Theater Counts: Black Panther Continues Domestic Domination

February 22, 2018

Black Panther was never in danger of losing its place at the top of the box office chart this weekend, after a $202 million opening, but its job will be a little easier for not having a new release playing in close to the same number of theaters. That said, Game Night is obviously winning over some theater chains, as it will debut in a very solid 3,488 locations this weekend. There haven’t been many films like this opening in over 3,000 theaters in February in recent years, and the most recent comparable release is probably 2011’s Just Go With It, which launched in 3,548 theaters and made a shade over $30 million for the weekend.

Annihilation, meanwhile, will open in 2,012 theaters, which is almost exactly the same as the widest point of release for Alex Garland’s previous film, Ex Machina. That film posted a very respectable $25.4 million in total at the domestic box office, and garnered an Oscar for best visual effects. Annihilation is plotting a different release strategy, but could end up with around the same total (and looks visually stunning too).

Bruce Nash

Filed under: Theater Counts, Alex Garland