Theater counts: Free Guy unseats Jungle Cruise, while Respect and Don’t Breathe 2 post solid counts

August 12, 2021

After having only one new wide release debut last week, this week will see three arrive in theaters. The largest of the three is 20th Century Studios’ oft-delayed action comedy, Free Guy, starring Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer. The film about a bank teller who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game, opens in 4,165 theaters. The count is enough to topple Jungle Cruise from its two week reign as widest release, as the latter drops to 3,900 theaters this week. Next up is the biographical drama Respect, from United Artists Releasing and starring Jennifer Hudson as the late “Queen of Soul”, Aretha Franklin. The film opens in 3,207 locations. Lastly, is Sony Pictures, Don’t Breathe 2, the follow up to Don’t Breathe, which earned a worldwide total of $170 million nearly five years ago. The horror film, which returns Stephen Lang as “The Blind Man” releases in 3,005 theaters…

New in limited release this week is the Chilean drama, Ema, directed by Pablo Larrain, which debuts in 11 theaters. Also new this week is the latest documentary from Sony Pictures Classics in The Lost Leonardo. The film, which traces the story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million, and claimed to be a long-lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, opens in New York, NY and Los Angeles…

Looking ahead to next week, four films open in wide release. These include the action film The Protégé, starring Michael Keaton, Maggie Q, and Samuel L. Jackson; the Searchlight Pictures horror movie The Night House (arriving in an estimated 2,000 theaters); the Hugh Jackman/Rebecca Ferguson action thriller, Reminiscence, and lastly, PAW Patrol: The Movie, which features an all-star voice cast, including Iain Armitage, Kim Kardashian, Dax Shepard, Tyler Perry and more. The Paramount Pictures children’s animated feature is estimated to launch in 2,700 theaters across North America.

Note: Warner Bros. counts are estimates.

Theater Counts for August 13 - August 15

Estimates for August 20

Bruce Nash

Filed under: Theater Counts, Paw Patrol, Don’t Breathe, Samuel L. Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Hudson, Hugh Jackman, Michael Keaton, Tyler Perry, Maggie Q, Ryan Reynolds, Dax Shepard, Kim Kardashian, Rebecca Ferguson, Iain Armitage, Jodie Comer