Films With $30M+ Openings Weekends in Less than 3,000 Theatres

As suggested by the post title, this is a list of all the 48 films that opened above $30m while playing in less than 3,000 theatres. A sub-3000 theatre count is not entirely unheard of nowdays, but it is unusual for blockbusters. Tyker Perry's films, which tend to play to a particular audience and have thus a concentrated target, are the most obvious examples of recent films that had large openings from relatively small theatre counts. Hannah Montana's enormous opening on an incredibly small theatre count is an obvious standout as well.

1	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace	$64,820,970	2,970	$21,825
2	Batman Forever	$52,784,433	2,842	$18,572
3	8 Mile	$51,240,555	2,470	$20,745
4	Independence Day	$50,228,264	2,882	$17,428
5	Jurassic Park	$47,026,828	2,404	$19,561
6	Batman Returns	$45,687,711	2,644	$17,279
7	Batman & Robin	$42,872,606	2,934	$14,612
8	Scary Movie	$42,346,669	2,912	$14,542
9	Twister	$41,059,405	2,414	$17,008
10	Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail	$41,030,947	2,032	$20,192
11	The Lion King	$40,888,194	2,552	$16,022
12	Batman	$40,489,746	2,194	$18,454
13	The Fast and the Furious	$40,089,015	2,628	$15,254
14	The Waterboy	$39,414,071	2,664	$14,795
15	Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls	$37,804,076	2,652	$14,254
16	Air Force One	$37,132,505	2,919	$12,720
17	Interview with the Vampire	$36,389,705	2,604	$13,974
18	Star Wars (Special Edition)	$35,906,661	2,104	$17,065
19	Gladiator	$34,819,017	2,938	$11,851
20	Couples Retreat	$34,286,740	3,000	$11,429
21	Ransom	$34,216,088	2,676	$12,786
22	Wedding Crashers	$33,900,720	2,925	$11,589
23	101 Dalmatians (Live Action)	$33,504,025	2,794	$11,991
24	The Haunting	$33,435,140	2,808	$11,907
25	A Bug's Life	$33,258,052	2,686	$12,382
26	Lethal Weapon 3	$33,243,086	2,510	$13,244
27	Superbad	$33,052,411	2,948	$11,211
28	Rush Hour	$33,001,803	2,638	$12,510
29	Scream 2	$32,926,342	2,663	$12,364
30	Blade II	$32,528,016	2,707	$12,016
31	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	$31,765,506	2,274	$13,969
32	Saw II	$31,725,652	2,949	$10,758
33	The Truman Show	$31,542,121	2,315	$13,625
34	Liar Liar	$31,423,025	2,845	$11,045
35	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	$31,126,882	2,222	$14,008
36	Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour	$31,117,834	683	$45,560
37	Bringing Down the House	$31,101,026	2,801	$11,103
38	Star Trek: First Contact	$30,716,131	2,812	$10,923
39	Knocked Up	$30,690,990	2,871	$10,690
40	Bruno	$30,619,130	2,756	$11,110
41	Saving Private Ryan	$30,576,104	2,463	$12,414
42	Bram Stoker's Dracula	$30,521,679	2,491	$12,252
43	The Happening	$30,517,109	2,986	$10,220
44	Unbreakable	$30,330,771	2,708	$11,200
45	The X-Files: Fight the Future	$30,138,758	2,629	$11,463
46	DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story	$30,070,196	2,694	$11,161
47	The Exorcism of Emily Rose	$30,054,300	2,981	$10,081
48	Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion	$30,030,661	2,194	$13,687

Avatar Weekend Records: 2nd to 7th Weekends

In my opinion, the most impressive aspect of Avatar's run domestically and internationally has been its amazing legs; the film has held up incredibly well weekend to weekend, and in fact now holds the biggest second to seventh weekends. Also incredible: the difference between its new records and the previous ones. The film has been ahead of the other films, mostly Titanic, by very wide margins. The film will have enough to steam to get the 8th weekend record as well next week, but the 9th weekend record, which is held by Titanic with $28m, looks to be finally too insurmountable for Avatar. Overall, however, a truly historic streak of records.

	Second Weekend	Gross	Count	Avg.
1	Avatar	$75,617,183	3,456	$21,880	Diff. #1&2	$450,717
2	The Dark Knight	$75,166,466	4,366	$17,216	% Diff.	0.60%
3	Shrek 2	$72,170,363	4,223	$17,089
4	Spider-Man	$71,417,527	3,615	$19,755
5	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	$62,345,264	4,133	$15,084
	Third Weekend	Gross	Count	Avg.
1	Avatar	$68,490,688	3,461	$19,789	Diff. #1&2	$23,453,776
2	Spider-Man	$45,036,912	3,615	$12,458	% Diff.	52.08%
3	The Dark Knight	$42,664,219	4,266	$10,001
4	Shrek 2	$37,931,716	4,131	$9,182
5	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	$35,215,201	4,133	$8,520
	Fourth Weekend	Gross	Count	Avg.
1	Avatar	$50,306,217	3,422	$14,701	Diff. #1&2	$21,589,907
2	Titanic	$28,716,310	2,746	$10,458	% Diff.	75.18%
3	Spider-Man	$28,508,104	3,876	$7,355
4	The Dark Knight	$26,117,030	4,025	$6,489
5	The Chronicles of Narnia 1	$25,686,555	3,853	$6,666
	Fifth Weekend	Gross	Count	Avg.
1	Avatar	$42,785,612	3,285	$13,025	Diff. #1&2	$12,774,578
2	Titanic	$30,011,034	2,767	$10,846	% Diff.	42.57%
3	The Sixth Sense	$22,896,967	2,775	$8,251
4	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace	$18,859,021	3,019	$6,246
5	The Dark Knight	$16,379,293	3,590	$4,562
	Sixth Weekend	Gross	Count	Avg.
1	Avatar	$34,944,081	3,141	$11,125	Diff. #1&2	$9,705,361
2	Titanic	$25,238,720	2,771	$9,108	% Diff.	38.45%
3	The Sixth Sense	$16,511,464	2,782	$5,935
4	Mrs. Doubtfire	$16,346,568	2,325	$7,030
5	Aladdin	$15,642,073	2,255	$6,936
	Seventh Weekend	Gross	Count	Avg.
1	Avatar	$31,280,029	3,074	$10,176	Diff. #1&2	$5,372,857
2	Titanic	$25,907,172	2,853	$9,081	% Diff.	20.74%
3	The Passion of the Christ	$15,216,723	3,240	$4,696
4	The Blind Side	$11,912,749	2,926	$4,071
5	Mrs. Doubtfire	$11,536,024	2,345	$4,919

Here's a graph comparing Avatar's weekends grosses with those of either the top films or the previous record holders. Avatar corresponds to the black line; the other reflects The Dark Knight's opening weekend record, Spider-Man 1's previous third weekend record, and for the rest, Titanic's previous 4th to 7th weekend records.

Speculative Admissions and Adjusted Figures for 4th Weekend

These are, as the title of this post suggest, entirely speculative numbers, and should not be taken too seriously beyond a general point. The main point to take from all this is that 1) Avatar's fourth weekend is impressive even when inflation is taken into consideration (I assigned Avatar a higher ticket price and therefore lower admissions figure due to 3D/IMAX), and 2) Titanic is much closer to Avatar admissions wise than it might appear initially. I suspect that Titanic's average ticket price was probably less than half of what it is for Avatar.

NOTE: These are NOT ranked or exhaustive lists, merely a sample of films in their 4th weekends.

Title	Adj. #	Count	Avg.
Avatar	$50,687,825	2,746	$18,459
Titanic	$45,921,604	3,422	$13,420
Star Wars: Episode I - TPM	$37,843,791	3,024	$12,514
Spider-Man	$36,800,478	3,876	$9,494
Jurassic Park	$34,365,225	2,496	$13,768
Forrest Gump	$32,655,962	2,117	$15,426
Monsters, Inc.	$31,875,001	3,649	$8,735
The Lion King	$30,298,249	2,624	$11,547
The Chronicles of Narnia	$30,054,472	3,853	$7,800
The Sixth Sense	$29,673,940	2,763	$10,740
Twister	$29,037,056	2,808	$10,341
Batman	$28,553,681	2,201	$12,973
The Incredibles	$28,478,598	3,453	$8,247
Shrek 2	$28,160,531	3,843	$7,328
The Dark Knight	$27,281,020	4,025	$6,778
Elf	$26,927,664	3,202	$8,410
Finding Nemo	$26,291,980	3,404	$7,724
How the Grinch Stole Christmas	$25,945,993	3,182	$8,154
Up	$23,972,119	3,832	$6,256
POTC: Dead Man's Chest	$23,595,318	3,834	$6,154
The Passion of the Christ	$23,447,315	3,250	$7,215
POTC: The Curse of the Black Pearl	$23,437,866	3,390	$6,914
Meet the Fockers	$22,600,735	3,554	$6,359
Ocean's Eleven	$22,404,215	3,075	$7,286
Shrek	$21,890,528	3,715	$5,892
Iron Man	$21,358,551	3,915	$5,456
Meet the Parents	$20,939,436	2,647	$7,911
LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring	$20,913,847	3,381	$6,186
What Women Want	$20,611,793	3,052	$6,754
The Mummy Returns	$20,056,246	3,553	$5,645
The Ring	$20,018,677	2,927	$6,839
A Beautiful Mind	$19,648,070	2,222	$8,843
Wedding Crashers	$18,761,908	3,106	$6,041
Night at the Museum	$18,708,965	3,612	$5,180
Spider-Man 2	$18,135,111	3,753	$4,832

Title	Est. Adm.	Count	Avg.
Titanic	6,122,881	2,746	2,230
Avatar	5,918,378	3,422	1,730
Star Wars: Episode I - TPM	5,045,839	3,024	1,669
Spider-Man	4,906,730	3,876	1,266
Jurassic Park	4,582,030	2,496	1,836
Forrest Gump	4,354,128	2,117	2,057
Monsters, Inc.	4,250,000	3,649	1,165
The Lion King	4,039,767	2,624	1,540
The Chronicles of Narnia	4,007,263	3,853	1,040
The Sixth Sense	3,956,525	2,763	1,432
Twister	3,871,607	2,808	1,379
Batman	3,807,157	2,201	1,730
The Incredibles	3,797,146	3,453	1,100
Shrek 2	3,754,738	3,843	977
The Dark Knight	3,637,469	4,025	904
Elf	3,590,355	3,202	1,121
Finding Nemo	3,505,597	3,404	1,030
How the Grinch Stole Christmas	3,459,466	3,182	1,087
Up	3,196,283	3,832	834
POTC: Dead Man's Chest	3,146,042	3,834	821
The Passion of the Christ	3,126,309	3,250	962
POTC: The Curse of the Black Pearl	3,125,049	3,390	922
Meet the Fockers	3,013,431	3,554	848
Ocean's Eleven	2,987,229	3,075	971
Shrek	2,918,737	3,715	786
Iron Man	2,847,807	3,915	727
Meet the Parents	2,791,925	2,647	1,055
LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring	2,788,513	3,381	825
What Women Want	2,748,239	3,052	900
The Mummy Returns	2,674,166	3,553	753
The Ring	2,669,157	2,927	912
A Beautiful Mind	2,619,743	2,222	1,179
Wedding Crashers	2,501,588	3,106	805
Night at the Museum	2,494,529	3,612	691
Spider-Man 2	2,418,015	3,753	644
The Hangover	2,315,941	3,525	657
Shrek the Third	2,226,397	3,925	567
I Am Legend	2,189,061	3,648	600
Alvin and the Chipmunks	2,165,198	3,462	625
A Christmas Carol (2009)	2,143,983	3,013	712
The Blind Side	2,048,334	3,388	605

Biggest Fourth Weekends

Avatar completely obliterated Titanic's 12 year fourth weekend record, almost doubling its predecessor's fourth weekend number. Notice Avatar's high theatre count average, which is in fact by far the highest for any film with a 4th weekend gross above $15m (wide release). The $50.3m fourth weekend number makes Avatar the first film to have 4 weekends above $50m (in fact, it is the only film to have 3 or more $50m+ weekends and the only one to have 3 $60m+ weekends as well).

This sets the film up to break Titanic's amazing 5th weekend figure of $30m next weekend, and there's a strong possibility that Avatar will also snatch Titanic's 6th weekend record. A $600m+ gross is all but guaranteed at this point, making Avatar the biggest film of all time.

Avatar	$50,306,217	-26.6%	3,422	$14,701
Titanic	$28,716,310	-13.8%	2,746	$10,457
Spider-Man	$28,508,104	-36.7%	3,876	$7,355
The Dark Knight	$26,117,030	-38.8%	4,025	$6,489
The Chronicles of Narnia	$25,686,555	29.9%	3,853	$6,666
Star Wars: Episode I - TPM	$25,632,861	-22.1%	3,024	$8,476
Monsters, Inc.	$24,055,001	5.9%	3,649	$6,592
The Incredibles	$23,580,279	-11.1%	3,453	$6,828
Up	$23,492,677	-23.6%	3,832	$6,131
Shrek 2	$23,316,920	-38.5%	3,843	$6,067
Elf	$21,649,842	15.7%	3,202	$6,761
Finding Nemo	$21,138,752	-25.5%	3,404	$6,209
POTC: Dead Man's Chest	$20,606,578	-41.5%	3,834	$5,374
Iron Man	$20,447,253	-35.8%	3,915	$5,223
The Sixth Sense	$20,099,149	-16.1%	2,763	$7,274
The Passion of the Christ	$19,414,377	-39.6%	3,250	$5,973
Meet the Fockers	$19,316,095	-32.2%	3,554	$5,435
Jurassic Park	$18,969,605	-8.6%	2,496	$7,600
POTC: The Curse of the Black Pearl	$18,844,044	-18.6%	3,390	$5,558
How the Grinch Stole Christmas	$18,646,520	-31.2%	3,182	$5,860
Forrest Gump	$18,200,256	-17.0%	2,117	$8,597
Night at the Museum	$17,162,357	-27.7%	3,612	$4,751
Twister	$17,112,505	-42.3%	2,808	$6,094
The Hangover	$17,022,166	-36.4%	3,525	$4,829
Ocean's Eleven	$16,907,714	14.9%	3,075	$5,498
The Lion King	$16,886,224	-30.9%	2,624	$6,435
Shrek	$16,520,052	-41.4%	3,715	$4,446
LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring	$16,201,260	-29.6%	3,381	$4,791
Wedding Crashers	$16,035,177	-19.9%	3,106	$5,162
A Christmas Carol (2009)	$15,758,273	28.4%	3,013	$5,230
I Am Legend	$15,717,458	-42.7%	3,648	$4,308
What Women Want	$15,555,033	-25.3%	3,052	$5,096
Alvin and the Chipmunks	$15,546,125	-46.4%	3,462	$4,490
The Ring	$15,507,802	-14.4%	2,927	$5,298
Shrek the Third	$15,317,614	-45.3%	3,925	$3,902
A Beautiful Mind	$15,220,705	-8.1%	2,222	$6,850
The Mummy Returns	$15,135,780	-25.9%	3,553	$4,260
Batman	$15,114,415	-21.5%	2,201	$6,867
The Blind Side	$15,055,258	-24.9%	3,388	$4,444
Meet the Parents	$15,048,475	-6.0%	2,647	$5,685
Spider-Man 2	$15,015,872	-39.4%	3,753	$4,001