"Dirty Dancing" During the Holiday Season of 1987

This article follows up my previous article Box Office Flashback: August 27, 1987.

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During the first week of Dirty Dancing, August 21-27, the top seven earners at the box office were:

Stakeout = $8.4 million

Can't Buy Me Love = $6.5 million

Born in East LA = $6.4 million

Dirty Dancing = $6.4 million

No Way Out = $5.8 million

The Living Daylights = $5.4 million

La Bamba = $4.9 million

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Except for Dirty Dancing  all those movies ended their theater runs by November 5 -- the last day of Stakeout. (Box-office receipts are calculated in weeks ending on Tuesday.)

Theater owners figured that Dirty Dancing likewise was ending its run.

* In the week ending November 5, the movie played in 994 theaters.

* In the week ending November 12, it played in only 878 theaters.

In other words, 116 movie theaters -- about 12% -- stopped showing Dirty Dancing after November 5.

Although the number of theaters fell by 12%, however, box-office receipts rose by almost 30% in the week ending November 12. Because of that unexpected jump of receipts, many theaters that had stopped showing the movie changed their minds and resumed showing it.

The movie got a second wind from holiday shoppers. In particular, young women who were beginning to do their holiday shopping in early November and saw that Dirty Dancing still was playing at the mall's theater decided to watch the movie again during their shopping trip.

Another factor might be that when fans saw that the movie was closing in many theaters, they rushed to see it one last time in the theaters where it still was playing. This was a movie that fans watched repeatedly.

The following table listing the number of theaters and gross receipts tells the story.

Week Ending -- Theaters -- Gross Receipts

November 5 -- 994 -- $1.9 million

November 12 -- 878 -- $2.4 million

November 19 -- 958 -- $2.2 million

November 26 -- 951 -- $2.3 million

December 3 -- 978 -- $2.1 million

December 10 -- 995 -- $1.8 million

December 17 -- 986 -- $1.0 million

December 24 -- numbers not available

December 31 -- numbers not available

January 7 -- numbers not available

January 14 -- 809 -- $1.4 million

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The movie was made for about $6 million.

Adjusted for inflation, $1.0 million in 1987 is about $2.2 million in 2017.

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The movie Dirty Dancing continued to run in theaters after December 17, but then it was competing against the Christmas blockbusters -- especially female favorites Three Men and a Baby, Fatal Attraction and Overboard. 

In its last week, ending January 14, 1988, Dirty Dancing still was playing in 809 theaters. That week was the movie's 21st in the movie theaters -- almost five months. During its long run, many people saw the movie repeatedly.