Theater counts: Equalizer 3 repels two newcomers to remain widest release

September 7, 2023

Last week’s box office winner is once again the widest release in the land. The latest in Denzel Washington’s long list of feature films, The Equalizer 3, finished its first weekend at the domestic box office by recording a strong $34.6 million from 3,965 locations. After six days, the action sequel has earned just over $48 million from North American audiences, while propelling the franchise to a worldwide box office of over $457 million. This week will see the debut of two other franchise favorites in the way of The Nun II, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, along with today’s opening of the Indian action-thriller, Jawan.

The largest of our freshman films arriving to theaters this week is the second installment of The Nun franchise, and serves as the ninth film in The Conjuring franchise. Beginning its run in 3,728 cinemas, the The Nun II follows Sister Irene as she comes face-to-face with the demon nun, Valak. Sister Irene is once again portrayed by the talented Taissa Farmiga, while the film is helmed by Michael Chaves, who also directed 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona, and 2021’s The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

The third film in the My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise also comes to theaters this week. Nia Vardalos and John Corbett return in the popular romantic-comedy series as the Portakalos family goes on a trip to Greece to reunite with family after the death of Gus. Starting out in 3,647 venues, the film is the first in the franchise to be directed by Vardalos herself, and looks to add to the worldwide franchise total of $467 million.

Opening today in 827 locations is Jawan. The Hindi-language action film features Bollywood superstar, Shah Rukh Khan as a man driven by a personal vendetta while attempting to keep a promise made years ago. Rukh Khan played the namesake role in this year’s mega hit, Pathaan, a film which took in $130 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of 2023 so far, and the second-highest grossing Hindi film ever. Yash Raj Films is distributing domestically in both traditional and IMAX formats.

Rounding out the top five this week is the aforementioned current box-office champ, The Equalizer 3, retaining its count of 3,965 locations from last week. The third-widest release is Barbie, which is still available for viewing in a solid 3,281 movie houses. Lastly, Blue Beetle slides into the fifth place slot this week by showing in 2,786 movie houses.

True to form, there is an abundance of limited release films coming to theaters this week. The widest of these is the coming-of-age movie Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Arriving in 525 theaters, the film showcases the friendship between two teenage Mexican-American loners in 1987 El Paso who explore a new, unusual friendship and the difficult road to self-discovery. Other films opening in limited release this week include the Armenian dramatic-comedy, Amerikatsi, true life story A Million Miles Away, and documentary Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind.

Looking ahead to next week we see the arrival of two new wide releases in the form of Camp Hideout, and A Haunting in Venice. The latter, a supernatural mystery movie is expected to debut in approximately 3,200 locations.

Theater Counts for September 8

Estimates for September 15

Bruce Nash, bruce.nash@the-numbers.com

Filed under: Theater Counts, The Conjuring, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Nun