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
Movie Distributor Theaters Previous
TheatersChange Wonka Warner Bros. 4,115 4,213 -98 Migration Universal Pictures 3,837 3,761 +76 Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Warner Bros. 3,787 3,706 +81 The Color Purple Warner Bros. 3,203 3,152 +51 The Boys in the Boat MGM 2,557 2,557 The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Lionsgate 1,660 2,509 -849 Trolls: Band Together Universal Pictures 1,500 1,639 -139 Wish Walt Disney 1,265 1,240 +25 Poor Things Searchlight Pictures 800 800 The Holdovers Focus Features 236 316 -80 The Marvels Walt Disney 160 110 +50 Saltburn Amazon Studios 112 267 -155 Silent Night Lionsgate 64 203 -139 American Fiction Amazon Studios 40 40 Killers of the Flower Moon Paramount Pictures 37 34 +3 Oppenheimer Universal Pictures 25 17 +8 Barbie Warner Bros 16 15 +1 All of Us Strangers Searchlight Pictures 6 6 Estimates for January 5
Movie Distributor Theaters Previous
TheatersChange Night Swim Universal Pictures 3,200 New All of Us Strangers Searchlight Pictures 25 6 +19
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