I knew I was busier than usual this week (and last week) but had no idea that such a crowded slate of new releases is an industry record.

The smart folks at BoxOfficeMojo.com posted this information on its site (a great source I use all the time):

"30 Days of Night, The Comebacks, Gone Baby Gone, Rendition, Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour, The Ten Commandments (2007) and Things We Lost in the Fire open on the weekend of Oct. 19-21, tying the record for most movies debuting nationwide.

Additionally, Into the Wild expands nationwide (ed. note from only a handful of screens last week) for a total of eight movies reaching wide release, a new record for a single weekend.

Since 1982, there have been 20 weekends where six or more movies debuted in and/or expanded to wide release. Counting only debuts, there have been 11 weekends with six or more.
Seven is the highest number of nationwide debuts in a single weekend. That's happened twice before since 1982: Dec. 16-18, 1983 and Dec. 22-25, 1995.

The Christmas season is more prone to gluts of new releases than other times of the year."

You can check the list of crowded weekends -- and click them to see what those movies were, by visiting this page at boxofficemojo.com