As predicted Captain Marvel’s numbers were strong in its opening weekend grossing 500 million World wide, domestic sales contributing 153 million of the total.

One of the reasons for this could be that Disney front loaded the roll out of the film releasing it in both domestic and foreign markets simultaneously rather than staggering it which in the past was common practice.

The other contributing factor no doubt was the sheer number of screens the film opened with, more than any other in history, 4,300 between the U.S. and Canada. It doesn’t hurt when you’re virtually the only game in town.

However in light of news just trickling in the question must be asked, exactly how legitimate are these Box Office numbers.

It turns out that a large percentage of the theaters last weekend were empty. So how could Captain Marvel have done this kind of business if no one actually turned out?

Therein lies the mystery. Part of the answer is that Disney gave away a huge number of tickets to charity so that underprivileged girls could attend the film. And even though these were freebies, they were still counted in the gross. Yes, “fuzzy math.”

However even including those tickets that still doesn’t square with the number of people who paid to see the film but failed to turn up.

It doesn’t matter that the economy is on the uptick, why would anyone waste that kind of money and then not bother to show up? Was there a pandemic last weekend that the news failed to report?

Well the truth is actually quite sinister and for a full explanation I will defer to my friend at Comix Division.

Please watch his video below:

“Ghost Screenings” where a film company buys out all the seats then gets half the money back from the theater operator and writes the other half off as a “marketing expense.”

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