240 Screens opening weekend
Now that's pretty sad.
How many millions did they lose on this trilogy? Just to prove a point?
I suspect they are using the same release strategy that the Sarah Palin documentary used - do a small release focused primarily on predominately conservative communities. In my area, a major metropolitan center in the midwest, it is being shown only at theaters in the "white flight" suburbs. That way they can boost their per theater occupancy stats while simultaneously using the limited release as a justification for its inevitable dreary box office receipts.
sharehttp://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Atlas-Shrugged-Who-Is-John-Galt#tab=box-office
It opened below the Mendoza Line. There's no spinning this into a success.
It's a bad thing to have a release strategy?
shareIt opened at 242 theaters and made $460k in the first weekend. That's less than "Finding Fanny", an obscure Bollywood movie that opened at 121 theaters the same weekend.
Whether on an absolute scale, or just compared to the first two movies, there's no way to spin this as anything but an abysmal failure.