From 2,263 theaters to 104
Between the opening and the second weekend, exhibitors dropped 993 theaters. Between last Friday and this one, they dropped 1,166 of the 1,270 that were still booked. That is about 92 percent of last week’s run. Of the 2,263 theaters that played opening weekend, 104 are left, which is 4.6 percent. The other 2,159 are no longer on the daily report.
The gross moved with the booking, and the average moved too. Last Friday, October 16, the film grossed $153,491 from those 1,270 theaters. The Numbers prints that as $121 a theater. This Friday’s $10,446 is down 93 percent from that day, and the 104 theaters averaged $100. If those rooms had matched last Friday’s $121, the day would have come to about $12,600. If they had matched opening Friday, when The Numbers had the film at $413 a theater, the same 104 rooms would have come to about $43,000. They grossed $10,446. Most of the missing money is the 1,166 theaters that did not play the film. The theaters that stayed also did about a quarter of the opening-Friday pace.
The cut shows up on Friday, after a full week in which the wider booking was still on the books. The Numbers’ weekly table puts October 16 through 22 at $695,824, down 78 percent from the opening week’s $3,150,795, and every day of that second week is counted at 1,270 theaters. Thursday was $39,486, about $31 a theater. That is a soft weekday. It is also evidence that the chains kept the film through the week and then let most of it go for the next Friday. The second weekend itself, once the estimates were replaced, was $433,220 from the same 1,270 theaters, about $341 a screen. The weekend drop was steep. The theater drop waited until the Friday after.
The opening weekend is now 54.8 percent of the $3,857,065 domestic total. Through Sunday, October 18, the total was $3,584,015, and the opening was 59 percent of it. The share got smaller because the second week added $695,824. The Numbers also prints “legs,” domestic box office divided by the biggest weekend, at 1.82. That means the total is still short of twice the opening. Later weeks are what usually push the figure up. The theaters that would do that work are mostly off the report.
How Runner lost its theaters
Runner, Angel’s wide release in September, is the clean comparison, because it is the same distributor and a run that has already finished its theatrical weeks. The Numbers has it opening September 11 to $6,462,290 from 2,568 theaters. The second weekend was still 2,472 theaters, a loss of 96, and $3,007,648. The third weekend was the large cut: 1,303 theaters and $798,889. Week four was 340 theaters and $159,918. Week five was 78 theaters and $30,034. Week six, the October 16 weekend, was 59 theaters and $12,657. Angel put the film on video on October 13, while a few dozen theaters were still reporting. The domestic total is $14,472,855. Legs on that film are 2.24.
Badman reached a count that small on the Friday of week three. Runner was still in 1,303 theaters at the same point, and its first weekend under 100 theaters came in week five. Runner opened to about three times the money, so the grosses sit on different scales. The timing of the cuts is what the two runs share. Angel’s previous wide booking kept nearly all of its theaters for a second weekend, then gave them up across the three weekends after that. This western lost 993 theaters in week two and most of what remained on the third Friday. It has $3.86 million on the books. Runner closed its reported theatrical weeks at $14.47 million.
Mojo’s row for October 23 is marked as an estimate. The Numbers prints the same $10,446 and the same 104 theaters, and its daily table does not add a separate estimate column. Saturday has not posted, so the third-weekend total is still ahead of the $433,220. A revision of a few thousand dollars, once Monday’s actuals replace the estimate, would sit inside a number this small. A revision of the theater count would change the story. Until those actuals land, 104 is the booking both sites are using.
The Numbers lists a wide New Zealand release on October 22 and Australia on November 26. Mojo and The Numbers still show no international gross. On both sites the worldwide total equals the domestic $3,857,065. The New Zealand date has passed without a reported gross on either site.
Friday was also an opening day for several wide films. The Numbers’ daily chart lists Clayface at $10.4 million from 3,458 theaters, a round figure, with Wildwood and Wicker opening the same day. The chart places those openings next to the western and leaves the screen-by-screen reason unstated. What it does record is a film averaging $100, in its third Friday, going from 1,270 theaters to 104. Angel’s next theatrical date is Drummer Boy on November 6. Saturday and Sunday will show what the remaining theaters grossed. The 104-theater count is already on the chart.
