647 | -22 |
47 Meters Down | Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures | 415 | 307 | +108 |
Hazlo Como Hombre | Lionsgate | 382 | | new |
Detroit | Annapurna Pictures | 331 | 525 | -194 |
Patti Cake$ | Fox Searchlight | 295 | 59 | +236 |
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | STX Entertainment | 280 | 318 | -38 |
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 | Walt Disney | 196 | 299 | -103 |
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales | Walt Disney | 186 | 165 | +21 |
The Trip to Spain | IFC Films | 140 | 56 | +84 |
The Only Living Boy in New York | Roadside Attractions | 135 | 289 | -154 |
Gentleman: Sundar, Susheel, Risky | FIP | 130 | 135 | -5 |
Menashe | A24 | 126 | 103 | +23 |
An Inconvenient Sequel | Paramount Pictures | 80 | 127 | -47 |
Crown Heights | IFC Films | 55 | 10 | +45 |
Step | Fox Searchlight | 42 | 118 | -76 |
Lady Macbeth | Roadside Attractions | 28 | 41 | -13 |
Beatriz at Dinner | Roadside Attractions | 24 | 18 | +6 |
A Ghost Story | A24 | 15 | 21 | -6 |
It Comes at Night | A24 | 10 | 7 | +3 |
A Boy Called Po | Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures | 10 | | new |
Beach Rats | Neon | 8 | 3 | +5 |
Served Like a Girl | Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures | 6 | 4 | +2 |
Viceroy's House | IFC Films | 4 | | new |
The Exception | A24 | 3 | 4 | -1 |
Note: New theater counts are added as studios report throughout the day on Thursday
Estimates for Weekend of September 8
Bruce Nash
Filed under: Theater Counts