Theater counts: Wonka will ring in the New Year as the widest release

December 28, 2023

It was an interesting week at the box office with a plethora of films opening on Friday, followed up by three wide releases on Christmas Day. Newcomer Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom took the weekend with an estimated $27.7 million in earnings, while Wonka, and the animated feature, Migration occupied the second and third spots at the domestic box office, making an estimated $18.05 million and $12.45 million respectively.

Christmas Day provided even more entertainment for moviegoers as The Color Purple arrived to the big screen. The early-1900s musical-drama turned up an estimated $18.15 million on its opening day, good enough to become the largest Christmas Day opening for a film since 2009 and 2nd-largest Christmas Day opening of all time. It also gave Warner Bros. the top three movies at the box office. This week The Color Purple adds 51 theaters from its debut, making it available in 3,203 cinemas.

The period in between Christmas and New Years is always a mixed-bag of reports, with some studios reporting actual box office, while others only share estimates. The same goes for theater counts. Fortunately, we have the counts from the majority of the major studios, but will list those missing if and when they are received. Rounding out the top five this week is the aforementioned Wonka, the only film still playing in over 4,000 locations (4,115 from Friday). Coming in as the second-widest release this week is Migration, increasing its locations by 76, and available in 3,837 movie houses. Sitting in third place is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, available in 3,787 cinemas. We expect Anyone But You to be the fifth-widest release, hovering around its opening count of 3,055 locations.

Since such an abundance of movies released this past week, there are no new wide releases opening this week, and only a handful of limited releases. Next week we see the launch of the supernatural horror, Night Swim. Based on the short film of the same name, the feature is produced by veterans James Wan and Jason Blum. Night Swim will start out in approximately 3,200 venues.

Theater Counts for December 29

Estimates for January 5

Filed under: Theater Counts