Printable version of thread

Posted by: LewisGT 12th September 2023, 06:54 PM

I know we used to have a thread for this but I think it ended when Covid forced all of the cinemas to close but with Barbenheimer being such an event I think it's time to bring it back.

8th September 2023 - 10th September 2023

1. (NE) The Nun II - £1,743,903 Weeks: 1 (£1,743,903)
2. (NE) Jawan - £1,346,689 Weeks: 1 (£1,346.689)
3. (01) The Equalizer 3 - £1,017,032 (-64%) Weeks: 2 (£4,735,394)
4. (02) Barbie - £561,118 (-67%) Weeks: 8 (£93,718,921)
5. (NE) Past Lives - £515,019 Weeks: 1 (£515,019)
6. (03) Oppenheimer - £483,101 (-50%) Weeks: 8 (£56,392,838)
7. (NE) My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 - £411,191 Weeks: 1 (£411,191)
8. (04) Sound Of Freedom - £253,174 (-67%) Weeks: 2 (£1,391,704)
9. (05) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - £171,189 (-72%) Weeks: 7 (£9,435,159)
10. (08) Blue Beetle - £166,743 (-66%) Weeks: 4 (£4,326,979)

Falling out:
Elemental (9 weeks)
Meg 2: The Trench (5 weeks)
Haunted Mansion (4 weeks)
Cobweb (1 week)


In a week with 4 new entries, The Nun II takes the box office crown, despite opening up with well less than half of what the original 'Nun' opened to in 2018, even when you minus previews (£3.4 million).

Indian cinema continues it's success in the UK with the Hindi-language 'Jawan' opening at #2. This is the 2nd highest debut for a Indian film, after the leading star Shah Rukh Khan's own Pathaan earlier this year (£1.4 million).

Past Lives opens at #5. This is written and directed by first-time director Celine Song and is about the possible romantic connection between two Korean primary school friends who meet up again 20 years later after one of them moved to America and got married.

According to some sources, the original 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' is the highest-grossing rom-com of all time. However, '3' cannot continue with that success opening at #7 with a sub-million gross.


The Conjuring Universe openings:

The Conjuring (£2,156,124, 2013)
Annabelle (£1,939,963, 2014)
The Conjuring 2 (£4,637,862, 2016)
Annabelle: Creation (£1,960,203, 2017)
The Nun (£4,098,198, 2018)
The Curse Of La Llarona (£609,745, 2019)
Annabelle Comes Home (£2,223,482, 2019)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (£2,708,455, 2021)
The Nun II (£1,743,903, 2023)

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 12th September 2023, 07:20 PM

That's a disappointingly mediocre opening for 'The Nun II'! But then again, the first one is terrible and even though that was huge, I don't think people are bothered by the 2nd.

It's a shame 'Barbie' won't make it to £100m for the UK! It's annoyingly close, although doesn't it have an IMAX re-release at some point this month (I know that won't do anything to get it there but it'll push it closer which will just be annoyingly infuriating lol)? 'Elemental' had a great run here (and seemingly everywhere else) it's just a shame it didn't do a lot in the US...

Posted by: Moby Dick 12th September 2023, 07:41 PM

Wow Nun 2 and Big Fat Greek 3!!!

Posted by: dandy* 16th September 2023, 08:58 AM

Thanks for bringing this back Lewis, I used to follow this thread before so it’s good to have it once again

Posted by: Jester 17th September 2023, 06:32 AM

That new Big Fat Greek Wedding film has been very under the radar. Worried about the quality of it after how bad 2 was!

Posted by: LewisGT 18th September 2023, 08:53 PM

15th September 2023 - 17th September 2023

1. (NE) A Haunting In Venice - £2,186,930 Weeks: 1 (£2,186,930)
2. (01) The Nun II - £1,133,830 (-35%) Weeks: 2 (£3,870,260)
3. (03) The Equalizer 3 - £874,709 (-14%) Weeks: 3 (£6,287,458)
4. (02) Jawan - £480,243 (-64%) Weeks: 2 (£2,351,867)
5. (04) Barbie - £456,329 (-19%) Weeks: 9 (£94,534,532)
6. (05) Past Lives - £374,412 (-27%) Weeks: 2 (£1,233,717)
7. (06) Oppenheimer - £323,129 (-33%) Weeks: 9 (£57,304,372)
8. (07) My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (-35%) - £266,208 Weeks: 2 (£977,837)
9. (08) Sound Of Freedom - £184,797 (-27%) Weeks: 3 (£1,788,269)
10. (09) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - £182,751 (+7%) Weeks: 7 (£9,653,208)

Falling out:
Black Beetle (4 weeks)


Poirot is back and Kenneth Branagh haunts up a treat with 'A Haunting In Venice opening up at #1 with £2,186,930. Despite being only loosely based on an already lesser Agatha Christie novel (Hallowe'en Party) and having a less-starry cast, 'Venice' has got the best reviews of the franchise and opens above what 'Death On The Nile' did last year (£1,898,357). Although it is, of course, a mile off the franchise high, 'Murder On The Orient Express' (£4,985,600, 2017).

There's little else of note in the top 10, 'The Nun II' has a solid hold (-35%), especially good for a horror film. But 'The Equalizer 3's 3rd week of hold is even more impressive (-14%). Jawan is a more-expected -64% but that is already enough to put it in the top 10 for highest-grossing Hindi films of all-time in the UK.

'Past Lives' impresses this week. It does drop 27%, but actually increased week-on-week if you were to strip out the previews and just compare the Friday-Sunday data from both weeks. 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3' only drops 1 place and 35%; I was honestly expecting it to completely bomb out of the top 10 so there's some slight good news for the release. 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem' is the only film that increases in box-office this week (up 7%).

Despite the lack of movement in the top 10, interestingly, 11-15 this week are all made up of new entries (11. Rise of The Footsoldier: Vengeance, 13. Rally Road Racers, 15. ABBA: The Movie – Fan Event) or re-entries (12. The Dark Knight, 14. The Jungle Book).

Next week see's the release of 'Expend4bles', 'Dumb Money', 'The Lesson' and 'The Canterville Ghost'. Can any of them take the crown from Poirot?

Kenneth Branagh Poirot's openings:

Murder On The Orient Express (£4,985,600, 2017)
Death On The Nile (£1,898,357, 2022)
A Haunting In Venice (£2,186,930, 2023)

Posted by: Moby Dick 19th September 2023, 11:52 AM

No chancw of Barbie breaking 100 million Shame, as Harry Potter dis that in like a week

Great hold for the bun 2!! Ans replaced at no.1 by another scary movie!!!

Posted by: LewisGT 25th September 2023, 08:46 PM

22nd September 2023 - 24th September 2023

1. (01) A Haunting In Venice - £1,472,237 (-33%) Weeks: 2 (£4,947,591)
2. (NE) Expend4bles - £761,443 Weeks: 1 (£761,443)
3. (02) The Nun II - £703,819 (-38%) Weeks: 3 (£5,117,836)
4. (03) The Equalizer 3 - £537,327 (-39%) Weeks: 4 (£7,284,324)
5. (NE) Dumb Money - £506,095 Weeks: 1 (£506,095)
6. (05) Barbie - £456,329 (-36%) Weeks: 10 (£95,046,660)
7. (06) Past Lives - £374,412 (-28%) Weeks: 3 (£1,791,293)
8. (06) Oppenheimer - £261,616 (-19%) Weeks: 10 (£57,810,964)
9. (04) Jawan - £207,470 (-57%) Weeks: 2 (£2,351,867)
10. (RE) Beauty And The Beast (1991) - £145,428 Weeks: 595 (£3,133,692)*


Falling out:
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2 weeks)
Sound Of Freedom (3 weeks)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (7 weeks)


'A Haunting In Venice' tops the charts for a second time in what was a dismal week at the box office where it is the only film to put up a >£1 Million figure. The film had a promising 33% drop, which paired with a strong midweek showing, means that it is almost above 'The Nun II's total having been in release for a week less. It's current total of £4,947,591 is pretty much equal with what the original 'Murder On The Orient Express' did in it's opening weekend in 2017. This is still above what 'Death On The Nile' had at this stage in it's run (£4,738,119), on it's way to an end total of around £8 million.

The biggest new release this week came from 'Expend4bles' which opened at two. The geriatric actioner is the first film in the fledgling franchise in almost 10 years, since 'Expendables 3' in 2014. The new actors in part 3 were Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes and Mel Gibson while the most high-profile recruits for part 4 are Megan Fox & 50 Cent. With dismal reviews and Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Jet Li MIA, just who could have predicted that this would be the franchise's weakest opening. See below for the full 'Expendables' opening weekend history.

The only other new entry in the top 10 is 'Dumb Money' at #5. This is based on the real-life Gamestop Stock controversy (try saying that 10 times fast) and is based upon the book 'The Antisocial Network'. Coming from director Craig Gillespie, who most recently brought us 'Cruella', but also made 'I, Tonya' and streaming hit 'Tom & Pammy', he certainly has form in bringing us these slightly irreverent bios. The film has also had a slightly underwhelming debut in the US. Is this one of the big victims of the actor strike with it's starry ensemble cast (Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, Shailene Woodley, Sebastian Stan, Vincent D'Onofrio and fresh-off-Barbie America Ferrera) not being able to promote the release.

Just missing the top 10, 'The Canterville Ghosts' is a new entry at #11 and 'The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers' re-enters at #13.

Next week sees the release of 'Saw X', 'The Creator' and 'The Old Oak'. Can any of them take the crown from Poirot?

Expendables' openings:

The Expendables (£3,910,596, 2010)
The Expendables 2 (£1,985,082, 2012)
The Expendables 3 (£1,689,927, 2014)
Expend4bles (£761,443, 2023)

Craig Gillespie openings:

Mr. Woodcock (£483,000, 2007)
Lars And The Real Girl (£78,707, 2008)
Fright Night (£680,543, 2011)
Million Dollar Arm (£150,050, 2014)
The Finest Hours (£247,643, 2016)
I, Tonya (£1,049,551, 2018)
Cruella (£1,453,635, 2021)
Dumb Money (£506,095, 2023)


*Beauty and the Beast's figures are accurate from when it had it's first 3D re-release. I'm hoping when the BFI release their weekly figures we'll have an update on all of the releases.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 26th September 2023, 07:13 PM

Expectedly horrendous for 'Expend4bles'. FLUSH.

'Equalizer 3' and 'The Nun II' having decent legs too (although both could be a little better).

'Barbie' dropping more this week than last week despite an IMAX re-release of sorts? That's a shame. But 10 weeks inside the top 6?? Incredible.

Posted by: JackTheeStallion 26th September 2023, 07:24 PM

A movie as utterly dull as A Haunting In Venice doing so well is quite something.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 26th September 2023, 07:29 PM

I suspect 'SAW X' is going to be the big victor this coming week with 'The Creator' in 2nd. However, I can't call their numbers at all. I am expecting 'SAW X' to be big and MAYBE pushing close to £3m? 'The Creator' has potential to either under perform or over perform.

Posted by: Moby Dick 26th September 2023, 07:39 PM

BatB back?? Why?

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 26th September 2023, 10:22 PM

Disney are re-releasing 10 of their classics each week to celebrate their 100th anniversary. Next week it's Toy Story. The week after it's Princess & The Frog (this is SOOOOOO underrated!) and then we end on Frozen.

Posted by: Moby Dick 26th September 2023, 10:40 PM

Ftozwn at the cinema!! Yas!! Toyy Story will be great too.

Posted by: LewisGT 2nd October 2023, 07:18 PM

29th September 2023 - 1st October 2023

1. (NE) The Creator - £2,225,034 Weeks: 1 (£2,225,034)
2. (NE) Saw X - £1,925,011 Weeks: 1 (£1,925,011)
3. (01) A Haunting In Venice - £1,006,466 (-32%) Weeks: 3 (£6,782,314)
4. (03) The Nun II - £418,694 (-41%) Weeks: 4 (£5,871,593)
5. (04) The Equalizer 3 - £323,247 (-40%) Weeks: 5 (£7,890,866)
6. (NE) A Little Life - £317,703 Weeks: 1 (£880,639*) *Opened on Thursday so total includes mid-week gross
7. (NE) Stop Making Sense - £317,632 Weeks: 1 (£317,632)
8. (02) Expend4bles - £283,545 (-63%) Weeks: 2 (£1,409,526)
9. (NE) The Old Oak - £232,733 Weeks: 1 (£232,733)
10. (05) Dumb Money - £222,736 (-56%) Weeks: 2 (£1,016,439)


Falling out:
Barbie (10 weeks)
Past Lives (3 weeks)
Oppenheimer (10 weeks)
Jawan (2 weeks)
Beauty And The Beast (1 week*) *In this run


A very busy week with half of the top 10 being new entries. Screen Daily will tell you that 'Saw X' has won the weekend, but they don't include previews in their opening figures, while the FDA and BFI (where I get my figures from) do so the #1 and #2 are switched in this list. So if you're a purist, then it's a 3rd horror #1 in a row to welcome in scary month: 'Saw X' opens at #1 with £1.92 million and 'The Creator' is just behind with £1.89 million.

But the eventual winner in a close battle is the pertinent AI sci-fi-er 'The Creator'. Coming from director Gareth Edwards, it's his first release since the billion+ grossing 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'. He also penned the screenplay and sees him return to the original sci-fi genre that helped him make his name. The film is not-so lucky in the US where it has debuted at #3 but one thing the film has received much acclaim for is making a visually spectacular blockbuster on a (comparatively) low $80 million budget so it won't lose the studio 'Indiana Jones' or 'Haunted Mansion' money.

Debuting at 2nd place on both sides of the Atlantic (the US winner Paw Patrol isn't out here for another couple of weeks), 'Saw X' is chronologically set 2nd in the timeline and sees the return of the OG Jigsaw puzzler Tobin Bell. The film has received some of the best reviews of the whole franchise and sees an opening much higher than the last entry 'Spiral: From The Book Of Saw' (£779,107, 2021). However, that film was released on the weekend after lockdown restrictions were eased and cinemas re-opened and, such, had multiple other new films released on the same day (Peter Rabbit 2, Nomadland, The Unholy, Raya And The Last Dragon). If we go back further, this is pretty much the exact same opening as 'Jigsaw' in 2017 (£1,851,249). Remarkably, the only 'Saw' film to make #1 is also the entry with the highest gross, Saw 3D (£3,600,083, 2010). See below for the full 'Saw' opening history.

A theatrical adaptation of 'A Little Life' opens at #6. Based on a novel from 'Hanya Yanagihara', the play stars James Norton and follows four college friends in New York City. The last play/opera release to make the top 10 is 'Die Zauberflote - Met Opera 2023' in June. That opened with £104,669 while 'A Little Life' makes £317,70. 'Stop Making Sense' (£317,632) is a re-release of the 1984 Talking Heads concert-film . The last concert-film to reach the top 10 was only in August, 'Andre Rieu's 2023 Maastricht Concert: Love Is All Around' (£710,326, 5th). We'll see just how many concert records 'The Eras Tour' can break in a couple of weeks time, I know I've already got my ticket!

The last new entry in the top 10 is 'The Old Oak' at #9. This is said to be legendary British director Ken Loach's ('Kes', 'I, Daniel Blake') last ever film and makes £232,733. It's a social-realist drama set in County Durham and focuses on the tensions around Syrian refugees. Loach's last film 'Sorry We Missed You' (£364,849) also opened at #9 in 2019.

The previous number #1s are all still holding pretty well: A Haunting In Venice (-32%), The Nun (-41%) and The Expendables 3 (-40%). But, 'Expend4bles' makes the expected horrendous drop, off 63% and dropping from 2-9. 'Dumb Money' also cannot find an audience dropping a surprisingly high 56% (5-10).

We finally lose Barbenheimer from the top 10 after a wonderful 10 weeks but the news isn't all bad for 'Barbie'. As of this week, it has overtaken 'Spectre' to become the 6th biggest film ever in the UK.

For anyone keeping track of the Disney 100 re-releases, Toy Story is back at #11 while there is one final new entry in the top 15: 'Tesciowie 2' at #15.

Next week sees the openings of 'The Exorcist: Believer', 'Golda', 'BlackBerry', 'The Great Escaper', '20 Days In Mariupol' and 'The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan'. Can any of them top the charts?

Gareth Edwards openings:

Monsters (£348,577, 2010)
Godzilla (£6,385,483, 2014)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (£17,305,011, 2016)
The Creator (£2,225,034, 2023)

Saw openings:

Saw (£1,239,813, 2004)
Saw II (£2,189,212, 2005)
Saw III (£2,522,521, 2006)
Saw IV (£2,482,889, 2007)
Saw V (£2,436,817, 2008)
Saw VI (£1,736,287, 2009)
Saw 3D (£3,600,083, 2010)
Jigsaw (£1,851,249, 2017)
Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (£779,107, 2021)
Saw X (£1,925,010, 2023)

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 5th October 2023, 10:53 AM

'SAW X' is really good! I am optimistically hopeful that the strong reviews, word of mouth and as we are getting closer to Halloween it'll hold stronger than others in the franchise. I really enjoyed 'The Creator' too! Deserves to be a hit (I just see "previews" as "pre-orders", so it's a fair number 1 to me )

I think 'Five Nights At Freddy's' is going to be huge over Halloween szn, so that will be one to keep an eye on in a couple of weeks or so.

Horror has been incredibly strong so far this year (in fact even if 'The Exorcist: Believer' and FNAF were to flop and be dreadful, it's still the strongest year for horror that I can remember)

Posted by: Moby Dick 5th October 2023, 11:38 AM

Wow Saw X floppi g and doing worse numbers than that Venice Haunrint!!! Ithought a Saw film in spooky season would do 3x thosw numbers

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 5th October 2023, 02:32 PM

All the other SAW movies (except the first movie & Spiral (which was delayed due to COVID & lock-downs)) were released within the week of Halloween here in the UK.

SAW - 1st October 2004
SAW II - 28th October 2005
SAW III - 27th October 2006
SAW IV - 26th October 2007
SAW V - 25th October 2008
SAW VI - 23rd October 2009
SAW 3-D - 29th October 2009
Jigsaw - 26th October 2017
Spiral: From the Book of SAW - 17th May 2021 > One of the first main releases upon lock-down being lifted <
SAW X - 29th September 2023

This will be the first one since the first SAW movie to have a few weeks built up leading into the Halloween week. The main obstacle for SAW X will be that it will have strong competition from 'Exorcist: The Believer' and then a few weeks later 'Five Nights At Freddy's' (both rated with a 15 certificate (so a slightly bigger audience appeal) - and with bigger hype (but I presume both will be less well received than 'SAW X' has been))

It's going to be an interesting szn for horror movies!

Posted by: LewisGT 10th October 2023, 03:42 PM

6th October 2023 - 8th October 2023

1. (NE) The Exorcist: Believer - £1,678,645 Weeks: 1 (£1,678,645)
2. (01) The Creator - £1,041,276(-54%) Weeks: 2 (£4,195,331)
3. (02) Saw X - £956,030 (-50%) Weeks: 2 (£3,816,428)
4. (NE) The Great Escaper - £598,135 Weeks: 1 (£598,135)
5. (03) A Haunting In Venice - £561,058 (-44%) Weeks: 4 (£7,887,248)
6. (05) The Equalizer 3 - £174,347 (-46%) Weeks: 6 (£8,236,478)
7. (04) The Nun II - £160,587 (-62%) Weeks: 5 (£6,228,862)
8. (09) The Old Oak - £130,484 (-44%) Weeks: 2 (£571,988)
9. (06) A Little Life - £121,137 (-63%) Weeks: 2 (£1,238,884)
10. (NE) BlackBerry - £117,263 Weeks: 1 (£117,263)


Falling out:
Stop Making Sense (1 week)
Expend4bles (2 weeks)
Dumb Money (2 weeks)


Spooky season continues with 'The Exorcist: Believer' scaring up the charts. It's opening of £1,677,878 is pretty much on par with The Nun II's opening a few weeks ago (£1,743,903), but is the second lowest total for a #1 this year, only behind the 2nd week of 'A Haunting In Venice' (£1,472,237). This is a sequel to the 1973 film that is widely considered to be the greatest horror film of all time and is directed by David Gordon Green. In the vein of his work with another legendary horror franchise, 'Believer' ignores all of the sequels and directly builds upon events from the original. See below for a comparison of David Gordon Green openings. As none of his Halloween trilogy reached #1, this is only his 2nd #1 movie after 'Pineapple Express' in 2008.

Michael Caine has been tempted our of retirement for one last film and it opens at #4. The poignancy continues as 'The Great Escaper' is also the final film for the co-star Glenda Jackson who passed away earlier this year. This is a based-on-a-true-story about a Royal Navy veteran who broke-out from his retirement home to attend the 70th anniversary of D-Day in France. This sounds like it could be the premise for countless sentimental and patriotic British caper of recent times, but this has great reviews and has seemingly elevated itself above other films of the type (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Duke).

One of the defining genres of 2023 is the product biopic and the last new entry in the top 10 this week is another to add to growing list, 'BlackBerry'. Opening at #10 with £117,263, it's a pretty weak gross and shows that the demand for this genre maybe isn't as high as producers are thinking. The story of that phone you had 10 years ago, the movie stars Jay Baruchel, Matt Johnson, Rich Sommer and a bald-headed, scene-stealing 'Glenn Howerton' who plays the ruthless Jim Balsillie who is credited as leading the company to it's prime of $20 billion annual sales and a 43% market share of all mobile phones.

'The Creator' proves that it's narrow win thanks to previews last week was not unjustified as it stays ahead of 'Saw X' on week 2. It's hold of -54% is worse than Saw's -50% but is actually a much stronger hold when you strip out the previews (45%). Despite a 44% drop, a poor weekend box office on the whole allows Ken Loach's 'The Old Oak' to actually climb in it's second week to #8.

This week's Disney re-release was 'The Princess & The Frog' which is at '13. And while neither are in the top 15 anymore, this is the first weekend where 'Oppenheimer' has placed above 'Barbie' after their iconic same-day release.

Next week sees the openings of 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour', 'PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie', 'The Miracle Club', 'Sumotherhood' and 'Daliland'. Can any of them top the charts?


David Gordon Green openings: *I have excluded his early releases as I can't find details for those

Pineapple Express (£1,372,911, 2008)
Your Highness (£926,338, 2011)
The Sitter (£910,382, 2012)
Prince Avalanche (£11,571, 2013)
Joe (£33,660, 2014)
Manglehorn (£14,756, 2015)
Our Brand Is Crisis (£27,723, 2016)
Stronger (£102,379, 2017)
Halloween (£2,656,097, 2018)
Halloween Kills (£1,598,062, 2021)
Halloween Ends (£2,110,010, 2022)
The Exorcist: Believer (£1,678,645, 2023)

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 12th October 2023, 11:39 PM

I'm intrigued to see 'The Exorcist: Believer' 2nd week drop... the film is being (rightfully) torn apart... Nice holds for both 'The Creator' and 'SAW X'! Better than I expected for the former tbh!

Posted by: The Haunted Hole 14th October 2023, 01:54 PM

Saw 10 and Haunting should do well Halloween week

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 14th October 2023, 02:24 PM

What are we predicting Taylor to do this weekend?

Posted by: LewisGT 14th October 2023, 06:04 PM

I really can't tell. I think it will open somewhere between £5-10 million.

Earlier in the week I thought it might be crazy and £10 million+ but the showing I went to today was surprisingly really quiet which is really making me start to doubt the hype.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 16th October 2023, 02:55 PM

I was thinking £4m-£5m lmao. But then I kinda talked myself into it being more (£6m-£7m) due to event cinema being more expensive in general.

Looks like it's in line with what I originally predicted as it's seemingly taken £5.7m across the first three days (repeat viewings over the next 2 coming weekends - although not as many shows) and set a record/become the highest grossing event cinema release ever in just 3 days.

https://www.screendaily.com/news/taylor-swift-the-eras-tour-dominates-uk-ireland-box-office-with-57m-opening/5186936.article#:~:text=5.&text=Taylor%20Swift%3A%20The%20Eras%20Tour%20has%20become%20the%20highest%2Dgrossing,final%20figures%20still%20coming%20in.

I'll leave it for you to collate the top 10 in your usual style and format

Posted by: LewisGT 16th October 2023, 07:45 PM

13th October 2023 - 15th October 2023

1. (NE) Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour - £5,729,998 Weeks: 1 (£5,729,998)
2. (NE) PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie - £3,348,155 Weeks: 1 (£3,348,155)
3. (01) The Exorcist: Believer - £1,005,434 (-40%) Weeks: 2 (£3,492,494)
4. (NE) Sumotherhood - £746,714 Weeks: 1 (£746,714)
5. (02) The Creator - £643,002 (-38%) Weeks: 3 (£5,354,481)
6. (04) The Great Escaper - £536,234 (-11%) Weeks: 2 (£1,959,847)
7. (03) Saw X - £517,692 (-46%) Weeks: 3 (£4,840,816)
8. (05) A Haunting In Venice - £370,905 (-34%) Weeks: 5 (£8,521,620)
9. (NE) The Miracle Club - £276,379 Weeks: 1 (£276,379)
10. (RE) Frozen - £143,635 Weeks: 515 (£43,303,943)


Falling out:
The Equalizer 3 (6 weeks)
The Nun II (5 weeks)
The Old Oak (2 weeks)
A Little Life (2 weeks)
BlackBerry (1 week)


It's Taylor Swift vs Ryder, Chase & Skye this week and it is Taylor who comes out on top with an opening that is being reported as making it already the highest grossing 'event-cinema' release of all-time here in the U.K. The previous record was held by Jodie Comer staring role in the National Theatre production of 'Prima Facie' last year that grossed £5.5 million in total. However, Taylor still has got some way to go if she wants to beat the current biggest concert-film, 'Michael Jackson: This It It' that made £9.5 million in 2009 and is considered a documentary instead of event cinema. This is nonetheless an amazing result for Taylor, especially with the tour not even reaching our shores yet, and is the 10th biggest opening weekend of the year.

'PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie' manages a healthy opening at #2. It's figure of £3,348,155 is up on the £2,410,496 that the original 'PAW Patrol: The Movie' opened to last year. However, both figures are heavily boosted by previews, the original included about £1.2 million in previews where the total is closer to £2 million for this year's effort. Expect a relatively massive drop-off percentage wise next week. It felt like the market was missing a big film for children as, before PAW Patrol, the most recent major kids film to be released was 'Haunted Mansion' in August. That opened to a weak £990,084 .

For the unaware, 'Sumeotherhood' is a sequel/reboot of 2011's 'Anuvahood' and is directed by Adam Deacon. In a very meta way, the films are parodies of the classic, gritty British 'Hood' films ('Kidulthood' and 'Adulthood') that star, you guessed it, Adam Deacon. This one had one of the oddest array of 'stars' one could imagine (Ed Sheeran, Peter Serafinowicz, Jennifer Saunders and... Jeremy Corbyn) and has received pretty dire reviews. The original opened at #7 in 2011 with £536,818, so there is an improvement there. The film apparently features Ed Sheeran pooing in a hedge, so make sure to book your tickets if you're into that sort of thing.

The final new entry to make the top 10 is 'The Miracle Club' (#9). The film starts Laura Linney, Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates and Agnes O'Casey as four women from Dublin with some complicated history who meet up to tale a pilgrimage to Lourdes. But it looks like cinemagoers have decided that 'The Great Escaper' is the geriatric adventurer of choice currently with a remarkable hold of only -11% which puts the total almost at £2 million. A disappointing opening for 'The Miracle Club' especially as it's one of the few recent releases where actors have actually been able to promote with Laura Linney having appeared on Graham Norton last Friday.

This week's Disney re-release was 'Frozen' which just about regains a top 10 position at #10. Halloween hype continues with 'Friday the 13th' also re-entering at #11.

Next week sees the openings of 'Killers of the Flower Moon', 'Trolls Band Together', It Lives Inside', 'Foe' and 'A Mystery on the Cattle Hill Express'. Can any of them top the charts?


'Hood' film openings:

Kidulthood (£100,056, 2003, #15)
Adulthood (£1,203,319, 2008, #4)
Anuvahood (£536,818, 2011, #7)
Brotherhood (£1,979,309, 2016, #2)
Sumotherhood (£746,714, 2023, #4)

Posted by: Juranamo 17th October 2023, 09:27 AM

IMAGINE the figures Taylor would have done if the UK dates had already happened?!

I haven't been because I wanna see the show live first! Imagine some will be in the same boat (though I'm sure die hard Swifties won't be too bothered!)

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 17th October 2023, 06:24 PM

I know a fair amount of people who did the same thing (and they're all die hards!)

I decided to go because I knew not everything would be shown and I have just about seen majority of it through Tik Tok videos

Posted by: LewisGT 25th October 2023, 08:57 PM

20th October 2023 - 22nd October 2023

1. (NE) Trolls Band Together - £3,051,810 Weeks: 1 (£3,051,810)
2. (NE) Killers Of The Flower Moon - £2,531,393 Weeks: 1 (£2,531,393)
3. (01) Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour - £2,362,711 (-59%) Weeks: 2 (£8,661,147)
4. (NE) Leo - £1,157,367 Weeks: 1 (£1,157,367)
5. (02) PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie - £801,725 (-76%) Weeks: 2 (£4,512,913)
6. (03) The Exorcist: Believer - £577,310 (-43%) Weeks: 3 (£4,615,049)
7. (04) Sumotherhood - £382,259 (-49%) Weeks: 2 (£1,484,944)
8. (06) The Great Escaper - £326,200 (-39%) Weeks: 3 (£3,092,833)
9. (05) The Creator - £325,784 (-49%) Weeks: 4 (£6,061,111)
10. (07) Saw X - £244,576 (-53%) Weeks: 4 (£5,380,023)


Falling out:
A Haunting In Venice (5 weeks)
The Miracle Club (1 week)
Frozen (1 week)* *In this run


Number one for this week was a battle between animated sequel 'Trolls Band Together' and the latest Scorsese epic 'Killers Of The Flower Moon'. Both have solid openings that shows that counter-programming can be very effective but it's the all-singing Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake led Trolls that get top spot. The news of a third Trolls film might make many film fans shiver with the 2nd film 'Trolls World Tour' being the first major release to move away from the big screen and become a premium home release after Covid closed the cinemas. The original 'Trolls' debuting at #1 in 2016 with £5,440,878. However £2.5 million of that was previews while this one had no previews. Sans previews, the opening is practically the same, with 'Band Together' actually making (very slightly) more (£3,051,810 vs £3,014,806).

Martin Scorsese's 'Killers Of The Flower Moon' is expected to be a big name is this year's awards race and the film opens well for a 3.5 hour epic (£2,531,393) but has got a lot of work to do to make back it's extortionate budget. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone and focuses on a series of murders against members of the native Osage Nation tribe in the 1920s. The film is based upon a book by David Grann and had a crazy budget of $200 million. Scorsese's last cinematic release was 'Silence' that opened in January 2017 to £1,542,926. 'Killers Of The Flower Moon' is actually Scorsese's 3rd biggest opening in the UK. See below for a full comparison of Scorsese's 21st century openings.

I've discussed the battle between Trolls and Kilers... but if we take out previews, this week's runner-up would actually be Taylor Swift. The film has a 59% drop but this is very solid for event cinema and helps the film edge ever closer to 'This Is It' to become the highest grossing concert film. It should easily be there by this time next week. This one is based on a graphic novel tars the highest-paid Indian actor, Vijay, as a café-owner who is hunted by two gangsters after one of them believes he is his estranged son.

In the excitement at the top, you could easily miss another great result for Indian cinema in 2023 with 'Leo' opening at #4 with £1,157,367. The film is in the Tamil language. The highest-grossing Tamil film is last year's 'Ponniyin Selvan: I' which made £1.3 million. 'Leo' probably already has the record by the time I'm typing this.

PAW Patrol has an insane drop of 76% week-to-week. However, as I noted last week, the films opening was bloated by 2 weeks of previews and it's drop without previews is a much-more respectable 40%.

Nothing else is new to the top 10 but there's 3 new entries in the #11-#15 region: 'The Prince Of Egypt: The Musical' at #13, 'It Lives Inside' at #14 and 'Foe' at #15.

Next week sees the openings of 'Five Night At Freddy's', 'Retribution', 'Doctor Jekyll' and 'Cat Person'. Can any of them top the charts?


Martin Scorsese 21st century openings:

Gangs Of New York (£2,622,748, 2003, #2)
The Aviator (£1,314,946, 2005, #2)* *This was actually it's 3rd week but was the first week the film was in wide release
The Departed (£2,298,313, 2006, #2)
Shutter Island (£2,250,178, 2010, #2)
Hugo (£1,225,987, 2011, #4)
The Wolf Of Wall Street (£4,655,984, #1, 2014)
Silence (£1,542,926, 2017, #4)
Killers Of The Flower Moon (£2,531,393, 2023, #2)

Posted by: LewisGT 30th October 2023, 07:29 PM

27th October 2023 - 29th October 2023

1. (NE) Five Nights At Freddy's - £5,379,587 Weeks: 1 (£5,379,587)
2. (01) Trolls Band Together - £2,539,721 (-19%) Weeks: 2 (£9,004,554)
3. (02) Killers Of The Flower Moon - £1,507,697 (-40%) Weeks: 2 (£5,599,165)
4. (03) Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour - £1,226,343 (-48%) Weeks: 3 (£10,422,785)
5. (05) PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie - £709,348 (-12%) Weeks: 3 (£6,106,012)
6. (06) The Exorcist: Believer - £360,503 (-38%) Weeks: 4 (£5,348,646)
7. (08) The Great Escaper - £265,078 (-19%) Weeks: 4 (£3,848,645)
8. (07) Sumotherhood - £194,673 (-49%) Weeks: 3 (£1,912,465)
9. (09) The Creator - £184,689 (-43%) Weeks: 5 (£6,567,515)
10. (10) Saw X - £153,338 (-37%) Weeks: 5 (£5,683,416)


Falling out:
Leo (1 week)


Happy Halloween everyone! It's a particularly happy Halloween for Blumhouse and the producers of 'Five Nights At Freddy's'. The film has broken records in America, having the 3rd biggest opening for a Horror movie (behind the two 'It' movies) despite a day-and-day streaming release on Peacock. The film matches suit in the UK by debuting at #1 with £5,379,587 (£3.2 million minus previews). That's well above the recent horror releases (Saw, Exorcist, Nun, Venice) and is the second biggest opening since Barbie (only narrowly behind 'The Eras Tour'). I'd be here all day if I compiled every Blumhouse release so instead see below for a 2020's Blumhouse opening chart for further comparison.

No other new entries in the top 15, so the rest of this week is all about the holds. Last week's #1 'Trolls Band Together' has a brilliant hold of 19% which means that it has already grossed £9,004,554, the second highest figure for any movie in this week's top 10.

It's usually the films aimed at an older market to have the bets holds but there's no such good news 'Killers Of The Flower Moon' as it has a 40% drop. That's not terrible but it needs a lot more if it's to recover it's crazy $200 million budget. It has now passed 'Hugo' and is Scorsese's 7th biggest film in the UK. Next on the list is 'The Aviator'.

'The Eras Tour' has another £1million+ weekend and has finally surpassed 'Michael Jackson: This It Is' to become the biggest concert film at the box office.

After the previews-inflated 76% drop last week, 'PAW Patrol' has an outstanding 12% 3rd week drop to show that there's life in the movie yet. The Great Escaper has another good hold (19%) that sees it climb on it's 4th week. The film has really found it's audience and is a fitting (seeming) end to the legendary career of Michael Caine.

It's a case of good news/bad news for 'Leo'. It has now become the biggest Tamil-language film in the UK but it also drops 4-15 losing 92% week-on-week.

Halloween sees re-entries for 'Hocus Pocus' at #11 and 'Beetlejuice' at #14.

Next week sees the openings of 'Bottoms', 'How To Have Sex', 'The Royal Hotel', 'Tiger 3' and 'It Remains'. Can any of them top the charts?


Blumhouse 2020's openings:

The Invisible Man (£2,163,798, #1, 2020)
Fantasy Island (£392,857, #7, 2020)
The Vigil (£30,302, #5, 2020)
The Craft: Legacy (£119,680, #5, 2020)
Freaky (£344,918, #6, 2021)
The Forever Purge (£720,032, #3, 2021)
Halloween Kills (£1,598,062, #3, 2021)
Firestarter (£250,006, #9, 2022)
Dashcam (£9,060, #30, 2022)
The Black Phone (£1,384,344, #5, 2022)
Vengeance (£29,052, #21, 2022)
Halloween Ends (£2,110,010, #2, 2022)
M3GAN (£2,356,357, #2, 2023)
Insidious: The Red Door (£2,279,084, #3, 2023)
The Exorcist: Believer (£1,678,645, #1, 2023)
Five Nights At Freddy's (£5,379,587, #1, 2023)

Posted by: LewisGT 6th November 2023, 09:08 PM

3rd November 2023 - 5th November 2023

1. (02) Trolls Band Together - £1,829,764 (-28%) Weeks: 3 (£12,785,312)
2. (01) Five Nights At Freddy's - £1,374,000 (-75%) Weeks: 2 (£8,712,935)
3. (03) Killers Of The Flower Moon - £1,142,745 (-24%) Weeks: 3 (£7,761,802)
4. (04) Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour - £970,005 (-21%) Weeks: 4 (£11,694,679)
5. (05) PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie - £536,134 (-25%) Weeks: 4 (£7,163,580)
6. (07) The Great Escaper - £236,965 (-11%) Weeks: 5 (£4,467,708)
7. (NE) Bottoms - £226,585 Weeks: 1 (£226,585)
8. (06) The Exorcist: Believer - £215,354 (-40%) Weeks: 5 (£5,911,851)
9. (09) The Creator - £163,132 (-12%) Weeks: 6 (£6,890,358)
10. (08) Sumotherhood - £147,182 (-24%) Weeks: 4 (£2,196,373)


Falling out:
Saw X (5 week)


We're back to the dark days of September where every #1 grossed between £1-2 million with 'Trolls Band Together' climbing back for a second week at #1. The animated flick has another brilliant hold (-28%) and has proved itself to be a bit of an under-the-radar hit. After 3 weekends, it has overtaken 'The Eras Tour' to be the film in the top 10 that has grossed the most. After the 2nd Trolls film because the poster-child for the home-box office release during Covid, to already be £12 million+ feels like a great result for Dreamworks and Universal.

Last week was an outstanding opening for 'Five Nights At Freddy's' but the film is brought all the way back down to earth with a steep 75% drop. This looks bad but the film has already grossed over $200 million worldwide against a $20 million budget so it's already one of the biggest hits of the year and anything else it does in the box office is irrelevant.

'Killers Of The Flower Moon' is is starting to hold well (-21%) as it continues to sneak towards Martin Scorsese's top 5 films. 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour' is extending it's record-breaking grosses with another good hold (-21%) and 'PAW Patrol' does very similar (-25%).

The Great Escaper' climbs for a second consecutive week (7-6) as it fully establishes itself as a hit for the retiring Michael Caine.

There is only one new entry in the top 10 is 'Bottoms' (#7). The film has been reductively dubbed as 'High-school Fight Club' as the plot sees two unpopular lesbian students (portrayed by Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri) start a fight club under the guise of a 'self-defence club' in a bid to get closer to their crushes. Sennott co-wrote the script for the teen comedy with director Emma Seligman after they previously worked together on 'Shiva Baby'. This opens in the same place as Sennott's last release 'Bodies Bodies Bodies' last year but with a lower figure (£351,159 vs £226,585). This is one I'm very excited to see.

'Sumotherhood' drops 24% to reach just under £2.2 million which means that it has passed the £2.1 million total of the first film, 2011's 'Anuvahood'.

Missing the top 10 are two other new entries, a big British festival hit 'How To Have Sex' (#12) and Australian festival hit 'The Royal Hotel' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of 'The Marvels', 'Anatomy Of A Fall', 'Dream Scenario' and 'Manodrome'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: LewisGT 13th November 2023, 10:27 PM

10th November 2023 - 12th November 2023

1. (NE) The Marvels - £3,465,783 Weeks: 1 (£3,465,783)
2. (01) Trolls Band Together - £959,193 (-48%) Weeks: 4 (£13,950,141)
3. (03) Killers Of The Flower Moon - £663,115 (-42%) Weeks: 4 (£9,012,445)
4. (02) Five Nights At Freddy's - £637,969 (-54%) Weeks: 3 (£9,870,466)
5. (NE) Anatomy Of A Fall - £412,751 Weeks: 1 (£412,751)
6. (NE) Dream Scenario - £384,560 Weeks: 1 (£384,560)
7. (05) PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie - £288,501 (-46%) Weeks: 5 (£7,535,913)
8. (04) Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour - £255,157 (-74%) Weeks: 5 (£12,018,091)
9. (06) The Great Escaper - £114,121 (-53%) Weeks: 6 (£4,861,933)
10. (08) The Exorcist: Believer - £98,439 (-54%) Weeks: 6 (£6,119,239)


Falling out:
Bottoms (1 week)
The Creator (6 weeks)
Sumotherhood (4 weeks)


There's been a lot of talk about 'The Marvels' pre-release with the worst people on the internet getting very excited that Disney, Marvel and Brie Larson were in for a flop. They were getting just as excited in 2019 for the original film but that ended up becoming a billion-grosser. In the end, 'The Marvels' does top the chart but with the lowest MCU opening since 'Captain America: The First Avenger' in 2011. The average of £5,203 per cinema is the lowest of any MCU film. There's no getting around this one, 'The Marvels' is the MCU's first true bomb. It's opening of '£3,465,783' is 73% down on the £12,750,000 that the first Captain Marvel movie opened with in 2019. See below for a comparison with other MCU openings which is not good reading the this film. Annoyingly, I wasn't able to see it this weekend so I've played my part in it's poor opening but I am seeing it tomorrow.

Last week's #1 'Trolls Band Together' is back down to #2 with £959,193 meaning that we only have one film to cross the £1 million barrier in a bad week for UK cinemas. The #10 film doesn't even make £100,000 for the first time since I've been posting these charts.

Most of the holdovers in the top 10 are dropping between 40-50% with the big outlier being 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour' dropping 74%. It looks like Swiftogeddon might be over now but the film has broke so many records that she needn't worry.

There are two further new entries in the top 10, the highest of which being 'Anatomy Of A Fall' (#5). This French-language courtroom drama is from celebrated director Justine Triet and won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. The film follows a woman who is accused of the murder of her husband. Expect this to be one that gets a lot of play around the Awards season. An opening of £412,751 is very impressive for this type of film and suggests it's one that audiences are going to really latch onto.

The other new entry this week is another one with brilliant reviews and an outside chance of some Oscar-buzz, 'Dream Scenario' at #6. This comes from first-time director Kristoffer Borgli and and sees Nick Cage star in the wonderfully bizarre premise of a wannabe author who randomly starts to appear in the dreams of others causing him to become an overnight celebrity, I've heard the tone shifts wonderfully from comedy to abstract horror and it's one I'm very excited to see. I've heard some say it's Nicholas Cage's best ever performance. £384,560 feels like a pretty good opening for this one too.

Outside of the top 10, a re-release of 'Interstellar' sees it back at #11 and the ballet performance of Don Quixote at the Royal Opera House opens at #15.

Next week sees the openings of 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes', 'Saltburn, 'Tiger 3', 'Thanksgiving', 'Journey To Bethlehem' and 'May December'. Can any of them top the charts?


MCU openings

Iron Man (£5,465,103, #1, 2008)
The Incredible Hulk (£3,253,723, #1, 2008)
Iron Man 2 (£7,664,732, #1, 2010)
Thor (£5,449,300, #1, 2011)
Captain America: The First Avenger (£2,981,590, #2, 2011)
Marvel's Avengers Assemble (£15,778,074, #1, 2012)
Iron Man 3 (£13,711,048, #1, 2013)
Thor: The Dark World (£8,668,172, #1, 2013)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (£6,037,850, #1, 2014)
Guardians Of The Galaxy (£6,363,110, #1, 2014)
Avengers: Age Of Ultron (£18,015,774, #1, 2015)
Ant-Man (£4,011,345, #1, 2015)
Captain America: Civil War (£14,466,681, #1, 2016)
Doctor Strange (£9,288,898, #1, 2016)
Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 2 (£13,092,657, #1, 2017)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (£9,369,846, #1, 2017)
Thor: Ragnarok (12,375,804, #1, 2017)
Black Panther (£17,700,000, #1, 2018)
Avengers: Infinity War (£29,379,496, #1, 2018)
Ant-Man & The Wasp (£4,988,747, #1, 2018)
Captain Marvel (£12,750,000, #1, 2019)
Avengers: Endgame (£43,400,000, #1, 2019)
Spider-Man: Far From Home (£14,148,624, #1, 2019)
Black Widow (£6,889,187, #1, 2021)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (£5,759,504, #1, 2021)
Eternals (£5,456,577, #1, 2021)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (£31,899,232, #1, 2021)
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (£19,765,718, #1, 2022)
Thor: Love And Thunder (£12,283,719, #1, 2022)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (£12,363,870, #1, 2022)
Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (£8,834,435, #1, 2023)
Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 3 (£12,079,820, #1, 2023)
The Marvels (£3,465,783, #1, 2023)

Posted by: LewisGT 20th November 2023, 09:18 PM

17th November 2023 - 19th November 2023

1. (NE) The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes - £5,420,682 Weeks: 1 (£5,420,682)
2. (01) The Marvels - £1,255,158 (-63%) Weeks: 2 (£5,713,712)
3. (NE) Tiger 3 - £1,184,001 Weeks: 1 (£1,184,001)
4. (NE) Saltburn - £841,064 Weeks: 1 (£841,064)
5. (02) Trolls Band Together - £734,141 (-24%) Weeks: 5 (£14,814,609)
6. (NE) Thanksgiving - £486,198 Weeks: 1 (£486,198)
7. (NE) Kevin Bridges: The Overdue Catch-Up - £332,166 Weeks: 1 (£332,166)
8. (03) Killers Of The Flower Moon - £318,512 (-52%) Weeks: 5 (£9,667,568)
9. (04) Five Nights At Freddy's - £218,733 (-66%) Weeks: 4 (£10,334,970)
10. (05) Anatomy Of A Fall (-50%) - £206,572 Weeks: 2 (£854,269)


Falling out:
Dream Scenario (1 week)
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (5 weeks)
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (5 weeks)
The Great Escaper (6 weeks)
The Exorcist: Believer (6 weeks)


The Hunger Games was one of the biggest franchises of the 2010s and the prequel proves there's still life in the games yet as 'The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes' debuts at #1 with a solid £5,420,681. This is obviously way off the £10 million + openings of all the sequels, but is above what the original opened with and seems ok for a prequel that's not even based on the main character from the original films.

Last week's #1 'The Marvels' is down to #2 with £1,255,157. A 63% drop is bad for a film that that already opened low but is still better than what it has dropped worldwide. It is in very deep danger of being the all-time lowest grossing MCU film by the end of it's release. It needs to make £8.3 million to beat the current lowest, 'The Incredible Hulk'.

Although 74% of it's £1,184,001 opening is previews, that's still an amazing result for 'Tiger 3'. It's a follow-up to Pathaan that opened to £1.4 million earlier this year and is the latest entry in a stellar year for Indian cinema in the UK. Coming from horror-porn director extraordinaire Eli Roth, this is the 3rd of the 5 fictitious trailers created for the presentation of Tarentino/Rodriguez's 'Grindhouse' to be turned into an actual feature film. Gaining the best reviews of Roth's career, this is an apparently fun and knowing horror and stars the saviour of pop in 2023, TikTok star Addison Rae.

After winning an Oscar for her first feature as director, 'Promising Young Woman' and being seen as an actress in 'Barbie', Emerald Fennell is back with her 2nd movie 'Saltburn' (#4). This one has more mixed reviews but a lot of praise is being aimed at the cast of Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant. A satire set in a family estate, Downton Abbey this ain't. It has 'The Cheeky Girls' on the soundtrack for one.

A fourth new entry in the the top 10 is 'Thanksgiving' (#6). We might not celebrate it over here but it's nice to see a holiday other than Christmas and Halloween getting some shine.

There's still room for one more new entry in the top 10. Following in the steps of Taylor Swift, more event cinema with 'Kevin Bridges: The Overdue Catch-Up' at #7. This is a live performance from Scotland's leading comedian. I need to do a deep-dive into stand up comedy at the box office but I've already done too much research for this week's chart

'Trolls: World Tour' has another brilliant hold and gets very close to £15 million. 'Killers Of The Flower Moon' has it's biggest drop yet but looks like it will soon reach the £10 million barrier, a total that 'Five Nights At Freddy's' has passed this week.

Outside of the top 10, we see one more new entry for 'May December' at #12 and 'A Nightmare Before Christmas' is back at #15.

Next week sees the openings of 'Napoleon' 'Wish' and 'The Eternal Daughter'. Can either of them top the charts?


The Hunger Games openings

The Hunger Games (£4,900,177, #1, 2012)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (12,189,733, #1, 2013)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1 (£12,654,109, #1, 2014)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 2 (£11,255,566, #1, 2015)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes (£5,420,681, #1, 2023)

Posted by: LewisGT 29th November 2023, 09:15 PM

24th November 2023 - 26th November 2023

1. (NE) Napoleon - £5,235,706 Weeks: 1 (£5,235,706)
2. (01) The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes - £2,689,643 (-50%) Weeks: 2 (£10,124,337)
3. (NE) Wish - £2,432,228 Weeks: 1 (£2,432,228)
4. (04) Saltburn - £572,728 (-32%) Weeks: 2 (£1,998,626)
5. (02) The Marvels - £485,099 (-61%) Weeks: 3 (£6,564.315)
6. (NE) Cliff Richard: The Blue Sapphire Tour 2023 - £329,826 Weeks: 1 (£329,826)
7. (05) Trolls Band Together - £229,622 (-69%) Weeks: 6 (£15,112,156)
8. (06) Thanksgiving - £217,197 (-56%) Weeks: 2 (£1,000,454)
9. (03) Tiger 3 - £113,644 (-90%) Weeks: 2 (£1,413,080)
10. (NE) Love Actually (20th Anniversary) - £104,728 Weeks: 1 (£104,728)


Falling out:
Kevin Bridges: The Overdue Catch-Up (1 week)
Killers Of The Flower Moon (5 weeks)
Five Nights At Freddy's (4 weeks)
Anatomy Of A Fall (2 weeks)


'Napoleon' opened last Wednesday to get a head start on the weekend and it helps it to a £5,235,706 and a #1 debut, just slightly under what 'Hunger Games' opened with last week. Without previews and just based on the weekend's numbers, Ridley Scott's film would still have made top spot with £3.8 million. Screen Daily reports that this was the widest release ever from Sony but only Scott's 6th highest opening.

'The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes' drops 50% which is mid-range for a big release such as this. It's still tracking ahead of what the original Hunger Games film did at this stage in 2012 (£9.9 million) which shows that there's still audience appetite for the franchise a decade later.

A few weeks ago, you would have said that 'Wish' would have to be Napoleon's biggest competition but this is a bad time for Disney and their film to celebrate '100 years of magic' can only muster a #3 debut with £2,432,228. The news is no better for 'The Marvels' that has a further 61% drop and still a way of overtaking 'The Incredible Hulk' to stop itself from being the lowest grossing MCU release. Despite being a disappointment, this is the biggest (not-Pixar) Disney Animated opening since Frozen II in 2019.

See below for a comparison of Disney Animated openings of the 21st century.

More event cinema goodness with Cliff Richard: The Eras Tour The Blue Sapphire Tour 2023 opening at #6 with £329,826. This is almost the exact same as what 'Kevin Bridges' opened with last week. I never knew their audiences overlapped so much

Unfortunately, we're not getting updated totals as the re-release of 'Love Actually' is counting as a new entry at #10. The film originally opened at #1 in 2003 with £6,657,479.

I can't quite see it an awards favourite this time around but Emerald Fennell's 'Saltburn' has a great second week hold (-32%) and remains at #4. It has mixed reviews but seems to be collecting with audiences.

To be fair most of it's massive opening week was due to extensive previews but that 90% drop for 'Tiger 3' still hurts.

One more new entry just outside the top 10, 'The Eternal Daughter' at #15. This is the latest release from Joanna Hogg after 'The Souvenir' and 'The Souvenir Part II'.

Next week sees the openings of 'Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce' 'Andre Rieu’s White Christmas', 'Femme'. 'Eileen', 'Animal', 'There's Something In The Barn', Fallen Leaves' and 'Battle Over Britain'. Can any of them top the charts?


Disney Animation 21st Century openings

Emperor's New Groove - I can't find data for this one
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (1,282,458, #4, 2001)
Lilo & Stitch (£1,516,249, #1, 2002)
Treasure Planet (888,084, #3, 2003)
Brother Bear (887,321, #5, 2003)
Home On The Range (198,226, #10, 2004)
Chicken Little (3,173,867, #1, 2006)
Meet The Robinsons (895,955, #3, 2007)
Bolt (£5,457,438, #1, 2009)
The Princess And The Frog (£2,219,769, #2, 2010)
Tangled (£5,106,612.00, #1, 2011)
Winne The Pooh (£159,369, #8, 2011)
Wreck-It Ralph (£4,526,380, #1, 2013)
Frozen (£4,704,940, #1, 2013)
Big Hero 6 (£4,293,286, #1, 2015)
Zootropolis (£5,306,726, #2, 2016)
Moana (£2,214,898, #2, 2016)
Ralph Breaks The Internet (£4,032,775, #1, 2018)
Frozen II (£15,088,012, #1, 2019)
Raya And The Last Dragon (£235,994, #8, 2021)*
Encanto (£1,720,132, #3, 2021)
Strange World ( £833,043, #3, 2022)
Wish (2,432,228, #3, 2023)

* Effected by Covid

Posted by: LewisGT 4th December 2023, 09:10 PM

1st December 2023 - 3rd December 2023

1. (01) Napoleon - £1,908,971 (-64%) Weeks: 2 (£9,312,612)
2. (02) The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes - £1,689,888 (-37%) Weeks: 3 (£13,036,526)
3. (03) Wish - £1,440,044 (-41%) Weeks: 2 (£4,376,957)
4. (NE) Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé - £1,082,080 Weeks: 1 (£1,082,080)
5. (NE) André Rieu's White Christmas - £1,001,095 Weeks: 1 (£1,001,095)
6. (NE) Animal - £719,022 Weeks: 1 (£719,022)
7. (04) Saltburn - £590,644 (+3%) Weeks: 3 (£3,156,661)
8. (NE) Elf (20th Anniversary) - £345,365 Weeks: 1 (£345,365)
9. (05) The Marvels - £219,611 (-55%) Weeks: 4 (£6,963,864)
10. (07) Trolls Band Together - £110,575 (-52%) Weeks: 7 (£15,256,641)


Falling out:
Cliff Richard: The Blue Sapphire Tour 2023 (1 week)
Thanksgiving (2 weeks)
Tiger 3 (2 weeks)
Love Actually (20th Anniversary) (1 week)


Very little change at the box office this week with the top 3 all staying stagnant. 'Napoleon' drops 64% but is closing in on £10 million. The audience is really here for more Hunger Games with the prequel only dropping 37% on it's 3rd week. 'Wish' also has an okayish hold with a 41% drop.

Event cinema is one of the trends of the year with the highest two new entries being live performances of concerts. Beyoncé debuted at #1 in America with an opening above the expectations but she the hype hasn't quite held here in the UK with 'Renaissance' opening with £1,082,080 at #4. Not Taylor Swift numbers but still good for a concert film. Opening with pretty much the same amount (£1,001,095) is André Rieu's White Christmas. André Rieu's last release was actually only in July where 'Love Is All Around' opened in the same place (#5) with a lower figure (£710,326).

Completing the hat-track of consecutive new-entries, Animal is another success story for Bollywood cinema in 2023, opening at #6 with £719,022.

After the 20th anniversary entry of 'Love Actually' last week, it's the turn of 'Elf' this week. Elf originally opened with £4,538,440 at #2 in 2003, only £122,155 behind... 'Love Actually' that held for it's 2nd week of five at #1.

Despite dropping 3 places from #3 to #7, 'Saltburn' actually increases 3% in it's 3rd week.

In a busy #11-#15 section we see three new entries: 'Fallen Leaves' (#11), 'Eileen' (#12) and 'CBeebies Christmas Panto 2023: Robin Hood' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of 'Wanka', 'The Inseparables', 'Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure Of Foggy Mountain', 'The Crypto', 'The Peasants' and 'Earth Mama'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: LewisGT 11th December 2023, 04:59 PM

8th December 2023 - 10th December 2023

1. (NE) Wonka - £8,904,750 Weeks: 1 (£8,904,750)
2. (03) Wish - £1,119,644 (-22%) Weeks: 3 (£5,804,888)
3. (02) The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes - £961,055 (-43%) Weeks: 4 (£14,791,153)
4. (01) Napoleon - £951,101 (-50%) Weeks: 3 (£11,380,260)
5. (07) Saltburn - £417,609 (-29%) Weeks: 4 (£4,110,885)
6. (06) Animal - £401,015 (-44%) Weeks: 2 (£1,627,152
7. (04) Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé - £296,390 (-73%) Weeks: 2 (£1,543,076)
8. (08) Elf (20th Anniversary) - £163,189 (-53%) Weeks: 2 (£635.872)
9. (RE) Home Alone - £89,363 Weeks: 263 (£2,284,833)
10. (NE) The Peasants - £74,441 Weeks: 1 (£74,441)


Falling out:
André Rieu's White Christmas (1 week)
The Marvels (4 weeks)
Trolls Band Together (7 weeks)


It's a world of pure imagination at the box office this week with Paul King's Roald Dahl adaptation 'Wonka' debuting at #1 with a healthy £8,904,750. This is the 7th biggest opening of 2023 and the biggest opening for any film since the dual Barbenheimer weekend in July. Particularly impressive for a film that had no previews. This is well above the £4,135,318 that fellow Dahl adaptation 'Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical' opened with last November (£4,135,318) and is even above Paul King's openings for the Paddington films that really made his name. However, there's a long way to go to match 'Paddington 2's final gross of £42.6 million, the 38th biggest film in UK cinema history. This is the film that Paul King rejected next year's trilogy-closer 'Paddington in Peru' for and I think a lot of questions were asked when that decision was first announced but the casting of Timothee Chalamet and an aggressive marketing campaign has helped this look like a worthwhile choice. See below for a comparison of Paul King's opening weekends.

It's too late to save it from being a flop, but 'Wish' is showing 'Elemental'-levels of hanging around with a solid 3rd week drop of just 22% that allows is to reach a new peak of #2 on it's third week. 'The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes' and 'Napoleon' drop below £1 million for the first time but both films are already at over £10 million and already have banked solid, if not remarkable box office receipts.

'Saltburn' continues it's incredible sleeper run, climbing back up to #5 in it's 4th week. It's produced by Amazon and will be available on Prime next month so Amazon will be happy to be making some money back before it then boosts their streaming service.

Indian cinema has had a great year in 2023 but one thing all the releases have had in common is a massive opening, followed by a even more massive drop in the second week. So the fact that 'Animal' has been a non-mover this week with only a 44% drop is a huge success. It's breaking all sorts of records in it's native India. Instead the film that is showing the this pattern is #Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé' with a painful 73% drop. Taylor Swift is really showing to be the exception that proves the rule, instead of a new era of event cinema sticking around the box office.

One final new entry in the top 10 and it is the Polish film 'The Peasants' at #10. It's based on a novel of the same name from author Władysław Reymont and tells the story of a year-in-the-life of the residents of the village of Lipce and was filmed in a unique painted-animation style. It's from husband and wife directing duo Hugh & DK Welchman who used a similar style with Van Gogh biopic 'Loving Vincent' that was a big hit in 2017.

This week's Christmas classic is 'Home Alone' re-entering at #9. It has obviously grossed more than £2,284,833 in total since 1990 but this total is only from it's re-release in 2018 onwards.

'The Marvels' drops out of the top 10 after only 4 weeks. Unfortunately, there's no other way to describe this other than a total disaster for the MCU. It's currently grossed £7,095,634 and it now looks impossible for it to reach the (unadjusted for inflation total of) £8.3 million that it would need to overtake 'The Incredible Hulk' so we can officially call this the MCU's lowest ever grosser. I feel so sorry for Iman Vellani who is an absolute delight in both this and 'Ms. Marvel' as her show is also (unjustly) the least-watched Marvel show on Disney+.

Two final new entries in the #11-15 section for 'Hi Nanna' (#11) and 'Anselm' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of 'Godzilla Minus One', 'The Three Musketeers: Milady', 'Monica', 'The Shift', 'What Happens Later', 'Showing Up' and 'Control'. Can any of them top the charts?


Paul King openings:

Bunny And The Bull (£40,801, #20, 2009)
Paddington (£5,125,519, #1, 2014)
Paddington 2 (£8,260,160, #1, 2017)
Wonka (£8,904,750, #1, 2023)

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 11th December 2023, 11:42 PM

Marvels deserved better. It’s such a fun movie!

Loved Wonka too so I am incredibly happy to see that it’s opened to huge numbers!

Posted by: Jason 13th December 2023, 04:18 AM

Wonka is so much better than I was expecting. It's fun and beautiful.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 20th December 2023, 03:49 AM

I will let Lewis continue his great work (but if he's too busy I can always use the chart I've prepped!) but 'Godzilla: Minus One' opens in 2nd place this week but it is already the highest grossing Japanese live-action movie of all time! Taking in an impressive £816,891!

'Wonka' is SMASHING IT at the UK & Ireland Box Office adding another £6.4m to it's total which is a drop of just 29% from last weekends opening taking it's overall total right now above £18m!

Posted by: LewisGT 20th December 2023, 04:31 PM

Very impressive numbers for Wonka and Godzilla! It does feel like Asian cinema is having a great 2020s to counter-act Hollywood's (general) struggles, with Parasite winning best picture, Indian films breaking so many records this year and anime only getting more popular. I'm very interested to see how 'The Boy and the Heron' does this month after it become the first Studio Ghibli to reach #1 in the US Box Office.

I was indeed busy on Monday but then completely forgot to post the charts yesterday! I will get it posted later

Posted by: LewisGT 20th December 2023, 08:04 PM

15th December 2023 - 17th December 2023

1. (01) Wonka - £6,362,787 (-29%) Weeks: 2 (£18,487,628)
2. (NE) Godzilla Minus One - £816,891 Weeks: 1 (£816,891)
3. (03) The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes - £612,656 (-36%) Weeks: 5 (£15,887,971)
4. (02) Wish - £587,619 (-48%) Weeks: 4 (£6,613,100)
5. (04) Napoleon - £499,388 (-47%) Weeks: 4 (£12,474,810)
6. (05) Saltburn - £302,326 (-28%) Weeks: 5 (£4,757,552)
7. (06) Animal - £181,960 (-55%) Weeks: 3 (£2,064,200)
8. (NE) The Nutcracker: Royal Opera House 2023 - £180,826 Weeks: 1 (£803,518)
9. (08) Elf (20th Anniversary) - £177,812 (+9%) Weeks: 3 (£898,241)
10. (09) Home Alone - £177,104 (+97%) Weeks: 264 (£2,496,257)


Falling out:
Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé (2 weeks)
The Peasants (1 week)


As Tafty has already said, 'Wonka' is proving to be a massive success with a 29% drop meaning that it is already at £18 million overall and the 11th highest grosser of the year. There's not looking like too many other big blockbusters out for a while so expect to see Wonka continue to have a great Christmas and stick around in the new year. It's currently looking possible for it to reach #4 in the 2023 rankings by the end of it's run.

This week's big new release is 'Godzilla Minus One'. There hasn't been a shortage of Godzilla releases over the past 25 years impacting UK cinemas but those have all been the Hollywood films. 'Godzilla Minus One' is the first Japanese Toho Studios Godzilla film to secure a wide UK release and the numbers have proved that the audience is there. This one goes back to the iconic kaiju's origins and has garnered pretty much universal acclaim. The last Hollywood Godzilla film, 'Godzilla vs. Kong' was one of the first significant releases of the pandemic era in 2021 and only managed a £2.7 million total. Does 'Minus One' have enough in the tank to beat it?

There's not much else happening of note in the top 10 this week. The only other new entry is the latest Royal Opera House performance of 'The Nutcracker'. It grossed £180,826 from encore showings this weekend. The rest of it's gross came from it's showings on Tuesday 12th December which meant it didn't impact the weekend charts before now.

'The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes' continues to hold decently and gains a 5th week in the top 3. However, it's still a long way off matching the £24.1 million gross of the original 'Hunger Games' which was the lowest grossing entry in the franchise beforehand. 'Wish' sticks around but continues to disappoint with it's £6,613,100 current total being almost the same as what 'Wonka' has just made in it's 2nd weekend. It's also miles off the £16.2 million that 'Elemental' made earlier this year which itself was way off what Disney needed it to make. There's slightly better news for Ridley Scott and 'Napoleon' as it is now above the £10 million total of his last effort, 2021's 'House of Gucci'.

'Saltburn' has another wonderful hold, dropping just 28% in it's 5th week. This might it's last week holding so strong though as it's due to hit streaming on Friday.

The last story of note this week is Christmas. Despite the lack of a big new festive release, Christmas is still having it's impact with 'Elf' and 'Home Alone' both increasing their grosses at #9 and #10 and in the #11-#15 section we see 'Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (#11), 'The Polar Express' (#13) and 'It's A Wonderful Life' (#14).

One final new entry in the #11-15 section and it's more event cinema with 'Seventeen Tour ‘Follow’ To Japan' at #14.

Next week sees the openings of 'Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom', 'Dunki', 'Salaar' and 'Sweet Sue'. Can any of them top the charts?


Godzilla openings:

Godzilla (£4,176,960, #1, 1998)
Godzilla (£6,385,483, #1, 2014)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (£3,507,717, #2, 2019)
Godzilla vs. Kong (£783,879, #3, 2021)* *Not it's opening weekend. It had been open in a small number of cinemas during Covid where charts we're not being complied
Godzilla Minus One (£816,891, #2, 2023)

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 21st December 2023, 02:23 AM

I'm gonna predict Wonka to out perform Aquaman this weekend, with an increase in weekend numbers too!

I also think 'Godzilla' will hold relatively strong too! It seems to be gaining traction at my cinema and I don't think it's slowing down anytime soon!

Posted by: dandy* 26th December 2023, 07:44 PM

Just back from watching Wonka and it’s the most enjoyable thing I’ve seen in ages - very much deserving of its success

Posted by: LewisGT 27th December 2023, 08:48 PM

22nd December 2023 - 24th December 2023

1. (01) Wonka - £7,234,062 (+14%) Weeks: 3 (£37,149,971)
2. (NE) Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom - £2,484,442 Weeks: 1 (£4,250,904)
3. (NE) Dunki - £707,495 Weeks: 1 (£1,090,816)
4. (04) Wish - £658,176 (+12%) Weeks: 5 (£8,667,529)
5. (NE) Salaar - £394,578 Weeks: 1 (£514,638)
6. (09) Elf (20th Anniversary) - £393,577 (+119%) Weeks: 4 (£1,480,615)
7. (03) The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes - £309,585 (-49%) Weeks: 6 (£17,069,149)
8. (10) Home Alone - £304,366 (+72%) Weeks: 265 (£2,921,304)
9. (RE) It's A Wonderful Life - £269,149 (+279%) Weeks: 108 (£1,280,209)
10. (RE) The Polar Express - £255,527 (+165%) Weeks: 473 (£1,324,706)


Falling out:
Godzilla Minus One (1 week)
Napoleon (4 weeks)
Saltburn (5 weeks)
Animal (3 weeks)
The Nutcracker: Royal Opera House 2023 (1 week)


It's Christmas and the big winner is family favourites and proving to be the cracker in particular is 'Wonka'. Up 14% week-on-week, 'Wonka' has now passed £30 million and is closing in on the £37.8 million that the Johnny Depp led 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' grossed in 2005. It's also up to #5 in the 2023 box office and looks sure to overtake 'Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (£36,718,384) over the holiday period. Then we will wait to see it can reach the £57,810,964 necessary to overtake 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' and enter the medals positions. 'Wish' also improved week-on-week (+12%) to show that an audience is there for the film even if the numbers have been appalling. Four classic Christmas films are in the top 10 too, holdovers 'Elf and 'Home Alone' are joined by the resurgent 'It's A Wonderful Life' (#9) and 'The Polar Express'. Those totals for all of those films are only since re-releases and not including their original runs.

The big new release this week is 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' which enters at a distant #2. This is the final release in the inconsistent DCEU which will be rebooted as the DCU under the guardianship of James Gunn in 2025. In a franchise that has iconic characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, the original 'Aquaman', surprisingly, is and will remain, the biggest hit worldwide of the DCEU (as well as probably being my favourite of their films). 2023 has been bad for superhero movies in general but it's been particularly disastrous for DC who now have their 4th flop of the year. 'Aquaman 2' opens to £2,489,068. This is the 4th worst opening for the DCEU, with 2 of the bottom 3 also being this year ('Shazam! Fury of the Gods, £2,397,953 and Blue Beetle, £1,189,812) and the lowest being the Covid shutdown release of 'Wonder Woman 1984' (£846,435). 'Joker' and 'The Batman' have, of course, been big successes for DC over the past few years but neither of those we're released under the DCEU banner so I haven't included their openings in my table below.

The other 2 new releases this week are both from India, 'Dunki' (#3) and 'Salaar' (#5). In a reversal to their fortunes in their native India, 'Dunki' has proved to be the bigger hit in the UK. It's debut of £707,408 means that it's not the biggest Indian crossover of the year but it's almost double Salaar's £394,548. 'Dunki' is largely set in London which might be a reason for this as it is a dramedy focusing on the 'donkey flight' type of illegal immigration. 'Salaar' is an action epic and is directed by Prashanth Neel who also directed the two 'K.F.G' films that have proven big hits over the past few years.

To make way for the new entries and the Christmas invasion we lose 5 films from the top 10. 'Godzilla Minus One' might have had a strong opening weekend but drops all the way from #2-#11 in it's second week with a huge 74% drop, while we also lose 'Napoleon' and 'Saltburn' for the first time.

There are a few more Christmas entries in the #11-15 section with 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' (#13), 'Die Hard' (#14) and 'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (#15).

Next week is the last week of 2023 and, in a packed schedule, sees the openings of 'Ferrari', 'Anyone But You', 'Next Goal Wins', 'The Boy and the Heron', 'Tchaikovsky’s Wife' and 'Raging Grace'. Can any of them top the charts?


DCEU openings (RIP):

Man Of Steel (11,198,786, #1, 2013)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (£14,621,007, #1, 2016)
Suicide Squad (£11,252,225, #1, 2016)
Wonder Woman (£6,179,616, #1, 2017)
Justice League (£7,264,784, #1, 2017)
Aquaman (£5,230,285, #1, 2018)
Shazam! (£4,067,068, #1, 2019)
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (£2,833,297, #2, 2020)
Wonder Woman 1984 (£846,435, #1, 2020) *Debut effected by Covid
The Suicide Squad (£3,252,028, #1, 2021)
Black Adam (£5,655,003, #1, 2022)
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (£2,397,953, #1, 2023)
The Flash (£4,252,532, #1, 2023)
Blue Beetle (£1,189,812, #3, 2023)
Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom (£2,489,068, #2, 2023)

Posted by: One_For_Sorrow 31st December 2023, 06:39 AM

I saw Wonka today and it was fantastic.

Quite possibly the movie if the year for me. Though I only saw 5 or 6 movies in the cinema.

Posted by: LewisGT 2nd January 2024, 08:03 PM

29th December 2023 - 31st December 2023

1. (01) Wonka - £6,672,464 (-8%) Weeks: 4 (£43,822,435)
2. (NE) Ferrari - £1,981,677 Weeks: 1 (£1,981,677)
3. (02) Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom - £1,732,614 (-30%) Weeks: 2 (£5,983,518)
4. (NE) The Boy And The Heron - £1,640,667 Weeks: 1 (£1,640,667)
5. (NE) Anyone But You - £1,253,694 Weeks: 1 (£1,253,694)
6. (04) Wish - £1,019,728 (+55%) Weeks: 6 (£9,687,257)
7. (NE) Next Goal Wins - £844,604 Weeks: 1 (£844,604)
8. (07) The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes - £408,649 (+32%) Weeks: 7 (£17,477.797)
9. (12) Napoleon - £267,244 (+27%) Weeks: 6 (£13,670,408)
10. (11) Godzilla Minus One - £258,095 (+22%) Weeks: 3 (£1,942,860)


Falling out:
Dunki (1 week)
Salaar (1 week)
Elf (20th Anniversary) (4 weeks)
Home Alone (3 weeks) *In this run
It's A Wonderful Life (1 week) *In this run
The Polar Express (1 week) *In this run


One final week to end 2023 and it's a busy one with four new entries to the top 10. However, it's all the same at the top with 'Wonka' getting 4th week at #1 and climbing up to #4 on the 2023 Chart. It's already overtaken the lifetime grosses of 'Paddington' (£38 million), 'Paddington 2' (£42.6 million) and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (£37.8 million), all while not vacating the #1 spot and dropping only 8% on it's 4th week. What else is left for 'Wonka' to achieve?

One thing to note with the 4 new entries is that they were all released on Boxing Day which means that they all have an extra 3 days of grosses in their weekend totals compared to the holdovers. This means that the #2 film during the Friday-Sunday period was actually 'Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom' which drops a not-in-itself-disastrous 30% in it's second week. However, it's current total of ~£6 million is nowhere near the £22 million+ of Momoa's original adventure.

Out of the new entries, the winner is Michael Mann's racing biopic 'Ferrari'. This is the iconic director of 'Heat's first movie since 2015's 'Blackhat'. 'Le Mans '66' (aka 'Ford v Ferrari') was a big hit in 2019 but that focused more on Ford while this is purely based on the Italian competitor. Adam Driver, under a tonne of prosthetics, stars as Enzo Ferrari and the film follows him in a particularly tumultuous period of this life where he was trying to balance his deteriorating relationship with his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) after the death of their son, his mistress (Shailene Woodley) and secret child and the financial struggles of the company that shares his name. 'Ferrari' is being distributed by Sky Cinema here in the UK and is their biggest production yet with a budget of over £100 million. The film hasn't got off to a good start in American and I think they were hoping for more than a £1,981,677 debut here too.

One film that has been a massive success though is 'The Boy And The Heron'. I'm sure that every film fan knows the name 'Studio Ghibli' and will be familiar with their classics such as 'My Neighbor Totoro' and 'Spirited Away'. Everyone thought that the co-founder of the company, Hayao Miyazaki, had retired with 2013's 'The Wind Rises'. Well it turned out that there was still stories he needed to tell as his comeback film 'The Boy And The Heron' became the first Ghibli film to reach #1 in the US Box Office and, with it's £1,640,667 debut here, has already become the biggest hit from the studio in the UK, beating Spirited Away's total of £1.18 million. In terms of anime openings, this is second only to the £2.8 million opening of 'Pokémon: The First Movie' all the way back in 2000. In it's native Japan, 'The Boy And The Heron' has broken all kinds of records despite it doing a Beyoncé. This film was released without any sort of promotional campaign in Japan. There was a single poster released for the film before it's release with no trailers and it become the biggest opening weekend for any film ever in the country.

Rom-Coms (loosely or otherwise) based on Shakespeare's works have been a successful formula in the past (Romeo + Juliet, 10 Things I Hate About You), but the same cannot be said for 'Anyone But You'. Loosely based on 'Much Ado About Nothing', the film sees the paring of up-and-coming Hollywood stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell. In a classic Hollywood 'enemies to lovers' trope, they play two attractive young adults who hate each other but for some convoluted reason have to pretend to be in love. The film is directed by Will Gluck who, before adapting 'Annie' and 'Peter Rabbit, cut his teeth directing rom-coms such as 'Easy A' and 'Friends With Benefits'.

One final new entry and it's the most disappointing debut of the lot. Kiwi director, Taika Waititi, has almost made himself a brand with a unique style of quirky filmmaking that he's applied to some eccentric topics. See below for a Taika Waititi chart history comparison. 'Next Goal Wins' is a remake of the 2014 documentary of the same name and focuses on the American Samoa national football team who suffered the worst defeat in World Cup Qualifying history, a 31-0 loss to Australia in 2001. The film is set during the 2014 World Cup Qualifying campaign where Dutch manager 'Thomas Rongen' (portrayed by Michael Fassbender) takes over the side in the hope of getting the team to score at least one goal. Lots of problems have hindered the production of this film. It was filmed in 2019 but has only been released now due to multiple factors including Taika focusing on his 'Thor' sequel and the fact that 'Armie Hammer' had to be replaced in re-shoots after his controversies. I'm yet to see the documentary but one fascinating thing that the promotion of this film has brought to light to me is that American Samoa had the first ever transgender player to feature in World Cup Qualification, a storyline that is explored in the film.

'Wish' continues to hold strong after an awful opening, rising 56% in it's 6th week and meaning it's nearly at £10 million. The film is following the same projection as 'Elemental' although I can't see it reaching the £16.2 million that Pixar's offering ended up legging out at. 'Napoleon' and 'Godzilla Minus One' re-enter the top 10 after the Christmas entries disappear. I don't currently have the figures to work out their holds but I will add it in when it comes available, probably tomorrow.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section, 'Cats In The Museum' (#12) and 'Neru' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of 'Priscilla', 'One Life', 'Next Goal Wins', 'Night Swim', 'The Goldfinger', 'Scala!' and 'Bad Behaviour'. Can any of them top the charts?


Taika Waititi openings:

Eagle vs. Shark (£47,845, #15, 2007)
Boy (£2,653, #48, 2017) *Was released in 2010 in New Zealand but didn't get a release in the UK until a limited release in 2017
What We Do In The Shadows (£127,765, #12, 2014)
Hunt For The Wilderpeople (£167,646, #15, 2016)
Thor: Ragnarok (12,375,804, #1, 2017)
Jojo Rabbit (£2,415,233, #5, 2020)
Thor: Love And Thunder (£12,283,719, #1, 2022)
Next Goal Wins (£844,604, #7, 2023)

Posted by: Chez Wombat 2nd January 2024, 10:18 PM

That is shocking that The Boy and the Heron is already ahead of Spirited Away I guess that was one where it's reputation grew over the years and it was over twenty years ago, but still!

It's a great film that I'd highly recommend, not quite the best of Ghibli, but beautiful, complex and creative as you could expect, felt like an appropriate swan song (given the film's characters x) if it is indeed his final film.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 3rd January 2024, 12:02 AM

'Wish' really did turn out to become a bit of a hit here! It is so over hated! I do think once it hits Disney+ it could become more popular. Not 'Encanto' levels, but still see a significant rise in popularity.

I saw 'Ferrari', 'Next Goal Wins', 'The Boy & The Heron' & 'Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom' (the latter today) and NGW was definitely my favourite. I do love a fun, underdog sports movie. I can't say I love TB&TH though. Which is a shame. I didn't hate it by any means, but I wanted to like it a whole lot more than I actually did.

I hated both 'Ferrari' and 'Aquaman'... so NO THANKS to those.

Posted by: LewisGT 8th January 2024, 09:58 PM

5th January 2024 - 7th January 2024

1. (01) Wonka - £3,779,635 (-43%) Weeks: 5 (£53,074,026)
2. (NE) One Life - £3,324,502 Weeks: 1 (£3,324,502)
3. (NE) Priscilla - £1,326,326 Weeks: 1 (£1,326,326)
4. (05) Anyone But You - £1,094,951 (-13%) Weeks: 2 (£3,391,223)
5. (03) Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom - £938,303 (-46%) Weeks: 3 (£8,252,663)
6. (04) The Boy And The Heron - £795,265 (-52%) Weeks: 2 (£3,019,532)
7. (06) Wish - £627,978 (-38%) Weeks: 7 (£11,444,652)
8. (02) Ferrari - £599,427 (-70%) Weeks: 2 (£3,278,831)
9. (NE) Night Swim - £590,691 Weeks: 1 (£590,691)
10. (08) The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes - £183,098 (-55%) Weeks: 8 (£17,924,848)


Falling out:
Next Goal Wins (1 week)
Napoleon (1 week) *In this run
Godzilla Minus One (1 week) *In this run


2024 begins where 2023 left off with 'Wonka' bagging a 5th week at #1. I'm running out of things to say about Paul King's film. It now looks sure to gross the extra £5.5 million it would need to climb above 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' and 'Oppenheimer' to become the 2nd biggest release of 2023 in the UK. Expect to see much more of Timothée Chalamet in the purple suit.

It was the New Year bank holiday last week so the two big new entries both opened on Monday last week and have a full week's gross included in their gross. And this was nearly enough to give 'One Life' the box-office crown. Opening at #2 with £3,324,502, the film sees both Johnny Flynn and Anthony Hopkins star as real-life figure, Nicholas Winton, who helped hundreds of children flee Czechoslovakia upon the dawn of WWII. It's hard to spoil a real-life story but I'll still stay away from saying too much but Hopkin's part of the film focuses on a particular, famous TV appearance in Winton's life that is sure to make you weep. It is directed by James Hawes in his feature debut.

Opening up in bronze position is 'Priscilla'. Based purely on the weekend data, without the Monday-Thursday figures, this would have debuted outside the top 5 but with the full data it is the highest-grossing opening weekend of director Sofia Coppola's career. This is, of course, a biopic of Priscilla Presley and is adapted from her biography 'Elvis and Me'. The star of the show is Cailee Spaeny who has the unenviable task of portraying Priscilla from ages 15-27. She was nominated at last night's Golden Globes but did not win. Man of the moment, Jacob Elordi plays the King in this one. Not an easy role to take on, after Austin Butler was Oscar nominated last year for playing the same man. It would unfair to compare to the summer blockbuster full of excess that was Baz Luhrmann's 'Elvis' but that film opened up with £4,023,573 in June 2022 on it's way to a £22 million+ total.

There is one last new entry to talk about in the top 10, 'Night Swim' at #9. This is the latest release from Blumhouse after 'Five Nights At Freddy's' broke all sorts of records for them in October. Blumhouse found great early year success last year when they opened 'M3GAN' to a great £2,356,357. So what went wrong for 'Night Swim'? For one thing, the critical reception has been a lot more tepid (it has a score of 25% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to 93% for M3GAN) and it doesn't have the virality factor of M3GAN's dancing from the trailor. However, it's actually not all bad news for the movie. It is a Blumhouse film after all so it was budgeted very smartly. It's already opened worldwide to $17 million which compares favourably to its $15 million budget. It may not end up as a huge money-maker for the studio but it's certainly not going to lose them much. It's directed by Bryce McGuir and is adapted from his own 2024 short of the same name about a haunted swimming pool. The film stars (false) Captain America, Wyatt Russell and bizarrely, Kerry Condon, who decided this to follow her brilliant Oscar nominated performance in 'The Banshees of Inisherin'.

Looking back at the 4 films that opened last week, they can clearly be separated into winners and losers. Let's start on a positive note with the winners; the biggest of which is 'Anyone But You'. The film climbs up a place to #4 with a 13% drop. This is a particularly good hold when you consider that the first week total included a 6-day total after it's Boxing Day release. Purely based on weekend totals, it's up 49%. It's really seemed to connect with audiences, already grossing $58 million worldwide on a (crazily small) $25 million budget. The other winner is 'The Boy And The Heron'. Just like 'Anyone But You', while the official numbers say it's dropped (52%), based purely on weekend grosses it's actually increased 16%. With a Golden Globe win last night and a great chance for plenty more awards to come, just how much can the film make?

And now for the losers. They're not just losers but BIG losers. 'Ferrari' had the biggest opener of the four last week but a painful 70% drop (41% without previews) has seen it drop between the two I've already discussed. With a massive budget and a poor start in America, this is a huge flop in Michael Mann's career. But even worse is 'Next Goal Wins'. Taika Waititi's film has dropped out of the top 10 after a solitary week (7-12). The numbers are almost unbelivable (officially a 81% drop or 63% without previews). Disney had a disastrous 2023 and 2024 has started no better for them.

One final new entry in the #11-15 section, 'Nabucco: Met Opera 2024' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of 'Poor Things', 'The Boys In The Boat', 'The Beekeeper', 'Guntur Karam', 'Goldbeak' and Self Reliance'. Can any of them top the charts?


Sofia Coppula (post 2000) openings:

Lost In Translation (£797,071, #5, 2004)
Marie Antoinette (283,883, #12, 2006)
Somewhere (£125,581, #8, 2010)
The Bling Ring (£141,425, #7, 2013)
The Beguiled (£414,924, #6, 2017)
On The Rocks (£93,821, #7, 2020) *Debut effected by Covid
Priscilla (£1,326,326, #3, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 15th January 2024, 09:34 PM

12th January 2024 - 14th January 2024

1. (01) Wonka - £2,227,606 (-41%) Weeks: 6 (£56,192,556)
2. (NE) Poor Things - £1,819,563 Weeks: 1 (£1,819,563)
3. (04) Anyone But You - £1,246,921 (+14%) Weeks: 3 (£5,369,706)
4. (02) One Life - £1,246,292 (-63%) Weeks: 2 (£5,857,289)
5. (NE) The Beekeeper - £956,380 Weeks: 1 (£956,380)
6. (03) Priscilla - £493,384 (-63%) Weeks: 2 (£2,192,459)
7. (06) The Boy And The Heron - £490,409 (-38%) Weeks: 3 (£3,916,108)
8. (05) Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom - £455,039 (-51%) Weeks: 4 (£8,998,109)
9. (07) Wish - £373,442 (-41%) Weeks: 8 (£11,904,402)
10. (NE) The Boys In The Boat - £270,297 - Weeks: 1 (£270,297)


Falling out:
Ferrari (2 weeks)
Night Swim (1 week)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes (8 weeks)


'Wonka' continues it's unbelievable success by bagging it's 6th week at #1, equalling the run of Barbie in the summer. That film was down to £1,944,777 on it's last week at #1 so Wonka is currently making more at this stage of their runs. However, I think it's current grosses is low enough now that this will be it's final week at the top.

Debuting at #2 with a brilliant £1,819,563 (£1.6 million without previews) is 'Poor Things'. This is an amazing result for an 18 rated film with an incredibly odd-premise. This is the latest team up for Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos and his muse Emma Stone after Oscar favourite 'The Favourite' in 2019. Lanthimos's breakthrough was 'The Lobster' and this film has already overtaken that film's final total of £1.5 million. This is a big favourite to win many awards over this season, especially for Stone who, in a Frankenstein-esque premise plays an infant in an adults body. See below for Yorgos Lanthimos's openings history.

The Stath is back and this time with an ill-advised American accent in 'The Beekeeper'. Coming from gritty director David Ayer ('End Of Watch', 'Fury' and writer of 'Training Day'), the premise is incredibly ridiculous. A retired agent of the secret, mysterious 'spy' agency, 'The Beekeepers', Jason Statham has become a real-beekeeper but is brought back into the killing-loads-of-henchmen game after the owner of the house he is a tenant of falls for a phishing scam.

The only other new entry in the top 10 is George Clooney's 'The Boys In The Boat'. Starring Joel Edgerton and Dua Lipa's apparent beau Callum Turner, the film is adapted from the book of the same name and focuses on the real-life story of the rowing team that represented the United States at the infamous 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. £270,297 feels like a really poor opening for such a film. It feels like a release that was aiming for a £1 million+ opening weekend. See below for George Clooney's directing openings history.

I called it the big winner last week and now it's an even bigger winner as 'Anyone But You' completes the incredibly rare achievement of increasing in business in it's third week (+14%). It seems the reporting on the death of the rom-com has been greatly exaggerated.

'One Life' is incredibly unlucky not to hold in the top 3 as it lands just £629 behind 'Anyone But You'. This drop is 63% which is the exact same as 'Priscilla'. These holds both seem quite big but remember that both films opened with extensive previews. Their drops without previews are actually incredibly strong: 27.8% for 'One Life' and 23.2% for 'Priscilla'. This is enough for 'Priscilla' to already be Sofia Coppola's 2nd biggest film in the UK behind 'Lost In Translation (£10.1 million).

Three new entries in the #11-15 section, 'Guntur Karam' (#13), 'Hanuman' (#14) and 'Captain Miller' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of 'Mean Girls', 'The Holdovers', 'The End We Start From', 'Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer', 'In Broad Daylight' and 'Blue'. Can any of them top the charts?


Yorgos Lanthimos openings:

Dogtooth (£26,013, #25, 2010)
Alps (£6,749, #34, 2012)
The Lobster (£229,619, #9. 2015)
The Killing Of A Secret Deer (£286,448, #10, 2017)
The Favourite (£3,973,975, #2, 2019)
Poor Things (£1,819,563, #2, 2024)

George Clooney openings:

Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind (356,623, #6, 2003)
Good Night, And Good Luck (405,200, #8, 2006)
Leatherheads (£474,780, #6, 2008)
The Idles Of March (£665,387, #8, 2011)
The Monuments Men (£1,616,625, #2, 2014)
Subunicorn (£231,412, #10, 2017)
The Boys In The Boat (£270,297, #10, 2024

Posted by: LewisGT 22nd January 2024, 08:17 PM

19th January 2024 - 21st January 2024

1. (NE) Mean Girls - £3,251,159 Weeks: 1 (£3,251,159)
2. (01) Wonka - £1,691,563 (-24%) Weeks: 7 (£58,392,205)
3. (02) Poor Things - £1,093,076 (-39%) Weeks: 2 (£3,746,997)
4. (03) Anyone But You - £1,079,651 (-14%) Weeks: 4 (£7,035,226)
5. (04) One Life - £858,245 (-31%) Weeks: 3 (£7,474,825)
6. (NE) The Holdovers - £689,771 Weeks: 1 (£689,771)
7. (05) The Beekeeper - £682,307 (-29%) Weeks: 2 (£2,097,937)
8. (09) Wish - £362,074 (-3%) Weeks: 9 (£12,302,381)
9. (NE) Queen Rock Montreal - £285,110 Weeks: 1 (£285,110)
10. (07) The Boy And The Heron - £266,130 (-46%) Weeks: 4 (£4,412,633)


Falling out:
Priscilla (2 weeks)
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom (4 weeks)
The Boys In The Boat (1 week)



It may not be 3rd October, but it's still a big day at the box office because 'Wonka' has finally been dethroned after a 6 week spell at #1. Musicals are in at the moment as it's 2024's remake of 'Mean Girls' that tops the chart, 20 years after the Lindsay Lohan/Rachel McAdams teen-classic was first released. This is adapted from the stage musical that started in 2017 and sees Reneé Rapp reprise her role of Regina George that she played in the show's run between 2019-2020. All three versions have been written by Tina Fey and she also reprises her role of Ms. Norbury from the 2004 original alongside Tim Meadows as Principal Duvall. 2024's 'Mean Girls' has opened very favourably compared to the original. That 'Mean Girls' opened in 3rd place with £1,393,494 in June 2004 with 2024's opening with £3,251,159 this weekend. There are definitely external factors that need to be considered, inflation means that cinema tickets cost a lot more now and the film actually opened last Wednesday. Without the extra days. 'Mean Girls' opened with £2.5 million over the weekend. It's promotional campaign might have tried to link it to 'Barbie' and while it not be a complete runaway success like that film, this has still been a very successful release. It's already completed it's 2nd week at #1 in the US and has grossed $66 million worldwide, already over it's $36 million budget. Not bad for a film that was originally made for streaming. Up until September last year, this was destined to skip cinemas for Paramount+. I bet their glad that they changed their mind on that one. Angourie Rice takes the role of Cady in this one (you might know her from 'The Nice Guys' the MCU Spider-Man trilogy or her 'Black Mirror' episode) while Moana herself, Auliʻi Cravalho, plays Janis. I went to to see it this weekend and left feeling pretty mixed. I'll spare you all the details, but the main takeaway is Reneé Rapp = With 'The Color Purple' out next week, can we make it 8 weeks in a row with a musical at #1?

The other big release this week is the awards-bothering 'The Holdovers'. We might be in January now but let's take it back a month as this film is set at Christmas. The headlines have been stolen by the fact that this is the first re-team up of director Alexander Payne and star Paul Giamatti after their legendary work together 20 years ago in 'Sideaways', a film that had such a large impact that it tanked the 'Merlot' industry while single-handedly making 'Pinot Noir' a thing in America. 'The Holdovers' of the title refer to pupils at a boarding school who have to remain at school over the Christmas holidays as no-one came to pick them up. Giamatti plays the teacher left behind to look after them while newcomer Dominic Sessa plays a child left behind as has bagged himself a BAFTA nomination for what is his first acting role. However, the largest awards buzz comes for Da'Vine Joy Randolph who plays a cook and looks like a shoo-in for the 'Best Supporting Actress' Oscar. The opening of £689,771 represents a very solid start. This is up on the £349,642 opening for 'Sideways'. That film ended up with £3.9 million. If 'The Holdovers' could reach that, it would be an outstanding performance but who knows what the awards effect might do for the film.

The final new entry in the top 10 brings us back to the world of event cinema with 'Queen Rock Montreal' at #9. Recorded in November 1981, this is a recording of two live shows that Queen performed at Montreal Forum in Quebec. Released exclusively in IMAX cinemas, it's being reported as the 'biggest IMAX exclusive Event opening ever', with an estimated $4.1 million worldwide.

He might not be #1 anymore, but it's not all bad news for 'Wonka'. It's had another insanely good hold (-24%) and shows no sign of slowing down. It's now less than £100,000 away from overtaking the gross of 'Oppenheimer' to become the 2nd biggest release of 2023 in the UK. Another £3 million would put it firmly within the top 25 films of all-time in the UK. Talking about films that are holding well, 'Anyone But You' has it's first weekend-to-weekend drop after 2 weeks of increasing in box office. However, a 14% drop is still brilliant and makes it a whole month grossing £1 million+ every weekend.

Last week's big opening was 'The Poor Things' and this weekend, it drops 39% (29% minus previews) which puts it over £3.5 million in total so far. This is a great result for an 18-rated release with such an odd premise and it's sure to continue to make waves with the Oscar nominations out tomorrow. The highest grossing 18-rated release of 2023 was 'Scream VI' with £7.3 million. It will be interesting to see if 'Poor Things' can get anywhere near that. 'The Beekeeper' might not have had an amazing opening last week but it's held well with a 29% drop (26% without previews).

I've mentioned previously that 'Wish' was a box-office disappointment, and while it hasn't done enough to make that statement false, it has continued to rack up some brilliant holds. It dropped a measly 3% this weekend and now has a respectable total of £12,302,381. It is slowly sneaking it's way towards the top 20 films of 2023. It has followed the exact same pattern that 'Elemental' did with a disastrous opening followed by strong word-of-mouth leading to a long run. This shows that it's not the films that have been the problem for Disney recently, it has to be the promotion. As soon as people actually see the films. the audience excitement is there.

One final new entry in the #11-15 section: 'The End We Start From' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of 'The Color Purple', 'NT Live: Dear England', 'All Of Us Strangers', 'Baghead', Jackdaw', 'The Outrun' and 'Fighter'. Can any of them top the charts?


Alexander Payne 21st Century openings:

About Schmidt (£757,325, #7, 2003)
Sideways (£349,642, #8, 2005)
The Descendants (£1,797,939, #2, 2012)
Nebraska (£151,332, #10, 2013)
Downsizing (£1,131,687, #9, 2018)
The Holdovers (£689,771, #6, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 29th January 2024, 09:35 PM

26th January 2024 - 28th January 2024

1. (01) Mean Girls - £1,496,629 (-54%) Weeks: 2 (£5,524,957)
2. (NE) All Of Us Strangers - £1,176,972 Weeks: 1 (£1,176,972)
3. (02) Wonka - £1,047,752 (-38%) Weeks: 8 (£59,768,006)
4. (04) Anyone But You - £817,810 (-24%) Weeks: 5 (£8,358,865)
5. (03) Poor Things - £690,024 (-37%) Weeks: 3 (£5,068,533)
6. (06) The Holdovers - £655,556 (-5%) Weeks: 2 (£1,739,990)
7. (NE) Fighter - £590,146 Weeks: 1 (£590,146)
8. (NE) The Color Purple - £452,364 Weeks: 1 (£452,364)
9. (05) One Life - £451,852 (-47%) Weeks: 4 (£8,511,456)
10. (07) The Beekeeper - £417,112 (-39%) Weeks: 3 (£2,842,300)


Falling out:
Wish (9 weeks)
Queen Rock Montreal (1 week)
The Boy And The Heron (4 weeks)


It is an 8th consecutive week of musicals dominating the box office with 'Mean Girls' bullying it's way to a 2nd week at the top. It's official drop is a steep 54% but remember, it opened on a Wednesday and it's weekend to weekend drop is only about 40%. After two weekends of play, 'Mean Girls' 2024 is sitting at and is less than £200k from overtaking the lifetime gross of the 2004 original.

The Oscar nominations were released this week and the main discourse seemed to be about the snub of Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig. However, what's being talked about as the real snub among the 'true film' is 'All Of Us Strangers'. Adapted from the 1987 Japanese novel 'Strangers', the Andrew Haigh directed film simultaneously tells the story of a romance between two men played by Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott and also Scott's character who discovers that when he visits his old childhood home, he can communicate with his late parents who had died when he was 12. The film has been getting 5 stars all-around and had already caused a stir when 'Scott' missed out on a BAFTA nod. The film, shockingly, picked up no nominations at the Oscars but that hasn't stopped the film from exceeding expectations at the box-office, with it's previews helping it sneak above 'Wonka' into 2nd place. It has already grossed £1,176,972 which makes it likely to overtake Haigh's current highest-grossing film '45 Years' (£1.8 million).

We have our first Indian top 10 release of 2024 with 'Fighter' opening at #7. This is directed by Siddharth Anand and acts as his follow-up to last year's 'Pathaan' which broke the record as the largest ever Indian opening with £1.4 million. This could crudely be dubbed as the Indian 'Top Gun' and is the first in a planned airborne franchise. However, opening up with less than £500k suggests that it's not going to be at the same level as his last film.

The third and final new entry in the top 10 is 'The Color Purple' (#8). This was comfortably the widest new release this weekend, opening in 644 cinemas (compared to 490 for 'All Of Us Strangers') so it's opening of £452,364 proves ton be a dismal result. £500 less and it would have dropped to #9. The film actually opened on Christmas Day in the US and grossed £18.2 million making it the 2nd best Christmas opening. However, the film faded incredibly quickly over there and has not even managed the strong opening day here. The Color Purple' was first adapted for cinemas by Steven Spielberg in 1985 and ended up as the 4th biggest film of the year. This one is actually based on the 2005 stage musical and sees some of the cast reprise their roles. The lasting criticism of the 1985 film was that this personal Black story was directed by Spielberg and this one makes amends by having Ghanaian director Samuel Bazawule take the helm. An extraordinary cast includes Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Halle Bailey, Ciara and Corey Hawkins. The film picked up one Oscar nomination: 'Danielle Brooks' for 'Best Supporting Actress' for the same role that Oprah Winfrey also received a nom for in 1986.

'Wonka' drops to #3 but stays above £1 million for an 8th week and has finally passed 'Oppenheimer' to become the 2nd biggest cinema release of 2023. It's currently the 29th highest-grossing film ever in the UK and the only thing left to talk about with the film is seeing how high it can get on that list. 'Anyone But You' continues with it's incredible holds. It's 24% drop is it's steepest yet but still well above market average.

Now for the Oscar section. 'The Holdovers' proves to be an apt title as the film holds at #6 in its 2nd week with a negligible of 5%. Without previous, the film actually improved by 9% weekend-to-weekend. 'Poor Things' was the 2nd most nominated film and continues to do well dropping 37% in its third week. My feeling is that it will be able to pass 'the gross of ‘Scream VI' which will mean it would be bigger than any 18 certificate films released in 2023.

'The Beekeeper' is down to #10 with £417,112 on it's 3rd week. In the US, it's fortunes are completely reversed where it's in a tight battle to climb to #1 after two weeks at #2 behind 'Mean Girls'.

Three new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Baghead' (#11), 'NT Live: Dear England' (#13) and 'Malaikottai Vaaliban' (#15). It's important to note that 'NT Live: Dear England' opened on Thursday, earning £544,763 that is not being included in it's weekend gross. It this actually counted, the recording would have actually been at #5.

Next week sees the openings of 'Migration', 'Argylle', 'The Zone Of Interest', 'American Fiction' 'Pet Shop Boys Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live At The Royal Arena', 'Kinky Boots: The Musical' and 'Dalton's Dream'. Can any of them top the charts?


Andrew Haigh openings:

Weekend (£30,475, #23, 2011)
45 Years (£331,196, #10, 2015)
Lean On Pete (£85,597, #12, 2018)
All Of Us Strangers (£1,176,972, #2, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 6th February 2024, 08:41 PM

2nd February 2024 - 4th February 2024

1. (NE) Migration - £3,577,675 Weeks: 1 (£3,577,675)
2. (NE) Argylle - £2,014,521 Weeks: 1 (£2,014,521)
3. (01) Mean Girls - £843,601 (-44%) Weeks: 3 (£6,831,950)
4. (02) All Of Us Strangers - £797,004 (-32%) Weeks: 2 (£2,756,602)
5. (NE) The Zone Of Interest - £585,855 Weeks: 1 (£585,855)
6. (04) Anyone But You - £572,885 (-30%) Weeks: 6 (£9,276,529)
7. (03) Wonka - £567,825 (-46%) Weeks: 9 (£60,535,781)
8. (05) Poor Things - £429,715 (-38%) Weeks: 4 (£5,912,340)
9. (06) The Holdovers - £394,566 (-40%) Weeks: 3 (£2,542,747)
10. (NE) American Fiction - £389,375 Weeks: 1 (£389,375)


Falling out:
The Fighter (1 week)
The Color Purple (1 week)
One Life (4 weeks)
The Beekeeper (3 weeks)


Universal were in a battle with themselves this week with the winner being Illumination's latest flick 'Migration'. The film was released in America in December and, after a low start, continued to stick around and passed $100 million in the region. It's took a while to reach these shores and it's finally opened with £3,577,675. This constitutes the biggest opening of the year but is well-down on Illuminations franchise hits ('Despicable Me') or last-year's 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie'. In fact, this is the studio's lowest debut since 'The Secret Life Of Pets 2 in 2019. However, Illumination have become franchise kings of late and this marks their first 'original-concept' film for 8 years (2016's 'Sing'). In classic animated kids film fare, the plot surrounds a family of geese with an overbearing Dad who learns to become less strict as they escape a chef on their way to holiday in Jamaica. Inexplicably, this was scripted by Mike White, the creator of 'The White Lotus' and sees Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Keegan-Michael Key, Awkwafina, and Danny DeVito all provide their voices. See below for a comparison of all the Illumination openings.

Now we've covered this week's winner, let's focus on the big loser. Coming from writer/director Matthew Vaughn, best known for 'Kick-Ass' and the 'Kingsman' franchise, 'Argylle' is a spy comedy in the same vein and has a packed A-List cast of Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Dua Lipa, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cena, Ariana DeBose and, playing the titular role, Henry Cavill. The film has had an interesting promotion campaign, with the Vaughn's family cat taking centre stage in most of it. The film was being promoted as being adapted from an unreleased book by author Elly Conway and, in a meta twist, she appears in the film, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. However, this always seemed like a dubious claim as there was no prior information about Conway online. After rumours started flying around that it was actually written by Taylor Swift, it has recently been confirmed that the tie-in novel has actually been written by Terry Hayes and Tammy Cohen. This felt like the first big blockbuster release of 2024 and missing #1 has to be seen as a massive disappointment. The film has been co-financed by Apple Studios and is expected to appear on Apple+ within the next couple of months. The opening of £2,014,521 marks the lowest opening for Vaughn since his 2004 debut 'Layer Cake'. See below for a comparison of all of Vaughn's openings.

It is Oscar season and the last two new entries are both multiple nominees for this year. 'The Zone Of Interest' is the fourth film from acclaimed British director Jonathan Glazer and his first in 11 years. £585,855 represents a great opening and show's that the long gap between releases hasn't meant the audience has lost appetite for his films. Despite opening on half the screens of another awards favourite, 'Past Lives', it's has opened with almost double what that did. The film is set at a house that is attached to Auschwitz and focuses on the Nazi family that live there while ignoring the tragedy that's happening on their doorstep. I've been lucky enough to watch two of Glazer's films ('Sexy Beast' and 'Under The Skin') in the cinema for free recently but have not had the chance to sett this one yet but I know that it's a timely and difficult watch. If there was to be a shock winner at the Oscars this year, my money would be on this one.

The final new entry is another Oscar favourite and one that I've already seen, 'American Fiction' at #10. A satire about how African-Americans are portrayed in fictional media, Jeffrey Wright gets a rare lead role and puts in a brilliant performance as a struggling author who pens an awful, cliched book about the black experience in protest of the poor representation in novels only to see it become a huge hit. £389,375 is a solid opening for a low-key release and I would highly recommend everyone to go and check it out.

After two weeks at #1, 'Mean Girls' drops to #3 to end the dominance of musicals at the box office. A 44% drop is pretty middling but is enough for the teen comedy to pass the total of the 2004 original (£5.7 million) and move closer to catching 'One Life' to be the biggest release of the year so far.

Despite missing out on the expected nominations, 'All Of Us Strangers' has a good second week hold (32% or 23% without previews) and is already director, Andrew Haigh's biggest ever release. 'Anyone But You' and 'Wonka' are starting to finally fade away, both having their biggest percentage drops yet. 'Anyone But You' drops 30% as it creeps towards £10 million overall while 'Wonka' drops 46% to #7 but does pass the £60 million barrier.

No further new entries in the #11-15 section as 4/5 of the spots are taken by films dropping out the top #10. The other film is last week's #11 'Baghead' that holds pretty well at #13.

Next week sees the openings of 'The Iron Claw', 'The Jungle Bunch: World Tour', 'Gassed Up', 'Occupied City' 'Origin', 'Peppa's Cinema Party' and 'Table For Six 2'. Also stay peeled for 'Turning Red' that is getting it's first ever showings in the cinemas and re-releases of 'Dune' and 'It Happened One Night'. Can any of them top the charts?


Illumination openings:

Despicable Me (£3,664,376, #1, 2010)
Hop (£1,392,740, #1, 2011)
The Lorax (£1,853,294, #2, 2012)
Despicable Me 2 (£14,822,427, #1, 2013)
Minions (£11,558,946, #1, 2015)
The Secret Life Of Pets (£9,580,039, #1, 2016)
Sing (£10,487,380, #1, 2017)
Despicable Me 3 (£11,154,904, #1, 2017)
The Grinch (£5,019,677, #1, 2018)
The Secret Life Of Pets 2 (£3,490,598, #1, 2019)
Sing 2 (£6,867,533, #1, 2022)
Minions: The Rise Of Gru (£10,424,758, #1, 2022)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (£15,691,810, #1, 2023)
Migration (£3,577,675, #1, 2024)


Matthew Vaughn's openings:

Layer Cake (£1,090,561, #3, 2004)
Stardust (£2,245,143, #2, 2007)
Kick-Ass (£3,881,704, #3, 2010)
X-Men: First Class (£5,438,386, #2, 2011)
Kingsman: The Secret Service (£4,241,292, #2, 2015)
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (£8,525,664, #1, 2017)
The King's Man (£3,496,627, #2, 2021)
Argylle (£2,014,521, #2, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 13th February 2024, 07:48 PM

9th February 2024 - 11th February 2024

1. (01) Migration - £2,468,390 (-31%) Weeks: 2 (£6,664,960)
2. (02) Argylle - £994,542 (-50%) Weeks: 2 (£3,705,840)
3. (NE) The Iron Claw - £754,152 Weeks: 1 (£754,152)
4. (04) All Of Us Strangers - £510,035 (-36%) Weeks: 3 (£3,791,038)
5. (NE) Peppa's Cinema Party - £490,693 Weeks: 1 (£490,693)
6. (03) Mean Girls - £482,291 (-43%) Weeks: 4 (£7,577,630)
7. (06) Anyone But You - £439,312 (-23%) Weeks: 7 (£9,966,152)
8. (07) Wonka - £410,729 (-28%) Weeks: 10 (£61,097,420)
9. (05) The Zone Of Interest - £388,890 (-34%) Weeks: 2 (£1,268,103)
10. (RE) Dune - £335,657 Weeks: 121 (£22,424,573)


Falling out:
Poor Things (4 weeks)
The Holdovers (3 weeks)
American Fiction (1 week)


In one of the poorest box-office weeks in a a fair while, 'Migration' gets a 2nd week at #1 with 'Argylle' sticking at #2. Illumination's latest drops a fairly decent 31% to ~£2.5 million and is the only film to pass the million mark this weekend. It's still miles behind their big franchises but the film has managed to keep a foothold in the American box office and looks like it might do the same here. It's not good news for 'Argylle' though. After a bad opening, the film has dropped 50% (43% without previews) and it looks set to lose a lot of money with the planned sequels and spin-offs unlikely to see the light. It might be the last straw for Apple Films, who, despite their Best Picture win for CODA a couple of years back, are yet to release a film that has hit at the box office.

The big new release this week was real-life wrestling drama, 'The Iron Claw' which opens at #3. A debut of £754,152 means that it is already director Sean Durkin's biggest hit ahead of 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' that had a final gross of £472,904. Just like the film it's one place ahead of ('All Of Us Strangers'), this film has received universally positive reviews and was tipped to be a big awards botherer. However, it's another film that has been shut out of all the nominations. The film is based upon the lives of a real-life wrestling family, the Von Erichs whose story is almost unbelievably dramatic and tragic. If you can, go into the film blind and don't read about their history before you see it. A buzzy cast of Zac Efron, The Bear's Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson portray the wrestling brothers Kevin, Kerry and David. I've heard that Zac Efron is outstanding in his role and has been robbed of an Oscar nomination.

The only other new entry in the top 10 is 'Peppa's Cinema Party' (£490,693, #5). This is the 3rd cinematic release from the ever-popular British kids animation Peppa Pig after 'Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots' (£687,417, 2015) and 'Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience' (£1,050,962, 2017). This is a big drop-off from the last time they tried this trick but, to be fair, I didn't see any promotion for this one. It's tagline on IMBd does sound quite wild "Peppa celebrates 20 years with 10 new episodes, a 3-part wedding special, a mix of animation and live action where Peppa enters the real world, a party bus bonus episode, and 5 sing-along songs". Why does Peppa Pig need a 3 episode wedding arc and LIVE ACTION???

A lot of people are pinning all their hopes on 'Dune: Part Two' being the saviour of the Q1 of the 2024 box office and to build up a bit of hype, Warner Bros. have re-released 2021's original and it just about makes the top 10 at #10. £335,657 is a pretty decent number for a re-release and takes it's total up to £22,424,573. For comparison, this number would have made it the 10th biggest release of 2023 had it been released last year. A similar total would be a great result for Villeneuve's epic.

'Mean Girls' has a steeper than expected 43% drop for a total of £7,577,630. It's starting to drop harder than I expected and now I'm thinking it won't be able to out-gross 'One Life' to become the biggest release of 2024 so far. 'Anyone But You' has another great hold (23%) but I'll leave it to next week to discuss the big milestone it will have already passed by now (Tuesday).

In this week's Oscar watch, 'The Zone Of Interest' has a decent 38% drop. Without previews, it would actually be a climb of 10%. With this being a German language release, it could have easily been a hard sell. However, it has already passed the £1.2 million total of 'Under The Skin' to become Jonathan Glazer's biggest hit. 'Poor Things', 'The Holdovers' and 'American Fiction' all fall out of the top 10 but are all just outside at #11, #12 and #13 respectively. The week-to-week drops are 38%, 40% and 46%.

One further new entry in the #11-15 section: 'Teri Meri Kahaniyaan' at #15.

Next week sees the openings of 'Bob Marley: One Love', 'Madame Web', 'The Taste Of Things', 'The Promised Land' and 'Eureka'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: No Sleeep 14th February 2024, 03:48 AM

I saw The Color Purple today and I really wish it did better. Great cast, and I can’t think of a movie that’s made me that emotional in a loooong time.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 14th February 2024, 01:58 PM

'One Love' is going to smash it this weekend. However, beyond that will need to depend how word of mouth goes about it. The reviews are not good but music biopics tend to be immune from critically bad reviews as long as the music transports its audience to times they are most fond of listening to it.

'Madame Web' is DOA. I can't see that doing over $2m opening weekend (maybe JUST with previews?) but that is absolutely fading away completely and probably a huge fall next week.

Posted by: Anita Hanjaab 14th February 2024, 06:03 PM

61 million for Wonka!!! Biggest UK film total of all time??

Posted by: LewisGT 14th February 2024, 07:46 PM

Wonka is now the 26th biggest film of all-time in the UK. The highest grossing film is 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' with £123.3 million which was a British co-production and 'Skyfall' is the biggest British-led production and is the only other film to pass £100 million with a final total of £102.8 million.

Posted by: LewisGT 19th February 2024, 09:31 PM

The source I use for this data seems like it's decided to stop updating on Mondays and I'm going to be too busy tomorrow so the full post for this week won't be up until Wednesday.

The main story though is that 'Bob Marley: One Love' opens up comfortably at #1 while 'Madame Web' can only make #3.

Posted by: JackTheeStallion 19th February 2024, 09:52 PM

In all honesty I was expecting worse for Madame Web given the amount of negativity surrounding it!

Posted by: Herbs 19th February 2024, 10:26 PM

Good to see All Of Us Strangers with some staying power

Posted by: LewisGT 20th February 2024, 09:42 PM

16th February 2024 - 18th February 2024

1. (NE) Bob Marley: One Love - £6,950,773 Weeks: 1 (£6,950,773)
2. (01) Migration - £2,764,151 (+11%) Weeks: 3 (£13,592,505)
3. (NE) Madame Web - £2,273,544 Weeks: 1 (£2,273,544)
4. (02) Argylle - £544,846 (-45%) Weeks: 3 (£5,046,902)
5. (08) Wonka - £424,825 (+3%) Weeks: 11 (£62,192,678)
6. (03) The Iron Claw - £417,128 (-45%) Weeks: 2 (£1,633,593)
7. (06) Mean Girls - £383,317 (-21%) Weeks: 5 (£8,544,708)
8. (05) Peppa's Cinema Party - £351,896 (-28%) Weeks: 2 (£1,233,937)
9. (07) Anyone But You - £320,966 (-27%) Weeks: 8 (£10,835,651)
10. (04) All Of Us Strangers - £309,082 (-39%) Weeks: 4 (£4,513,523)


Falling out:
The Zone Of Interest (2 weeks)
Dune (1 week* *in this run)


It's One Love at the box office this week with the Bob Marley biopic entering at #1 with the biggest opening of the year so far. Of course, last week was Valentine's day and both the new releases took advantage of it by opening on Wednesday so their numbers are inflated by large previews. Without previews, 'Bob Marley: One Love' would have opened with £4.2 million which would still be enough to be the biggest weekend gross of 2024. The music biopic has been a solid formula for a box office hit of recent times and this has been the 2nd biggest opening out of them, behind 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (£9,530,463, 2018). Without previews, it would also be under 'Rocketman' (£5,381,904, 2019) but it does beat 'Elvis' (£4,023,573, 2022) and 'Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody' (£3,325,458, 2023). Plating the Reggae legend is Kingsley Ben-Adir, who alongside playing Basketball Ken in last year's biggest release 'Barbie', has already portrayed Malcolm X and Barack Obama before on screen. If you need an actor to play a legendary real-life icon, he seems the be the first number on speed-dial. Director Reinaldo Marcus Green previously directed Will Smith to one of the most-overshadowed Oscar wins of all-time with his last release 'King Richard' (£570,316, 2021). See below for a comparison of Reinaldo Marcus Green's opening weekends. I think I will also compile a music biopic opening weekend chart sometime this week so look out for the bonus stats!

Now it's time for some some SPUMC. After asking for some help from Marvel Studios with their Spider-Man films, Sony have retained the rights to the wider characters and the latest in their renamed universe (it's now called SSU) is 'Madame Web'. It's fair to say that the franchise hasn't been a critical favourite so far, even if the Venom films have certainly been a hit with audiences. Pairing that with the almost universally negative responses to the trailers and promotion, hopes have not been high for 'Madam Web' and it has opened at #3 with £2,273,544 (£1.3 million without previews). The star Dakota Johnson has seen pretty apathetic during the promotional campaign but the film features Sydney Sweeney who has been involved in the biggest box office story of 2024 so far in 'Anyone But You' (more on that later) so there was some slight hope. But this opening has shown that the film (and potentially the franchise) is dead in the water. Sony might wish it was still Morbin time as this has opened with even less than 'Morbius' did last year. The only saving grace I can see is that it has opened higher than 'Blue Beetle' (£1,189,812, 2023) to stop it being the lowest superhero opening post-covid. See below for a comparison of SSU opening weekends.

Last week was school holidays in many parts of the country and the effect seemed to last the weekend with two family favourites both increasing in business. 'Migration' has an incredible 11% rise on weekend 3 and made an astonishing ~£5 million during the week to comfortably become the biggest release of 2024 so far. The film is already at £13,592,505 which puts it above 'One Life' which previously held the record with £ £9,674,749 . It just shows that you can never write off Illumination Studios. However, the film that has overall made the most money in 2024 so far is 'Wonka' and it just is not slowing up, gaining 3% on it's 11th week and climbing back into the top 5. I've ran out of superlatives to describe how successful this film has been. Warner Bros. will be hoping that it will rub off on the Timothée Chalamet starring 'Dune: Part 2' in a couple of week's time.

'The Iron Claw' drops 45% on it's 2nd week but has now passed £1.5 million and 'Peppa's Cinema Party' has a nice 28% hold. The last story that needs mentioning this week is that 'Anyone But You' has finally passed £10 million. Who would have thought that when it opened behind both 'The Boy And The Heron' and 'Ferrari' (who???) in January?

One further new entry in the #11-15 section: 'The Taste Of Things' at #12. A re-release of 2012's 'Les Misérables' also appears at #14.

Next week sees the openings of 'Wicked Little Letters', 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba -To The Hashira Training', 'Perfect Days', 'Out Of Darkness and 'Memory'. Can any of them top the charts?

The reason I thought I was not going to able to post this today was because I just went to a free-screening of 'Wicked Little Letters' and didn't realise I'd be back so early. I'm not just saying this because they gave out free branded Rock but the film seemed to have a great reaction for the audience so look out for it being a bit of a sleeper hit.

Reinaldo Marcus Green openings

Monsters And Men (£8,440, #35, 2019)
King Richard (£570,316, #5, 2021)
Bob Marley: One Love (£6,950,773, #1, 2024)

SSU openings

Venom (£8,031,342, #1, 2018)
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (£6,167,833, #2, 2021)
Morbius (£3,254,830, #2, 2022)
Madame Web (£2,273,544, #3, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 26th February 2024, 09:11 PM

23rd February 2024 - 25th February 2024

1. (01) Bob Marley: One Love - £2,387,019 (-66%) Weeks: 2 (£11,313,026)
2. (NE) Wicked Little Letters - £1,642,777 Weeks: 1 (£1,642,777)
3. (02) Migration - £1,489,839 (-46%) Weeks: 4 (£16,443,720)
4. (NE) Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba: To The Hashira Training - £641,878 Weeks: 1 (£641,878)
5. (03) Madame Web - £602,018 (-73%) Weeks: 2 (£3,437,633)
6. (NE) Vanya: National Theatre Live 2024 - £327,444 Weeks: 1 (£1,096,316)
7. (04) Argylle - £249,342 (-54%) Weeks: 4 (£5,559,213)
8. (05) Wonka - £249,263 (-41%) Weeks: 12 (£62,693,742)
9. (06) The Iron Claw - £231,384 (-45%) Weeks: 3 (£2,149,407)
10. (11) The Zone Of Interest - £221,346 (-22%) Weeks: 4 (£2,334,850)


Falling out:
Mean Girls (5 weeks)
Peppa's Cinema Party (2 weeks)
Anyone But You (8 weeks)
All Of Us Strangers (4 weeks)


For a 2nd weekend in a row, the box office belonged to 'Bob Marley: One Love' and the Reggae biopic powers above a £10 million total to become the 2nd biggest release of 2024 so far. As the film opened on Valentine's day and had extensive previews included in it's opening, the official numbers show a steep 66% drop in week two. When previews are taken out of the equation, the drop is a more bog-standard 43%. It will be interesting to see how it performs from next week onwards when we have another big blockbuster filling up cinema screens.

Debuting at #2, the biggest new release this weekend was 'Wicked Little Letters'. Based on a true story, this is a very sweary, very British, crowd-pleasing comedy that pits Olivia Colman's sheltered, mild Edith Swan versus the liberated, profane Rose Gooding after the town of Littlehampton is rocked by obscene, scandalous letters that are being anonymously sent to Swan. The film is directed by Thea Sharrock who's only previous cinema release was 2016's Emilia Clarke romantic-drama 'Me Before You' (£1,790,657, #3). An opening of £1,642,777 is pretty much on par with that and with the current trend of a reducing box office, you cannot complain with that. 'Me Before You' ended up with £9.7 million and, while I can see this holding well, that figure does seem out of reach.

Opening at #4 is 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba: To The Hashira Training'. This is the third 'Demon Slayer' release to hit cinema screens in recent years and this lands directly in the middle of the previous two. '£641,878' is higher than the £567,638 of last year's 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: To the Swordsmith Village' (#6) but under the £693,081 for 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train' (#4) in 2020.

The last new entry this week is the first recorded theatre performance of the year. Andrew Scott has already brought us a sleeper hit with 'All Of Us Strangers' this year and now he returns as the star in National Theatre's 'Vanya' (#6). It grossed '£327,444' this weekend which compares very favourably to the last recorded theatre release, 'The Nutcracker: Royal Opera House 2023' (£180,826) last December. With it's mid-week showings, it's currently at £1,096,316 in total.

'Migration' drops 46% after it's rise last weekend, but continues to be the biggest release of 2024 with a current total of £16,443,720. 'Madame Web' continues to be dead in the water with £602,018 in it's 2nd weekend. A mouth-watering 73% drop, that is reduced slightly to 54% when you strip out previews.

There's less than £100 separating 'Argylle' at #7 and 'Wonka' at #8 which is crazy close. 'The Iron Claw' drops 45%, the exact same as it dropped last week. And despite a 23% drop, 'The Zone Of Interest' climbs back into the top 10.

'Anyone But You' is finally out of the top 10 after a brilliant 8 weeks. It's currently on £11,192,911 which makes it currently the 23rd biggest 2023 release.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Perfect Days' (#13) and 'Manjummel Boys' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of 'Dune: Part Two', 'Lisa Frankenstein', 'Combat Wombat', 'Four Daughters', 'Driving Mum', 'Hamlet' and 'Defoe'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: LewisGT 4th March 2024, 10:08 PM

1st March 2024 - 3rd March 2024

1. (NE) Dune: Part Two - £9,279,080 Weeks: 1 (£9,279,080)
2. (01) Bob Marley: One Love - £1,351,557 (-43%) Weeks: 3 (£13,760,796)
3. (02) Wicked Little Letters - £1,172,890 (-29%) Weeks: 2 (£4,259,564)
4. (03) Migration - £961,524 (-36%) Weeks: 5 (£17,590,513)
5. (05) Madame Web - £246,538 (-59%) Weeks: 3 (£3,916,755)
6. (08) Wonka - £143,379 (-43%) Weeks: 13 (£62,877,753)
7. (14) Manjummel Boys - £124,319 (-22%) Weeks: 2 (£392,404)
8. (10) The Zone Of Interest - £110,215 (-49%) Weeks: 5 (£2,606,664)
9. (13) Perfect Days - £109,910 (-37%) Weeks: 2 (£417,230)
10. (NE) Sami Swoi. Początek - £96,823 Weeks: 1 (£96,823)


Falling out:
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba: To The Hashira Training (1 week)
Vanya: National Theatre Live 2024 (1 week)
Argylle (4 weeks)
The Iron Claw (3 weeks)


As expected, this weekend has been dominated by Dune but the stories outside of the top spot are almost more interesting. We'll begin with that huge £9,279,080 figure with 'Dune: Part Two'. This is the biggest number we've seen since the legendary Barbenheimer weekend last July where 'Barbie' debuted at #1 with £18,509,236 and 'Oppenheimer' ranked 2nd with £10,891,486. The original 'Dune' movie had a strong opening of £5,876,892 (including previews) in 2021, becoming one of the first post-pandemic hits. With this opening almost double that and 'Wonka' being a mammoth hit over Christmas (it's opening of £8,904,750 is pretty much on par with this), it's fair to say that the saviour of cinema is called Timothée Chalamet. This figure would have been good enough to rank as the 6th biggest opening weekend of 2023 so there's no doubt about it, 'Dune: Part Two' is a certified smash hit. Expect the heavily-rumoured trilogy-closer to be officially announced any time now. Alongside Chalamet in a starry cast is the returning Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem and Dave Bautista and series-newcomers Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Austin Butler and a previously unannounced Anya-Taylor Joy. The 'original' totalled out at around £22 million, it will be interesting to see how quickly this can overtake that.

The only other new release to make the top 10 is the Polish release 'Sami Swoi. Początek' (#10, £96,823). Coincidently, the last time a film reached the top 10 with a sub-£100k gross was in December last year when another Polish film, 'The Peasants' entered at #10 (£74,441). From what I gather from Wikipedia 'Sami Swoi. Początek' comes from director Artur Zmijewski and is actually a follow-up to a popular trilogy of comedies first released between 1967-1977. I'm struggling to find much more info about this film in English.

However, that's not all that's new to the top 10 because, astoundingly, two films that missed the top 10 last week both climb into it in their 2nd week. 'Manjummel Boys' drops 22% in business but climbs from #14 to #7. This is a survival film from India and is the 2nd release from writer/director Chidambaram. The film is based on a true story about a group of who are on vacation when one of them gets trapped inside the Guna Caves. The other climber is another Asian production, the Japanese/German co-production 'Perfect Days' that climbs #13-#9 with a 37% drop in business. This is directed by legendary German auteur Wim Wenders and focuses on a toilet cleaner who works in the lavish lavatories of Tokyo. This is nominated for 'Best International Picture' at this year's Oscars and was the first entry for Japan not to be directed by a Japanese director.

I usually wait to the end to discuss any films that debut in the #11-15 section but I have to make an exception here and 'Lisa Frankenstein' debuts at #11 with £91,537. Since I've started doing these commentaries, we've seen some huge bombs ('The Marvels', 'Next Goal Wins', 'Madame Web' etc) but this might just be the worst yet. The debut feature for director Zelda Williams (Robin's daughter), the film stars the wonderful Kathryn Newton in the title role alongside Riverdale's Cole Sprouse and was written by Oscar winning scribe Diablo Cody. Cody written 'Juno' to huge success but her career came to a standstill after the teen horror/comedy 'Jennifer's Body' flopped in 2009. That film has went through a huge critical revaluation and is pretty loved nowadays but this feels like deja vu with this being another teen horror-comedy flop. Will time work just as well for this? The saviour for this film is that it has a fairly lower budget of $13 million. However, it had a historically bad opening for a film given a wide-release in the US and it's attempt to be counter-programming for 'Dune' in the UK has not worked, opening behind a Polish film I can find hardly any info about.

Despite the Dune domination, meaning that most films have fallen of a cliff this week, the films between #2-#4 have all had some decent holds. The two-week reign of 'Bob Marley: One Love' is now over but a 43% drop in week 3 is far from disastrous and sees it tick ever-closer to the £15 million mark. I said last week that I could see 'Wicked Little Letters' having some legs and it proves the case this week with a strong 29% drop (23% when you take out previews). This is a fun, breezy romp and feels like the perfect counter-programming to the epic, ponderous 'Dune'. 'Migration' just about dips below £1 million for the weekend but a 36% drop on week 5 when you're already the biggest release of the year so far is nothing ton be sniffed at.

'Madame Web' holds at #5 but a further drop of 59% shows that it's just because of weak competition that it didn't drop. It's now at £3,916,755 overall, which means it has finally passed the opening weekend of 'The Marvels'. Yikes!!! 'Wonka' proves that it's eternal by climbing back up two spots to #6. I wonder how many people did the 'Dueka' double-bill this weekend. We might as well make it a rare week where I discuss the whole top 10 (+1) and mention 'The Zone Of Interest'. It's still holding brilliantly for a foreign-language film. Let's see how it performs if it manages some Oscar success.

Outside of the top 10, it's worth mentioning that 'Mean Girls' has now passed £9 million but double-figures is out of reach.

Next week sees the openings of 'Imaginary', 'Copa 71', 'Origin', ‘Vindication Swim'’, 'The Inventor', 'Cabrini' and 'Shaitaan'. Can any of them top the charts?


Denis Villeneuve Openings

Prisoners (£1,365,527, #1, 2013)
Enemy (£20,937, #22, 2015)
Sicario (£1,596,734, #2, 2015)
Arrival (£2,924,059, #2, 2016)
Blade Runner 2049 (6,071,625, #1, 2017)
Dune (£5,876,892, #1, 2021)
Dune: Part Two (£9,279,080, #1, 2024)

Posted by: dandy* 5th March 2024, 03:53 PM

Glad that Wicked Little Letters had a decent hold. It’s not the best film ever or anything but it’s an enjoyable and fun couple of hours

Posted by: LewisGT 12th March 2024, 05:18 PM

8th March 2024 - 10th March 2024

1. (01) Dune: Part Two - £5,851,155 (-37%) Weeks: 2 (£19,340,959)
2. (03) Wicked Little Letters - £898,390 (-24%) Weeks: 3 (£6,077,094)
3. (02) Bob Marley: One Love - £830,382 (-39%) Weeks: 4 (£15,169,496)
4. (04) Migration - £671,666 (-31%) Weeks: 6 (£18,369,549)
5. (NE) Imaginary - £652,808 Weeks: 1 (£652,808)
6. (NE) Shaitaan - £114,929 Weeks: 1 (£114,929)
7. (NE) Titanic: The Musical - £112,010 Weeks: 1 (£219,179)
8. (06) Wonka - £107,587 (-26%) Weeks: 14 (£63,006,436)
9. (10) Sami Swoi. Początek - £106,882 (+10%) Weeks: 2 (£217,800)
10. (05) Madame Web - £95,983 (-61%) Weeks: 4 (£4,101,428)


Falling out:
Manjummel Boys (1 week)
The Zone Of Interest (5 weeks)
Perfect Days (2 weeks)



In a week where studios are still running scared, 'Dune: Part Two' bags an easy 2nd week at #1 and it's already up to a total of £19,340,959 which means it's already the biggest release of the year. The original 'Dune' only finished on £22 million so this will have easily overtaken that by this time next week. A 37% hold is also not to be sniffed and just shows that that audience is really here for this movie.

It's closest competition this week was actually 'Wicked Little Letters' that has climbed back up to #2. A 24% drop is even stronger than last week and this one is ticking along very nicely. It's at £6 million now and it's starting to look possible that it overtakes 'Me Before You' (£9.7 million) to allow director Thea Sharrock to see an increase with her 2nd film.

The highest new entry this week comes from Blumhouse with 'Imaginary' (£652,808, #5). This is up on the studio's 'Night Swim' that made £590,691 in January but still a far way from their biggest hits. They were hoping for another 'M3GAN' but it doesn't look like the Teddy Bear is going to catch on. This one was directed by Blumhouse regular Jeff Wadlow who also directed 'Truth Or Dare' and 'Fantasy Island' for the studio alongside his biggest project, 'Kick-Ass 2'.

The latest Indian release. 'Shaitaan' enters at #6 (£114,929). This is a Hindi remake of a Gujarati film from last year called 'Vash' and is a supernatural horror film who's title translated as 'Devil'. This is the 3rd film from India to make the Top 10 so far this year.

The final new entry in the top 10 is 'Titanic: The Musical'. It made £112,010 over the weekend but actually opened midweek and has £219,179 in total so far. This is a live theatre recording of the Tony award winning musical and I think they were banking on Mothers Day weekend as Mums are now old enough to have nostalgia for the 1997 James Cameron box-office smash.

Last week's Polish release 'Sami Swoi. Początek' increases in business in week 2 (+10%) and climbs from #10 to #9. It's only grossed £217,800 so far that suggests that it's run in the top 10 is only due to a lack of competition.

'Bob Marley: One Love' drops below 'Wicked Little Letters' for the first time but is still doing well and has now made over £15 million. 'Migration' has been one of the biggest sleeper hits for quite a while and is still riding high in the top 5. 'Wonka' is out on DVD and Blu-Ray now but it's still safely in the top 10 at #8. It's only down 26% which is insane for a film already out on home release. 'Madame Web', however, is on it's last legs in the top 10, dropping another 61% and is already under £100,000 for the week.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'La Forza Del Destino – Met Opera 2023/24' (#12) and 'Soul' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of 'Drive Away Dolls', 'Monster', 'Yodha', ‘The Lyricist Wannabe'’, 'The New Boy', and 'Phantom Parrot'. Can any of them top the charts?


Jeff Wadlow Openings:

Cry Wolf (£196,093, #13, 2006)
Never Back Down (£845,530, #4, 2008)
Kick-Ass 2 (£2,482,187, #1, 2014)
Truth Or Dare (£931,250, #5, 2018)
Fantasy Island (£392,857, #7, 2020)
Imaginary (£652,808, #5, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 19th March 2024, 08:09 PM

15th March 2024 - 17th March 2024

1. (01) Dune: Part Two - £4,046,492 (-32%) Weeks: 3 (£26,207,623)
2. (02) Wicked Little Letters - £589,610 (-34%) Weeks: 4 (£7,352,495)
3. (04) Migration - £574,434 (-14%) Weeks: 7 (£19,033,602)
4. (03) Bob Marley: One Love - £509,149 (-39%) Weeks: 5 (£16,068,119)
5. (05) Imaginary - £406,392 (-38%) Weeks: 2 (£1,373,256)
6. (NE) Drive-Away Dolls - £278,082 Weeks: 1 (£278,082)
7. (NE) Monster - £128,569 Weeks: 1 (£128,569)
8. (14) The Zone Of Interest - £100,386 (+23%) Weeks: 7 (£3,062,921)
9. (RE) Oppenheimer - £90,354 (+487%) Weeks: 35 (£59,550,750)
10. (08) Wonka - £89,405 (-17%) Weeks: 15 (£63,112,661)


Falling out:
Shaitaan (1 week)
Titanic: The Musical (1 week)
Sami Swoi. Początek (2 weeks)
Madame Web (4 weeks)


In a very quiet week, the top 5 films remain the exact same with the only movement being that #3 and #4 have swapped places. This means that 'Dune: Part Two' gets an easy third-week at #1. A big opening weekend, followed by a 2nd week drop of 37% and a third-week drop of 32% means that this has been racking up money and is now at a brilliant £26,207,623. This means that it has flew past the total of the original 'Dune' (£22,424,573), all while remaining at #1. This total would already have been enough for it to land at #9 in the 2023 UK Box Office charts so it will be very interesting to see where it ends up ranking at the end of this year.

'Wicked Little Letters' is proving to be a very handy piece of counter-programming, bagging it's third week in the runners-up spot. Similarly to 'Dune' it has an encouraging 34% drop in business and is sitting pretty with a £7,352,495 total. £10 million isn't looking out of the question for the Olivia Colman/Jessie Buckley duelling comedy. 'Migration' doesn't seem like it wants to migrate away from the charts with another wonderful 14% drop that sees it sneak ever closer to a £20 total after a slower than usual start for Illumination Studios. In the US, 'Kung Fu Panda 4' has already been out for 2 weeks and has spent both weeks at #1. I expect when that finally does make these shores, we will see 'Migration' start to have some heavy drops.

The highest new entry this week is 'Drive-Away Dolls'. Originally written by the husband-wife duo of Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke in the early 2000s, the film was first announced under a slightly more-provocative title ('Drive-Away D*kes') in 2007 and was set to be directed by Allison Anders. Nothing happened for 20 years, until now where it has finally been released with Ethan Coen directing it himself in his first project away from his brother Joel. Led by Margaret Qualley & Geraldine Viswanathan, the film has an extensive supporting cast including Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal, Miley Cyrus and Matt Damon. Described as a 'lesbian road-trip comedy', the film feels like it's in the classic style we associated with the Coen Brothers and with it running a brisk 84 minutes, I think the expectations were for a much higher opening than £278,082. The last theatrical film that both brothers worked on was 2016's 'Hail Ceasar' which opened to £1,520,788. A big drop-off in the past 8 years. His brother, Joel, went in a completely different direction for his solo-film the black-and-white ultra serious Shakespeare adaptation 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' (2021). However, that film was released on Apple+ so box-office comparisons are unable to be made.

The only other new entry, 'Monster' lands one place behind at #7. This is a Japanese drama from director Hirokazu Kore-eda and in a Rashomon-eque fashion tells the story of child who's mother suspects is being bullied from three different perspectives. His last film was 'Brooker' from last year that opened to £150,178 so this is a slight drop compared to that. But it is up on what is his most famous film in the UK, 'Shoplifters' that opened to £117,555 in 2018.

Last week's big release was 'Imaginary' and it has held at #5 in it's 2nd week. It was a slightly low opening weekend but a 38% hold is not too bad for a horror and shows that their might be some legs in the film yet. It's now up to £1,373,256 which puts it ahead of what Blumhouse's first horror release of the year, January's 'Night Swim' had at the same stage of it's run (£1,090,639).

Obviously the big film news of the past week was last Sunday's Oscars ceremony. The big winner on the night was 'Oppenheimer' and that was proved to be the case at the box-office too as Christopher Nolan's epic sees a 487% rise in business to re-enter the top 10 for the first time since September. Does it have that final bit in the tank to cross the £60 million barrier? Despite a controversial acceptance speech, Jonathan Glazer’s 'The Zone Of Interest' was the other big winner this week. Up a comparatively modest 23%, the German-language Auschwitz drama has passed £3 million that has allowed it to enter the top 10 highest-grossing foreign language releases of all-time in the UK.

The only other story that needs mentioning is that 'Wonka' is finally down to #10 but with a drop of just 17%, despite being available on DVD and Blu-Ray for 2 weeks, you'd be taking a risk to call it it's final week inn the top 10.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Yodha' (#12) and 'Jatt Nuu Chudail Takri' (#14). A 25-year anniversary re-release of 'Fight Club' also sees it back at #11.

Next week sees the openings of 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire', 'Immaculate', 'The Persian Version', ‘Late Night With The Devil’, 'The Teachers' Lounge', 'Baltimore', 'Swatantra Veer Savarkar' and 'The Motive And The Cue – NT Live 2024'. Can any of them top the charts?


The Coen Brothers 21st Century Openings:

The Man Who Wasn't There (£419,609, #7, 2001)
Intolerable Cruelty (£1,555,684, #3, 2003)
The Ladykillers (£565,137, #4, 2004)
No Country For Old Men (£1,257,183, #2, 2008)
Burn After Reading (£2,045,565, #1, 2008)
A Serious Man (£321,114, #7, 2009)
True Grit (£1,823,254, #4, 2011)
Inside Llewyn Davis (£718,401, #6, 2014)
Hail Ceasar (£1,520,788, #2, 2016)

Posted by: LewisGT 25th March 2024, 08:06 PM

22nd March 2024 - 24th March 2024

1. (NE) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - £4,056,097 Weeks: 1 (£4,056,097)
2. (01) Dune: Part Two - £2,626,763 (-35%) Weeks: 4 (£30,717,100)
3. (NE) Immaculate - £522,583 Weeks: 1 (£522,583)
4. (02) Wicked Little Letters - £373,505 (-37%) Weeks: 5 (£8,160,804)
5. (03) Migration - £370,464 (-36%) Weeks: 8 (£19,518,913)
6. (04) Bob Marley: One Love - £269,814 (-47%) Weeks: 6 (£16,606,766)
7. (NE) Late Night With The Devil - £220,436 Weeks: 1 (£220,436)
8. (NE) The Motive And The Cue – NT Live 2024 - £157,963 Weeks: 1 (£674,955)
9. (05) Imaginary - £155,832 (-62%) Weeks: 3 (£1,730,394)
10. (NE) Roméo et Juliette: Met Opera 2024 - £81,880 Weeks: 1 (£81,880)


Falling out:
Drive-Away Dolls (1 week)
Monster (1 week)
The Zone Of Interest (1 week)* *in this run
Oppenheimer (1 week)* *in this run
Wonka (15 weeks)


After 3 weeks at #1, 'Dune: Part Two' is finally knocked off top spot by 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire'. This is the fifth film in the Ghostbusters franchise and is a direct follow-up to 2021's 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' that opened to a slightly higher figure of £4,314,263. However, that was boosted by previous and if we take those out, 'Frozen Empire' actually opens about 8% higher. 2016's controversial 'female reboot' also opened slightly higher (£4,388,944) but that had EXTENSIVE previews and without these, would have only opened to £2.7 million. So early signs are fairly positive in showing that this will perform about on par with previous entries of the Horror-Comedy franchise but I still think it will have a challenge to reach the ~£12 million total for 'Afterlife'. That one had the factor of being directed by Jason Reitman, the son of original director Ivor. But this one does have the factor of having three of the original Busters back in prominent roles as well as Annie Potts. The original 'Ghostbusters' made £12.4 million in the UK in 1984 while 'Ghostbusters II' totalled out at £8.3 million 5 years later.

In a fresh top 10, half being made up by new entries, the other big releases this week fall into 2 categories: low-budget, big-concept Horrors and live theatre. The best performing of these is 'Immaculate' at #3. Sydney Sweeney has made herself a bit of an TV IT girl of recent times with prominent roles on must-watch series such as 'Euphoria' and 'The White Lotus' but has had mixed fortunes on the big screen. She has just led romcom 'Anyone But You' to huge success but then saw her follow-up 'Madame Web' fall flat. Alongside taking a producer role, she stars as a Nun who falls pregnant in the religious horror 'Immaculate'. Opening to £522,583 feels pretty on point with what you'd expect for this type of film so the jury is still out regarding if 'Anyone But You' has made her a proper movie star or if it was just a one-off.

The other new horror release is 'Late Night With The Devil'. This one opens up at #7 with £220,436. This one stars David Dastmalchian who I'm sure you'll recognise from his many scene-stealing supporting roles in the 'Ant-Man' films, 'The Dark Knight', 'Dune', 'The Suicide Squad', 'Oppenheimer' or TV's 'The Flash'. This is filmed as a foux-documentary about a 1970's TV talk show who invites a possessed-girl to feature in an attempt to boost ratings to disturbing results. I did see some controversy around the use of AI-generated visuals in this film but I don't think it effected the box-office.

The biggest of the theatre releases this week is 'The Motive And The Cue – NT Live 2024'. Opening at #8 with £157,963, it actually released on Thursday and, had it's box office from that day had been included in the weekend figures, it actually would have opened up at #3 with £674,955. For those who prefer the opera, 'Roméo et Juliette: Met Opera 2024' just about scrapes into the top 10 with a sub-100k opening.

Despite falling from #1, 'Dune: Part Two' is still raking in the cash with another solid 35% drop. The film has already passed £30 million and shows no signs of slowing down. 'Migration' continues to be the kids film of choice and nearly overtook 'Wicked Little Letters'. Although, it isn't quite enough for the it to pass £20 million yet. 'Bob Marley: One Love' looks like it's begging to be on it's last legs with a 47% drop.

With the two new horror films, 'Imaginary' has a very steep 62% drop. Although, the film is already at £1,730,394 that puts it above the total of Blumhouse's other horror of the year 'Night Swim' (£1.4 million). Last week's biggest new release was 'Drive-By Dolls' but that has already dropped out of the top 10 after 1 week. It does only drop to #11 but the drop is an astonishing 71% that shows that the film was truly DOA.

You might have noticed that we finally say goodbye to 'Wonka' from the top 10 after a fantastic 15 weeks, but it's actually out of the top 15 overall. However, there is nothing to criticise there, it was the film that really saved cinema during the Q4 of 2023 and beyond.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Robot Dreams' (#14) and 'Baltimore' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of 'Kung Fu Panda 4', 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire', 'Mother's Instinct', ‘Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey 2', 'Disco Boy', 'The Origin Of Evil', and 'Drift'. Can any of them top the charts?


Gil Kenan Openings:

Monster House (£1,030,305, #4, 2006)
City Of Ember (£496,909, #6, 2008)
Poltergeist (£1,463,014, #4, 2015)
A Boy Called Christmas (£120,770, #11, 2021)
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (£4,056,097, #1, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 2nd April 2024, 05:09 PM

29th March 2024 - 31st March 2024

1. (NE) Kung Fu Panda 4 - £5,020,600 Weeks: 1 (£5,020,600)
2. (NE) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - £4,139,394 Weeks: 1 (£4,139,394)
3. (01) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - £2,133,302 (-47%) Weeks: 2 (£8,272,714)
4. (02) Dune: Part Two - £1,667,550 (-37%) Weeks: 5 (£34,071,957)
5. (NE) Aadujeevitham - £480,977 Weeks: 1 (£480,977)
6. (NE) Mothers' Instinct - £406,489 Weeks: 1 (£406,489)
7. (03) Immaculate - £258,489 (-51%) Weeks: 2 (£1,183,166)
8. (NE) Crew - £209,196 Weeks: 1 (£209,196)
9. (04) Wicked Little Letters - £200,348 (-46%) Weeks: 6 (£8,745,302)
10. (05) Migration - £183,640 (-50%) Weeks: 9 (£20,021,265)


Falling out:
Bob Marley: One Love (6 weeks)
Late Night With The Devil (1 week)
The Motive And The Cue – NT Live 2024 (1 week)
Imaginary (3 weeks)
Roméo et Juliette: Met Opera 2024 (1 weeks)


For the 2nd time since I've been posting these, this week has been decided by previews. The official #1 over this Easter weekend is 'Kung Fu Panda 4' but that only tells half the story. The fourth entry of the animated Jack Black animal martial arts franchise opens to £5,020,600. However this figure includes around £1.1 million worth of previews meaning that the bigger draw between Friday-Sunday was actually 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire' which opened to £4,139,394 and did not include any previews. These are both solid starts for both films, especially when you consider that Easter Sunday is not a historically a good day for cinema-going in the UK. The different strategy for the openings of 'Kung Fu Panda' films makes true comparisons difficult but this does represent an increase on the opening of 2016's 'Kung Fu Panda 3' (£4,771,131) but down on the 6 million+ openings of the original 2 films. The release of 2021's 'Godzilla vs Kong' was heavily effected by the Covid lockdowns and the film only grossed £2.7 million in total. So with 'The New Empire' debuting with a figure well-clear of that and surpassing all expectations with a $80 million opening in the US, it's safe to say that the success of last year's 'Godzilla Minus One' was no fluke and kaiju is very much in right now. The opening is lower than the two franchise stars' introduction movies, but both of those had excessive previews included to the drop is fairly minimal without them. With Warner Bros. being responsible for 'Wonka', 'Dune: Part Two' and 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire', they are definitely the Kings of the the box office at the moment.

The 3rd new entry in the top 5 is 'Aadujeevitham'. This has the 2nd biggest opening for an Indian film so far this year with £480,977. Translated as 'The Goat Life', this is an adaptation of the 2008 novel of the same name about the true story of Najeeb, a Malayali immigrant who was forced into slavery on goat farms in Saudi Arabia. The film also enters at #13 as it has been released in two different language dubs.

Just missing out on the top 5 is 'Mothers' Instinct' at #6. Starring Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, this is a powerhouse in leading acting talent. This is a remake of the 2018 Belgium film of the same name which itself was an adaptation of a 2012 novel. The most interesting fact about this one is that it was directed by cinematographer Benoît Delhomme who makes his directing debut at the age of 62. The film opens with a so-so £406,489. We'll see how it can hold up.

The final new entry in the top 10 is 'Crew' (#8). This is the 2nd Indian new entry and is a heist-comedy starring three leading Indian actresses, Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Kriti Sanon as air hostesses who are forced into smuggling after getting mixed up in some chaos. It had the 3rd highest opening for a female-led Hindi film in India and the highest opening weekend for a female-led Hindi film worldwide.

'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' drops 47% in week 2. With the huge new releases this weekend, that isn't too bad of a drop and sees the film climb to £8,272,714. 'Afterlife' made £11.5 million overall and this feels like it's on track to overtake that. 'Dune: Part Two' has another brilliant hold (-37%), and is inching closer to a £35 million total.

'Immaculate' drops 51% on week 2 and isn't looking like it's going to have the same legs for Sydney Sweeney as the crazy fun for 'Anyone But You'. However, it is already at £1,183,166 which should probably be enough for it to rank within the EOY Top 100. 'Wicked Little Letters' and 'Migration' have both had wonderful runs that are looking like they're coming to an end. I don't think 'Letters' is going to have enough to pass £10 million but 'Migration' has now reached the £20 million milestone.

One further new entry in the #11-15 section: 'Tillu Square' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of 'The First Omen', 'Monkey Man', 'Seize Them!', ‘The Trouble With Jessica' 'Luca' and 'Io Capitano'. Can any of them top the charts?


Kung Fu Panda Openings:

Kung Fu Panda (£6,069,679, #2, 2008)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (£6,188,897, #1, 2011)
Kung Fu Panda 3 (£v, #1, 2016)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (£5,020,600, #1, 2024)


MonsterVerse Openings:

Godzilla (£6,385,483, #1, 2014)
Kong: Skull Island (£6,230,997, #1, 2017)
Godzilla vs Kong (£1,227,878, #1, 2021)
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (£4,139,394, #2, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 3rd April 2024, 09:04 PM

One bonus chart for you this week (that I've complied myself!)

We're now 1/4 through 2024 so here is the Q1 chart for 2024, including the 27 releases that have passed £1 million at the box office so far. All figures are exact where available, otherwise they are estimates.

1. Dune: Part Two (1-1-1-2-4) £34,071,957
2. Migration (1-1-2-3-4-4-3-5-10) £20,021,265
3. Bob Marley: One Love (1-1-2-3-4-6-12) £16,921,207
4. One Life (2-4-5-9-12) £9,976,535
5. Mean Girls (1-1-3-6-7-11-14) ~9.2 million
6. Wicked Little Letters (2-3-2-2-4-9) £8,745,302
7. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (1-3) £8,272,714
8. Poor Things (2-3-5-8-11-13) £7,540,657
9. Argylle (2-2-4-7-15) £5,934,069
10. All Of Us Strangers (2-4-4-10) £5,290,495

11. Kung Fu Panda 4 (1) £5,020,600
12. Madame Web (3-5-5-10-15) ~4.2 million
13. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2) £4,139,394
14. The Holdovers (6-6-9-12) ~3.9 million
15. The Beekeeper (5-7-10-11-14) £3,826,012
16. The Zone Of Interest (5-9-11-x-8-14-8-12) £3,271,576
17. Priscilla (3-6-11) ~£3.2 million
18. The Iron Claw (3-6-9-12) ~2.6 million
19. Vanya: NT Live 2024 (6) £1,780,209
20. Imaginary (5-5-9) £1,730,394

21. Peppa’s Cinema Party (5-8-15) £1,729,840
22. American Fiction (10-13-15) ~1.6 million
23. Night Swim (9-11-15) ~1.4 million
24. Immaculate (3-7) £1,183,166
25. Dear England - NT Live 2024 (13) £1,120,619
26. Perfect Days (13-9-11-13-13) ~£1 million
27. The Color Purple (8-14) ~£1 million


There's also 2 more that I think could have passed £1 million but I have no confirmation. These are the last confirmed figures I have for both.

28. Baghead (11-13) £961,493
29. Fighter (7-15) £888,788

Posted by: LewisGT 8th April 2024, 07:15 PM

5th April 2024 - 7th April 2024

1. (01) Kung Fu Panda 4 - £2,834,711 (-44%) Weeks: 2 (£12,792,574)
2. (02) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - £1,954,064 (-53%) Weeks: 2 (£9,163,361)
3. (03) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - £1,371,436 (-36%) Weeks: 3 (£12,103,646)
4. (04) Dune: Part Two - £1,127,052 (-33%) Weeks: 6 (£36,814,713)
5. (NE) Monkey Man - £810,253 Weeks: 1 (£810,253)
6. (NE) The First Omen - £521,573 Weeks: 1 (£521,573)
7. (10) Migration - £187,235 (+1%) Weeks: 10 (£20,637,071)
8 (NE) Seize Them! - £132,207 Weeks: 1 (£132,207)
9. (09) Wicked Little Letters - £116,738 (-43%) Weeks: 7 (£9,122,176)
10. (NE) Luca - £110,964 Weeks: 1 (£110,964)


Falling out:
Aadujeevitham (1 week)
Mothers' Instinct (1 week)
Immaculate (2 weeks)
Crew (1 weeks)


There's no change at the top of the charts this week with the top 4 all being non-movers. This means that 'Kung Fu Panda 4' gets a non-contentious 2nd week at #1 without a need to argue about previews. The decision to delay it's UK release so it didn't have to compete with Universal's other animated hit, 'Migration', is proving a master-stroke as the film has a 44% drop (28% without previews) in it's second week. This might sound pretty on par with other releases, but as this past week has been a school holiday amongst most of the country, the film has had great midweek business and is already at £12,792,574 in total. It's looking possible that this can pass the £20.4 million gross of the original to become the biggest hit in the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Even if it didn't reach that, it will soon pass the £14.6 million total for '3' and the £17 million total for '2'.

'Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire' holds at #2 but isn't able to put up as much competition as last week with a fairly steep 53% drop. However, this has benefited from the school holidays too with strong midweek business meaning that it's almost at £10 million after two weekends of play. This is enough to already pass the £7 million total of 2019's 'Godzilla: King Of The Monsters' and sees it move closer to the £15.9 million of 'Kong: Skull Island' and the £17.2 million that 2014s 'Godzilla' made in the franchise's peak.

There's been a lot of talk of 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' flopping in the US and worldwide and potentially being a franchise-ender but in the UK it's a bona-fide hit adding another £1,371,436 this weekend to reach £12,103,646 and officially pass the end gross of both 2016's female reboot (£10.8 million) and 2021's 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' (£11.5 million). Next week it will overtake the £12.5 million take for the original 'Ghostbusters' to be the biggest hit in the franchise (not accounting for inflation of course). I'm not quite sure why we're bucking the trend but Sony will at least be glad that we are.

The biggest new entry of four this week is 'Monkey Man' which opens well at #5 with £810,253. This is the debut feature from actor Dev Patel, who is best known for his work in 'Skins' that led to huge commercial and critical success in 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Lion'. This has been described as the 'Indian John Wick' and sees Patel himself star in a revenge actioner that has some political commentary on the politics of India. This was originally bought by Netflix but was nearly cancelled after they got worried that it wouldn't by embraced by the Indian market due to the political commentary. However, it was then saved by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions who convinced Universal to buy it and give it a full theatrical releases for a bargain $10 million fee. It's debuted with $10 million in the US alone so looks sure to bring a nice profit for them.

Debuting just behind is 'The First Omen' at #6 with £521,573. Another film that looked set for a steaming release, as it was produced by Hulu, good test screenings and the continued strong performance of horror titles convinced Disney that cinemas were the way to go. With 'Halloween', 'The Exorcist' and so many other horror titles getting revivals recently. maybe the bubble has burst as this is a disappointing opening. It probably also isn't helped by debuting only weeks after Sydney Sweeney's 'Immaculate' that has a VERY similar premise. However, the reviews for this reboot/prequel have been surprisingly good with another first-time director Arkasha Stevenson receiving a lot of praise as a talent to look out for so maybe good word-of-mouth can see this one stick around? 2016's 'The Omen' made £4.4 million which seems well out of reach for this, but I could see it legging out to £2 million+ if word can catch on.

Deputing at #8 is 'Seize Them!' (£132,207). This is a British comedy from director Curtis Vowell that is set in medieval times and has a strong British comedy cast led by Sex Education's Aimee Lou Wood who stars as a queen that gets overthrown by a revolutionary peasant played by Nicola Coughlan. The cast also includes James Acaster, Jessica Hynes, Nick Frost, Lolly Adefope and Paul Kaye. Also debuting in the top 10 is Pixar's 'Luca'. This was originally released on Disney+ in 2021 as a pandemic release. It made £110,964 over the weekend.

The two biggest hits of the year are still hanging around the top 10. 'Dune: Part Two' drops 33% on week 6 and will enter the Top 100 films ever at the UK Box Office next week. But holding even better is 'Migration' that climbs 1% in week 10.

One further new entry in the #11-15 section: 'Family Star' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of 'Back To Black', 'Civil War', 'Bleeding Love, ‘Arcadian' 'The Teachers’ Lounge' and 'Opponent'. Can any of them top the charts?


Monkeypaw Productions Openings:

Keanu (£13,736, #21, 2016)
Get Out (£2,160,099, #3, 2017)
BlacKkKlansman (£1,234,214, #6, 2018)
Us (£2,766,839, #2, 2019)
Candyman (£1,112,674, #2, 2021)
Nope (£1,859,338, #1, 2022)
Monkey Man (£810,253, #5, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 15th April 2024, 06:56 PM

12th April 2024 - 14th April 2024

1. (NE) Back To Black - £2,772,698 Weeks: 1 (£2,772,698)
2. (NE) Civil War - £1,823,179 Weeks: 1 (£1,823,179)
3. (01) Kung Fu Panda 4 - £1,754,440 (-38%) Weeks: 3 (£17,291,699)
4. (02) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - £1,185,986 (-39%) Weeks: 3 (£11,886,417)
5. (03) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - £787,096 (-43%) Weeks: 4 (£14,066,300)
6. (04) Dune: Part Two - £567,599 (-50%) Weeks: 7 (£38,143,347)
7. (05) Monkey Man - £387,055 (-52%) Weeks: 2 (£1,711,907)
8. (06) The First Omen - £260,415 (-50%) Weeks: 2 (£1,151,818)
9. (NE) Aavesham - £207,308 Weeks: 1 (£207,308)
10. (NE) Bade Miyan Chote Miyan - £195,020 Weeks: 1 (£195,020)


Falling out:
Migration (10 weeks)
Seize Them! (1 week)
Wicked Little Letters (7 weeks)
Luca (1 weeks)


Music biopics are back on top again this week as 'Back To Black', the story of the late, great Amy Winehouse reaches #1. Released in 719 cinemas across the country this weekend, this is the widest release of any film so far in 2024. Despite opening at the top, the opening (£2,772,698) feels pretty disappointing. This is pretty much equal to what 'Migration' made in it's third weekend and with biopics already proving to still be a big draw this year with 'Bob Marley: One Love' still in cinemas and opening with a much stronger £6,950,773, I think StudioCanal must have been hoping for more. Especially with Amy Winehouse being a British icon and other ones based on British musicians have been massive ('Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Rocketman') while this couldn't even match 'Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody' (£3,325,458). Reviews for this haven't been great (47% on Rotten Tomatoes) but, saying that, the reviews for most of the others named haven't been spectacular either. A lot of the negative reaction I've seen to this is due to the sympathetic portrayals of her Father (Mitch) and boyfriend (Blake) and suggestions it's makes towards Amy's beliefs and motivations. I've also seen a lot of people suggest it's unnecessary due to the much more accurate and honest documentary 'Amy' that was a big hit in 2015 (£3.8 million total) and won the Oscar for 'Best Documentary Feature'. It's big shoes to fill, but I've seen a lot of praise for star Marisa Abela who took on the extra responsibility of singing the songs herself but a lot of criticism for director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who was already not a favourite amongst online film circles.

Despite missing out on #1, the most impressive debut this week for me is Alex Garland's 'Civil War' (#2, £1,823,179). A lot has been made of this being A24's biggest swing yet with the production company's largest budget ($50 million) but it's become their biggest opening weekend in America and is their first film to top the Box Office charts over there so it's proving a smart investment. It's got good reviews with the critics but audience reaction has proved to be a bit more divisive. However, I can see this controversy making it even more of a must-see and allowing it to hold well. I've been seeing the trailer for it all over TV recently and I think it's one of the better ones I've seen in a while as it perfectly nails tension in a 30 second clip. The film stars Kristen Dunst and Cailee Spaeny as two war photopgrahers who travel to Washington D.C. to try and interview the president after the break-out of a Civil War in America.

The other 2 new entries in the top 10 are right at the bottom and are both Indian films. Opening higher is Aavesham (#9) with £207,308. Already a big hit in India with great reviews, it's an action-comedy film starring Fahadh Faasil about a group of teenagers who hire a gangster to help them take revenge on some older students. 'Bade Miyan Chote Miyan' doesn't open too far behind on £195,020. This is a Hindi sci-fi actioner about two ex-soldiers who have to reunite to save India from the clutches of a mad-scientist. Despite a fun sounding premise, this one has gotten awful reviews.

'Kung Fu Panda 4' might have ended it's reign at #1 but it continues to perform very well, dropping just 38% and reaching £17,291,699 in total. It's looking like it will probably overtake 'Migration', which itself is up to an impressive £21,004,320, in a banner year for Universal animated releases. It's already passed the lifetime totals for 'Kung Fu Panda 2' and '3' this weekend, 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire' is still doing alright too, dropping 39% and almost reaching £12 million. It still needs another £4 million ish to catch the total of 'Kong: Skull Island'. The other holder in the top 5, 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' is now the biggest ever 'Ghostbusters' film in the UK. I'm still shocked by this as it's otherwise been a huge disappoint worldwide and if you Google it's title, you will just find article after article discussing if this will be a franchise-killer for Sony. The drops for 'Dune: Part Two' are starting to become quite steep but it's still on track to pass £40 million which would be an insane result for what feels like a story that could have been a challenging sell to general audiences.

The other 2 films in the top 10 that I haven't mentioned are both of last week's big releases. They both have pretty similar drops, 52% for 'Monkey Man' and 50% for 'The First Omen'. Neither are particularly strong but they're both comfortably over £1 million now.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Suga: Agust D Tour ‘D-Day’ The Movie' (#11) and 'Maidaan' (#15)

Next week sees the openings of 'Abigail', 'The Book Of Clarence', 'Sometimes I Think About Dying', ‘Hitpig' 'Jeanne du Barry', 'Butterfly Tale' and 'Swede Caroline'. Can any of them top the charts?


Sam Taylor-Johnson Openings:

Nowhere Boy (£148,157, #7, 2009)
Fifty Shades Of Grey (£13,550,290, #1, 2015)
A Million Little Pieces (£25,746, #32, 2018)
Back To Black (£2,772,698, #1, 2024)

Alex Garland Openings:

Ex Machine (£1,093,952, #5, 2015)
Men (£519,907, #3, 2022)
Civil War (£1,823,179, #2, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 22nd April 2024, 06:52 PM

19th April 2024 - 21st April 2024

1. (01) Back To Black - £1,897,014 (-32%) Weeks: 2 (£6,398,157)
2. (02) Civil War - £1,055,680 (-42%) Weeks: 2 (£3,807,820)
3. (03) Kung Fu Panda 4 - £901,615 (-49%) Weeks: 4 (£18,587,205)
4. (04) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - £652,128 (-45%) Weeks: 4 (£12,888,921)
5. (NE) Abigail - £596,590 Weeks: 1 (£596,590)
6. (04) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - £397,003 (-50%) Weeks: 5 (£14,682,306)
7. (06) Dune: Part Two - £331,771 (-42%) Weeks: 8 (£38,716,146)
8. (07) Monkey Man - £215,698 (-44%) Weeks: 3 (£2,171,859)
9. (NE) Varshangalkku Shesham - £167,530 (+993%) Weeks: 2 (£272,043)
10. (08) The First Omen - £94,047 (-64%) Weeks: 3 (£1,389,085)


Falling out:
Aavesham (1 week)
Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1 week)


In a quiet weekend, 'Back To Black' easily holds at #1 with a respectable 32% drop. Last week's opening was on the low side but if it continues to hold well, it could still reach a respectable total. After 2 weekends, it's currently at £6,398,157, which means it has passed the total for the 2015 documentary 'Amy' (£3.8 million) but doesn't compare favourably to other big name musician biopics such as 'Rocketman' or 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Early this year, 'Bob Marley: One Love' was already at £11,313,026. After a solid March, April has not proved to be a good month at the box office with 'Back To Black' looking like it's biggest hit. Repeating at #2 is 'Civil War'. A 42% drop when you take in account previews, but an almost identical with 'Back To Black' 33% if you take these out. It adds another £1 million to it's total this weekend to reach £3,807,820 which puts it above the £2.9 million of Alex Garland's previous biggest release, 2014's 'Ex Machina' (£2.9 million).

Just about making the top 5, the biggest new release this weekend is 'Abigail' (#5, £596,590). This feels like another pretty underwhelming April 2024 opening for this buzzy vampire flick from directing duo 'Radio Silence' who's previous films include 'Ready Or Not' and the most recent two 'Screams'. It's the 2nd biggest horror opening of the year, behind 'Imaginary' (£652,808) from back in March. The film stars Alisha Weir as the titular vampire-ballerina in a sharp contrast to her other big role as Matilda in 2022's 'Roald Doah's Matilda The Musical'. Other cast members include Dan Stevens, Scream-alumni Melissa Barrera and Kathryn Newton. Newton has become a bit of a scream-queen starring in this, 'Freaky' and 'Lisa Frankenstein' in recent times. She feels like someone on the verge of becoming a star, giving acclaimed performances in a bunch of films that have inexplicably underperformed. 'Abigail' has a budget of $28 million and was expected to debut at #1 this weekend in America. However, it underperformed it's projections and debuted at #2 behind the 2nd week of 'Civil War' with only $10.2 million. The final new entry in the top 10 is 'Varshangalkku Shesham' (#9, £167,530). This is the most recent Indian release and is a comedy-drama mainly set in the 1970's South-Indian movie industry.

All of the other recurrent titles see drops in the 40s%, aside from 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' (50%) and 'The First Omen' (64%). None of the films have passed any particularly interesting milestones this week so I'll leave any further commentary.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Met Opera Live 2023/24: La Rondine' (#11) and 'Butterfly Tale' (#14). I was quite excited to talk about the opening of 'The Book Of Clarence', but it bombed so bad that it missed the top 15, with just £36,255.

Next week sees the openings of 'Challengers', 'Spy X Family Code: White', 'Boy Kills World', 'Ordinary Angels', ‘The American Society Of Magical Negroes' 'I.S.S.', 'Scarygirl', 'There's Still Tomorrow', 'That They May Face The Rising Sun', 'Tomorrow's Freedom', 'Quintessentially Irish', 'Aespa: World Tour In Cinemas' and 'Swan Lake: Royal Opera House, London 2024'. Can any of them top the charts?


Radio Silence Openings:

Devil's Due (£1,002,627, #5, 2014)
Ready Or Not (£947,958, #4, 2019)
Scream (£2,468,510, #2, 2022)
Scream VI (£3,043,922, #1, 2023)
Abigail (£596,590, #5, 2024)

2024 Horror Top 10 Openings:

Night Swim (£590,69, #9, 2024)
Imaginary (£652,808, #5, 2024)
Shaitaan (£114,929, #6, 2024)
Immaculate (£522,583, #3, 2024)
Late Night With The Devil (£220,436, #7, 2024)
The First Omen (£521,573, #6, 2024)
Abigail (£596,590, #5, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 30th April 2024, 06:05 PM

26th April 2024 - 28th April 2024

1. (NE) Challengers - £1,607,094 Weeks: 1 (£1,607,094)
2. (01) Back To Black - £1,419,500 (-25%) Weeks: 3 (£8,974,599)
3. (03) Kung Fu Panda 4 - £948,033 (+5%) Weeks: 5 (£19,743,606)
4. (02) Civil War - £755,426 (-29%) Weeks: 3 (£5,156,478)
5. (04) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - £597,587 (-9%) Weeks: 5 (£13,706,491)
6. (05) Abigail - £378,317 (-37%) Weeks: 2 (£1,326,242)
7. (06) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - £332,883 (-16%) Weeks: 6 (£15,140,087)
8. (NE) Spy x Family Code: White - £280,729 Weeks: 1 (£280,729)
9. (07) Dune: Part Two - £253,850 (-24%) Weeks: 9 (£39,173,391)
10. (08) Monkey Man - £124,894 (-42%) Weeks: 4 (£2,420,741)


Falling out:
Varshangalkku Shesham (1 week)
The First Omen (3 weeks)


It's not quite Wimbledon time yet but tennis-fever has already taken over the UK with Luca Guadagnino's tennis drama 'Challengers' bagging a #1 debut with £1,607,094 of which about £100k were previews. The film was due to open the Venice Film Festival last August before a September cinematic release but was delayed after the Actor Strikes meant that the hot-right-now stars Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist and (most importantly) Zendaya would not have been able to take part in the promotional campaign. There's a lot of Awards buzz around Zendaya in particular, but it remains to be seen whether the non-traditional April release date will effect it come Awards season 2025. Guadagnino has already had success working the other big name young star and Zendaya's Dune castmate, Timothée Chalamet in 2017's 'Call Me By Your Name' and 2022's 'Bones And All' but this has been touted as his first 'mainstream' release and, in turn, comfortably rewards him with his biggest opening weekend, topping 2016's 'A Bigger Splash' (£347,704). This feels like a pretty good debut for this sort of film and I can see it holding well over the next few weeks. I know I really want to check it out soon. In terms of Tennis films, look below and be amazed at how similarly it opened to 'Wimbledon' did 20 years ago.

The only other new entry in the Top 10 this week is anime spin-off 'Spy x Family Code: White' at #8. This is a follow-up to the anime that debuted in 2018 and has, so far, consisted of 2 seasons. If you've never heard of it before (like me), it's a comedy actioner with a fun premise of a spy who is set an assignment to create a fake family but doesn't realise that his pretend wife and child might have a few tricks of their own up their sleeves. I think the most apt comparison to make box-office wise would be the other big anime release of the year so far, 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba: To The Hashira Training' which debuted at #4 with £641,878 in February.

After two weeks in pole position, 'Back To Black' drops to #2 but has another nice hold (-25%) and should be over £10 million in total by next weekend. It doesn't look like it will be able to become the #1 musician biopic of the year as 'Bob Marley: One Love' is over £17 million which seems a step to far. However, it is showing good signs of holding well after a disappointing opening weekend and still has a US release to come next month. Rounding out the top 3 is 'Kung Fu Panda' which actually increases in business by 5% this weekend. It's now less than £1 million away from overtaking the 2008 debut entry in the franchise to become the highest grossing 'Kung Fu Panda' film in the UK.

In fact, most of the holdover titles are still performing well. 'Civil War' drops to #4 but only drops by 29% and has already grossed more than the other 2 cinematically-released films that Garland has released combined. When it comes to the 'Empire' films, 'Godzilla x Kong' has a brilliant hold (-9%, £13,706,490 total) and still holds out hope of overtaking 'Kong: Skull Island' (£15.9 million) to become the 2nd biggest MonsterVerse hit. 2014's 'Godzilla' (£17.2 million) does seem to be slightly out of reach though. 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' is already the biggest hit on the franchise in the UK so doesn't have the same worries, although a 16% drop this week means that is has now passed £15 million. Sony will just be cursing the fact that we are just an outlier and it has underperformed around the world, just about scrapping over the $100 million mark in the US last weekend. 'Dune: Part Two' continues to just print money for Warner Bros. and drops just 24% on it's battle to pass £40 million.

After having such a brilliantly consistent 2023, horror has struggled to break-out in 2024. The biggest hit of the genre so far this year remains to be 'Imaginary' which has a total just shy of £2 million which doesn't even put it within the top 20 films of the year so far. In comparison, 12 horror releases out-grossed this in 2023 and we had already had 'M3GAN' and 'Scream VI' pass the £7 million mark by this time of the year. The current horror in the top 10 is 'Abigail'. After a low opening last week, it has shown some promising signs with a 37% drop and decent mid-week business meaning that it's now at £1.3 million. This is only £50k less than 'Imaginary' was at the same point in it's run so there's a every chance this can take the 2024 horror crown but it's going to be a bit of a hollow victory.

The last film in the top 10 is 'Monkey Man'. It drops 42% and is at £2,420,741 after 4 weeks of play. It's an ok performance but it's further evidence of films with original, high-concepts underperforming in 2024. This, 'Abigail', 'Imaginary', 'Drive-Away Dolls', 'Lisa Frankenstein', 'The Beekeeper', 'The Book Of Clarence' and 'Night Swim' have all had wild premises that felt like could catch-on but have all performed somewhere between middling-to-downright flopping. Last year saw 'M3GAN', 'Cocaine Bear' and 'Air' all smash in the early months with buzzy, fresh premises. Where has the market for these type of films gone? The reason I mention this is due to further failures this weekend, with 'Boy Kills World' sounding crazy enough to smash but only opening at #15 and 'I.S.S.' and 'The American Society Of Magical Negroes' missing the top 15 completely.

Four further new entries in the #11-15 section not previously mentioned: 'That They May Face The Rising Sun' (#11), 'Swan Lake: Royal Opera House, London 2024' (#12), 'Ghilli' (#13) and 'There’s Still Tomorrow' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of 'The Fall Guy', 'Love Lies Bleeding', 'Tarot', 'Super Wings the Movie: Maximum Speed', ‘Red Herring' 'Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry', and 'The Idea Of You'. We also see a big re-release of 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace'. Can any of them top the charts?


Luca Guadagnino Openings:

I Am Love (£171,959, #11, 2010)
A Bigger Splash (£347,704, #11, 2016)
Call Me By Your Name (£235,760, #11, 2017)
Suspiria (£166,257, #9, 2018)
Bones And All (£318,246, #6, 2022)
Challengers (£1,607,09, #1, 2024)

Tennis Openings:

Wimbledon (£1,699,096, #1, 2004)
Match Point (£111,776, #17, 2006)
Borg vs. McEnroe (£101,918, 13, 2017)
Battle Of The Sexes (£552,521, #7, 2017)
King Richard (£570,316, #5, 2021)
Challengers (£1,607,09, #1, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 7th May 2024, 04:56 PM

3rd May 2024 - 5th May 2024

1. (NE) The Fall Guy - £3,598,996 Weeks: 1 (£3,598,996)
2. (NE) Star Wars: The Phantom Menace - £1,159,370 Weeks: 1 (£1,159,370) (combined = ~£57.6 million)
3. (01) Challengers - £986,885 (-39%) Weeks: 2 (£3,627,927)
4. (02) Back To Black - £770,973 (-46%) Weeks: 4 (£10,507,088)
5. (03) Kung Fu Panda 4 - £562,704 (-41%) Weeks: 6 (£20,461,636)
6. (NE) Tarot - £509,181 Weeks: 1 (£509,181)
7. (04) Civil War - £310,730 (-59%) Weeks: 4 (£5,825,692)
8. (NE) Love Lies Bleeding - £309,613 Weeks: 1 (£309,613)
9. (05) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - £301,017 (-50%) Weeks: 6 (£14,160,316)
10. (NE) Macbeth: Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma - £184,758 Weeks: 1 (£399,419)


Falling out:
Abigail (2 weeks)
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (6 weeks)
Spy x Family Code: White (1 week)
Dune: Part Two (9 weeks)
Monkey Man (4 weeks)


The first weekend in May means two things, one - we have a Bank Holiday Monday to look forward to and two, the beginning of the summer box office season! In recent years, this weekend has often been reserved for a big MCU release, but as they are largely sitting 2024 out, studios have turned to 'The Fall Guy' to bring audiences out. And so far we don't have a blockbusting start to the summer. Last summer was dominated by Barbenheimer so a film starring Ken and Kitty Oppenheimer, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt sounded promising. 'The Fall Guy' does end up opening at #1 but an opening weekend of £3,598,996 (with about £400k in previews) doesn't really scream AAA blockbuster. This narrowly beats 'Migration' to become the 6th highest opening weekend of the year, although the grosses are so similar they are pretty much equal. There might be some good news for the film showing some strong legs as it actually made £1.3 million on Bank Holiday Monday which was it's strongest day yet. This is an adaptation of the 80s TV show of the same name that was about the adventures of a professional stuntman. This is, aptly, directed by David Leitch, co-director of the original 'John Wick' and, famously, previously the stunt-double for Brad Pitt.

2023 was a disastrous year for Disney, but they've finally got a nice headline winner with their re-release of 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace' exceeding expectations to debut at #2 with £1,159,370. Typical that their big win is for a film they had no hand in making I don't have an official combined gross for the film but it's in the region of £57.6 million which puts in back into the top 30 films of all-time in the UK, just about knocking out 'Joker'. This was at #3 based on Friday's numbers, but Star Wars Day (4th May) falling on a Saturday helped the box office to increase enough for it to comfortably end with the silver medal for the overall weekend.

After a wonderfully consistently strong 2023, horror continues to disappoint this year with 'Tarot' becoming the latest in a long-list of underperforming releases. Missing the top 5, 'Tarot' debuts at #6 with £509,181. Directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg, the film is an adaptation of a 1992 novel called 'Horrorscope', the film has received scathing reviews (23% on Rotten Tomatoes) and just sounds like a rip-off of 'Final Destination' with added Tarot readings. However, due to it's tiny budget ($8 million), it's likely to bring a profit for Sony eventually. The film stars Harriet Slater, Avantika and Jacob Batalon (Ned for the MCU Spider-Man films). Every horror film this year seems to consistently open between £500-600k. We have some bigger name releases coming soon ('The Strangers: Chapter 1', 'MaXXXine', 'A Quiet Place: Day One', 'Alien: Romulus' and 'Smile 2'). There's big hopes pined on those doing well now.

2020's 'Saint Maud' was the debut release from director Rose Glass and was a huge hit. It only grossed £852,881 but this was a great figure for a low-budget British Horror in a market that was near none-existent due to the pandemic. The film also picked up 2 BAFTA nominations and led to huge hype among film circles for Glass's follow-up which we finally received this week. You have to give it to Glass for doing something completely different. She has mentioned in interviews that she was condescendingly told by a lot of producers to build her next film around a 'strong female character' so she decided to build it around a body-builder (played by Katy O'Brian) and her relationship with a gym manager played by Kristen Stewart. Despite incredibly strong reviews, 'Love Lies Bleeding' might just be too weird to fully catch-on with it's deceptions of sex, murder and magic realism. The film already came out to little fanfare in America a few months ago and now debuts at #8 in the UK with £309,613. This is higher than the opening for 'Saint Maude' (£263,671) but I don't think it will be able to match that film's total gross.

The fifth and final new entry in the top 10 is a theatre performance of 'Macbeth' starring Ralph Fiennes & Indira Varma. It opened with £184,758 over the weekend bit it opened on Thursday and is up to a total of £399,419.

'Challengers' loses top spot after 1 week and drops down to #3 with a 39% drop. It's up to £3,627,927 but it has at least another £5 to add for that total next week as I went to see it yesterday. This is an alright first hold but I think it's story will be told in the weeks to come. 'Back To Black' has it's largest drop yet (46%) but, as I predicted last week, it has now passed £10 million which isn't bad after a slightly week start. Rounding out the top 5 is 'Kung Fu Panda 4' that also now also passed £20 million and is the biggest hit of the 'Kung Fu Panda' franchise.

'Civil War' is starting to drop big now as we get some big summer releases. It drops 59% week-on-week and is up to £5,825,692 which feels great for this type of release. 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire' drops 50% and now looks like it won't catch 'Kong: Skull Island' and will remain as the 3rd biggest MonsterVerse hit in the UK.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Malayalee From India' (#13), and 'Carmen: Royal Opera House, London 2024' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes', 'The Almond And The Seahorse', 'Made In England: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger', 'La Chimera' and 'Madama Butterfly: Met Opera 2023/24'. Can any of them top the charts?


David Leitch Openings:

John Wick (£539,602, #6, 2014)
Atomic Blonde (£1,686,430, #3, 2017)
Deadpool 2 (£12,974,669, #1, 2018)
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (£6,377,583, #1, 2019)
Bullet Train (£2,858,197, #1, 2022)
The Fall Guy (£3,598,996, #1, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 13th May 2024, 04:31 PM

10th May 2024 - 12th May 2024

1. (NE) Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes - £3,802,189 Weeks: 1 (£3,802,189)
2. (01) The Fall Guy - £948,970 (-74%) Weeks: 2 (£6,708,809)
3. (03) Challengers - £333,281 (-66%) Weeks: 3 (£4,699,043)
4. (04) Back To Black - £211,408 (-73%) Weeks: 5 (£11,300,178)
5. (06) Tarot - £140,983 (-72%) Weeks: 2 (£923,013)
6. (04) Kung Fu Panda 4 - £139,738 (-75%) Weeks: 7 (£21,133,141)
7. (38) Nye: National Theatre Live 2024 - 119,413 (+1234%) Weeks: 3 (£1,231,431)
8. (NE) La Chimera - £99,985 Weeks: 1 (£99,985)
9. (NE) Madama Butterfly: Met Opera 2023/24 - £96,727 Weeks: 1 (£96,727)
10. (08) Love Lies Bleeding - £87,060 (-72%) Weeks: 2 (£634,709)


Falling out:
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1 weeks)
Civil War (4 weeks)
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (6 weeks)
Macbeth: Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma (1 week)


It's a disastrous weekend at the UK box office with 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes' comfortably winning the week. being the only film to pass the £1 million mark, but in itself having a disappointing opening. 'Kingdom' starts with £3,802,189, with about £600k of this figure being previews. If we take previews out for both films, this and 'The Fall Guy' last week have pretty much opened with the same £3.2 million figure. This is supposed to be the beginning of a new trilogy of Ape films, and it's had a solid enough opening in America (-$57 million) which suggests that we will see further releases but it's not looking like there's much enthusiasm on this side of the pond. The recent trilogy of Ape films (2011-2017) all had larger openings than this, with 2011's 'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes' starting with the lowest opener (£5,835,140) and that had tough competition from 'The Smurfs'. This grown to a £8,705,995 opening weekend for 2014 sequel 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes'. 'Kingdom's opening is even down on Tim Burton's 2001 flop. Disney have pinned a lot of hopes on this; they have practically sat out the first 5 months of the year with 'Poor Things', 'All Of Us Strangers', 'The First Omen' and the re-release of 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace' being the only major releases of the year before 'Kingdom' and they will not be happy with it's result in the UK. However, the film has pretty strong reviews and the release schedule isn't as busy as you'd expect for the summer so maybe this can stick around.

It would certainly be unfair to just focus on 'Kingdom' and the box-office outside of that film was practically non-existent this weekend. Five of the the six holdovers in the top 10 dropped by more than 70% with 'Challengers' having a comparatively brilliant hold with a 66% drop. So why was this weekend so bad? The first reason may be because it was Eurovision weekend. However, viewing figures were down a lot for that this year after the madness of hosting it last year. On Eurovision weekend last year, the top 15 films cumulatively grossed £8,288,118; whereas this year they made only £6,248,770 so this dip probably wasn't due to Eurovision. The 2nd reason may be the unexpectedly warm weather. Did people decide that they wanted to make the most of the sun and not be stuck in a darkened room? The final reason is that there's just not enough films people want to see in the cinemas. We all know that the strikes last year meant that a lot of films had been delayed and it doesn't feel like we've got back on track yet. It seems like we've had some bad mixture of all of these reasons that has led to this poor weekend. With the Euros taking place next month, we really needed the summer box office to get off to a better start than this.

The only release that has any cause for celebration this weekend is 'Nye: National Theatre Live 2024' that had some very successful encore showings that saw the theatre recording boost 1234% weekend-to-weekend to reach the top 10 for the first time. It's not about 'The Science Guy', but instead focuses on Nye Bevan, the Labour politician who led the campaign to introduce the NHS. The Michael Sheen starring play has now comfortably passed £1 million in total. The other event cinema release didn't have the same luck with 'Madama Butterfly: Met Opera 2023/24' debuting at #9 to £96,727.

Debuting at #8 is 'La Chimera' with a sub £100K gross. This is an Italian period-drama from director Alice Rohrwacher and features a largely Italian cast. However, it's plot about a British archelogost who gets involved with a network of stolen Etruscan artefacts allows some British interest, with Josh O'Connor, fresh of his success with 'Challengers' taking up the role.

'The Fall Guy' lived up to it's name with a harsh 74% drop in it's 2nd week. I talked last week about how disappointing the opening weekend was so this kind of drop means that its completely dead in the water. After two weekends, it's at £6,708,809 which would actually be pretty solid had the film not had such a ridiculously large budget. Last week's other big release, 'Tatot', actually managed to climb into the top 5, despite a 72% drop in box office. It's at £923,013 now which means it's perfectly on track to end in the £1-2 million range that all of this year's horror releases have disappointingly ended between so far. 'Love Lies Bleeding' just about gains a 2nd week in the top 10 with it's 72% drop meaning it grossed £87,060. For an early summer weekend, it's really not good for figures to be that low in top 10 positions.

'Back To Black' (-73%) and 'Kung Fu Panda 4' (-75%) both continue the trend of big drops but they've both had solid runs so won't be too worried. 'Challengers' is almost at £5 million and is just sitting outside the top 15 in the YTD charts.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Shinda Shinda No Papa' (#13), and 'Big Banana Feet' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of 'IF', 'The Strangers: Chapter 1', 'Hoard', 'Bermondsey Tales: Fall of the Roman Empire' 'Tiger Stripes' and 'Two Tickets to Greece'. Can any of them top the charts?


Planet Of The Apes (21st century) Openings:

Planet Of The Apes (£5,445,983, #1, 2001)
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (£5,835,140, #1, 2011)
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (£8,705,995, #1, 2014)
War For The Planet Of The Apes (£7,195,773, #1, 2017)
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (£3,802,189, #1, 2024)

Posted by: WhoOdyssey 20th May 2024, 06:19 PM

Well done Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes.

Posted by: LewisGT 21st May 2024, 07:22 PM

17th May 2024 - 19th May 2024

1. (NE) IF - £2,435,054 Weeks: 1 (£2,435,054)
2. (01) Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes - £2,185,572 (-43%) Weeks: 2 (£7,684,708)
3. (02) The Fall Guy - £876,184 (-7%) Weeks: 3 (£8,246,320)
4. (NE) The Strangers: Chapter 1 - £452,507 Weeks: 1 (£452,507)
5. (03) Challengers - £291,416 (-13%) Weeks: 4 (£5,345,554)
6. (NE) Guruvayoorambala Nadayil - £217,528 Weeks: 1 (£217,528)
7. (04) Back To Black - £168,212 (-22%) Weeks: 6 (£11,738,245)
8. (NE) 42nd Street: The Musical - £119,585 Weeks: 1 (£252,979)
9. (06) Kung Fu Panda 4 - £101,935 (-28%) Weeks: 8 (£21,304,732)
10. (08) La Chimera - £99,319 (-1%) Weeks: 2 (£289,352)


Falling out:
Tarot (2 weeks)
Nye: National Theatre Live 2024 (1 week)
Madama Butterfly: Met Opera 2023/24 (1 week)
Love Lies Bleeding (2 weeks)


It's the 3rd week of the summer and we have the 3rd different #1 with John Krasinki's original live-action kids film, 'IF' taking the top spot. It's the 2nd time this year, when the #1 was decided by previews as IF's opening of £2,435,054 includes about £600k of previews. There is certainly a massive change in tone compared to Krasinki's first two films 'A Quiet Place' and 'A Quiet Place: Part II', with him describing his intention of this film as to create 'a live-action Pixar'. The film sees Krasinki' call on his large array of famous friends to voice the IFs, ie imaginary friends, including his ex-office star Steve Carrell as well as George Clooney, Matt Damon, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Bradley Cooper and, of course, his wife Emily Blunt. The film had a bloated budget of $110 million and opened slightly under expectations with $35 million in America. A £2 million opening over here doesn't feel amazing based on the budget, but feels alright for a rare fully original IP in 2024. Reviews for the film have been mixed but kids films often have long legs so let's see how it holds from here. It would be #1 without previews but dropping to 2nd place in it's second week is 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes'. After a low opening last week, the 10th official Apes flick has a solid hold (43% or 37% without previews) in a weekend where the box office has improved a lot compared to last week. 'Apes' is now up to £7,684,708 which is still less than the opening weekend of 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' in 2014.

Having another one of those official 2024 Horror Opening Weekends ™ is 'The Strangers: Chapter 1' at #4. However, at £452,507, this is the first wide-releases Horror to not even make £500k so far this year. A remake of the now cult-classic 2008 film, this is the first part of a planned trilogy of 'Strangers' movies from director Renny Harlin, best known for 90s classics 'Die Hard 2', 'The Long Kiss Goodnight' and 'Deep Blue Sea'. Taking up the roles of Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman is Riverdale star 'Madelaine Petsch' and 'Froy Gutierrez'. This had a stronger-than-expected opening in the US but its not looking promising over her. Maybe just stick with the chilling original.

Just like with 'horror', 2024 so far has not been a great year for Indian releases with 'Guruvayoorambala Nadayil' at #6 (£217,528) being the latest one to open without much fanfare. This one is a comedy-drama about two friends who are, unbeknownst to each other, forming relationships and having issues with the same girl. When will we finally see another Indian debut above £1 million like we saw twice last year with 'Jawan' and 'Pathaan'? This week's event cinema is '42nd Street – The Musical' that opens to #8 with £119,585, although showings from earlier in the week push this to £252,979. Starring in the show are Bonnie Langford and Tom Lister.

After a horrendous weekend last time out where pretty much every releases dropped by over 70%, we have started to see some more normalcy in the box office again with the biggest benefactor being 'The Fall Guy'. After a painful 74% drop last weekend, it only drops 7% this weekend as it nears £8.5 million in total. It's going to need a few more weekends like this to fully turn the narrative surrounding the film on it's head though. 'Challengers' again continues to be one of the strongest holders with it's 13% drop allowing it to pass £5 million. The best hold in the top 10 however, belongs to Josh O'Connor's other film, 'La Chimera', that drops 2 places to #10 but with a remarkable <1% drop in business.

Ex #1s 'Back To Black' and 'Kung Fu Panda 4' hang around for a little bit longer with drops between 22%-28%. This means it's incredibly tight but with £21.3 million, I think we can just about say that 'Kung Fu Panda 4' has creeped above 'Migration' to be Universal's biggest animated film of the year and 2nd in the overall YTD rankings behind 'Dune: Part Two'.

The only other new entry in the #11-15 section is the 40th anniversary re-release of 'Transformers: The Movie' (#12).

Next week sees the openings of 'The Garfield Movie', 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga', 'Turbo', 'The Winter’s Tale: ROH, London 2024' 'The Present', 'Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In' and 'Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai'. Can any of them top the charts?


John Krasinski Openings:

A Quiet Place (£2,696,892, #2, 2018)
A Quiet Place: Part II (£3,567,048, #1, 2021)
IF (£2,435,054, #1, 2024)


The Strangers Openings:

The Strangers (£1,250,624, #3, 2008)
The Strangers: Prey At Night (£205,325, #7, 2008)
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (£452,507, #4, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 28th May 2024, 05:22 PM

24th May 2024 - 26th May 2024

1. (NE) The Garfield Movie - £2,121,270 Weeks: 1 (£2,121,270)
2. (NE) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - £1,969,140 Weeks: 1 (£1,969,140)
3. (01) IF - £1,631,942 (-33%) Weeks: 2 (£4,609,449)
4. (02) Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes - £1,576,521 (-28%) Weeks: 3 (£10,431,400)
5. (03) The Fall Guy - £752,683 (-15%) Weeks: 4 (£9,544,080)
6. (04) The Strangers: Chapter 1 - £347,657 (-23%) Weeks: 2 (£1,114,963)
7. (05) Challengers - £206,689 (-29%) Weeks: 5 (£5,829,116)
8. (NE) Turbo - £152,295 Weeks: 1 (£152,295)
9. (NE) Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In - £106,919 Weeks: 1 (£106,919)
10. (07) Back To Black - £102,892 (-40%) Weeks: 7 (£12,001,644)


Falling out:
Guruvayoorambala Nadayil (1 week)
42nd Street: The Musical (1 week)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (8 weeks)
La Chimera (2 weeks)


For the 2nd week in a row, the #1 is decided by previews in another disappointing weekend for the 2024 Summer Box Office. Let's start off with the positive: 4 films this week have grossed over £1 million, that hasn't happened for the past 6 weeks and is more on track with what you'd expect for the summer movie season. However the Garfurisosa release week is certainly no Barbenheimer with both films opening under expectations. The official winner is 'The Garfield Movie' opening up with £2,121,270. However this figure includes EXCESIVE previews (about £600k) and if you take those out, it would actually finish at #4 for the 3-day weekend. This does not compare very well with the other big animated kid flicks of the year (Kung Fu Panda 4, £5,020,600, Migration, £3,577,675). Despite being an established IP, It doesn't even compare well with last week's original concept, 'IF' that debuted about £300k higher. Voicing everyone's favourite lasagne eating, Monday hating cat this time around is Chris Pratt, who was previously lended his voice to massive animated hits, 'The Lego Movie' and last year's super-smash 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie'. The pervious attempt to adapt Garfield to the big screen was 2004's live action 'Garfield: The Movie' and 'Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties' where, if reports are to be believed, Bill Murray was duped into voicing the star. Maybe we should be fair to 2024 Garfield's opening because, as you can see below, it actually opened with pretty much the same as the sum of those 2 films. Also, while this may be a slightly lower opening than they would have hoped, one thing that has really saved this film is it's budget. It was made for just $60 million and is already at just under $100 million worldwide so it's likely to be a nice little hit for Sony.

Speaking of Chris Pratt, it was actually Mario versus Princess Peach this week as Anya Taylor-Joy takes over the reigns from Charlize Theron for Mad Max prequel, 'Furiosa'. This film was originally written alongside 'Fury Road' and Theron asked director, George Miller, if they could make it first. However, that didn't materialise and Theron aged out of the role for this prequel that follows Furiosa from a child right up to the events of 'Fury Road'. 2015's 'Mad Max: Fury Road' was never a huge box-office smash but light up the Awards season and has gathered one of the most enthusiastic fan-bases of any modern release so the hype going into this film felt large. In fact, it was voted by fans of Empire Magazine as 'the greatest movie of this century'. I saw so many 'box office predictors' predicting that this was going to be one of the biggest films of the summer but it has tanked in it's opening weekend. Especially in the US, where it has opened with only $25 million over the 3-day weekend, despite earlier tracking of at least $40 million and with a reported budget of $168 million, it's completely dead on arrival. It's really hard to tell what's happened here, the film has gotten rave reviews and the reaction from those who have seen it has been positive. 2015's 'Fury Road' opened to £4,538,933 on it's way to a £17.4 million total. This film will need to have some great holds to even reach £10 million.

Two other new entries in the top 10 this week and they both come from different regions of Asia. 'Turbo' (#8. £152,295) is the latest Indian release to impact the charts. This is an action-comedy directed by Vysakh. 'Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In' (#9, £106,919) is a rare Chinese film to reach the top 10. This is a martial-arts actioner that actually performed at this year's Cannes Film Festival. An adaptation of the novel 'City of Darkness', it has long been in development hell but was eventually released this month to great acclaim and has become the 2nd highest grossing Chinese film in Hong Kong.

Last week's #1, 'IF' had a slow start but, especially with the added competition of 'Garfield', has a really good 2nd week hold of 33% (9% without previews) to suggest that it is clicking with audiences. Family movies often manage to stick around so the signs are looking positive for this becoming a bit of a sleeper. It has already breezed past £5 million if you take in consideration Bank Holiday Monday's gross and the only thing that looks like will stop it from being a money-maker is that unnecessarily large budget. The same thing can also be said for 'The Fall Guy' that had a 15% drop this week and will be above £10 million overall by next week.

'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes' is already above that mark with a really solid 3rd week hold of -28%. It's been a huge smash worldwide and it was just the soft UK opening that was the one thorn in its side. However, it looks like it will be able to overcome that to do decently over here as well. Another certified hit is 'Challengers' that has another solid hold and is showing no signs yet of slowing down. I'm really interested to see just how much this one still has in the tank.

After a really bad opening, 'The Strangers: Chapter 1' has a brilliant 2nd week (-23%) and is already at ~£1.1 million in total. Horror is usually the genre that has the biggest 2nd week drops so this one is particularly impressive. Maybe that trilogy isn't so dead in the water after all. £1.7 million is still the target it needs to reach if it wants to unseat 'Imaginary' as the biggest horror release of the year so far. And finally, despite not making any impact at all in it's US debut last week, 'Back To Black' manages a 7th week in the UK top 10 and has now passed the £12 million mark to sit comfortably within the YTD top 10.

The only other new entry in the #11-15 section is 'The Winter’s Tale: ROH, London 2024' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of 'Sting', 'The Beast', 'Young Woman and the Sea', 'Mr. & Mrs. Mahi', 'A House In Jerusalem', 'Hard Miles' and 'Little Monsters'. We also have a 20th anniversary re-release of 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'. Can any of them top the charts?


Garfield Openings:

Garfield: The Movie (£1,147,437, #3, 2004)
Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties (£739,560, #5, 2006)
The Garfield Movie (£2,121,270, #1, 2024)


George Miller 21st Century's Openings:

Happy Feet (£3,689,166, #1, 2006)
Happy Feet Two (£1,686,197, #2, 2011)
Mad Max: Fury Road (£4,538,933, #2, 2015)
Three Thousand Years of Longing (£307,176 , #10, 2022)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (£1,969,140, #2, 2024)

Anya Taylor-Joy Openings:

The Witch (£447,626, #7, 2016)
Morgan (£193,686, #18, 2016)
Split (£2,548,516, #2, 2017)
Thoroughbreds (£50,811, #20, 2018)
The Secret of Marrowbone (£171,161, #8, 2018)
Glass (£3,423,380, #1, 2019)
Playmobil: The Movie (£376,296, #7, 2019)
Emma (£1,635,797, #6, 2020)
The New Mutants (£686,407, #2, 2020)
Last Night In Soho (£731,950, #8, 2021)
The Northman (£897,737, #4, 2022)
Amsterdam (£632,722, #5, 2022)
The Menu (£932,029, #2, 2022)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (£15,691,810, #1, 2023)
Dune: Part II (£9,279,080, #1, 2024)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (£1,969,140, #2, 2024)

Posted by: Steve201 28th May 2024, 07:49 PM

The new Apes film is decent, saw it the other day!

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 28th May 2024, 09:19 PM

I saw 'Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In' today (because at my cinema, all weekend every show just about (or got close to) being sold out!) and it's really good! Definitely recommend it if you're into that kind of thing! (If you like 'John Wick', 'Monkey Man', 'The Raid' etc... you should enjoy it I think!)

Posted by: Chez Wombat 28th May 2024, 11:58 PM

A real shame about Furiosa, for a film that wasn't necessarily needed, it's actually really good, maintaining the appeals of the Mad Max franchise with brilliant performances, set pieces and script. I'm not sure what happened although the marketing did seem a bit limited and I barely knew it was coming out until last week or so, and the last film was nine years ago now, people may have forgotten the characterand it isn't technically a Mad Max film which would've been more of a draw.

Losing to yet another low effort Illumination cash grab adds insult to injury :/

Posted by: LewisGT 29th May 2024, 04:23 PM

Although it looks like the most 'Illumination' film ever, 'The Garfield Movie' actually has nothing to do with them. It was made by DNEG Animation who previously created 'Ron's Gone Wrong' and the Oscar-nominated 'Nimona'.

Posted by: LewisGT 3rd June 2024, 04:35 PM

31st May 2024 - 2nd June 2024

1. (03) IF - £1,570,568 (-4%) Weeks: 3 (£9,607,001)
2. (01) The Garfield Movie - £1,349,975 (-36%) Weeks: 2 (£6,282,724)
3. (04) Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes - £1,058,441 (-33%) Weeks: 4 (£13,282,022)
4. (02) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - £963,976 (-51%) Weeks: 2 (£4,526,161)
5. (05) The Fall Guy - £524,320 (-31%) Weeks: 5 (£11,102,408)
6. (RE) Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban - £394,066 Weeks: 1 (£394,066)
7. (NE) Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle - £270,095 Weeks: 1 (£270,095)
8. (NE) Sting - £231,113 Weeks: 1 (£231,113)
9. (06) The Strangers: Chapter 1 - £161,518 (-54%) Weeks: 3 (£1,611,971)
10. (07) Challengers - £119,967 (-43%) Weeks: 6 (£6,196,458)


Falling out:
Turbo (1 week)
Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In (1 week)
Back To Black (7 weeks)


I don't know if the movie studios were expecting to bask in the glory and success of the 2nd week of 'Garfuriosa' but there were no major releases this weekend which means that John Krasinki's 'IF' is able to climb back to gain a 2nd week at #1. Business is down a brilliant 4% weekend-to-weekend, but it was actually midweek where the film really shone. The past week has been school holidays across the UK and this week's top 2 really saw the benefit. This time last week, 'IF' had made a total of '£4,609,449' after 2 weekends but this has now ballooned to £9,607,001. It was actually pulling in more money on Thursday than it did on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Paramount's big live-action swing got off to a slow start but it has proved itself to be the kids film of choice at the start of this summer. By next weekend, it should become the 10th release to pass £10 million so far this year. 'The Garfield Movie' also saw the benefit of the school holiday and, paired with a 36% weekend drop (8% without previews), it has started to look like a respectable effort for the potentially out-of-date franchise. That $60 million budget is looking like a masterstroke from Sony. 2006's 'Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties' ended with a £6.5 million total so this may pass that today or tomorrow.

A strong sign of how disappointing this summer has been so far is that the biggest new release on the weekend where June begins is the 20th anniversary re-release of Harry Potter 3. Despite being the lowest grossing of the franchise, 'The Prisoner of Azkaban' is one its best received entries, helped by the guiding of legendary Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón. The re-release opens at #6 with £394,066. In total, the film has made about £46.3 million and ranks as the 33rd biggest film of all-time in the UK. It still needs a couple of million to climb in the list which I think won't happen with this re-release ('Bridget Jones's Baby is at #32 with ~£48.2 million) but I do hope we can get an updated figure at some point.

The two true new entries land at #8 and #9. Anime is having a bit of a moment and 'Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle' is the latest to make an appearance (£270,095, #8). This is a movie adaptation of a popular volleyball anime. It seems to have decent reviews so give it a go if that's your sort of thing. The last anime release to hit the UK charts was Spy x Family Code: White which made a similar amount (£280,729) back in April when it also debuted at #8.

Last year saw 'Talk To Me' become a big sleeper hit for Australian directors Danny & Michael Philippou. That film opened to #5 with £643,547 last July but good word-of-mouth saw it leg out to about £2.5 million it total. It might not be as buzzy but 'Sting' is the latest Australian horror to get a release and debuts at #9 with £231,113. This is the mainstream debut for director Kiah Roache-Turner and has pretty decent reviews. It is a B-Movie focused on a massive spider taking over a flat.

Sitting in bronze position this week is 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes'. Dropping 33%, it gets a 4th week above £1 million as it climbs up to £13,282,022. The lowest grossing Apes film in the Caesar trilogy is 2017's 'War For The Planet Of The Apes' that ended on £20.8 million so 'Kingdom' still has a way to go to catch that. 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' drops to #4 in it's 2nd week. It has a steep 51% drop and is already under £1 million for the weekend. It's total after 2 weekends is £4,526,161 which is still slightly under what 'Mad Max: Fury Road' grossed in it's opening weekend in 2015.

Three further holders within the top 10. 'The Fall Guy' is a non-mover at #5 and drops 31%. It has taken advantage of the quiet release schedule and has now passed £11 million which is a lot better than it's opening weekend suggested. 'The Strangers: Chapter 1' drops to #9 in it's 3rd week. It's up to £1.6 million and should make enough this week to overtake 'Abigail' and 'Immaculate' to become the 2nd biggest horror release of 2023. 'Challengers' rounds out the top 10 with one of it's largest drops (43%). The tennis face-off has now passed £6 million in total.

For a comparison that illustrates just how bad this summer box office has been, the grosses of the top 10 films this week equals £6,626,039. On this weekend last year, 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse' debuted at #1 with £9,159,823 while 'The Little Mermaid' dropped to #2 on it's 2nd week with £4,225,713.

Two further new entries in the #11-15 section and they are both very highly rated: 'Young Woman And The Sea' (#13) and 'The Beast' (#15). We also saw the 30th anniversary re-release of 'The Crow' debut at #11.

Next week sees the openings of 'Bad Boys: Ride Or Die', 'The Watched', 'Rosalie', 'A Game Of Two Halves', 'Riddle Of Fire' and 'The Dead Don't Hurt'. We also have a anniversary re-releases for 'The Matrix' and 'Pride'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 3rd June 2024, 04:59 PM

Nice to see stability and the long game for ‘The Fall Guy’ here in the UK! I believe the UK is one of it’s biggest markets so it’s nice to see it isn’t a complete bomb over here.

Posted by: LewisGT 10th June 2024, 06:14 PM

7th June 2024 - 9th June 2024

1. (NE) Bad Boys: Ride Or Die - £3,873,533 Weeks: 1 (£3,873,533)
2. (01) IF - £866,474 (-45%) Weeks: 4 (£10,859,242)
3. (02) The Garfield Movie - £729,503 (-46%) Weeks: 3 (£7,375,071)
4. (03) Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes - £620,911 (-41%) Weeks: 5 (£14,340,042)
5. (04) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - £436,983 (-55%) Weeks: 3 (£5,558,549)
6. (NE) The Watched - £387,339 Weeks: 1 (£387,339)
7. (05) The Fall Guy - £313,814 (-40%) Weeks: 6 (£11,645,159)
8. (NE) The Dead Don't Hurt - £111,827 Weeks: 1 (£111,827)
9. (10) Challengers - £72,128 (-40%) Weeks: 7 (£6,357,927)
10. (09) The Strangers: Chapter 1 - £69,584 (-57%) Weeks: 3 (£1,772,602)


Falling out:
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (20th Anniversary) (1 week)
Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle (1 week)
Sting (1 week)


One of the last big hits before the Covid pandemic was 2020's 'Bad Boys For Life', the legacy sequel to Michael Bay's iconic buddy-actioners, shocked and performed way over expectations. Fast forward to 2024 and people have now been pinning their hopes on the franchise's forth entry 'Bad Boys: Ride Or Die' to save the summer. And it's kinda worked. Opening with £3,873,553, it is officially the highest weekend gross for any film since last march when both 'Kung Fu Panda 4' and 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire' both opened to higher figures. It's also technically a slight improvement on the numbers for 2020's 'Bad Boys For Life' which opened with £3,781,233. However, 'Ride Or Die' did get a jump on competition and opened on a Wednesday which makes this figure a 5-day total. If we just take in consideration the weekend gross, it would have made £2.9 million. Belgian directing duo Adil & Bilall are back for this film after previously receiving their big mainstream break with the last film. Since then, they have directed two episodes of 'Ms. Marvel' but are perhaps most infamous for being the directors of the fully made and scraped 'Batgirl' that caused huge controversy a couple of years back. The film only had a $100 million budget which is another shrewd decision from Sony and should see this become another hit. 'For Life' ended up grossing £16.2 million. Let's see how this one holds up in a quiet summer release schedule.

Another week and there's another horror film underperforming, but the twist this time is that it comes from first-time director 'Ishana Night Shyamalan', daughter of 'M. Night Shyamalan'. Set in Ireland, the film stars Dakota Fanning as an American immigrant who gets trapped in a forest being observed by an unknown threat called 'the watchers'. Like many a Shyamalan tale, it hasn't received good reviews and I don't think this one will be hanging around for long. M Night also has a film coming out this summer, it's going to be interesting to see how that one performs in comparison.

The third and final new entry in this week's top 10 is 'The Dead Don't Hurt' (#8, £111,827). This is the 2nd time in the directing chair for Oscar-nominated actor Viggo Mortensen after 2020's dementia-drama 'Falling'. That film could only open with £1,913 (#47) so this is a marked improvement. Also starring Vicky Krieps, this is a western that focuses on a female perspective and has gained strong reviews. An interesting fact about both of Mortensen's films: he has ended up starring in both after being adamant that he wouldn't. He ended up taking the lead in 'Falling' as it was the only way he could get it financed and had to act in 'The Dead Don't Hurt' after the original actor dropped out at the last minute.

Outside of 'Bad Boys', it's another pretty grim weekend at the UK box office. No other film could pass the £1 million mark and a sub £70k gross making the top 10 is pathetic at any time of the year, especially so in summer box office season. The kids films still seem to the best performing of a bad bunch with 'IF' passing the £10 million mark with a 45% drop and 'The Garfield Movie' having a similar drop as it tries to reach double-figures.

Other than that, there's not really much to add from last week for any of the holdovers. The biggest story is that 'The Strangers: Chapter 1' has now passed 'Immaculate' and 'Abigail' to be the 2nd biggest horror release of 2023. However, I don't think it has enough in the tank to reach 'Imaginary' which is at just under £2 million from the last update I found.

The only new entries in the #11-15 section are both re-releases: 'The Matrix' (#13) and 'The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of 'Inside Out 2', 'Sasquatch Sunset', 'Unsung Hero', 'Freud's Last Session', and 'Arcadian'. We also have a anniversary re-releases for 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'Star Trek III: The Search For Spock'. Can any of them top the charts?


Bad Boys Openings:

Bad Boys (£866,215, #3, 1995)
Bad Boys II (£3,175,258, #1, 2003)
Bad Boys For Life (£3,781,233, #2, 2020)
Bad Boys: Ride Or Die (£3,873,533, #1, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 17th June 2024, 06:23 PM

14th June 2024 - 16th June 2024

1. (NE) Inside Out 2 - £11,321,387 Weeks: 1 (£11,321,387)
2. (01) Bad Boys: Ride Or Die - £1,857,673 (-52%) Weeks: 2 (£7,139,325)
3. (02) IF - £414,673 (-52%) Weeks: 5 (£11,442,479)
4. (04) Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes - £388,500 (-38%) Weeks: 6 (£15,009,876)
5. (03) The Garfield Movie - £355,208 (-51%) Weeks: 4 (£7,881,406)
6. (05) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - £235,078 (-46%) Weeks: 4 (£6,091,220)
7. (06) The Watched - £177,930 (-54%) Weeks: 2 (£808,678)
8. (07) The Fall Guy - £176,428 (-44%) Weeks: 7 (£11,983,329)
9. (NE) Wilding - £127,191 Weeks: 1 (£127,191)
10. (NE) Freud's Last Session - £72,989 Weeks: 1 (£72,989)


Falling out:
The Dead Don't Hurt (1 week)
Challengers (7 weeks)
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (3 weeks)


It’s been a rough summer at the box office but we’ve finally got the success story we’ve desperately been searching for. ‘Inside Out 2’ blew past all expectations to open to £11,321,387. This has overtaken ‘Dune: Part Two’ for the biggest opening of 2024 (£9,279,080), a record that film has held since March. In fact, it is the biggest opening weekend for any film since ‘Barbie’ debuted with an insane £18,509,236 all the way back 11 months ago in last July. In a year where everything has really struggled to breakthrough, one genre that has seen success is animation and that has continued with ‘Inside Out 2’ actually gaining the 3rd highest ever opening for an animated release. The only animated films to open higher are another set of Pixar sequels: ‘Toy Story 3’ (£21,187,264) and ‘Toy Story 4’ (£13,300,000). Disney became the laughing stock of the industry in 2023 with some of the largest flops of all-time (‘The Marvels’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’, ‘Wish’) but with this opening and the early estimates for ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’, they could be straight back on top and the envy of all other studios again. It has also been a bad few years for Pixar with all their recent releases opening low or going straight to Disney+, so everyone will be breathing a sigh of relief over there. In the US, ‘Inside Out 2’ has also been breaking records left-and-right. It was predicted to open with $90 million but ended up with a $155 million debut to become the 2nd biggest animated opening of all-time in the region, behind 2018’s ‘Incredibles 2’ ($182.7 million). The original ‘Inside Out’ debuted at #1 with £7,376,513 on its way to a £38.7 million total.

Two other films debut in the top 10 this week, both at the bottom end of the chart. Opening at #9 with the best opening of the year for a documentary is ‘Wilding’. The film is about a 5-and-a-half mile estate with a farm which was allowed to run wild and saw the rebirth of species of animals and plants that are virtually extinct across the rest of the world. Unfortunately, in a good recovery weekend for the box-office, we do have one sub-£100k grosser in the top 10 which is the debut of ‘Freud’s Last Session’ (£72,989, #10). This is an adaptation of a play of the same name that imagines what the conversation could have been between noted Christian author C.S. Lewis (Narnia) and legendary psychologist and atheist Sigmund Freud. The film hasn’t got great reviews but Anthony Hopkins stars as Freud giving it some class. Lewis is portrayed by Matthew Goode.

With it having large preview numbers after opening on a Wednesday and a big film releasing this week, I thought that ‘Bad Boys: Ride Or Die’ might completely fall away this weekend. And while 52% is a fairly steep drop, I think this is a great result for the buddy-actioner. That figure actually drops to 34% when you take out previews as it bags another £1,857,673 over the weekend. It’s up to £7,139,325 which is only about £1.7 million less than ‘Bad Boys II’ finished with in 2003. It’s still only halfway to the total for ‘Bad Boys For Life’.

With ‘Inside Out 2’ dominating so much, the other kids films in the chart both take similar sturdy drops. ‘IF’ continues to impress, dropping to 3rd on it’s 5th week with a 52% drop in business while ‘The Garfield Movie’ drops to 5th on it’s 4th week with a 51% drop. Despite having some children appeal, ‘Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes’ is obviously doing well at targeting a different audience as it only drops 38% while remaining at #4.

‘The Watched’ only drops one place on it’s 2nd week (#6 to #7) as it drops 54% in business. That’s not too bad for a horror and is probably being helped by being the only film of that genre in the top 15. It’s now up to £808k so should easily pass £1 million pretty soon.

The last remaining 2 films in the top 10 both have similar drops: ‘Furiosa’ (-46%) and ‘The Fall Guy’ (-44%). ‘Furiosa’ has now passed £6 million but is still more than £10 million behind the final total for ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. ‘The Fall Guy’ is now just short of £12 million.

The only new entries in the #11-15 section are both Indian: ‘Maharaja’ (#13) and Chandu Champion (#14). While we also see re-releases of ‘Star Trek III: The Search For Spock’ (#11), ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring’ (#12) and ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (#15).

Next week sees the openings of ‘The Bikeriders, ‘The Exorcism’, ‘Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now’, and ‘Something In The Water’. We also have a re-releases for Hereditary' and ‘Midsommar'. Can any of them top the charts?


21st Century Pixar Openings:

Monsters, Inc. (£9,200,257, #1, 2002)
Finding Nemo (£7,381,962, #1, 2003)
The Incredibles (£9,753,035, #1, 2004)
Cars (£2,668,968, #1, 2006)
Ratatouille (£4,444,384, #1, 2007)
Wall-E (£4,253,736, #2, 2008)
Up (£6,411,836, #1, 2009)
Toy Story 3 (£21,187,264, #1, 2010)
Cars 2 (£3,541,664, #2, 2011)
Brave (£820,084, #6, 2012)* *Only released in Ireland/Scotland in opening weekend
Monsters University (£3,463,917, #1, 2013)
Inside Out (£7,376,513, #1, 2015)
The Good Dinosaur (£2,926,448, #2, 2015)
Finding Dory (£8,122,075, #1, 2016)
Cars 3 (£2,625,000, #4, 2017)
Coco (£5,209,214, #1, 2018)
Incredibles 2 (£9,650,000, #1, 2018)
Toy Story 4 (£13,300,000, #1, 2019)
Onward (£3,419,500, #1, 2020)
Lightyear (£3,718,002, #3, 2022)
Elemental (£3,049,002, #1, 2023)
Soul (£79,251, #15, 2024)* *First released on Disney+
Luca (£110,964, #10, 2024) * *First released on Disney+
Inside Out 2 (£11,321,387, #1, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 24th June 2024, 06:57 PM

21st June 2024 - 23rd June 2024

1. (01) Inside Out 2 - £7,762,903 (-31%) Weeks: 2 (£23,250,882)
2. (NE) The Bikeriders - £1,085,530 Weeks: 1 (£1,085,530)
3. (02) Bad Boys: Ride Or Die - £1,009,386 (-46%) Weeks: 3 (£9,067,223)
4. (NE) Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday & Empire of Death - £364,353 Weeks: 1 (£364,353)
5. (NE) Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now - £282,961 Weeks: 1 (£477,557)
6. (04) Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes - £175,571 (-55%) Weeks: 7 (£15,359,392)
7. (05) The Garfield Movie - £154,944 (-56%) Weeks: 5 (£8,102,004)
8. (03) IF - £154,587 (-63%) Weeks: 6 (£11,713,570)
9. (NE) The Exorcism - £146,046 Weeks: 1 (£146,046)
10. (NE) Something In The Water - £120,341 Weeks: 1 (£120,341)


Falling out:
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (4 weeks)
The Watched (2 weeks)
The Fall Guy (7 weeks)
Wilding (1 week)
Freud's Last Session (1 week)


In a busy week where five new titles impact the chart, it is cinema's saviour 'Inside Out 2' that comfortably bags a 2nd week at #1. After a record-breaking opening weekend last week, the film has a brilliant 2nd week hold (-31%) which means another £7,762,903, putting it's total to £23,250,882. This is enough to see it climb from #11-#2 in the YTD chart with it being a matter of when, and not if, it can catch 'Dune: Part Two' (just under £40 million). For comparison, earlier in the year, 'Dune: Part Two' was at £19,340,959 at this stage in it's run. It's still running well short of where 'Barbie' was at last year (£47,988,743 after 2 weekends) and a more apt-comparison may be 'Oppenheimer' which was at £27,657,602 on the same weekend. In 2015, 'Inside Out' had taken £17 million at this stage. In the US, the story is even better for Pixar's sequel, where it has become the first animated film to make over $100 million for two weekends as it has already overtaken 'Due: Part Two' and is even outpacing 'Barbie' over there. I went to see it yesterday and I thought it was great. I'm very happy that it's doing so well.

In another world, Disney could have had the top 2 this week as the runner-up, 'The Bikeriders' was originally going to be disturbed by 20th Century Fox in December 2023, just in time for an awards push. I even noticed that it had a couple of preview showings at my local Picturehouse back then. However a mix of the strikes not allowing the starry cast to promote and the poor box office for other Disney films (The Creator, The Marvels) of the time saw them pull the film from release and look to sell. And it's Universal who benefit, with the film opening to over £1 million and almost instantly becoming the highest grossing film for director Jeff Nichols. Adapted from a photo-book by Danny Lyon, the film focuses on the day-to-day life of a motorcycle gang in the 1960s. One of the films biggest selling-points is the trifecta of stars leading the film: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler & Tom Hardy who all had some Oscar buzz last year. It will be interesting to see if they can keep the hype going with this now being a summer release.

Before I move on to other 4 new entries, we will talk about the 3rd film that passed £1 million this weekend, 'Bad Boys: Ride Or Die' that takes bronze on it's third weekend. It's now the 2nd highest grossing film of the franchise and is up to £9,067,223 in a decent result, but the £16.2 million of 2020's 'Bad Boys For Life' is looking out of reach. It should pass £10 million by next weekend and should enter the YTD top 10 in the next couple of weeks.

It felt like event cinema was really having a moment after 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour' last year but it had gone a bit quiet over the past few months. However, it's back with a bang with 'Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday & Empire of Death' and 'Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now' opening at #4 and #5. These are the last 2 episodes of the current series of 'Doctor Who' and was only available at 11PM showings on Friday which makes the £364,353 opening very impressive. Especially when you consider that the episodes were also available on BBC1 and the iPlayer at the same time. £282,961 and a top 5 finish also feels like a good result for 'Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now' as they are not the most mainstream of bands. It is actually up to £477,557 and would be above 'Doctor Who' if you include it's Thursday opening.

We also see two new entries at #9 and #10, 'The Exorcism' and 'Something In The Water'. 'The Exorcism' continues the disappointing year for horror (£146,046). This one stars Russell Crowe and if you're thinking you've already seen him appear in an Exorcism film recently, you'd be right as he starred in 'The Pope's Exorcist' last year (£707,050 opening, £2,463,742 total). This film has got awful reviews and has no chance of catching on in the same way. It also stars the other half of Chloe x Halle, 'Chloe Bailey' after Halle starred in 'The Little Mermaid' last year. French Shark-thriller 'Under Paris' has been a huge hit on Netflix over recent weeks but the same can't be said for British effort 'Something In The Water' which opens to £120,341. At least the whole top 10 made over £100k again.

The continued success of 'Inside Out 2' has seen the other kids films continue to fade with 'The Garfield Movie' dropping 56% and 'IF' drop 63%. Although that is enough for 'IF' to out-gross' A Quiet Place: Part II'. It needs another £500k-ish to beat Krasinki's peak of 'A Quiet Place'. 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes' is starting to fade too dropping 55%. With £15,359,392, it's the lowest grossing of all the modern 'Apes' films. It's even behind 2001's 'The Planet Of The Apes' that ended with £17 million. 'Kingdom' has made under half what 2014's 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (£32.9 million).

'Furiosa' drops out of the top 10 after a measly 4 weeks. It's current total is £6,319,222 which is just pitiful for a film following a beloved modern-day classic and such strong reviews.

No new entries in the #11-15 section but we do see re-entries for 'The Matrix' (#12) and 'Waitress: The Musical' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of ‘A Quiet Place: Day One', ‘Horizon: An American Saga: Chapter One’, ‘Kinds Of Kindness’, and ‘Kalki 2898 AD’. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: LewisGT 2nd July 2024, 06:50 PM

28th June 2024 - 30th June 2024

1. (01) Inside Out 2 - £6,003,527 (-23%) Weeks: 3 (£31,963,087)
2. (NE) A Quiet Place: Day One - £2,933,722 Weeks: 1 (£2,933,722)
3. (NE) Kalki 2898 AD - £886,366 Weeks: 1 (£886,366)
4. (03) Bad Boys: Ride Or Die - £651,891 (-35%) Weeks: 4 (£10,218,054)
5. (02) The Bikeriders - £588,675 (-46%) Weeks: 2 (£2,318,388)
6. (NE) Kinds Of Kindness - £322,142 Weeks: 1 (£322,142)
7. (NE) Jatt & Juliet 3 - £283,400 Weeks: 1 (£283,400)
8. (NE) Horizon: An American Saga Part One - £150,371 Weeks: 1 (£150,371)
9. (07) The Garfield Movie - £149,389 (-4%) Weeks: 6 (£8,302,049)
10. (08) IF - £133,583 (-14%) Weeks: 7 (£11,898,970)


Falling out:
Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday & Empire of Death (1 week)
Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now (1 week)
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes (7 weeks)
The Exorcism (1 week)
Something In The Water (1 week)


'Inside Out 2' completes a hat-trick with the crown with another sensational hold (-23%) that allows it to become only the 2nd film to pass £30 million this year. For comparison, the original 'Inside Out' made £2 million on it's third weekend for a total of £22.8 million. The sequel is currently tracking 40% ahead at this stage. This is the best results for any film after 3 weekends since 'Wonka' which had £37,149,971 by this point.

There's also some good news for the wider market as 'A Quiet Place: Day One' debuts strongly at #2 with £2,933,722 (about £2.4 million without previews). Remarkably, in terms of the 3-day gross, this is the best result for the 'Quiet Place' franchise: 'A Quiet Place' made £1.9 million in it's opening weekend and 'Part II' made £2.3 million in it's 3 day weekend. However, when previews are included, 'A Quiet Place: Part II' does keep the franchise record (£3,567,048). However, we've already seen a prequel without any of the original's stars ('Furiosa') flop already this summer so this result is still mightily impressive. Especially when you consider how bad horror films have done so far in 2024. In fact, this opening weekend figure is enough for 'Day One' to already comfortably be the biggest horror hit of the year, pushing 'Imaginary' down to #2 (just under £2 million).

There is even more counter-programming working a treat this week with 'Kalki 2898 AD' opening at #3. A £886,366 debut is the best for any Indian release since 'Tiger 3' opened with £1,184,001 in November last year. In fact last year, 8 Indian films grossed over £1 million last year and made the EOY top 100. January release 'Fighter' came close (it might have even sneaked over £1 million but was on ~£900k on the last update I found), but 'Kalki 2898 AD' is going to breeze past £1 million next weekend and become the first breakout Indian release of the year. This is an epic, starring legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan, and revolves around a group who are sent on a mission to save Kalki, the tenth incarnation of Vishnu, who is the unborn child of a lab test-subject. This is the first film in a planned Kalki cinematic universe.

We also have another Indian film opening at #7, 'Jatt & Juliet 3' (£283,400). This is the 3rd entry in the rom-com franchise starring Diljit Dosanjh & Neeru Bajwa and has already done enough to out-gross the final total of the first two entries 'Jatt & Juliet' (£124k, 2012) and 'Jatt & Juliet 2' (£190k, 2013). The couple star as police officers and, in this entry, they travel to the UK which can't have hurt it's box office at all.

Earlier on this year, Emma Stone won her 2nd Oscar for starring in Yorgos Lanthimos's 'Poor Things', which became a surprise hit in January, opening to £1,819,563 on it's way to a £7.5 million total, the highest for any 18-rated release this year. The duo waste no time in following it up with 'Kinds Of Kindness' which has opened up with a considerably lesser £322,142 at #6. This one is a three-part anthology, where Stone, alongside the other stars Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe, all play different characters in each part with loose connections between the three. This is the 3rd biggest opening for Lanthimos, but it's miles behind his biggest hit, 'The Favourite' that opened with £3,973,975 in 2019.

While there's been a lot of good news this week for the box office, there is one film that has massively disappointed. Kevin Costner turned down a return to hit TV-show 'Yellowstone' to work on his passion project, a sprawling multi-part Western franchise, 'Horizon: An American Saga' where he stars, writes, directs and produces. This is the first part of a tetralogy (4 films) with 'Part Two' already filmed and set to be released in cinemas next month. I read an interview with Costner in Empire magazine where he actually admits that he's pumped $58 million of his own cash into these films but the opening weekend suggest it may have been an error. It's opening weekend of £150,371 it pitiful for a big-budgeted film. In terms of the UK, these films are DOA.

'The Bikeriders' drops 46% in it's 2nd week to reach £2,318,388. It's now grossed nearly double what Nichol's previous biggest film was 'Midnight Special' (£1.2 million). I think the drops is slightly deeper than Universal would have hoped but it's still not a bad result for them. 'Bad Boys: Ride Or Die' drops another 35% and become the 13th film to pass the £10 million mark this year. However, it definitely won't be able to catch the previous movie, 'Bad Boys For Life'.

'The Garfield Movie' and 'IF' just about hang around the 10 at #9 and #10 meaning that we have another weekend where all films pass £100k. 'The Garfield Movie' in particular has a wonderful 4% drop, the best for any film in the top 10 while a 14% drop in week 7 is nothing to sniff at for 'IF'.

Despite some great results this weekend, it's still not all sunny for the Summer box office. Even with 'Inside Out 2' and 'A Quiet Place: Day One' shining, this weekend in total is still 4% down on the equivalent weekend last summer where 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' was the big new release with a £7,144,441 debut.

There are 2 other new entries in the #11-15 section, 'Riverdance: 25th Anniversary Show' (#12) and the Irish release of 'Kalki 2898 AD' (#13) which is annoyingly separate from the release in the other territories.

Next week sees the openings of ‘MaXXXine', ‘Kill’, ‘Kinds Of Kindness’, ‘Unicorns’ and 'The Nature of Love'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: LewisGT 9th July 2024, 04:36 PM

5th July 2024 - 7th July 2024

1. (01) Inside Out 2 - £5,127,183 (-15%) Weeks: 4 (£40,067,873)
2. (02) A Quiet Place: Day One - £1,617,244 (-45%) Weeks: 2 (£6,185,363)
3. (04) Bad Boys: Ride Or Die - £446,578 (-32%) Weeks: 5 (£11,073,525)
4. (NE) MaXXXine - £388,043 Weeks: 1 (£388,043)
5. (05) The Bikeriders - £374,066 (-37%) Weeks: 3 (£3,153,510)
6. (03) Kalki 2898 AD - £187,610 (-79%) Weeks: 2 (£1,277,574)
7. (09) The Garfield Movie - £183,490 (+20%) Weeks: 7 (£8,577,199)
8. (06) Kinds Of Kindness - £166,842 (-48%) Weeks: 2 (£736,271)
09. (10) IF - £139,139 (+3%) Weeks: 8 (£12,114,121)
10. (07) Jatt & Juliet 3 - £124,954 (-56%) Weeks: 2 (£527,024)


Falling out:
Horizon: An American Saga Part One (1 week)


We have a new box office champion for 2024 as 'Inside Out 2' drops just 15% in it's 4th week to push it's total above £40 million and overtaking 'Dune: Part II' in the process. The original 'Inside Out' grossed £39.4 million in 2015 so this has managed to beat the first film whilst remaining at #1. Very impressive! Only 4 films in 2023 passed this total but 'Inside Out 2' still has a long way to go if it wants to reach those 4 with 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' (£54.9 million) being the next target.

Completing a stagnant top 2, 'A Quiet Place: Day One' drops a respectable 45% on week 2 (34% if we exclude previews). It had an opening weekend slightly above the 2 main entries in the franchise, but is now tracking ever-so-slightly behind where those two were at this stage. The original 'A Quiet Place' ended on £12.1 million while 'Part II' ended with £11.6 million. A similar amount for these doesn't appear to be off the cards yet.

The only new entry this weeks is 'MaXXXine' (#4. £388,043). This is the third film in Ti West's slasher trilogy after 'X' and prequel 'Pearl'. Mia Goth has now starred as the title character in 2 of these films after portraying both Maxine and Pearl in the original 'X'. This is the best result in the franchise: 'X' opened to '£277,493' in 2022 (£641k total) while 'Pearl' opened to '£192,895' on it's way to £477k. 'MaXXXine' has a bigger budget than the other 2 and a starry cast (Kevin Bacon, Lily Collins, Elizabeth Debicki, Halsey, Giancarlo Esposito) so I think the studio will have ambitions for this to potentially reach the £1 million mark at least. I wasn't able to see it this weekend but I'm very excited to see it on Thursday.

Last week saw two big Indian releases debut in the top 10 and they both manage a 2nd week, a feat that has evaded every other Indian release so far this year. 'Kalki 2898 AD' has a massive 79% drop (62% without previews) but raises it's total to £1,277,574, comfortably the best result for any Indian release so far this year. 'Jatt & Juliet 3' drops 7-10 (56%) and passes the half-a-million mark in total.

'Bad Boys: Ride Or Die' continues to prove that Will Smith's career was not ended by the Oscar controversy, as it only drops 32% in it's 5th week as it climbs back into the top 3. 'The Bikeriders' stays in the top 5 as it drops 37%. 'Kinds Of Kindness' is proving to just be too weird to match the massive gross of 'Poor Things' earlier in the year as it drops 48% in it's 2nd week for a £736,271 total.

Even with 'Inside Out 2' still crushing the box office, the other kids films in the market have shown great resistance with 'The Garfield Movie' (9-7, +20%) and 'IF' (10-9, +3%) both climbing and increasing in business.

There are 2 other new entries in the #11-15 section, 'Blue Lock The Movie: Episode Nagi' (#11) and 'Kill' (#13). We also see the 25th anniversary re-release of 'The Mummy' enter at #12.

Next week sees the openings of ‘Despicable Me 4', ‘Fly Me To The Moon’, ‘Longlegs', ‘In A Violent Nature’, 'Agent Of Happiness', 'The Commandant's Shadow', and 'Hundreds Of Beavers'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: LewisGT 15th July 2024, 05:38 PM

12th July 2024 - 14th July 2024

1. (NE) Despicable Me 4 - £8,856,183 Weeks: 1 (£8,856,183)
2. (01) Inside Out 2 - £2,225,170 (-57%) Weeks: 5 (£44,485,366)
3. (NE) Longlegs - £1,371,352 Weeks; 1 (£1,371,352)
4. (NE) Fly Me To The Moon - £862,358 Weeks: 1 (£862,358)
5. (02) A Quiet Place: Day One - £824,948 (-49%) Weeks: 3 (£8,012,217)
6. (NE) Indian 2 - £213,245 Weeks: 1 (£213,245)
7. (03) Bad Boys: Ride Or Die - £201,510 (-55%) Weeks: 6 (£11,561,076)
8. (05) The Bikeriders - £130,871 (-65%) Weeks: 4 (£3,585,493)
9. (04) MaXXXine - £113,190 (-71%) Weeks: 2 (£787,377)
10. (NE) In A Violent Nature - £101,730 Weeks: 1 (£101,730)


Falling out:
Kalki 2898 AD (2 weeks)
The Garfield Movie (7 weeks)
Kinds Of Kindness (2 weeks)
IF (8 weeks)
Jatt & Juilet 3 (2 weeks)


Never bet against the Minions. In terms of total takings, this weekend was the 3rd best of the year so far as 'Despicable Me 4' ends the 4 week run of 'Inside Out 2' as it debuts at #1 with the third biggest opening of the year (£8,856,183). This is the lowest for any Minion related film since the original 'Despicable Me' debuted to £3,664,376 in 2010. In fact, this is the first release since to not debut with £10 million+ and is a long way from franchise peak 'Despicable Me 2' (£14,822,427, 2013). However, most franchises would kill for their 6th entry to perform this well and when you consider who cheaply Universal and Illumination are able to produce these for, and the fact that it has already passed $400 million worldwide, you'd be hard pressed to call this anything other than a solid result. It's only the crazy run of 'Inside Out 2' that is overshadowing it.

Speaking of Pixar's sequel, it has it's sharpest decline so far (57%), but still bags another £2.2 million as it continues to power itself away as 2024's biggest hit. And with most schools closing this week for the summer holidays, that 44,485,366 figure is only going to rise and rise.

While all eyes will be on those top 2, the most impressive result of the week goes to 'Longlegs' at #3. I've bemoaned the flopping of horror movies a lot this year but with this and 'A Quiet Place: Day One' a couple of weeks ago, it feels like the genre has finally turned up this year. These are the only 2 horror films to debut above £1 million this year and the £1,371,352 for 'Longlegs' is enough for it to already pass the lifetime total of 'The Watched' and within £200k of overtaking 'Tarot', 'Night Swim' and 'The First Omen'. By this time next weekend, it looks like it will comfortably overtake 'Imaginary (just under £2 million) to be the 2nd biggest horror film of the year. What makes this all the more impressive is that is a film that has fully sold itself on the merits of the film itself as it's without much in terms of a starry cast or director. It's directed by Osgood Perkins, who's previous biggest film was 2020's 'Gretel & Hansel' and is led by Maika Monroe. The film does have one ace up it's sleeve with Nicolas Cage, but the (very successful) marketing downplayed his involvement. It was this innovative and mysterious marketing campaign (through YouTube & TikTok) that has brought of the audience for this film and it's one that I think a lot of studios will be studying in the future. It was distributed by Neon in the US where it smashed expectations to become their biggest ever opening and over here it was distributed by Black Bear where it has become their 2nd biggest ever opening behind last year's 'Ferrari' (£1,981,677). However, try comparing the budgets of those two films and you'll see which one really performed better.

The third from five new entries this week is 'Fly Me To The Moon' (#4). It's total of £862,358 was just about enough to sneak it in above 'A Quiet Place' but this was heavily boosted by previews. Without previews, it would have opened to £458,487. This is a NASA set period rom-com starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum and is directed by Greg Berlanti, an incredibly successful writer who transitioned to directing and previously released 'Love, Simon' (£1,179,593, #4, 2018). Apple payed $100 million for the rights to film and it was originally meant to be straight-to-Apple TV and was to be directed by Jason Bateman to star Chris Evans. However, strong test screenings led to Apple eyeing a cinema release. Sony won the rights to distribute but I think they're starting to wish they never bothered. I'm not sure where the audience from those test screenings went because this has ended up with average reviews and has not been able to draw in an audience. I read both Empire and Total Film every month and still didn't even release that this was coming out until last week so it's safe to say whatever marketing for it there has been has not worked.

It's not a busy box office week without an Indian release and this week we get the aptly titled 'Indian 2' (£213,245, #6). This is the sequel to 1998's 'Indian' and sees Kamal Haasan reprise his role as the vigilante title character. After the original cut came in at 6 hours, this has been split into 2 films and 'Indian 3' will release next year. This one looks like it hasn't got as strong reviews as the original so probably won't stick around.

There's one final new entry in the top 10 this week and it's Canadian slasher 'In A Violent Nature' (#10). It's opening of £101,730 means that we just about get another week of each film passing the £100k mark. Written and directed by Chris Nash, this has garnered strong reviews with focus on the gimmick of shooting a lot of the film from the perspective of the mute slasher who gets accidently resurrected.

Last week's big new entry 'MaXXXine' has a really bad 2nd weekend, dropping 71%. However, it has now reached £787,377 which makes it the biggest hit of the trilogy. Despite the general reception I'm seeing not being too great, I really enjoyed it and would rank it as my favourite of the three. Kevin Bacon is electric in it, the only negative I have is that the third act is the weakest part and I really think it telegraphs the twist too obviously.

And for a quick round up of the other holdovers. The best hold of the week goes to 'A Quiet Place: Day One' (-49%), while 'Bad Boys: Ride Or Die' and 'The Bikeriders' both have steep drops.

There is 1 further new entry in the #11-15 section, 'Bharateeyudu 2' (#12).

Next week sees the openings of ‘Twisters', ‘Thelma’, ‘Crossing', ‘Blur: To The End, 'Shayda', 'Janet Planet', and 'Chuck Chuck Baby'. We also get a 30th anniversary re-release of 'Forrest Gump'. Can any of them top the charts?


Minions openings:

Despicable Me (£3,664,376, #1, 2010)
Despicable Me 2 (£14,822,427, #1, 2013)
Minions (£11,558,946, #1, 2015)
Despicable Me 3 (£11,154,904, #1, 2017)
Minions: The Rise Of Gru (£10,424,758, #1, 2022)
Despicable Me 4 (£8,856,183, #1, 2024)

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 15th July 2024, 07:19 PM

What an incredible result for ‘Longlegs’. My cinema is still really busy for it with each show almost selling out! It’s also SO SO good. More of a psychological thriller (think along the lines of ‘Se7en’, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, ‘Prisoners’, ‘Zodiac’ etc.. than it is an outright horror, but still incredibly eerie and unsettling.

Intrigued to see it’s hold.

Posted by: LewisGT 22nd July 2024, 06:08 PM

19th July 2024 - 21st July 2024

1. (01) Despicable Me 4 - £4,925,774 (-45%) Weeks: 2 (£17,438,373)
2. (NE) Twisters - £4,149,210 Weeks: 1 (£4,149,210)
3. (02) Inside Out 2 - £1,547,818 (-3%) Weeks: 6 (£47,239,957)
4. (03) Longlegs - £1,309,011 (-5%) Weeks; 2 (£3,957,946)
5. (05) A Quiet Place: Day One - £447,907 (-46%) Weeks: 4 (£9,019,396)
6. (04) Fly Me To The Moon - £191,737 (-78%) Weeks: 2 (£1,418,539)
7. (NE) Bad Newz - £165,464 Weeks: 1 (£165,464)
8. (NE) Blur: To The End - £147,981 Weeks: 1 (£147,981)
9. (07) Bad Boys: Ride Or Die - £140,811 (-31%) Weeks: 7 (£11,830,375)
10. (NE) Present Laughter: NT Live 2019 (Re-Release) - £108,736 Weeks: 1 (£586,742)


Falling out:
Indian 2 (1 week)
The Bikeriders (4 weeks)
MaXXXine (2 weeks)
In A Violent Nature (1 week)


This weekend last year was Barbenheimer weekend and, of course, this weekend cannot compare to that (total box office is down 64% compared to that) but there's still some huge success stories to talk about. For a 2nd weekend, the winner is 'Despicable Me 4' which is down 44% but very strong midweek showings see's it up to £17,438,373 which is enough for it already to be in the top 5 films of the year. After 2 weekends, it's only £1 million behind 2022's 'Minions: The Rise Of Gru' so another ending total of over £40 million is looking very likely.

Opening strongly at #2, 'Twisters' ran DM4 close and ends up with £4,149,210 (around £1 million of previews), the 3rd best opening of this summer. It's a pretty solid result but nothing compared to the huge $80 million opening in America where it has completely blew past expectations. It's another hit for Glen Powell which further boosts his chance of being the next A-lister after his supporting role in 'Top Gun: Maverick' and lead-role in sleeper hit 'Anyone But You'. The film also stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos, who starred in last summer's action flick 'Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts' (£2,973,478 OW). This is, of course, the sequel to legendary Amblin-produced disaster film 'Twisters' that ended up with ~£15 million in 1996. If this continues to perform, it will probably aim to reach around the same place. The most interesting part of this film for me is the choice of director. Lee Isaac Chung takes the reins for this one, He is best knows for his 2020 film 'Minari' that had huge awards success in 2020. That was such a small, character-based film that it feels wild for him to follow it up with this.

Our final new entries this week come in the form of familiar favourites: an Indian release and an event-cinema release. 'Bad Newz' (£165,464, #7) has been described as a 'spiritual sequel' to 2019's 'Good Newwz' and is a comedy 'inspired by true events' about twins that were born to two different fathers. While 'Blur: To The End' is a music documentary about the Britpop legends and follows they're reunion to record #1 album 'The Ballad of Darren' and prepare for their first ever Wembley shows. An opening weekend of '£147,981' puts it behind the opening of 'Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now' (£282,961) from last month. We also see a re-entry for 'Present Laughter: NT Live 2019' that made £108,735 over the weekend and £586,742 when you include showings from weekdays. This adds to it's gross of £1.3 million from 2019.

Staying in the top 3 for a 6th week, 'Inside Out 2' adds another £1,547,818 as it climbs into the top 60 films of all-time in the UK. If it can reach £52 million, it will then be in the top 50 and then we'll see if it can enter the Radio 1 Chart Show positions.

With the good debut for 'Twisters' and the continued success of the two animated films, it would be easy to overlook the insane second weekend hold for 'Longlegs' (-5%). Horror films are usually famed for their massive 2nd week drops so this result shows that the film has really struck a chord with audiences. I certainly didn't have it as being a film that managed to stay above £1 million for 2 weekends but here we are. It's just shy of £4 million after two weeks of play. It is now only 'A Quiet Place' Day One' that has grossed more when it comes to horror this year. It's looking likely that 'Longlegs' is going to have some long legs at the box office.

Speaking of 'A Quiet Place: Day One', that holds at #5 as it passes £9 million. I think the £11.8 million for 'A Quiet Place: Part II' is looking just out of reach but it will be close. As I predicted, thanks to those excessive previews, 'Fly Me To The Moon' has a disaster of a 2nd weekend, dropping 78% (58% without previews). The final holdover is 'Bad Boys: Ride Or Die' that has a solid 31% drop as it continues to try and reach the £12.2 million benchmark for this summer that 'The Fall Guy' and 'IF' have both fallen at.

There are a further 2 new entries in the #11-15 section, 'Thelma' (#12) & 'Crossing' (#13). We also saw the 30th anniversary re-release of 'Forrest Gump' land at #14.

Next week sees the openings of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine', ‘I Saw The TV Glow’, 'Level Cross', ‘About Dry Grasses', and ‘The Echo'. We also get a re-release of 'Chariots Of Fire'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 22nd July 2024, 07:30 PM

What an excellent hold for Longlegs!! I’m really excited to watch it again as I have heard from more than one person that it is even better on a rewatch!

Posted by: LewisGT 30th July 2024, 06:43 PM

26th July 2024 - 28th July 2024

1. (NE) Deadpool & Wolverine - £17,276,622 Weeks: 1 (£17,276,622)
2. (01) Despicable Me 4 - £3,115,176 (-37%) Weeks: 3 (£25,310,646)
3. (02) Twisters - £1,497,514 (-64%) Weeks: 2 (£7,944,987)
4. (03) Inside Out 2 - £1,123,884 (-28%) Weeks: 7 (£50,117,467)
5. (04) Longlegs - £724,321 (-45%) Weeks; 3 (£5,689,629)
6. (05) A Quiet Place: Day One - £168,232 (-63%) Weeks: 5 (£9,511,529)
7. (NE) Raayan - £149,512 Weeks: 1 (£149,512)
8. (07) Bad Newz - £59,607 (-64%) Weeks: 2 (£307,838)
9. (NE) I Saw The TV Glow - £59,149 Weeks: 1 (£59,149)
10. (06) Fly Me To The Moon - £41,402 (-78%) Weeks: 3 (£1,610,897)


Falling out:
Blue: To The End (1 week)
Bad Boys: Ride Or Die (7 weeks)
Present Laughter: NT Live 2019 (1 week)


The summer renaissance continues with 'Deadpool & Wolverine' smashing all records as it lands an easy #1 debut. With £17,276,622, it has easily passed 'Inside Out 2' (£11,321,387) to debut with the biggest opening weekend of the year. In fact, it would still be the opening weekend, even if we took away the money made from the Thursday opening, it would still have made enough to have the biggest opening (£12.6 million). It's actually the biggest opening since 'Barbie' opened with £18,509,236 a year ago last week. It's also the best ever opening for a film rated 15 or 18. The previous record was held by the original 'Deadpool' back in 2016 (£13,729,803). This is the 7th biggest opening for the MCU, just behind 'Black Panther' (£17,700,000, 2018) and the best result since 'Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness' (£19,765,718, 2022). The original 'Deadpool' finished with £38.1 million with 'Deadpool 2' made £32.8 million. Disney will definitely be looking for this one to pass the £40 million barrier but catching 'Inside Out 2' and it's £50 million+ gross would be very difficult. The best result for a film with Wolverine is 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past' (£27.2 million, 2016) so this will definitely end up as a record for Hugh Jackman's Logan.

There are two further new titled in the top 10. The highest of which being Indian release 'Raayan' (£149,512, #7). It's a revenge-thriller written and starring Dhanush who (to quote Wikipedia) plays "a fast-food hotel owner in North Chennai, who hunts down the gangs who had ruined his family earlier). The final new entry is 'I Saw The TV Glow' (£59,149, #9). Directed by Jane Schoenbrun and starring Justice Smith & Brigette Lundy-Paine, it's a buzzy horror/drama (that is part of the A24 umbrella in the US) about two high school students who are obsessed with a TV show from their youth. It's a trans allegory and it randomly sees Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst in a supporting role.

'Despicable Me 4' may have been knocked off top spot, but it continues to hold well (-37%) and has climbed into the top 3 highest grossers of the year so far. It has now passed the lifetime gross of the original 'Despicable Me' (£20.2 million) and, while it's still slightly off the pace of the other 2 films, it is starting to narrow the gap as it looks to reach the £47.9 million total of 'Despicable Me 3'.

'Twisters' is off 64% on week 2, although this is reduced to 52% when you take out previews. Seeming as the film lost a lot of it's screens (especially those premium screens that can really boost the grosses) to 'Deadpool & Wolverine', I think this is a solid hold. It's now in the top 20 YTD and with a quiet release schedule next week, looks to have the chance to continue to hold well from here. It will soon overtake 'Where The Crawdads Sing' (£8.4 million) to be the biggest release for Daisy Edgar-Jones, although Glen Powell's will probably never be able to top his biggest hit 'Top Gun: Maverick' £83.6 million. 'Anyone But You' (£11.7 million) is a much more apt target.

'Inside Out 2' has an excellent 7th week above £1 million with the best hold of any film in the top 10 (-28%). It's now entered the top 50 films of all-time in the UK and is only about £3.5 million away from knocking 'Frozen II' out of the top 5 animated films of all-time.

'Longlegs' drops 45% in it's third week which is still a very solid hold for a horror release. With £5,689,629, it has now overtaken last year's 'Ferrari' (£4.2 million) to be distributor Black Bear's biggest hit. The other horror-holder is one place below, 'A Quiet Place: Day One' at #6. It's starting to drop heavily now (-63%) so will likely fall a tad short of the first two films.

After a nice run of all 10 films passing £100k, the big hitters have stole enough screens that means that we have 3 films in the top 10 with sub-£100k grosses. As well as the aforementioned 'I Saw The TV Glow', we have the 2nd week of 'Bad Newz' that drops 64%. Not awful compared with what we see for most Indian releases. 'Fly Me To The Moon' continues to crash as it drops another 78%, the exact same drop as it had last week as it sneaks a 3rd (and final) week in the top 10 by less than £500.

Despite some low grossers, cumulatively, this is the best weekend at the UK box office since last August. Although it is still 22% off this weekend last year.

There is one further new entry in the #11-15 section, 'About Dry Grasses' (#13).

Next week sees the openings of ‘Harold And The Purple Crayon', 'BLACKPINK World Tour: Born Pink: In Cinemas', Didi’, 'Kensuke's Kingdom' and ‘A Story Of Bones'. We also get re-releases of 'Spider-Man', 'The Neverending Story' and 'My Neighbour Totoro'. Can any of them top the charts?

X-Men Openings:

X-Men (£4,749,241, #1, 2000)
X-Men 2 (£7,037,861, #1, 2003)
X-Men: The Last Stand (£7,091,820, #1, 2006)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (£6,658,979, #1, 2009)
X-Men: First Class (£5,438,386, #1, 2011)
The Wolverine (£4,694,092, #1, 2013)
X-Men: Days Of Future Past (£9,144,971, #1, 2014)
Deadpool (£13,729,803, #1, 2016)
X-Men: Apocalypse (£7,354,293, #1, 2016)
Logan (£9,443,363, #1, 2017)
Deadpool 2 (£12,974,669, #1, 2018)
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (£3,771,153, #2, 2019)
The New Mutants (£686,407 #2, 2020)
Deadpool & Wolverine (£17,276,621, #1, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 6th August 2024, 03:38 PM

2nd August 2024 - 4th August 2024

1. (01) Deadpool & Wolverine - £8,021,085 (-53%) Weeks: 2 (£33,433,823)
2. (02) Despicable Me 4 - £2,561,637 (-18%) Weeks: 4 (£30,845,825)
3. (03) Twisters - £1,184,698 (-21%) Weeks: 3 (£10,197,163)
4. (04) Inside Out 2 - £939,144 (-17%) Weeks: 8 (£52,218,943)
5. (NE) Harold And The Purple Crayon - £641,549 Weeks: 1 (£641,549)
6. (05) Longlegs - £570,544 (-21%) Weeks; 4 (£6,825,292)
7. (RE) Spider-Man (2024 Re-Release) - £253,261 Weeks: 1 (£29,231,767)
8. (06) A Quiet Place: Day One - £101,336 (-41%) Weeks: 6 (£9,750,388)
9. (NE) BLACKPINK World Tour: Born Pink In Cinemas - £93,518 Weeks: 1 (£181,096)
10. (RE) My Neighbour Totoro - £69,996 Weeks: 1 (£69,996)


Falling out:
Rayaan (1 week)
Bad Newz (2 weeks)
I Saw The TV Glow (1 week)
Fly Me To The Moon (3 weeks)


There's little change at the top as 'Deadpool & Wolverine' easily claws it's way to a 2nd week at #1 with another £8 million added to it's total (53% drop or 37% minus previews). For context, the opening weekends of 'Inside Out 2', 'Dune: Part Two' and 'Despicable Me 4' and this have had higher grosses than D&W has put up this weekend. At 33,433,823, it's already done enough to overtake 'Despicable Me 4' for bronze in the YTD charts and is only behind the other two aforementioned films. This is enough for it to have already passed the lifetime gross of 'Deadpool 2' (£32.8 million) and I wouldn't be surprised to be talking about it passing the original 'Deadpool' (£38.1 million) in next week's commentary. Impressively, the film is tracking ahead of 'Marvel's Avengers Assemble' which had £29.9 million after two weekends.

There's two new entries and two big re-entries in the top 10 this week. The highest of which is 'Harold And The Purple Crayon' at #5. Opening with £641,549 (£438,558 without previews), it would have missed out on the top 5 if the previews weren't included. Based on a children's book that is apparently wildly famous in America but not so well known over here, the film stars Zachary Levi who seems to be playing a similar role to the man-child superhero he did in last year's flop 'Shazam! Fury Of The Gods'. The film revolves about a boy from a book whose drawings come to life. And one day, he draws himself and enters the real world.

The other new entry in the top 10 is 'BLACKPINK World Tour: Born Pink In Cinemas' (#9). As you might have guessed, this is one that I went to see over the weekend and contributed to it's debut. The film made £93,518 over the weekend but actually opened for one day on Wednesday and has made £181,096 in total. Combined, this would have been enough for it to open one place higher at #8.

Sony are re-releasing one Spider-Man film each weekend starting with the 2002 original. That does well enough £253,261 to open at #7. We also got a nice updated total of £29,231,767 for the film. The other new entry is 'My Neighbour Totoro' at #10. Last year, 'The Boy And The Heron' broke records for Studio Ghibli so this feels like a great time to get some of their older classics big on the big screens for new fans to see.

Kids continue to save the 2024 box-office with 'Despicable Me 4' (-18%) and 'Inside Out 2' (-17%) both having great holds as they remain steady at #2 and #4. 'Inside Out 2' does drop under £1 million for the first time but is still ticking along nicely as it sets pretty as 2024's biggest hit. 'Despicable Me 4' passes £30 million and proves that Minion-fever is far from being cured yet.

'Twisters' also holds well at #3 with a 21% drop. This is enough for the film to pass the £10 million barrier becoming the 16th 2024 release to manage this.

The final 2 films in the top 10 is the horror section: 'Longlegs' continues to be a massive hit with another small drop (-21%) and 'A Quiet Place: Part Two' bags another week in the top 10 as it chases the £10 million milestone.

There is two further new entries in the #11-15 section, 'Daaru Na Peenda Hove' (#11) and 'Kensuke’s Kingdom' (#13).

Next week sees the openings of ‘Borderlands', 'Trap', 'It Ends With Us’, 'Caligula: The Ultimate Cut', 'Bluey At The Cinema: Family Trip Collection', 'Babes', 'Radical' and ‘Gracie and Pedro: Pets to the Rescue'. We also get a re-release of 'Spider-Man 2'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 7th August 2024, 01:32 AM

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have the opportunity to be #1 & #2 at the box office next weekend! That's going to be quite an interesting stat!

'It Ends With Us' is doing BIG things on pre-sales at my cinema, so far! I think it's going to be pretty big!

Posted by: J❄️hq 12th August 2024, 07:47 PM

^ A £4.5m opening for "It Ends With Us", knocking Deadpool off #1! I did not expect anywhere near that, that's huge for a romance drama?! Honestly I thought it would just perform similarly to Blake Lively's "The Age of Adaline" from quite a few years ago, which opened with less than £1m.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 13th August 2024, 12:47 AM

£4.5m is INSANE!!! The power of TikTok virality!

When I saw the pre-sales for my cinema, I expected it to be big but in a "overperforms with a £2m opening" kinda big... did NOT expect the level of numbers it has done!

Blake having the number 1 AND number 2 movie in the UK (and world??) I imagine that's also an impressive feat that the two leads of the #1 & #2 movies are actually married/spouses!

Posted by: LewisGT 13th August 2024, 06:30 PM

9th August 2024 - 11th August 2024

1. (NE) It Ends With Us - £4,516,760 Weeks: 1 (£4,516,760)
2. (01) Deadpool & Wolverine - £4,083,378 (-49%) Weeks: 3 (£42,986,728)
3. (02) Despicable Me 4 - £1,528,941 (-40%) Weeks: 5 (£35,552,993)
4. (NE) Trap - £1,141,334 Weeks: 1 (£1,141,334)
5. (NE) Borderlands - £843,159 Weeks: 1 (£843,159)
6. (03) Twisters - £619,801 (-48%) Weeks: 4 (£12,000,070)
7. (04) Inside Out 2 - £618,055 (-35%) Weeks: 9 (£54,130,718)
8. (05) Harold And The Purple Crayon - £215,080 (-66%) Weeks: 2 (£1,485,934)
9. (06) Longlegs - £212,841 (-63%) Weeks; 5 (£7,550,951)
10. (RE) Spider-Man 2 (2024 Re-Release) - £208,243 Weeks: 1 (£26,799,567)


Falling out:
Spider-Man (2024 Re-Release) (1 week)
A Quiet Place: Day One (6 weeks)
BLACKPINK World Tour: Born Pink In Cinemas (1 week)
My Neighbour Totoro (2024 Re-Release) (3 weeks)


As has already been discussed above, 'It Ends With Us' is this week's #1 after a strong overperformance against expectations. Opening with an incredibly healthy £4,516,760, this would be a brilliant result for a big blockbuster this summer, never mind for a romantic-drama. In fact, this is the best result for any release in the genre since 'Fifty Shades Freed' opened to £6,132,414 in 2018. Just like the 'Fifty Shades' franchise, 'It Ends With Us' has been adapted from a best-selling novel, Colleen Hoover's 2016 book of the same name that found popularity on TikTok in 2021. Comparisons with the other big adapted romantic dramas of recent times are very strong as it's a step above 'The Fault In Our Stars' (£3,434,334, #1, 2014), 'Little Women' (£3,578,877, #3, 2019), 'Me Before You' (£1,790,657, #3, 2016) and 'A Star Is Born' (£4,100,196, #3, 2018). To put how good this opening is in perspective, this is the 7th biggest opening weekend of the year, above hits such as 'Migration', 'Back To Black' and 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes'. Directed by Justin Baldoni, he also stars himself alongside Brandon Sklenar and Blake Lively. As already mentioned, Lively does play a small role in this week's #2 film 'Deadpool & Wolverine', but she takes the star role here and (if you discount D&W), this is easily the best debut of her career. Her only other #1 film and previous highest opener was 'Green Lantern' (£2,472,969) back in 2010. The film where she famously met her now husband, Ryan Reynolds. More on him later.

With the success of 'It Ends With Us', it would be easy to overlook another successful new entry. In a world where IP and sequels dominate, M Night Shyamalan has been one one of the last champions of original thrillers with memorable ideas and a rare example of a director who can sell a film on name alone. Love him or hate him, he's only had one film that didn't make a healthy profit and he makes no exception with his latest, 'Trap' that debuts at #4 with £1,141,334. In fact, this is up on his previous two releases and is his biggest opening since 'Glass' opened to £3,423,380 in 2019. The king of the killer concept, he provides us with a doozy here. A Dad (Josh Hartnett) takes his daughter to a concert however, it's been organised by the police to catch a serial killer. The twist, said Dad is the killer and he needs to find a way out without letting his daughter know. The singer at the concert is actually portrayed by M Night's own daughter, Saleka who impressively wrote and performed all of the songs specifically for the movie with themes relating to the story.

However, the third and final new entry this week is one of the biggest flops of the year. Opening at #5 with less than £1 million (£843,159), 'Borderlands' makes a mockery of it's $120 million budget. Directed by famed horror-director Eli Roth, this is an adaptation of the successful video-game franchise of the same name that began in 2009. Originally filmed in 2021, this has had long delays and had extensive reshoots in 2023 directed by Tim Miller after Roth had other commitments. The film has a stacked cast including Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt and Jack Black in a voice role but has received savage reviews and has not continued the trend of successful video game adaptations we've seen of recent years with Sonic, Mario and Pokémon alongside 'The Last Of Us' on TV.

Surprisingly, 'Deadpool & Wolverine' only managed two weeks at #1 as it drops down a place this week. Dropping 49%, the film still brought it another £4 million for Disney as it pushes past the £40 million barrier and replaces 'Dune: Part Two' as the 2nd biggest release of the year so far. It's also now comfortably passed 2016's 'Deadpool' to be the biggest X-Men related release in the UK. 'Despicable Me 4' holds in the top 3 for a 5th week with a 40% drop. It's now tracking above what 'Despicable Me 2' and 'Minions: Rise Of Gru' were at the same stage of release and only a tad behind 'Despicable Me 3' which means that it's going to be another similar sized hit for Illumination who will be over the moon after it had a comparatively slower start. The Minions are just too consistent.

'Twisters' is starting to lose a bit of it's audience now with a 48% drop taking it lower than £1 million for the weekend. However it has reached £12 million in total and still has some left in the bank to climb a little higher. It's largely been a flop outside of the US but we have been another saving grace for it. 'Inside Out 2' remarkably has the best hold of any film in the top 10 (-35%) as it continues strong on week 9. 'Longlegs' is on it's last legs in the top 10 as it drops to #9 with a 63% loss in business.

Last week's biggest release 'Harold And The Purple Crayon' actually holds better than I was expecting (-66% or -51% without previews) as it claws it's way towards £1.5 million. It's still quite a steep drop through so don't expect to see it stick around for too much longer.

The re-release of 'Spider-Man 2' is not quite as popular as 'Spider-Man' last week (£208,243 compared to £253,261) but it's still enough for it to reach the top 10 and provide us with an updated total of £26,799,567.

There are three further new entries in the #11-15 section, 'Bluey At The Cinema: Family Trip Collection' (#11), ''Babes' (#13) and 'Radical' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of ‘Alien: Romulus', 'Ozi: Voice Of The Forest', 'Hollywoodgate' 'Khel Khel Mein', 'Stree 2' and ‘Only The River Flows'. We also get re-releases of 'Spider-Man 3', 'Coraline' and 'Lone Star'. Can any of them top the charts?

Blake Lively Openings:

Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants (£110,557, #13, 2005)
Accepted (£349,897, #8. 2006)
Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants 2 (£41,305, #17, 2009)
The Private Lies Of Pippa Lee (£44,511, #12, 2009)
The Town (£1,005,039, #3, 2010)
Green Lantern (£2,472,969, #1, 2010)
Savages (£379,898, #10, 2010)
The Age Of Adaline (£570,386, #5, 2015)
The Shallows (£800,963, #8, 2016)
Café Society (£494,457, #9, 2016)
A Simple Favour (£1,621,900, #2, 2018)
The Rhythm Section (£171,837, #18, 2020)
It Ends With Us (£4,516,760, #1, 2024)

M. Night Shyamalan Openings:

The Sixth Sense (£4,792,296, #1, 1999)
Unbreakable (£2,002,862, #1, 2000)
Signs (£3,767,713, #1, 2002)
The Village (£2,945,763, #2, 2004)
Lady In The Wate (£452,744, #9, 2006)
The Happening (£1,632,055, #4, 2008)
The Last Airbender (£1,653,776, #3, 2010)
After Earth (£2,249,532, #1, 2013)
The Visit (£1,031,292, #3, 2015)
Split (£2,548,516, #2, 2017)
Glass (£3,423,380, #1, 2019)
Old (£866,860, #4, 2021)
Knock At The Cabin (£985,027, #3, 2023)
Trap (£1,141,334, #4, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 20th August 2024, 05:49 PM

16th August 2024 - 18th August 2024

1. (NE) Alien: Romulus - £3,741,288 Weeks: 1 (£3,741,288)
2. (01) It Ends With Us - £2,834,202 (-37%) Weeks: 2 (£11,384,454)
3. (02) Deadpool & Wolverine - £2,393,214 (-41%) Weeks: 4 (£48,418,796)
4. (RE) Coraline (15th Anniversary) - £1,260,124 Weeks: 1 (£1,260,124)
5. (03) Despicable Me 4 - £1,195,158 (-22%) Weeks: 6 (£38,786,080)
6. (04) Trap - £558,233 (-51%) Weeks: 2 (£2,504,127)
7. (07) Inside Out 2 - £506,524 (-18%) Weeks: 10 (£55,537,751)
8. (06) Twisters - £315,163 (-49%) Weeks: 5 (£12,918,441)
9. (NE) Stree 2 - £291,805 Weeks: 1 (£291,805)
10. (05) Borderlands - £181,066 (-79%) Weeks: 2 (£1,496,653)


Falling out:
Harold And The Purple Crayon (2 weeks)
Longlegs (5 weeks)
Spider-Man 2 (2024 Re-Release) (1 week)


Summer 2024 is coming to a close but we do get another #1 debut with ‘Alien: Romulus’ topping the chart with an opening of £3,741,288. Ever since the iconic duo of Ridley Scott’s 1979 ‘Alien’ and James Cameron’s 1986 sequel ‘Aliens’, the horror franchise has been a big deal in the UK, despite increasingly disastrous reviews. Director Fede Álvarez had promised to bring the franchise back to its roots with this homage-filled prequel that is set chronologically between the first two films. And while the review suggest a return to form (81% on Rotten Tomatoes), the opening is off on the two most recent entries: 2017’s ‘Alien: Covenent’ opened to £5,178,531 thanks to some Jubilee-shenanigans while Ridley Scott’s return to the franchise he helped shape ‘Prometheus’ was a monster hit in 2012 (£6,236,580 opening on it’s way to a £25 million+ total). However, despite the decent opening ‘Covenant’ showed no legs at all and closed at around £12 million, a total that Disney will definitely be expecting ‘Romulus’ to beat. With a ~$40 million opening in America shockingly good $20 million+ opening in China (the 2nd biggest for a non-Chinese film this year), this is still a very good result for the film and bodes well for more films to be greenlit. Especially with that very reasonable budget for a big tentpole blockbuster ($80 million).

The only other new entry is the latest Indian release, ‘Stree 2’ (£291,805, #9). This is a horror-comedy from director Amar Kaushik (Bala) and acts as the 5th film in the Maddock Supernatural Universe. 2018’s original ‘Spree’ grossed £58,697 in total so this sequel is already a massive improvement.

But, continuing the scary trend, we get another re-release doing well in 2024 with the 15th anniversary of ‘Coraline’ opening at #4 with £1,260,124 (dropping to £744,365 when Thursday previews are removed). Added to the £8.7 million it originally made in 2009, the film has almost passed the £10 million mark in total. This was the first release from stop-motion experts, Laika Studios, who have since achieved further success and acclaim with films such as ‘Paranorman’ and ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’.

Last week's #1, 'It Ends With Us' continues to do brilliantly well, despite the current Blake Lively backlash that's trending online, only dropping 37% in it's 2nd weekend. Paired with some strong weekday showings, it's already blasted to a £11 million+ total. At the start of the year, 'Anyone But You' had some ridiculous holds as it became a massive word-of-mouth hit. 'It Ends With Us' has already passed the FINAL TOTAL for Syndney Sweeney and Glen Powell's rom-com after 2 weekends. It already passed 'Alien' in the dailies yesterday so who knows just how big this will end up being.

The year's top 2 films of the year are also still doing well and just increasing their gap ahead of the rest of the pack. 'Deadpool & Wolverine' does drop 41% on it's 4th week as it drops to #3, but is getting close to £50 mill as it becomes the 6th biggest MCU release, passing 'Avengers: Age Of Ultron'. 'Inside Out 2' has the best hold in the top 10 again (-18%) on it's 10th week as it enters the top 40 films of all-time.

'Despicable Me 4' has another small drop too (-22%). It needs another £8 million to match the other previous entries. 'Trap' drops out of the top 5 but is up to £2.5 million and 'Twisters' starts to show some fatigue dropping to #8.

If anyone was hoping for 'Borderlands' to pick up some steam after a poor opening weekend, then you're not in luck as it drops an abysmal 79% (63% without previews) as it almost drops straight out of the top 10. Don't be expecting a 3rd week. Including the re-releases for 'The Phantom Menace' and 'Coraline', it is the 61st release to pass £1 million in 2024.

There is one further new entry in the #11-15 section, 'Ozi: Voice Of The Forestl' (#14). The re-release of 'Spider-Man 3' also sees it re-enter at #11.

Next week sees the openings of ‘The Crow', ‘Blink Twice', 'Kneecap’, 'Seventeen Tour FOLLOW Again To Cinemas', ‘Cuckoo’, 'Close To You', ‘Between The Temples’, ‘The Forge’ and ‘Widow Clicquot'. We also get re-releases of 'The Amazing Spider-Man' and ‘Pulp Fiction’. Can any of them top the charts?

Alien Openings

Alien 3 (£2,683,497, #1, 1993)
Alien: Resurrection (£2,672,657, #1, 1997)
Alien vs. Predator (£2,003,663, #2, 2004)
Alien vs. Predator: Requiem (£1,970,363, #1, 2008)
Prometheus (£6,236,580, #1, 2012)
Alien: Covenant (£5,178,531, #1, 2017)
Alien: Romulus (£3,741,288, #1, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 27th August 2024, 04:36 PM

23rd August 2024 - 25th August 2024

1. (01) Alien: Romulus - £2,021,921 (-46%) Weeks: 2 (£8,230,692)
2. (02) It Ends With Us - £1,847,480 (-35%) Weeks: 3 (£15,860,073)
3. (03) Deadpool & Wolverine - £1,778,863 (-25%) Weeks: 5 (£52,075,805)
4. (05) Despicable Me 4 - £1,419,828 (+19%) Weeks: 7 (£41,992,767)
5. (NE) Kneecap - £1,035,664 Weeks: 1 (£1,051,664)
6. (NE) Blink Twice - £746,328 Weeks: 1 (£746,328)
7. (07) Inside Out 2 - £604,523 (+20%) Weeks: 11 (£56,970,514)
8. (NE) The Crow - £410,308 Weeks: 1 (£410,308)
9. (04) Coraline (15th Anniversary) - £398,628 (-68%) Weeks: 2 (£2,292,440)
10. (08) Twisters - £280,756 (-11%) Weeks: 6 (£13,595,608)


Falling out:
Trap (2 weeks)
Stree 2 (1 week)
Borderlands (2 weeks)


In an unchanged top 3, 'Alien: Romulus' bags itself a 2nd week at #1 after dropping a respectable 46%. It's now at £8.2 million after two weekends of play, rising to £8.8 million after Bank Holiday Monday. 2017's 'Alien: Covenant' ended it's run on £12.9 million, a figure that is looking more-than-catchable for this year's effort. This also compares very well against the current top horror release of the year 'A Quiet Place: Day One' which was only at £6,185,363 after two weekends. The only comparison that doesn't favour 'Romulus' is when compared to the current (non-adjusted for inflation) Alien Box-Office-Champ 'Prometheus' that was sitting pretty with £15,471,936 after two weekends.

There's three new entries to the top 10 this week but there's some debate over which film really won the title of highest new entry. As you can see above, the official chart will tell you that the answer is 'Kneecap' as it debuts to #4 with £1,419,828. However, the film officially opened in Ireland two weeks ago and it's gross over those weeks (around £600k) have inexplicably been counted as previews and only included this weekend as it opened in England, Wales and Scotland. It's debut this weekend in those three countries would have actually only been enough for it to debut at #14 with £136,909 (or #11 if you include this weekend gross from Ireland). I suspect the distributor, Curzon, has done this purposefully to gain the extra press of a #4 debut with a £1 million+ gross. Regardless of the dodgy accounting, this is still a massive success story for the Irish-language biopic of the eponymous Northern-Irish hip-hop trio where the each play themselves. The film has earned rave reviews and has been chosen as Ireland's entry for 'Best International Film' at the upcoming Oscars so expect to see it continue to perform.

The entry that actually made the most money this weekend is 'Blink Twice' (£746,328, #6). This is the directing debut of Catwoman herself, Zoë Kravitz, coming from the script she penned herself with writing partner E.T. Feigenbaum. A psychological drama about a woman (Naomi Ackie) who gets invited to the private island of a recently-cancelled millionaire (Channing Tatum) where dark happenings begin to occur. Also involved in the cast are Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Simon Rex and Geena Davis. It's not that favourable compared to 'Trap' or 'Longlegs' which feel like the closest comparisons of recent releases, but this still feels like a decent, if unspectacular start for this. Remarkably, we have to go all the way back to February for the last time a film opened with a gross between £700-800k with 'The Iron Claw'. That film held pretty well and reached a total of about £2.6 million if you want an idea of where this might end up. I've heard so many comparisons to 'Get Out' (my favourite film) so I will need to check it out at some point.

The final new entry this weekend is 'The Crow' (£410,308, #8). This a pretty rough opening for this rebooted adaptation of 1989 comic series of the same name. This follows 1994's 'The Crow' that has gained a large cult following and is infamous for the tragic on-set death of lead-actor Brandan Lee during filming. After multiple failed efforts to reboot, the one we finally get comes from director Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman, Ghost in the Shell) and stars Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs. The film has had savage reviews, only out-savaged by it's box office. It opened to a pitiful $4.6 million in the US when the original opened with $11.7 in 1994 ($35.5 million when adjusted for inflation). The only small saving grace stopping it from being the biggest flop of the year is that it had a relatively small budget for the genre (around $50 million). After a brief reprieve for 'Deadpool & Wolverine', we're straight back into the underperformance of Comic Book movies that has plagued the box-office of late.

The holdovers in the top 3 continue to perform well as 'It Ends With Us' and 'Deadpool & Wolverine' hold their positions with drops of 35% and 25%. Both films continue to rake in cash for the Lively/Reynolds household and show no signs of slowing down. 'It Ends With Us' now enters the top 10 of the YTD charts as it becomes only the 10th film to pass £15 million this year while 'D&W' continues to slowly back some group up on 'Inside Out 2' in the battle for EOY #1.

Speaking of 'Inside Out 2', it's another great weekend for it and 'Despicable Me 4' as they both increase in business by 19-20%. With schools close to re-opening, there's one final push for 'DM4' to do well enough this week to put it close enough so it will be able to pass the elusive £50 million barrier by the end of it's run. It would be the first in the franchise to achieve this if it happens. I'm interested to see if these two can increase in business again next weekend with Saturday being 'National Cinema Day'.

I think the rise in grosses for those two films can be explained by the 68% drop in the 2nd weekend for the 15 year anniversary re-release of 'Coraline'. It proved surprisingly strong competition in the kids market last week that helped it get a 2nd weekend in cinemas when the plan was originally only for one. This release has already gained the film another £2,292,440. This would be a good result for some new releases never mind a re-release for a film that didn't break any records the first time around. 'Borderlands' would have killed for that amount. Rounding off the top 10, 'Twisters' continues to tick over nicely with an 11% drop in it's 6th week.

There are no further new entries in the #11-15 section but we do see re-releases for, 'The Amazing Spider-Man' (#14) and 'Pulp Fiction' (#15).

Next week sees the openings of ‘Sing Sing', ‘AfrAld', 'The Count Of Monte Cristo', 'Black Dog’, 'Touch' ‘Cuckoo’, 'Close To You', ‘Black Dog', and ‘Mandoob'. We also get re-releases of 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2', 'Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm', 'The LEGO Batman Movie', 'The Terminator', 'Ocean's Eleven' and ‘The Italian Job’. Can any of them top the charts?

Rupert Sanders Openings

Snow White and the Huntsman (£3,589,027, #2, 2012)
Ghost In The Shell (£2,300,753, #2, 2017)
The Crow (£410,308, #8, 2024)

Posted by: J❄️hq 28th August 2024, 02:53 PM

I was very confused by the figure for Kneecap before reading the commentary I'm planning to see it tomorrow, but it only seems to be on at three or four Cineworlds in London, and only two or three times a day at each of those, so makes sense that Irish takings are included in that.

Posted by: LewisGT 2nd September 2024, 07:09 PM

30th August 2024 - 1st September 2024

1. (04) Despicable Me 4 - £1,244,980 (-12%) Weeks: 8 (£44,561,248)
2. (03) Deadpool & Wolverine - £1,226,818 (-31%) Weeks: 6 (£54,665,576)
3. (02) It Ends With Us - £1,142,289 (-38%) Weeks: 4 (£18,639,857)
4. (01) Alien: Romulus - £1,079,488 (-47%) Weeks: 3 (£10,820,835)
5. (NE) André Rieu's 2024 Maastricht Concert: Power of Love - £629,653 Weeks: 1 (£629,653)
6. (07) Inside Out 2 - £614,502 (+1%) Weeks: 12 (£58,177,782)
7. (06) Blink Twice - £521,053 (-30%) Weeks: 2 (£1,879,421)
8. (10) Twisters - £293,702 (+4%) Weeks: 7 (£14,149,637)
9. (09) Coraline (15th Anniversary) - £267,647 (-33%) Weeks: 3 (£3,023,256)
10. (NE) AfrAId - £216,620 Weeks: 1 (£216,620)


Falling out:
Kneecap (1 week)
The Crow (1 week)


This week saw the now-annual tradition of 'National Cinema Day' where cinemas across the country drop their prices to a flat £4 for all showings throughout Saturday. Since it's introduction, the bigger winners have continually been kids films and that's no different this week where 'Despicable Me 4' is able to climb back up to #1 on it's 8th week of release. This despite a 12% drop week-on-week overall. It really was Saturday that won it for DM4 as it was only the 4th most popular title on Friday, over £250k behind the leader ('It Ends With Us'). But Cinema Day say it's gross increase 21% from last Saturday which was enough for it to hold on for the win despite 'Deadpool & Wolverine' pushing it close. The last 4 Minion related films all ended in the £47 million mark and with this already being at £44.5 million, it's almost guaranteed that this is going to be the biggest hit for the franchise, despite the much slower start than it's peers. 'Inside Out 2' had a brilliant Saturday too (up 52% from the Saturday before) allowing it gain another 1% week-on-week as it climbs in it's 12th weekend in cinemas. 'Coraline' also sticks around for a 3rd weekend of this anniversary re-release as it climbs above £3 million. This is now nearly triple what the next best re-release of the year has done ('Star Wars: The Phantom Menace', £1,159,370). And, it's not quite a kids film but it's certainly one of the only other family-friendly options at the moment which means that 'Twisters' was able to have a nice 5% increase after National Cinema Day that sees it climb up 2 places.

In the excitement of NCD, you might have missed that there were two new entries to the chart this week. The king of Event Cinema, André Rieu released his 2024 concert (Power Of Love' and opened at #5 with £629,653. See below for the full comparison, but this continues the trend of his releases losing popularity, in pre-Covid times, they were constantly opening with over £1 million, but none of the ones released since have managed £800k with this one being the lowest yet that wasn't during Pandemic times. Let's see if this one can manage the £1 million mark with the encores over the next couple of weeks.

The other new entry this week is 'AfrAId' (#10). As the title may suggest, this is a horror about a rogue AI (very topical). Starring John Cho & Katherine Waterston, it feels pretty much like a remake of 'M3GAN' with an Alexa instead of a doll.

With National Cinema Day, you might have thought box office would be up for all films, however all of the adult-skewing releases actually saw big drops compared to last Saturday. 'Deadpool & Wolverine' dropped 16%, 'It Ends With Us' dropped 30% and 'Alien: Romulus' had a 41% from last Saturday. However, this hasn't stopped 'Deadpool & Wolverine' from climbing enough to become the 4th biggest MCU film of all-time in the UK, behind only 'Avengers: Infinity War', 'Avengers: Endgame' and 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. 'Infinity War' made £70.8 million so there's no chance for 'D&W' to climb any further. 'It Ends With Us' climbs another place in the YTD charts and is now at #7. 'Alien: Romulus' is now up to £10,820,835 which means that it's not only the biggest horror hit of the year, it's also grossed more than 'Five Nights At Freddy's' which was the top horror release of last year. The last horror-film to gross more is 'Smile' from 2022 at £11.6 million which this should overtake quite soon.

'Blink Twice' has a decent hold in it's 2nd week (-30%). It only drops one place and is up to £1,879,421. After the insanely boosted 'opening' last week, 'Kneecap' drops #5 to #13 with an 86% drop. The true trop is a much more respectable 42%.

There are no further new entries in the #11-15 section but we do see the re-release of 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice', ‘Blue: Live At Wembley Stadium', 'The Whip', 'Firebrand’, 'The Queen Of My Dreams', 'The Greatest Of All Time', ‘Starve Acre’ and ‘Knock Out Blonde: The Kellie Maloney Story'. We also get re-releases of 'Spider-Man: Homecoming', 'Batman: Forever', and ‘The Third Man’. Can any of them top the charts?

André Rieu Openings

Andre Rieu’s 2015 Maastricht Concert (£1,107,000, #5, 2015)
Andre Rieu's 2016 Maastricht Concert (£1,414,075, #3, 2016)
Andre Rieu's 2017 Maastricht Concert (£1,439,604, #6, 2017)
Andre Rieu's 2018 Maastricht Concert: Amore (£1,486,528, #5, 2018)
Andre Rieu 2019 Maastricht Concert - Shall We Dance? (£1,492,154, #4, 2019)
Andre Rieu’s 2021 Summer Concert: Together Again (£420,056, #4, 2021)
Andre Rieu’s 2022 Maastricht Summer Concert (£798,706, #1, 2022)
Andre Rieu's 2023 Maastricht Concert: Love Is All Around (£710,326, #5. 2023)
André Rieu's 2024 Maastricht Concert: Power of Love (£629,653, #5, 2024)

Posted by: Lee_J11 7th September 2024, 05:20 PM

The top 4 reversing their positions! Can’t have happened too many times before, if at all!!

Posted by: LewisGT 9th September 2024, 05:04 PM

6th September 2024 - 8th September 2024

1. (NE) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - £7,352,761 Weeks: 1 (£7,352,761)
2. (NE) The Greatest Of All Time - £768,842 Weeks: 1 (£768,842)
3. (03) It Ends With Us - £668,902 (-42%) Weeks: 5 (£20,110,598)
4. (02) Deadpool & Wolverine - £661,592 (-46%) Weeks: 7 (£55,988,625)
5. (04) Alien: Romulus - £570,709 (-47%) Weeks: 4 (£12,148,523)
6. (01) Despicable Me 4 - £543,555 (-56%) Weeks: 9 (£45,769,231)
7. (07) Blink Twice - £331,425 (-37%) Weeks: 3 (£2,620,132)
8. (06) Inside Out 2 - £228,527 (-63%) Weeks: 13 (£58,721,001)
9. (RE) Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith - £159,313 (+23,864%)Weeks: 1,008 (£39,411,480)
10. (NE) Firebrand - £119,952 Weeks: 1 (£119,952)


Falling out:
André Rieu's 2024 Maastricht Concert: Power of Love (1 week)
Twisters (7 weeks)
Coraline (15th Anniversary) (3 weeks)
AfrAId (1 week)


There was some hope that 'Bettlejuice Beetlejuice' would be a nice start for the post-summer box office but I don't think anything expected to break out this much. Legacy sequels can usually either go one of two ways: big hit where everyone wants a nice dose of nostalgia or massive flop where everyone claims that it's ruined their childhood: fortunately for Warner Bros., this is definitely a case of the former. 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' opens with £7,352,761, enough to make it the 5th biggest opening of 2024, behind only 'Deadpool & Wolverine', 'Inside Out 2' 'Dune: Part Two' and 'Despicable Me 4'. It's also the 5th biggest opening for any film released in September, only about £15k less than 4th place's 'It: Chapter 2' (see below for the full top 5). In terms of director, Tim Burton, this is the 3rd biggest opening of his career, behind kids-adaptations 'Alice In Wonderland (£10,555,220, 2010) and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (£7,972,168, 2005). After a string of releases that didn't catch the imagination of audiences, Burton has one person to thank for his resurgence, Jenna Ortega, 'Wednesday' took over the world on Netflix and she proves a lucky charm again here. To show how much inflation has changed the box office, the original 'Beetlejuice' opened with £527k in 1988 and closed with £3.6 million, less than half of it's sequel's opening figure.

Opening in a distant 2nd place is 'The Greatest Of All Time' (£768,842). This is the 2nd biggest opening for an Indian film this year behind 'Kalki 2898 AD' (£886,366), although 'GOAT' does manage to peak one place higher. This one is an sci-fi actioner starring the prolific Vijay, who does what we call a 'Mike Myers/Eddie Murphy' and plays multiple roles as M.S. and Jeevan Gandhi. Without previews, the film would have actually opened at #6 with £412k. There has already been a sequel announced to be called 'The Greatest of All Time vs Original Gangster' (GOAT vs OG).

There is one final new entry in the top 10: 'Firebrand' (£119,952, #10). This is a historical drama based around every high-school history teacher's favourite topic, the Tudors. Ex-Tomb Raider, Alicia Vikander stars as Katherine Parr, who, if you know the rhyme well, is the 'survived' one of Henry VIII's 6 wives. It's received pretty mixed reviews and, unfortunately for a film that is meant to be about Katherine Parr, the biggest talking point around the film seems to be Jude Law's performance as Henry VIII. It's previews helped it just squeeze into the top 10 and stop 'Kneecap' from re-entering.

We do also get one big re-entry in the top 10, 'Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith' (£159,314, #9). It's quite a way off the re-release of 'Star Wars: The Phantom Menace' from May (£1,159,370, #2). We get a nice updated total of £39,411,480 for the film.

After Cinema Day caused a ruckus last week, 'It Ends With Us' holds at #3 to be the best of the holders this week. It drops 42% on it's fifth week and passed the £20 million pound mark. It can be difficult to truly put all films into distinct genres but it's been reported that this is now in the top 20 all-time for romantic dramas, between 2001's 'Moulin Rouge' (£18.4 million) and 1999's 'Shakespeare In Love (£21 million).

'Despicable Me 4' was the winner last time out but drops all the way to #6 this week as it drops below £1 million for the first time after an impressive 8 week-run. It just needs another £2 million now to be the biggest hit in the franchise. What a result it has been for the film. I really thought we we're passed peak Minion fever but they've found a way to prove me wrong. 'Inside Out 2' had it's biggest drop yet (-63%) but is still hanging around. The grosses for both of this films will start to slow down now, especially during the week, as kids go back to school.

'Deadpool & Wolverine' is now within £4 million of 'Inside Out 2' now but is starting to slow down. It will be interesting to see if it has enough in the tank to catch it for the YTD #1. 'Blink Twice' holds at #7 with a strong hold (-37%). It's not been a massive hit but for a low-budgeted film, it's performed pretty solidly.

The last story that needs mentioning this week is 'Alien: Romulus'. It's now passed 'Smile' to be the biggest horror-hit of the 2020's and will pass 'A Quiet Place' sometime this week. After that, it will be in 4th position for horror films of the past 10 years behind only the two 'It' movies and the previous Alien film, 'Covenant'.

There is one further new entry in the #11-15 section: 'Blur: Live At Wembley Stadium' (#13). We also see the re-release of 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of ‘Speak No Evil', 'Lee', 'The Critic' 'Reawakening', 'Usher: Rendezvous In Paris' and ‘Boonie Bears: Time Twist’. We also get re-releases of 'Spider-Man: Far From Home', 'Batman & Robin' and 'Prima Facie – NT Live 2022'. Can any of them top the charts?

~

Tim Burton 21st Century Openings

Planet Of The Apes (£5,445,983, #1, 2001)
Big Fish (£1,644,011, #2, 2004)
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (£7,972,168, #1, 2005)
Corpse Bride (£1,150,464, #3, 2005)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (£4,525,246, #1, 2008)
Alice In Wonderland (£10,555,220, #1, 2010)
Dark Shadows (£2,404,029, #3, 2012)
Frankenweenie (£741,683, #6, 2012)
Big Eyes (£135,582, #14, 2014)
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (£3,473,781, #2, 2016)
Dumbo (£6,076,779, #1, 2019)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (£7,352,760, #1, 2024)

~

Top 5 Biggest September openings:

1. It (£10,002,443, #1, 2017)
2. Kingsman: The Golden Circle (£8,525,664, #1, 2017)
3. Bridget Jones's Baby (£8,111,077, #1, 2016)
4. It: Chapter Two (£7,368,586, #1, 2019)
5. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (£7,352,760, #1, 2024)

Posted by: LewisGT 16th September 2024, 05:26 PM

13th September 2024 - 15th September 2024

1. (01) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - £4,272,202 (-42%) Weeks: 2 (£14,400,271)
2. (NE) Speak No Evil - £1,424,999 Weeks: 1 (£1,424,999)
3. (NE) Lee - £705,643 Weeks: 1 (£705,643)
4. (RE) Prima Facie: NT Live 2022 (2024 Re-Release) - £556,471 Weeks: 1 (£1,487,622)
5. (06) Despicable Me 4 - £389,930 (-29%) Weeks: 10 (£46,254,904)
6. (04) Deadpool & Wolverine - £359,589 (-46%) Weeks: 8 (£56,687,675)
7. (NE) The Critic - £353,075 Weeks: 1 (£353,075)
8. (03) It Ends With Us - £327,196 (-51%) Weeks: 6 (£20,857,518)
9. (05) Alien: Romulus - £268,311 (-53%) Weeks: 5 (£12,764,875)
10. (NE) Ajayante Randam Moshanam - £189,982 Weeks: 1 (£189,982)


Falling out:
The Greatest Of All Time (1 week)
Blink Twice (3 weeks)
Inside Out 2 (13 weeks)
Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith (1 week*) *in this run
Firebrand (1 week)


In a week where half the chart consists of new/re entries, there's no change at the very top where 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' bags a second week at #1. A solid 42% drop in week 2 sees it climb above £14 million and already enter Tim Burton's top 5 films ever in this market, displacing 'Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children' in the process. I think an appropriate comparison for the film should be another sequel to another 80s (mild) horror-comedy classic, 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' from earlier in the year. 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' is already only about £1 million behind what 'G:A' ended with and will knock it out of the YTD Top 10 by next weekend. I saw some reports that were expecting this to fall of a cliff in it's 2nd weekend so the result so far is more than promising.

Out of the new releases, the winner and debuting at #2 is Blumhouse's latest horror 'Speak No Evil'. Starring James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis and directed by James Watkins ('Eden Lake', 'The Woman In Black'), this is an English-language remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name that recieved many a claim of being the 'scariest horror-film of recent times'. I always had faith that this film would do well and it's proved the case as it opens with £1,424,999 (with around £200k of that being previews). When this was announced, there was a huge pushback online with many people calling it pointless and then with the aggressive marketing campaign I've seen so many people complaining about the amount of times they've had to see the trailer. But positive reviews started coming in and now the whole discourse surrounding the film has changed. The film is about an American couple who are invited to stay at the farmhouse of a British couple that they meet on holiday only for it to prove a bad decision. It's the fourth horror-film of recent months to open above £1 million after the first half of the year proved disastrous for the genre with multiple underperforming releases.

Despite 'Speak No Evil' being the official #2 film, I think the real runner up this week is the re-release of the 2022 Jodie Comer starring theatre recording of 'Prima Facie'. The re-release was the highest grossing film last Thursday (£924k) but this gross was not included in the weekend total. Had it been, it would have pipped SPE to #2 by about £60k. This is a remarkable result for the re-release, especially when you consider that it was already the 2nd biggest Event Cinema release of all-time (behind 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour') just from it's 2022 gross of £5.5 million. With another £1.5 million to add to that total already, Taylor better start watching her back, Jodie Comer is coming for her crown!

Opening in bronze position is the Kate Winslet-led biopic of war photographer Lee Miller. Adapted from the 1985 biography 'The Lives of Lee Miller', this not only sees cinematographer Ellen Kuras step up for her first directing gig but also sees The Lonely Island's Andy Samberg ditch the jokes for his first fully serious role. £705,643 feels like a very decent opening for this film, especially when you consider this type of serious, drama fare usually attracts an elder audience that are more likely to visit the cinema during the weekdays which is a good sign that this will have great legs at the box office. Overall, reviews for the film have been quite mixed with multiple comparisons to being 'like reading a Wikipedia article on Lee', but everyone seems to agree that Samberg is a shock highlight and that Winslet gives a power-house performance.

Also aimed at a similar market, 'The Critic' opens at #7 to £353,075. Directed by Anand Tucker in his first film in 14 years, this is a thriller set during the 1930s and sees Ian McKellen star as a film critic for a newspaper who takes glee in writing the most savage reviews of films but gets fired after a scandal. The then gets involved in some increasingly corrupt schemes to win back his job. The supporting cast include Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Lesley Manville and Ben Barnes. Just like with 'Lee', expect this to have strong midweek showings. However, reviews for this one haven't been too kind so it waits to be seen how it ends up doing in the long term.

The final new entry this week is ' Ajayante Randam Moshanam' (#10, £189,982). This is an Indian action-adventurer that sees star, Tovino Thomas, take on three roles. Speaking of Indian films, I know I've mentioned it before that they often have massive second week drops but I think last week's 'The Greatest Of All Time' might have taken it to new levels. Despite a strong opening last week at #2 with £768,842, the film has not only dropped out of the top 10 in it's 2nd week but it's completely out of the top 15 which means it grossed less than £74k this weekend. I'll have to wait to see if some official figures get released, but this means that it has definitely dropped over 90%. This is an outrageous drop for a film that isn't a one week event.

Not too much to add for the rest of the holdovers. 'Deadpool & Wolverine' has overtaken the lifetime total of 'The Dark Knight Rises'. Next on the list for it to overtake in terms of comic-book films is 'Joker' which it will probably do before Friday. 'Despicable Me 4' climbs back into the top 5 in it's 10th week as it edges ever closer to reaching top spot in the Minion Universe. 'It Ends With Us' is now 7th in the YTD charts and 'Alien: Romulus' continues to do well.

After a not-so-unlucky 13 weeks in the top 10, we finally say goodbye to 'Inside Out 2' that drops to #11. I honestly wouldn't be too shocked to see it re-enter next week. This puts it only behind 'Wonka' (15 weeks) for films released in the past year

There is one further new entry in the #11-15 section: 'Ardaas Sarbat De Bhalle Di' (#13). We also see the re-release of 'Spider-Man: Far From Home' (#14).

Next week sees the openings of The Substance', 'Wolfs', 200% Wolf' 'Strange Darling', 'Jung Kook: I Still Am', Girls Will Be Girls', 'Bad Boyz' and ‘Kahan Shuru Kahan Khatam’. We also get re-releases of 'Spider-Man: No WayHome', The Dark Knight', 'Batman Begins' and 'The Batman'. Can any of them top the charts?

Posted by: J❄️hq 16th September 2024, 09:13 PM

Surprised to see 'Lee' open with roughly double the takings of 'The Critic', I thought the latter was getting a much bigger push! It was one trailer that I felt like I saw every time I've been to the cinema over the past couple of months.

Posted by: dandy* 17th September 2024, 04:46 PM

I haven't seen Speak No Evil but I have seen the original. I've read about the changes to the 2024 version and it definitely feels like it has been altered with a mass market in mind.

(I won't go in to more detail than that because I don't want to spoil either version of the film for anyone)

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 17th September 2024, 05:22 PM

The new 'Speak No Evil' is SO good! I haven't seen the original so I can't comment on the differences, but my friend who has seen both says that it's pretty much the same up until a certain part at the beginning of the final act and says it's changed for the better... so I'm v intrigued to see just *how* different the original is. (He didn't particularly dislike the original ending - he just prefers this ending)

Posted by: dandy* 17th September 2024, 05:44 PM

From what I've read about the new one, there are definitely some key things that are changed. It's not that I can't imagine the changes working because I suspect they eradicate some of the more unconventional story elements