Scotts Final Picture Did 238 A Theater

According to Collider, Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars opened in 3,330 theaters on Aug. 28 and was playing in roughly 110 by its fourth weekend, having made about $14.9 million domestic and $38.9 million worldwide against a reported $110 million budget. FactsCheck's tally puts the last weekend at $26,210 total, which works out to about $238 per theater.

The mechanism is theater math, the one Hollywood pretends does not exist. A movie does not "underperform." It gets pulled. 3,330 screens in week one, about 110 in week four. The chains are not hating on the film. They are doing arithmetic on it, and the arithmetic is not flattering.

The $238 number is the real headline. That is less than what a family of four pays for popcorn and a drive-through gallon of gas, and it is what the movie did per screen in its final weekend. ScreenRant counted the bodies, more than 3,000 venues gone in four weeks, and Box Office Mojo keeps a running total that would make a concession-stand janitor blush. Disney is already pointing at Avengers: Doomsday. That is the entire review.

And the 88-year-old man who built three of the best-looking films of the 1980s is not blinking. Treasure Island with Hugh Jackman, a western, and a movie about African elephants are all waiting in the wings. He is not a case study. He is a weather system. The box office has not yet answered who is still buying the ticket, or whether they know what they are doing.

YOUR TURN: Was that last run of 110 theaters a shrine, or a rounding error?