Theater Distribution, Part 4

With the dual release of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Last Airbender, homogeneity has spiked, setting a new record this year for lack of consumer choice. The top five movies controlling the most daily showtimes today account for 76% of all showings in the Bay Area.

Movie	Daily Showings (July 1st)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	704
Toy Story 3	636
The Last Airbender	622
Grown Ups	485
Knight and Day	389

This is a powerful line-up, beating the previous homogeneity record-holding team-up from Memorial Day weekend, which captured 72% of the daily showings.

Movie	Daily Showings (May 28th)
Shrek Forever After	875
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	570
Sex and the City 2	549
Iron Man 2	396
Robin Hood	273

So far this year 16 movies have cleared 500 daily showtimes in the Bay Area. This is becoming common enough that hereafter I will be using 600 as the benchmark (500 was impressive back in the howling days of The Wolfman, but today it just doesn't cut it).  Of this year's upcoming films, I suspect only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I has a chance of cracking the 1000 ceiling.

Movie	Max. Daily Showings
Shrek Forever After	943
Toy Story 3	810
Alice in Wonderland	808
Clash of the Titans	747
Iron Man 2	724
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	704
How to Train Your Dragon	689
The Last Airbender	622
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	579
The Wolfman	568
Date Night	566
Kick-Ass	552
Sex and the City 2	551
Valentine's Day	545
Grown Ups	512
A Nightmare on Elm Street	505

The latest Twilight movie is enjoying what looks to be the widest release in U.S. history, according to The Numbers. Exceeding 4,000 national engagements is the new benchmark for a super-saturation release. Eclipse is only the fifth movie to do so this year (the numbers below reflect the widest release attained by the film, not necessarily in its opening week).

Movie	2010 National Engagements
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	4,416
Shrek Forever After	4,386
Iron Man 2	4,380
How to Train Your Dragon	4,055
Toy Story 3	4,028

I'm excited to see both Eclipse and The Last Airbender. I found it surprising that The Last Airbender didn't back off this release date, though, since there will be a lot of overlap between the two target demographics (with The Last Airbender skewing even younger than Eclipse).

Most multi-screen theaters are showing both movies, but there are a handful who picked a favorite. In San Francisco, adhering to what looks like fair zoning distribution, the Metreon won Eclipse, leaving the San Francisco Centre 9 with The Last Airbender. In Berkeley, the artsy Shattuck made a surprise move by booking Eclipse right up the block from the California Theatre, also showing Eclipse (both are operated by Landmark Theatres). One theater I can't figure out: the Brenden Concord 14 is only showing The Last Airbender, even though it is the only theater in Concord besides the West Wind Solano 2 Drive-In (showing Eclipse). My first guess is that there is a zoning conflict with the nearby Century 16 Downtown Pleasant Hill, but that theater is showing both films, so I'm not sure why the Concord 14 got the shaft.