Theater counts: Wonka remains widest release in a quiet start to 2024

January 4, 2024

After three weeks in North American cinemas, Wonka once again leads the pack as widest release, as it has done since its debut on December 15th. The Willy Wonka origin story has gobbled up over $147 million in domestic earnings in its first 20 days, while bringing in just above $253 million from international markets, catapulting its global take to over $400 million. The film does drop below 4,000 locations this week for the first time, but will still be available in 3,817 theaters, which easily holds off newcomer Night Swim’s starting count of 3,250 cinemas.

Night Swim comes from Blumhouse, which scored a $30-million opening weekend hit with M3GAN this time last year. The new supernatural-horror movie follows a former major league baseball player who, after being forced into an early retirement from an illness, moves his family into a new home, only to find that the swimming pool he hoped would provide physical therapy harbors a dark secret that will unleash a malevolent force that will drag the family under, into the depths of inescapable terror. Bryce McGuire makes his directorial debut from a 2014 short film of the same name.

With the exception of Night Swim, the top five widest releases this week play out nearly identically to their ranking on the daily box office charts throughout the past week. Owning the second-place spot is the animated feature Migration, showing in 3,712 venues this week. The film has earned $65 million domestically in its first 13-days on the big screen. Also opening just before Christmas, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is still widely available in 3,553 movie houses and hopes to keep adding to its current North American total of $87 million. Lastly, occupying the fifth place position this week is The Color Purple, adding 15 viewing locations for a total of 3,218 venues.

Looking ahead to next week we see an uptick in wide releases making their theatrical entrances. Starting out in approximately 3,600 cinemas is the musical teen-comedy, Mean Girls. The film is based on the Broadway Musical, which was in turn based on the 2004 cult classic starring Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, and Amanda Seyfried. Set to roll out in approximately 2,000 theaters next week is the biblical comedy-drama, The Book of Clarence. Starring LaKeith Stanfield, the film follows a hapless man who in A.D. 33 Jerusalem looks to capitalize on the rise of Jesus Christ by claiming to be a new Messiah sent by God, in an attempt to free himself of debt and start a life of glory for himself. Other movies to begin their theatrical run next week is the Jason Statham action feature, The Beekeeper as well as the long-awaited release of Disney-Pixar’s Soul, which originally debuted on Christmas Day, 2020 on Disney+.

Theater Counts for January 5

Estimates for January 12

Filed under: Theater Counts, Lacey Chabert, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Jason Statham, Bryce McGuire