Thinking about movies is not a numbers game for me. Box office numbers can be useful in considering the public reaction to a film, but they cannot change the inherent artistic or entertainment value of a film. And the number of screens a film is playing on is something I tend to ignore, too, since it's more often a source of frustration than anything else, particularly when crap is playing on eight million screens and a really great film is playing on five screens.

That said ....

After I took at look at what was opening this week -- Meet the Robinsons on 3,413 screens, Blades of Glory on 3,372 screens, and The Lookout on 955 screens (800 is considered wide) -- I took a further look, and was surprised at how many holdover movies are also still playing wide. We tend to get so hung up on how hugely new movies are opening that we sometimes forget what a crowded field these movies are moving into. Take a look -- these are the new numbers for this week:

· Wild Hogs -- 3,200 screens
· TMNT -- 3,120 screens
· The Last Mimzy -- 3,017 screens
· 300 -- 3,004 screens
· Shooter -- 2,806 screens
· Premonition -- 2,474 screens
· The Hills Have Eyes 2 -- 2,465 screens
· Reign Over Me -- 1,671 screens
· Pride -- 1,518 screens
· Dead Silence -- 983 screens
· Bridge to Terabithia -- 854 screens

Man, that's a lot of screens! And look what's still hanging around on a couple screens, some of which are already available on DVD:

· Happy Feet -- 294 screens
· Pan's Labyrinth -- 155 screens
· Blood Diamond -- 128 screens
· The Queen -- 97 screens
· Dreamgirls -- 68 screens
· Little Children -- 26 screens
· Letters from Iwo Jima -- 23 screens
· Venus -- 12 screens
· The Good German -- 11 screens
· Babel -- 3 screens

Some of these movies have been playing for close to six months. That's how things used to be, back when the studios let movies slowly build, slowing find their audiences. Ah, the good old days ....

(Thanks to Box Office Mojo for the numbers.)

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