Star Wars getting the shaft once again...

[Quadinaros]

AOTC is getting the shaft from theaters, similar to the way TPM did 3 years ago. :x

Both Spirit and Spidey are playing on more screens than AOTC this week, yet they both made less money, and naturally less per-screen average.

So what do theater owners do? They dump AOTC of course. AOTC will lose 763 theaters this week, compared to 533 and 489 for Spidey and Spirit, both of which will continue to play in more theaters than AOTC despite being outgrossed each of the past 4 weeks. >_<>_<>_<

New screen counts:
AOTC 2398
Spirit 2873
Spidey 2702

Numbers found at Box Office Mojo.

[JonathanLB]

That really hurts. I thought it would be 500-700 (max), no way more.

That doesn't make sense to me. Why would Spider-Man be playing on more theater screens still? It simply isn't logical, so don't try to explain, it's just stupid. That's bad business, plain and simple, AOTC is killing Spider-Man on the daily's.

Ugg, oh well, hopefully AOTC can somehow hold up. If it falls 30%, that will be like a 0% per-theater decline, lol. No not quite, but you get my meaning.

[Sanis Prent]

I checked the theater I work at, and today, AotC goes from 3 screens down to two. After nearly a month in the house, thats not too shabby, IMO

[Darth23]

TPM only dropped 5% the week it went from 3,126 to 2,628 theaters.



But then it was TPM and not AOTC.

:p

[imported_QuiGonJ]

well, I was jazzed enough from last night I'll go again this weekend. :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

The question is though how many screens is it playing on? I think AOTC mostly has left the smaller theaters that only can hold around 5-8 movies that would be my guess, one of the theaters near me pulled it for that reason the same with Spiderman.

[Jedieb]

Theater owners have made a lot more money from Spidey than AOTC. I'm not just talking about Spidey's higher B.O. gross, but the fact that they're getting a lower than usual cut from AOTC than other films. The first couple of weeks only gives them around 30% for regular films. The percentage is probably even lower with AOTC. While Spidey is further along in its run and making less, theater owners may still be getting a higher percentage of the gross, so it pays for them to keep Spidey on more screens than AOTC.
Also, they need to fill up screens with new releases. When Spidey and AOTC came out it was early in the season and they weren't as many new releases to bring in business. You've got a lot more new product coming out so screens need to be cleared.

[JMK]

Exactly Jedieb. Also, I'm sure that theater owners aren't opposed to removing SW from theaters. I know 2 theater managers from different chains (they don't know each other though) and they hate Lucas for his demands and the low cut of the gross. It's really that simple.

[JonathanLB]

"TPM only dropped 5% the week it went from 3,126 to 2,628 theaters."

That's not true. That is comparing the weekend before July 4th to the July 4th weekend frame, which was four days, and that is NOT an accurate or fair comparison.

Anyway whatever source posted that is wrong -- it dropped to 2,631 theaters, not 2,628. :)

The drop that weekend was 33% -- not 5%.

[Quadinaros]

Originally posted by Sanis Prent
I checked the theater I work at, and today, AotC goes from 3 screens down to two. After nearly a month in the house, thats not too shabby, IMO

Sanis, 763 represents the number of theaters that are no longer playing AOTC, just to clarify. I have no idea how many screens it's still on. The Multiplex I frequent is also moving it down from 3 to 2 screens.

[flagg]

Yeah, theater owners were smart to keep Bad Company on more screens than AOTC, weren't they? :)

[Jedieb]

That does seem ridiculous. The only thing that I can think of is that many of those theaters may have had BC booked for a certain number of weeks. I don't think anybody expected BC to tank as badly as it did. But I think you'll see it dropped from several screens next weekend.

[Quadinaros]

It's standard practice for a movie to have a two-week contract to play in a theater. That's why I'm not griping about Bad Company as much as Spidey and Spirit.

I suppose that, combined with Jedieb's previous comments about theaters making a higher percentage off Spidey and Spirit pretty much explains the inserting of the shaft. :mad