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. :lol: 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)

I was very confused by the figure for Kneecap before reading the commentary :lol: 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.

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', ‘Blur: 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)

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

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)

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?

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.

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)

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)

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

20th September 2024 - 22nd September 2024

 

1. (01) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - £2,458,216 (-42%) Weeks: 3 (£18,243,867)

2. (02) Speak No Evil - £813,890 (-43%) Weeks: 2 (£2,859,506)

3. (NE) The Substance - £591,247 Weeks: 1 (£591,247)

4. (03) Lee - £556,465 (-21%) Weeks: 2 (£1,827,996)

5. (RE) Interstellar (10th Anniversary Re-Release) - £453,921 Weeks: 1 (£453,921)

6. (05) Despicable Me 4 - £369,892 (-5%) Weeks: 11 (£46,678,069)

7. (NE) 200% Wolf - £237,038 Weeks: 1 (£237,038)

8. (06) Deadpool & Wolverine - £208,153 (-41%) Weeks: 9 (£57,077,703)

9. (07) The Critic - £208,153 (-41%) Weeks: 2 (£875,463)

10. (08) It Ends With Us - £190,768 (-42%) Weeks: 7 (£21,241,322)

 

 

Falling out:

Prima Facie: NT Live 2022 (2024 Re-Release) (1 week)

Alien: Romulus (5 weeks)

Ajayante Randam Moshanam (1 week)

 

 

You can't say his name three times but he does get a third week at #1 as 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' tops the chart again. The film is proving remarkably consistent with the 42% drop matching the drop it had last week. Another £2.5 million sees it climb from #13-#8 in the YTD charts and it should become the latest member of the £20 million club by next week. It's now Tim Burton's 4th highest grosser in the U.K. and will need another £7 million or so if it wants to overtake 'Dumbo' for third place.

 

The biggest release this week is 'The Substance' which debuts at #3 thanks to about £80k of previews that edges it just above 'Lee'. Grossing £591,247, this is more in line with the horror openings from the first half of this year where we couldn't find a breakout hit rather than the post-'Quiet Place' run of horror hits that we've had. There have been 21 horror releases to make the top weekly top 10's this year and out of those, this works out at as the 7th best opening. See below for the full top 10 horror openings of 2024 so far. Distributed by MUBI, this actually works out as their 2nd biggest opening in the UK after 'Priscilla' opened to £1,326,326 in January. 'The Substance' is one of those rare horror-releases that have awards buzz with lead-actress Demi Moore earning rave reviews with many labelling it as her career-best. Also starring Margaret Qualley, this is a body-horror film about a black-market drug that allows you to create a younger version of yourself with dire consequences if you don't follow the strict instructions that come with them. This is directed by Coralie Fargeat who previously gained fame for directing another gnarly film, 2018's 'Revenge' (£27,231, #25, 2018).

 

The only other new entry this week is '200% Wolf' (£237,037, #7). This is a sequel to the 2020 Australian, animated kids flick '100% Wolf'. The original film was released in the UK just after cinemas first re-opened during the Covid pandemic and opened at #3 with £33,130. The film managed to stick around as more and more people ended up going back to cinemas and eventually ended up with a total over £1.4 million. Do not expect the sequel to see the same sort of legs.

 

We've already seen some successful re-releases this year and we can now add another to the list as the 10 year anniversary of 'Interstellar' opens to #4 (£453,921). Making £21.7 million in it's original run, it currently ranks as Christopher Nolan's 6th biggest film, a mile behind 5th place 'Inception' (£35.8 million). I'm yet to see 'Following' or 'Insomnia' but out of the ones I've seen, 'Interstellar' is definitely my least favourite Nolan film.

 

Holding at #2, 'Speak No Evil' has a solid hold (-43%) in it's second week. Just short of £3 million, the film has climbed enough to pass 'Imaginary' to be the 4th biggest horror of the year so far. Last week's other big release, 'Lee' drops one place to #4 with a brilliant hold (-21%). I said last week that this is the type of film that will perform well on weekdays and it has proved the case by already climbing to £1,827,996. By the 2nd weekend, most releases have managed to double their opening week total. However, with 'Lee' opening to £705,643, this has really overperformed that. Also having strong midweek showings is 'The Critic'. It drops 41% on the weekend, but it's midweek success sees it reach £875k in total and a £1 million+ total is more than guaranteed.

 

Of the remaining holdovers, 'Despicable Me 4' takes advantage of the lack of competition in the kids market to only drop 5% on week 11. 'Deadpool & Wolverine' and 'It Ends With Us' are starting to look like they're on the last legs, dropping to #8 and #10 respectfully.

 

There are no new entries in the #11-15 section but we do see three re-releases enter: 'Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary' (#11), 'Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi' (#14) and 'The Dark Knight' (#15).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Dragonkeeper', 'Megalopolis', 'My Old Ass', 'The Outrun', 'Hellboy: The Crooked Man', 'Never Let Go' and 'Paul McCartney And Wings – One Hand Clapping’. We also get re-releases of 'Mean Girls', 'Terrifier & Terrifier 2' and 'Shaun Of The Dead'. Can any of them top the charts?

 

 

Top 10 2024 Horror Openings:

 

1. Alien: Romulus (£3,741,288)

2. A Quiet Place: Day One (£2,933,722)

3. Speak No Evil (£1,424,999)

4. Longlegs (£1,371,352)

5. Imaginary (£652,808)

6. Abigail (£596,590)

7. The Substance (£591,247)

8. Night Swim (£590,691)

9. Immaculate (£522,583)

10. The First Omen (£521,573)

27th September 2024 - 29th September 2024

 

1. (01) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - £1,822,715 (-26%) Weeks: 4 (£21,000,478)

2. (02) Speak No Evil - £641,584 (-21%) Weeks: 3 (£3,995,264)

3. (NE) The Outrun - £449,591 Weeks: 1 (£449,591)

4. (NE) Devara: Part 1 - £440,626 Weeks: 1 (£440,626)

5. (03) The Substance - £421,242 (-29%) Weeks: 2 (£1,457,283)

6. (04) Lee - £401,565 (-28%) Weeks: 3 (£2,761,379)

7. (NE) Megalopolis - £357,191 Weeks: 1 (£357,191)

8. (06) Despicable Me 4 - £351,008 (-5%) Weeks: 12 (£47,416,351)

9. (RE) Shaun Of The Dead: 20th Anniversary Re-Release - £314,482 Weeks: 1 (£314,482)

10 (NE) Never Let Go - £306,665 Weeks: 1 (£306,665)

 

 

Falling out:

Interstellar (10th Anniversary Re-Release) (1 week)

200% Wolf (1 week)

Deadpool & Wolverine (9 weeks)

The Critic (2 weeks)

It Ends With Us (7 weeks)

 

 

'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' manages a full September at the top as it comfortably holds for a 4th week at #1. The legs this film has shown has been very impressive with a 26% drop helping it become the 8th member of the £20 million+ club for 2024 as it has even scrapped above £21 million. It should be a top 5 YTD film within the next couple of weeks as it's now less than £1 million behind 5th place 'Kung Fu Panda 4'. After that, it would need to nearly double it's current gross to reach 4th place 'Dune: Part Two' so 5th place is definitely the highest this can reach. 'Speak No Evil' makes it a hat-trick of weeks at #2, with a strong 21% hold, as it lands just short of £4 million. This means the James McAvoy-thriller has now outgrossed the combined total of Blumhouse's other 3 releases this year ('Night Swim', 'Imaginary' and 'AfrAId'). It will also pass 'Madame Webb' over the next couple of days if you want an indication of how bad Sony's Spider-Universe is doing at the moment ahead of the release of 'Venom: The Last Dance'.

 

 

The biggest new release this week is 'The Outrun'; which debuts in 3rd position with £449,591. Without the previews (£51,755), it would have landed at #6. Starring Saoirse Ronan, this is the first of two films that are expected to bring her back into the conversation when it comes to awards season after some quieter years since 2019's 'Little Women'. A UK/Germany co-production (directed by Germany's Nora Fingscheidt), this is an adaptation of writer (Amy Liptrot)'s memoir about her alcoholism and move to the Orkney Islands. This is another film I can see having good midweek showings, especially as it has received solid reviews. Despite huge praise for Ronan's' performance, I think it's her role in Apple TV+'s 'Blitz' that will get her an Oscar nom.

 

Opening just behind at #4 is the latest Indian hit, 'Devara: Part 1'. Starring N. T. Rama Rao Jr, this is his first role since 'RRR' broke all kinds of records in 2022 and became the 3rd biggest Indian film ever at the worldwide box office. This one is an actioner about (to quote Wikipedia) "a fearless man [who] finds out that his brother is smuggling deadly weapons, turning into enemies". It's been bought by Netflix and is due to appearing there before Christmas, if you miss it in the cinemas.

 

If you thought than one self-funded, long-germinating passion project by a legendary director completely bombing was bad enough for one year (see 'Horizon: An American Saga'), just wait until you hear about 'Megalopolis'. Debuting at #7 with £357,191, this film had a budget of $120 million dollars, all of which came from the director, Francis Ford Coppola's pocket and it won't even come close to making one-tenth of that back. This film has earned dismal reviews with most people think watching it is the most surreal experience you can have in 2024. Coppola's no stranger to a disastrous shoot and original bad reviews turning into a celebrated masterpiece (just see 'Apocalypse Now' for proof) but I just can't see any saving grace for this one. I think you'd have to write a full series of books to properly cover the story of this release, so I will leave the commentary here. Just know, that this is about a big of a disaster as any film release could be.

 

We get one final new entry in the top 10 and it's another disappointment as 'Never Let Go' debuts at #10 with £306,665. This is a horror starring Halle Berry with a high-concept of a mother and two children who believe that they are the only survivors in a world that has been taken-over by a supernatural force which means they cannot leave their cabin in a remote forest. It all feels very Shyamalan meets 'A Quiet Place'. This is the latest flop in an awful year for Lionsgate, as this follows 'The Crow', 'Boderlands', 'Boy Kills World' and more. They even distributed 'Megalopolis' in the US.

 

Another week and it's another sacksful re-release. This time it's the turn of Edgar Wright's Cornetto-Trilogy opener 'Shaun Of The Dead' that celebrated a 20 year anniversary(!) by opening at #9 with £314,482. Originally, the film opened at #3 in April 2004 with £1,603,410, on it's way to a total of about £8 million.

 

Last week's biggest release, 'The Substance' had an ok opening but word-of-mouth has obviously hit quickly as it has a soft drop (29% with previous, 19% without), paired with decent midweek showings allows it to climb to a £1.5 million total. It's already above 'Night Swim' and is on a far with 'The First Open' as 2024 horrors go. It will be interesting to see just how high up that list it can climb.

 

The last two holders in the top 10 are 'Lee' that had a great hold (-28%) and, for a 12th week, 'Despicable Me 4' that continues to edge closer to the other films in the franchise.

 

There is one further new entry in the #11-15 section: 'Dragonkeeper' (#15). We also see a re-release of 'Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back' (#12).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Joker: Folie à Deux', 'A Different Man', 'Coldplay: Moon Music’ and 'The Battle For Laikipia'. We also get a re-releases of 'Young Frankenstein'. Can any of them top the charts?

4th October 2024 - 6th October 2024

 

1. (NE) Joker: Folie à Deux - £5,674,029 Weeks; 1 (£5,674,029)

2. (01) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - £1,132,437 (-38%) Weeks: 5 (£22,780,871)

3. (02) Speak No Evil - £408,214 (-37%) Weeks: 4 (£4,760,866)

4. (05) The Substance - £358,278 (-15%) Weeks: 3 (£2,170,878)

5. (03) The Outrun - £319,960 (-29%) Weeks: 2 (£1,112,045)

6. (08) Despicable Me 4 - £295,462 (-16%) Weeks: 13 (£47,759,576)

7. (06) Lee - £237,763 (-41%) Weeks: 4 (£3,382,909)

8. (11) 200% Wolf - £124,589 (-31%) Weeks: 3 (£596,053)

9. (RE) Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi (40th Anniversary Re-Release) - £123,235 (+359%) Weeks: 76 (£959,412)

10. (NE) A Different Man - £88,947 Weeks: 1 (£88,947)

 

 

Falling out:

Devara: Part 1 (1 week)

Megalopolis (1 week)

Shaun Of The Dead: 20th Anniversary Re-Release (1 week)

Never Let Go (1 week)

 

 

As expected, 'Joker: Folie à Deux' breaks the 4 week reign of 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' to debut atop of the UK Box Office chart. However, this does not tell the full story. Let's start with the positive: even with the film not having previews, this is the 7th biggest opening weekend of the year and it moves up to 5th if you take out previews for other films. It's also Lady Gaga's biggest opening weekend, overtaking 'A Star Is Born' (£4,100,196, #3, 2018). That's really where the good news ends. The original 'Joker' debuted with £12,555,329 in 2019 on it's way to a £58.3 million total (and over a billion worldwide). This remains the 2nd biggest 15-certificate film of all-time, just behind last year's 'Oppenheimer' (£59.7 million). For this film to drop almost 55% from the opening of the original shows that something has gone massively wrong with Todd Phillip's sequel. Star, Joaquin Phoenix, has returned to the role that won him an Oscar and, as previously mentioned, Lady Gaga also joined the cast, portraying Harley Quinn and originally, the buzz seemed to be there. The trailer dropped to record views on YouTube and people seemed genuinely interested in the musical aspect. However, ever since reviews started to drop last week, the discussion around this film has turned so toxic and fan reactions have been almost universally negative. I'm very interested to see if this will now fall of a cliff next week or if it can stick around in a quiet marketplace. The most apt comparison now seems to be 'Venon: Let There Be Carnage' that debuted to £6,167,833 in 2021, on it's way to an £18.1 million total. In America, the story is even worse as it's just opened LOWER than 'Morbius'. It has been estimated that 'Folie à Deux' needs to pass $550 million worldwide to breakeven; I'm not convinced it will even reach $150 million.

 

The chart is bookended by new entries, as the only other new release to make a dent this week is 'A Different Man' (#10). This was a Sundance hit and stars Sebastian Stan as an actor who undertakes surgery to counteract his Neurofibromatosis and meets another man with the same condition, portrayed Adam Pearson, who has the condition in real life. Despite feeling like quite a small, niche release, £88,947 does feel like a slightly disappointing opening based on the strong reviews and Stan's appearance on 'The Graham Norton Show' to promote.

 

On the re-release front, an overall lower grossing market, allows the re-release of ' Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi' to return to the top 10, despite comfortably grossing less than than 'A New Hope' and 'The Empire Strikes Back' have over the past 2 weekends.

 

After four weeks at the top, 'Beetlejuice Beeltejuice' does drop to #2 but adds another £1,1 million which is enough for it to climb into the YTD top 5. 'Speak No Evil' leaves #2 for the first time as it drops 36% to finish 3rd. This has been a nice little hit for Universal and with Halloween being this month, it should still have a few more weeks to hang around.

 

After dropping to #11 last week, '200% Wolf' climbs back into the top 10 despite dropping 31% week-on-week. It's up to about £600k now so there's still a long way for it to go to catch the original's (100% Wolf)'s £1.4 million. 'The Outrun' has a solid 2nd week, dropping 29% (20% without previews). It's previews helped it debut at #3 last week when it's pure weekend gross would have landed 6th. So on the pure weekend grosses, this actually climbed one spot in it's 2nd week. It has now passed the £1 million mark.

 

However, the best result was for 'The Substance' which did climb up a spot with the best hold of the weekend (-15%). It's now passed 'Aftersun' to become MUBI's 2nd biggest release in the UK and it looks on track to climb above this year's Priscilla (£3.3 million) to be the distributer's best. Also climbing is 'Despicable Me 4' in it's 13th week, almost re-entering the top 5. It's now in touching distance of 'Despicable Me 3' (£47.9 million) and will soon become the biggest film in the Minions franchise in the UK. I didn't expect to be saying that after it's opening weekend. It's particularly impressive as the film was made available to watch at home on PVOD on 26th August and it has made about another £6 million in the cinemas in that time. And, finally, 'Lee' drops 42% on it's 4th weekend and has a cumulative gross of ~£3.4 million.

 

'Megalopolis' drops to #11 with a 76% drop and 'Never Let Go' drops to #12 with a 78% drop. Can Joker manage to do worse next week?

 

There are no further new entries in the #11-15 section. However, last week's debutant: 'Dragonkeeper' climbs up a spot (#14).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Transformers One', 'Terrifier 3', 'Salem's Lot’, 'Timestalker', 'Portraits Of Dangerous Woman', 'Buffalo Kids', 'Stuntman', 'Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video' and 'Vettaiyan'. We also get a re-release of 'Gladiator'. Can any of them top the charts?

 

 

Todd Phillips Openings

 

Road Trip (£1,911,730, #2, 2000)

Old School (742,478, #2, 2003)

Starsky & Hutch (£412,326, #5, 2004)

School For Scoundrels (£340,984, #8, 2007)

The Hangover (£3,193,806, #1, 2009)

Due Date (£2,346,089, #1, 2010)

The Hangover Part II (£10,409,017, #1, 2011)

The Hangover Part III (£5,964,619, #1, 2013)

War Dogs (£1,005,133, #4, 2016)

Joker (£12,555,329, #1, 2019)

Joker: Folie à Deux (£5,674,029, #1, 2024)

11th October 2024 - 13th October 2024

 

1. (NE) Transformers One - £1,691,928 Weeks: 1 (£1,691,928)

2. (01) Joker: Folie à Deux - £1,431,998 (-75%) Weeks: 2 (£8,696,046)

3. (NE) Terrifier 3 - £1,049,416 Weeks: 1 (£1,049,416)

4. (02) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - £769,425 (-32%) Weeks: 6 (£23,926,826)

5. (NE) Vettaiyan - £485,910 Weeks: 1 (£485,910)

6. (NE) Salem's Lot - £359,911 Weeks: 1 (£359,911)

7. (NE) Buffalo Kids - £345,411 Weeks: 1 (£345,411)

8. (04) The Substance - £300,275 (-16%) Weeks: 4 (£2,732,470)

9. (03) Speak No Evil - £235,684 (-42%) Weeks: 5 (£5,229,845)

10. (05) The Outrun - £222,953 (-30%) Weeks: 3 (£1,623,890)

 

 

Falling out:

Despicable Me 4 (13 weeks)

Lee (4 weeks)

200% Wolf (3 weeks)

Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi (40th Anniversary Re-Release) (1 week)

A Different Man (1 week)

 

 

The biggest story of the week is probably the battle of the clowns, but topping the chart this week is the robots as 'Transformers One' becomes the 6th film from the franchise to reach #1. Although, it's continued the downwards trend of the 'Transformers' films by opening with the lowest figure yet for any of the films, at almost half of what 'Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts' opened to last year. Although, with this being an animated kids film with good reviews, there's still hope yet that it can leg out beyond the £8.25 million of that film although I would say it looks unlikely. As well as being the first animated film of the series, it also serves as a prequel, focusing on the early friendship between future rivals, Optimus Prime and Megatron voiced by Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry. A bloated supporting casts also sees Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Jon Hamm, Keegan Michael-Key and Laurence Fishburne lend their voices. This is the 6th major animated release of 2024 and is the lowest opening weekend of the lot; about £500k behind the opening of 'The Garfield Movie' (£2,121,270) from May and less than half of the opening of February's 'Migration' (£3,577,675). A really disappointing opening to follow a poor result in America, but, as I previously mentioned, those who have seen it have liked it so maybe good word-of-mouth can save it.

 

In what seemed a faintly ridiculous concept a few weeks ago, this week has turned into a race that has ignited the box-office community between the two clowns, Arthur and Art. Disappointingly for most, unlike in America, Warner Bros.'s big-budget disaster has ended up winning out over here as 'Joker: Folie à Deux' drops to #2, ahead of the debut of 'Terrifier 3' at #3. I went to see 'Joker', this weekend so blame me for this result. Although, those stats hardly tell the story for either film. 'Folie à Deux' drops a painful 75% from it's opening weekend and that's for a film that had no previews! In total, the film has currently grossed £8,696,046. For comparison, the original 'Joker' had £30,030,142 at this point in it's run. James Gunn has a lot to do if he wants to save DC after their recent run of films.

 

Let's focus on a more positive story and the incredible debut of 'Terrifier 3'. I don't even think the first two films received cinema releases at the time so for the franchise to build up so much type that the third film can debut above £1 million is mightily impressive. As we enter spooky season, this is the 5th biggest horror opening of 2024 so far (see full list below). With a reported budget of $2 million, the film was pretty much instantly profitable and I'm sure a lot of Hollywood executives and knocking on director, Damien Leone's door asking him how he's done it. Like every good horror franchise, the 'Terrifier' films have an iconic villain in David Howard Thornton's 'Art the Clown'. This is now distributor, Signature Entertainment's biggest ever UK debut, surpassing 2022's 'Orphan: First Kill' (£434,601, #10) and looks like it will easily pass that films final total of £2.3 million. I am completely in awe of what they've achieved in making this series of films so successful, but having seen clips of the films, they're success does go over my head a bit. The acting in them seems to be near 'The Room' level bad.

 

The only horror new entry this week is 'Salem's Lot' (#6). Based on the novel by the 'King of Horror', Stephen King, this is the third adaptation after two TV mini-series. Directed by 'It'/'It: Chapter Two' scribe Gary Dauberman, this was originally shot in 2021 and was intended to be released in 2022 before COVID and strike related-delays pulled it from schedules. However, King stepped in and it has eventually hit cinemas over her and 'Mac' in the US. It doesn't look like this vampire flick is going to break out but at I'm very happy that Warner Bros. didn't end up writing it off as a tax break like they had threatened.

 

Just about managing a top 5 debut this weeks is 'Vettaiyan' (£485,910). This makes it the 4th biggest opening for an Indian film so far this year. This is an actioner starring Rajinikanth as a police officer who causes controversy after killing a suspect. Just like the rest of this year's Indian releases, it will be completely gone by next week.

 

One final new entry this week and it's the Spanish animated kids film 'Buffalo Kids' (#7, £345,411). This opening is boosted by it earning £135k in previews by releasing extensively last weekend. Despite the largely British voice cast (Stephen Graham, Sean Bean, Gemma Arterton), this still feels a surprisingly strong opening for a foreign-made animation. It's one of four films in the top 10 distributed by Warner Bros.

 

As far as the holders go, it's 'The Substance' that has the best hold again, dropping a slight 16% in week 4. It's fair to say that it's been a brilliant hit for Mubi. 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' has it's first weekend under £1 million but there's still nothing to complain about as it continues to climb up Tim Burton's all-time list. 'Speak No Evil' is now well passed £5 million while 'The Outrun' has a decent 30% hold as it drops to #10.

 

After an impressive, 13 week run in the top 10, 'Despicable Me 4' drops to #11. Although, I feel like it might climb back in again next week. I've seen conflicting reports, but I believe it has now passed £48 million and it is now the biggest film in the Minion Cinematic Universe.

 

There are two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Jigra' (#13) and 'Mittran Da Chaleya Truck Ni' (#15). We also see a re-release of 'Gladiator' (#14).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'The Wild Robot', 'Smile 2', 'The Apprentice’, 'My Hero Academia: You’re Next', 'Kathleen Is Here', and 'A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things'. We also get a re-release of 'Carrie'. Can any of them top the charts?

 

 

Transformers Openings:

 

Transformers (£8,718,561, #2, 2007)

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (£8,349,739, #1, 2009)

Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (£10,728,503, #1, 2011)

Transformers: Age Of Extinction (£11,751,427, #1, 2014)

Transformers: The Last Knight (£4,635,570, #1, 2017)

Bumblebee (£5,103,382, #2, 2018)

Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts (£2,973,478, #2, 2023)

Transformers One (£1,691,928, #1, 2024)

 

~

 

Stephen King 21st Century Openings:

 

Dreamcatcher (£729,525, #5, 2003)

Secret Window (£759,162, #3, 2004)

1408 (£1,073,963, #3, 2007)

The Mist (£157,394, #8, 2008)

Carrie (£662,625, #5, 2013)

The Dark Tower (£910,529, #5, 2017)

It (£10,002,443, #1, 2017)

Pet Semetary (£1,554,881, #3, 2019)

It: Chapter Two (£7,368,586, #1, 2019)

Doctor Sleep (£1,460,643, #4, 2019)

Firestarter (£250,006, #9, 2022)

The Boogeyman (£492,071, #5, 2023)

Salem’s Lot (£359,911, #6, 2024)

 

~

 

Top 5 Horror Openings of 2024 (So Far)

 

1. Alien: Romulus - £3,741,288

2. A Quiet Place: Day One - £2,933,722

3. Speak No Evil - £1,424,999

4. Longlegs - £1,371,352

5. Terrifier 3 - £1,049,416

SO pleased for 'Terrifier'. Such a great horror franchise and the world/lore of it is expanding wonderfully! Art is terrifying. It won't be long until we start seeing him plastered all over fan art and "Icons of Horror" merch alongside the greats like Leatherface, Michael, Freddy etc.. I think the 4th will open to a much wider release now, too!

 

Glad 'Transformers One' got a number 1 debut here, but that's guttingly low for this franchise. It's excellent and I think half-term over the next couple of weeks will help its run here. Although it'll have stiff competition from 'The Wild Robot' which seems to have over-performed just about everywhere it that it has been released so far!

 

I think my preference goes:

 

- Bumblebee

- Transformers One

- Transformers

- Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts

---

- Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

- Transformers: Age Of Extinction

 

Not seen the other two.

 

I actually really enjoy the top 4! The bottom 2 are absolutely DIRE though. Not a fan of those. Maybe I should do a rewatch...

Rotten Tomatoes report on the US success of 'Terrifier 3'..

 

Whatever one thinks about the Terrifier films, there is still something worth applauding that a series with its roots could someday lead the nation’s box office. Granted, it is October, and its competition is basically a pro team that had its entire starting lineup put on the IR the week before, but a victory is a victory, and Terrifier 3 is your leader this week. After the first film was crowdfunded (to reportedly less than $60,000) and got a very limited release in 2018, the sequel found a growing audience in 2022. Despite opening to just $805,000 in 770 theaters the weekend of Oct. 7 (a per-theater average of $1,045), Terrifier 2 got into the top 10, tucked just behind the 20th week of Top Gun: Maverick. The film’s total actually increased 28% the following week despite losing 70 of its theaters. The location count went back up in week three, and it increased 70.4% in returns to where it had made over $5 million in 17 days. Theaters more than doubled for the pre-Halloween weekend, and it made another $1.9 million and ultimately grossed $10.6 million on a $250,000 budget.

 

Terrifier 3 did not mess around this weekend, getting over 2,500 theaters to book it, and it took in $18.8 million with CineVerse’s backing. Lionsgate has not had an opening that big all year. Focus has not had an opening that big since 2022. Bleecker Street has never had an opening that big. With a $2 million budget, whether or not audiences want to return or tell their friends to see it going forward, it’s all gravy at this point. Here are some other horror films doubling their sub-$5 million budgets, tripling it, and then some:

 

Paranormal Activity 2 ($40.6 million opening / $3 million budget)

The Purge ($34.0 million / $3 million budget)

The Devil Inside ($33.7 million / $1 million budget)

Saw II ($31.7 million / $4 million budget)

Happy Death Day ($26.0 million / $4.8 million budget)

Lights Out ($21.6 million / $4.9 million budget)

The Last Exorcism ($20.3 million / $1.8 million budget)

Hostel ($19.5 million / $4.8 million budget)

Terrifier 3 ($18.8 million / $2 million budget)

Truth or Dare ($18.6 million / $3.5 million budget)

Saw ($18.2 million / $1.2 million budget)

Sinister ($18.0 million / $3 million budget)

Unfriended ($15.8 million / $1 million budget)

The Boy Next Door ($14.9 million / $4 million budget)

Insidious ($13.2 million / $1.5 million budget)

Open Water ($11.4 million / $500,000 budget)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter ($11.1 million / $2.6 million budget)

Barbarian ($10.5 million / $4.5 million budget)

Talk To Me ($10.4 million / $4.5 million budget)

The Lazarus Effect ($10.2 million / $3.3 million budget)

18th October 2024 - 20th October 2024

 

1. (NE) The Wild Robot - £3,256,572 Weeks: 1 (£3,256,572)

2. (NE) Smile 2 - £2,000,089 Weeks: 1 (£2,000,089)

3. (NE) The Apprentice - £749,149 Weeks: 1 (£749,149)

4. (01) Transformers One - £639,554 (-62%) Weeks: 2 (£2,739,400)

5. (03) Terrifier 3 - £562,617 (-47%) Weeks: 2 (£2,250,691)

6. (02) Joker: Folie à Deux - £501,000 (-65%) Weeks: 3 (£9,797,478)

7. (04) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - £469,408 (-39%) Weeks: 7 (£24,684,335)

8. (08) The Substance - £223,407 (-26%) Weeks: 5 (£3,163,308)

9. (NE) My Hero Academia: You're Next - £216,884 Weeks: 1 (£216,884)

10. (NE) Alice's Adventures In Wonderland: Royal Ballet & Opera - £147,703 Weeks: 1 (£563,579)

 

 

Falling out:

Vettaiyan (1 weeks)

Salem's Lot (1 week)

Buffalo Kids (1 week)

Speak No Evil (5 weeks)

The Outrun (3 weeks)

 

 

It a week full of new entries, it’s Dreamworks’ latest animation ‘The Wild Robot’ that does enough to debut at #1. Opening with £3,256,572, this is slightly below ‘Migration’ from the start of the year (£3,577,675) but is above what Dreamworks’ ‘Trolls Band Together’ (£3,051,810) opened with on this exact weekend last year. ‘Migration’ legged out to just under £21.5 million while ‘Trolls Band Together’ finished with about £15.7 million. Universal will be hoping to see a result for similar to the former, especially with a sequel already announced. This is because, alongside brilliant reviews, the film had already opened in America last month and has proved to be a decent sized hit. Last week, I said that ‘Transformers One’ was the 6th biggest animated opening of the year and it’s already been pushed down to 7th as ‘The Wild Robot’ bags 5th place.

 

Despite being the top title on Friday, ‘Smile 2’ can only start at #2. Writer/director Parker Finn returns for this sequel to his 2022 debut feature that was a shock sleeper hit. For the sequel, he signed up ‘Alladin’ and ‘Charlie’s Angels’ star Naomi Scott who has earned rave reviews for her committed performance as a pop star who is haunted by her past, as well as the eponymous smile curse. ‘Smile 2’ debuts with £2,000,089 (£1.7 million without previews) which proves to be a nice climb on the £1,860,452 (£1.5 million without previews) for ‘Smile’ (#1, 2022). This is enough to debut as the 3rd biggest horror opening of 2024, knocking 'Terrifier 3' out of the top 5 of that chart after one week. The original ended just shy of £12 million. With Halloween still to come, can this leg out to a comparable total?

 

Just about hanging on for a bronze debut is ‘The Apprentice’. I’m sorry to any Alan Sugar fans, but this is not about him but is instead an ‘origin story’ for his American equivalent, ex (and hopefully not future) president Donald Trump. Ali Abbasi’s film has caused a lot of controversy since it’s premier at Cannes, with Trump himself describing it as “a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job”. It’s opening on the eve on the US election and has, surprisingly, flopped a bit in America, debuting at #10 and only managing one week in the weekly top 10. However, a debut of £749,149 over here is a promising sign that there’s more of an audience on this side of the Atlantic. Bucky himself, Sebastian Stan stars as the young Trump with Succession’s Jeremy Strong plating his mentor Roy Cohn.

 

Two more new entries at the bottom end of the chart. The latest anime release 'My Hero Academia: You're Next' debuts at #9 with £216,844. This is the 4th film based on the manga, following 2021's 'World Heroes' Mission' which opened with a pretty much identical £218,956 (#12). The biggest anime opening of 2024 remains to be 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba: To The Hashira Training' (£641,878). We also get the mandatory event cinema release with 'Alice's Adventures In Wonderland: Royal Ballet & Opera'. This had originally played live midweek and has made £563,579 so far. Had this been included in it's weekend total, it would have just pipped 'Terrifier 3' into 5th place.

 

Speaking of 'Terrifier 3', it had a 47% drop in week 2 which is a fantastic result for a horror film with a potential niche audience. Despite remaining behind 'Transformers One' which drops #1-4 and 62% (60% without previews), strong midweek showings mean that 'Terrifier' isn't that far behind it when you look at their total gross (£2.25 million vs £2.74 million)

 

'Joker: Folie à Deux' drops out of the top 5 after just 2 weeks. A 65% proves for sure that there is no life left in this film at all. After 3 weekends, it's made £9,797,478. Still less than what the original film made in it's opening weekend! That film was still at #1 at this stage in it's run and already had a total of £40,302,422. 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' only drops 39% so looks incredibly likely to chart higher than 'Folie à Deux' next weekend. For a third weekend in a run 'The Substance' has the best hold on any film in the top 10 as it drops 26% this week as it holds at #8.

 

There is one further new entry in the #11-15 section: 'Bougainvillea' (#11).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage', 'The Front Room', 'The Room Next Door', 'Whitney Houston: The Concert For A New South Africa (Durban)', 'Rebellious' and 'Dahomey'. We also get re-releases of 'Halloween', A Nightmare On Elm Street' and 'Watership Down'. Can any of them top the charts?

 

~

 

Dreamwork Animation Openings:

 

Antz (£1,650,562, #1, 1998)

The Prince Of Egypt (£725,559, #2, 1998)

The Road To El Dorado (£126,285, #10, 2000)

Chicken Run (£3,848,755, #1, 2000)

Shrek (£4,686,210, #1, 2001)

Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron (£719,681, #3, 2002)

Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas (£828,550, #4, 2003)

Shrek 2 (£16,220,752, #1, 2004)

Shark Tale (£7,545,074, #1, 2004)

Madagascar (£5,431,639, #1, 2005)

Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (£9,374,932, #1, 2005)

Over The Hedge (£3,589,038, #1, 2006)

Flushed Away (£3,106,874, #2, 2006)

Shrek The Third (£16,671,727, #1, 2007)

Bee Movie (£2,281,393, #3, 2007)

Kung Fu Panda (£6,069,679, #2, 2008)

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (£6,342,997, #1, 2008)

Monsters vs. Aliens (£4,345,711, #1, 2009)

How To Train Your Dragon (4,846,532, #2, 2010)

Shrek Forever After (£8,955,554, #1, 2010)

Megamind (£2,827,502, #2, 2010)

Kung Fu Panda 2 (£6,188,897, #1, 2011)

Puss In Boots (£1,975,758, #1, 2011)

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (£6,030,904, #1, 2012)

Rise Of The Guardians (£1,968,984, #3, 2012)

The Croods (£5,372,290, #1, 2013)

Turbo (£3,892,774, #1, 2013)

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (£3,916,559, #1, 2014)

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (£604,325, #6, 2014) *Opened in limited release before going wide

Penguins Of Madagascar (£1,575,949, #3, 2014)

Home (£6,025,917, #1, 2015)

Kung Fu Panda 3 (£4,771,131, #1, 2016)

Trolls (£5,440,878, #1, 2016)

The Boss Baby (£8,025,886, #1, 2017)

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (£2,495,744, #1, 2017)

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (£5,323,448, #1, 2019)

Abominable (£2,141,256, #2, 2019)

Trolls: World Tour (£16,941, #2, 2020) *Covid Era

The Croods 2: A New Age (£696,563, #4, 2021) *Covid Era

Spirit: Untamed (£592,154, #6, 2021) *Covid Era

The Boss Baby 2 (£1,193,115, #1, 2021) *Covid Era

The Bad Guys (£2,279,074, #3, 2022)

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (£4,950,495, #1, 2023)

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (£885,056, #3, 2023)

Trolls Band Together (£3,051,810, #1, 2023)

Kung Fu Panda 4 (£5,020,600, #1, 2024)

The Wild Robot (£3,256,572, #1, 2024)

25th October 2024 - 27th October 2024

 

1. (NE) Venom: The Last Dance - £4,299,477 Weeks: 1 (£4,299,477)

2. (01) The Wild Robot - £1,943,088 (-40%) Weeks: 2 (£6,420,643)

3. (02) Smile 2 - £1,011,389 (-49%) Weeks: 2 (£4,011,365)

4. (04) Transformers One - £377,581 (-41%) Weeks: 3 (£3,403,511)

5. (03) The Apprentice - £372,779 (-50%) Weeks: 2 (£1,569,637)

6. (07) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - £367,938 (-22%) Weeks: 8 (£25,321,711)

7. (05) Terrifier 3 - £269,971 (-52%) Weeks: 3 (£2,825,153)

8. (NE) The Room Next Door - £239,043 Weeks: 1 (£239,043)

9. (08) The Substance - £150,605 (-33%) Weeks: 6 (£3,469,098)

10. (06) Joker: Folie à Deux - £144,712 (-71%) Weeks: 4 (£10,145,898)

 

 

Falling out:

My Hero Academia: You're Next (1 weeks)

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland: Royal Ballet & Opera (1 week)

 

 

We get our second helping of SPUMC this year as 'Venom: The Last Dance' does what every other film in the universe hasn't been able to since the original 'Venom' in 2018 and reach #1. The fifth film in the franchise (since renamed to 'Sony Spider-Man Universe, 'SSU'), the third Venom film debuts to less than the first two films, but above Sony's other efforts (Morbius, Madame Web). The original 'Venom' opened to £8 million (£5.6 million without previews) while the sequel, 'Let There Be Carnage' opened with just under £6.2 million. This feels like a smart time for Tom Hardy's 'last dance' as this represents a series in decline. It has debuted with $175 million worldwide after a surprisingly strong start in China so this will still end making a profit for Sony but it feels like a fourth would have been a risk. This trilogy-ender has been written and directed by Kelly Marcel in her directing debut. She previously also scribed 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' alongside the first two 'Venom' films. The original 'Venom ended up grossing over £20 million while 'Let The Be Carnage' ended up at about £18 million. This won't be catching either of them but should easily pass 'Morbius' (£6.5 million) and has already passed the last total I have for 'Madame Web' (£4.2 million). We still have another SSU film to come this year with 'Kraven The Hunter' set for a December release.

 

The only other new entry this week is 'The Room Next Door' (£239,043, #8). This is the English-language debut of acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. Starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore as childhood friends who meet again as adults, you might be surprised that even with the English language and the famous leads, this actually opened lower than his previous film, the Oscar nominated 'Parallel Mothers' (£301,877, #6) did in 2022. In fact, if you look at the list below of his 21st century openings, it's actually the lowest of his since 2004's 'Bad Education'. His best opening remains to be 'Volver' (£433,283, #8, 2006).

 

Last week's top two both drop down a place with decent holds. 'The Wild Robot' drops 40% (37% without previews), as it climbs to £6.4 million. After two weekends, it's just below where 'Migration' was at the same stage so a £20 million final total is still on the table. Although it will face tough competition with a big Christmas release 'Red One' and a family favourite 'Paddington In Peru' battling for families in two weeks time. With Halloween being on Thursday, 'Smile 2', has a decent hold for a horror (49% drop or 41% without previews) as it climbs above £4 million. There's big horror competition coming next week so let's see how it holds. 'The Apprentice' also manages to stay in the top 5 with a 50% drop. I wonder how the upcoming election will effect it's run in the next few weeks.

 

For once, the best hold in the top 10 is not 'The Substance' (-33%) but instead it's 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' (-22%). Both are still doing amazingly well and have reach important landmarks this week. 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' has now overtaken 'Dumbo' to be Tim Burton's biggest release since 'Alice In Wonderland' while 'The Substance' is now the biggest ever release for the distributor Mubi, overtaking 'Priscilla' from earlier in the year.. 'Teriffier 3' has also become the biggest release for it's distributor (Signature Entertainment), overtaking 2022's 'Orphan: First Kill'.

 

The final section this weekend is dedicated to the underperformers. 'Transformers One' holds at #4 but has another 41% drop as it makes it to £3.4 million in total. But this is definitely nothing compared to the disaster that is 'Jok'er: Folie à Deux' that drops 71% on week four as it gets one final week in the top 10. It has now passed £10 million which is nearly 6x less than the original film's epic £58.3 million takings.

 

There are two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Pani' (#13) and 'The Front Room' (#15). We also see the re-releases of 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' (#11) and 'Hocus Pocus' (#12).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Heretic', 'Anora', 'Juror #2', 'Small Things Like These', 'Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story', 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3' and 'The Last Front'. We also get re-releases of 'Saw', Godzilla Minues One' and 'Glida'. Can any of them top the charts?

 

~

 

Sony Spider-Man Universe 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)

Venom: The Last Dance (£4,299,477, #1, 2024)

 

~

 

Pedro Almodóvar’s 21st Century Openings:

 

Talk To Her (£174,757, #11, 2002)

Bad Education (£202,324, #5, 2004)

Volver (£433,283, #8, 2006)

Broken Embraces (£296,048, #10, 2009)

The Skin I Live In (£325,349, #11, 2011)

I’m So Excited! (£310,908, #7, 2013)

Julieta (£356,191, #13, 2016)

Pain And Glory (£307,131, #11, 2019)

Parallel Mothers (£301,877, #6, 2022)

The Room Next Door (£239,043, #8, 2024)

1st November 2024 - 3rd November 2024

 

1. (02) The Wild Robot - £2,179,601 (+12%) Weeks: 3 (£11,682,083)

2. (01) Venom: The Last Dance - £2,175,399 (-49%) Weeks: 2 (£9,126,154)

3. (NE) Heretic - £1,979,339 Weeks: 1 (£1,979,339)

4. (NE) Small Things Like These - £890,105 Weeks: 1 (£890,105)

5. (03) Smile 2 - £600,979 (-40%) Weeks: 3 (£5,464,674)

6. (NE) Anora - £509,005 Weeks: 1 (£509,005)

7. (NE) Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 - £408,296 Weeks: 1 (£408,296)

8. (04) Transformers One - £390,258 (+4%) Weeks: 4 (£4,365,519)

9. (NE) Singham Again - £359,623 Weeks: 1 (£359,623)

10. (NE) Juror #2 - £334,827 Weeks: 1 (£334,827)

 

 

Falling out:

The Apprentice (2 weeks)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (8 weeks)

Terrifier 3 (3 weeks)

The Room Next Door (1 week)

The Substance (6 weeks)

Joker: Folie à Deux (4 weeks)

 

 

In a week where over half of the top 10 consists of new entries, it's actually a climber at #1 as 'The Wild Robot' retakes top spot on it's 3rd week with a 12% in business. It a photo-finish race, it does just enough to beat last weeks #1, 'Venom: The Final Dance' by 4k and the highest new entry, 'Heretic' by £200k. The reason for the win is quite simply because last week was half-term for most of the country and the boost that helped it gain on from Friday (54% up from last week) was just enough for it to squeak out 'Venom', which had topped the charts on Saturday and Sunday. A 12a certificate for 'Venom' definitely would have been enough for it too keep it's spot on top. Dreamwork's latest has now comfortably passed the £10 million mark and has overtaken 'The Garfield Movie' to become the 5th biggest animated flick of the year. There's still a long way for it to reach 4th place 'Migration' as it would need to double it's current total. It has very big competition coming in the kids market next week so it will be interesting to see how much it has left in the tank.

 

Speaking of 'Venom', it has a 50% drop in week two which is pretty on brand for major releases. After a disappointing opening in America last week, it had a good hold over there and with it being a smash in China, it's still a great success for Sony. 'Let There Be Carnage' was at £11.2 million at the same stage on it's run so it is a bit off the pace as it has not yet passed £10 million, but it's still already grossed more than Sony's other two recent Marvel releases in 'Madame Web' and 'Morbius' and it will be above 'Joker: Folie à Deux' at some point this week so it could have went a lot worse. I think Sony have let this one down with the marketing. I've hardy seen any spots for it and I feel like they could have capitalised on it being a trilogy closer. I'm going to see it on Wednesday.

 

As mentioned before, the biggest new release of the week is 'Heretic' (£1,979,339, or £1.5 million without previews). This is now the 4th biggest horror opening of the year and, if you strip out previews' is actually marginally above 'Smile 2' and would be 3rd place. In a year that has been generally quite disappointing for the box office, this is the 3rd time in the past few weeks where I can talk about this being a record for a production company or distributor. Because, believe it or not, this is the biggest opening for any film made by the now iconic production company A24. The previous record was 2018's 'Hereditary' that opened at #2 behind the 2nd weekend of 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' in June 2018 with £1,863,913. This religious themed horror stars Hugh Grant, who seems to be having a blast playing against type in loads of villain roles of late, and has done notably better than the other religious themed horrors of the year ('The First Omen', 'Immaculate', 'The Exorcism'). Directed by the duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, they had previously written the original 'A Quiet Place' as well as directing the Adam Driver-led Dinosaur film '65' (£1,270,409, #3) that came out last year.

 

Opening at #4th is 'Small Things Like These' (£890,105). This is an extraordinary opening for an Irish film, especially as I heard so little about it before it's release. In fact, (thanks to boxofficetheory for the info), it's the 4th biggest debut in the all-time list for any Irish film, with one of those above being this year's 'Kneecap' which I had already explained had some dodgy tactics to reach those numbers when it 'opened' in August (£1,035,664, #5). Second place in the list is the brilliant 'Brooklyn' (£1,041,278, #3, 2015) and, very unfortunately, the record is held by 'Mrs. Brown's Boys: D'Movie' (£4,301,306, #1, 2014). Starring Cillian Murphy fresh off his Oscar winning role as 'Oppenheimer', 'Small Things like These' was also produced by him and is adapted from 2021 novel of the same name by Claire Keegan. It's received good reviews so I can see it continuing to do well.

 

Debuting at #6 with £509,005 (£375k without previews) is the current holder of the Palme d'Or, 'Anora'. Always a good sign of Oscar success, prepare to see this one do well come Award season. This is the latest from director Sean Baker who has really made a name for himself with these super low-budget, independent films that portray the lives of real working class people and often feature non-and-first-time actors. 2015's 'Tangerine' was famously filmed on an iPhone 5S while 2017's 'The Florida Project' saw him receive some Oscar success. His last film was the seriously under-watched 'Red Rocket' that had ex-'Scary Movie' actor Simon Rex produce a performance for the ages as a grimey, slippery ex-porn star who thinks he's found a 17 year-old muse. 'Anora' is also about sex-work and stars 'Scream' and 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' scene-stealer, Mikey Madison in a starring role as a stripper who marries a client, the son of a Russian oligarch, which causes lots of drama. Madison is nailed on for an Oscar nom and is actually a bit of a front-runner to take home the award. This has debuted higher than the last 3 Palme d'Or winners: 'Anatomy Of A Fall (£412,751, #5, 2013), 'Triangle Of Sadness' (£308,950, #10, 2022) and 'Titane' (£121,920, #9, 2021). The last time one debuted higher was eventualy best picture 'Parasite'

 

The next two new entries are both Indian releases: 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3' (£408,296, #7) and 'Singham Again' (£359,623, #9). The seventh biggest Indian opening of the year, 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3' it's the third entry in the comedy-horror franchise and beats the opening of Bhool Bhulaiyaa' (£293,905, #7, 2007) and 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2' (£123,160, #8, 2022). 'Singham Again' is the fifth release in director Rohit Shetty's 'Cop Universe' who's previous release was 2021's 'Sooryavanshi' (£210,574, #11).

 

The final new entry is 'Juror #2' (#10, £334,827). Released in 438 cinemas in the U.K., it has bizarrely only started in just 35 screens in the USA. This is reported to potentially be the last ever film by a legend of Hollywood in Clint Eastwood and has a starry cast including Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J. K. Simmons and Kiefer Sutherland. I just don't understand what Warner Bros. are doing. The film has earned strong reviews and with that story, this should be a runaway #1 hit but Warner Bros. seem to want it to bomb. Maybe some awards buzz can come in and save the day.

 

The two remaining holders in the top 10 are 'Smile 2' that drops 40% as spooky season comes to an end. It's now running way behind the original 'Smile' at the same stage (£7.5 million) but has still done well comparted to it's budget. 'Transfomers One' drops 4 places but actually increases in business by 3% in a busy marketplace as it benefits from kids being off on Friday. Although a £4.4 million total at this stage is a definite disappointment.

 

There are another three further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Phantom Of The Opera At The Royal Albert Hall' (#11), 'Amaran' (#13) and Blitz' (#15).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Paddington In Peru', 'Red One', 'Piece By Piece', 'Cô Dâu Hào Môn', 'Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom', 'No Other Land' and 'The Problem With People'. We also get a re-release of 'Point Break'. Can any of them top the charts?

 

~

 

Sean Parker Openings:

 

Tangerine (£18,611, #23 2015)

The Florida Project (£241,490, #8, 2017)

Red Rocket (£74,709, #12, 2022)

Anora (£509,005, #6, 2024)

8th November 2024 - 10th November 2024

 

1. (NE) Paddington In Peru - £9,649,984 Weeks: 1 (£9,649,984)

2. (NE) Red One - £2,403,829 Weeks: 1 (£2,403,829)

3. (03) Heretic - £1,007,784 (-49%) Weeks: 2 (£3,835,833)

4. (02) Venom: The Last Dance - £965,298 (-56%) Weeks: 3 (£10,966,918)

5. (01) The Wild Robot - £665,210 (-70%) Weeks: 4 (£12,735,554)

6. (04) Small Things Like These - £660,029 (-26%) Weeks: 2 (£2,197,775)

7. (05) Smile 2 - £310,742 (-48%) Weeks: 4 (£6,097,992)

8. (15) Blitz - £245,688 (+51%) Weeks: 2 (£430,118)

9. (06) Anora - £240,719 (-53%) Weeks: 2 (£1,052,914)

10. (NE) Piece By Piece - £186,978 Weeks: 1 (£186,978)

 

 

Falling out:

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (1 week)

Transformers One (4 weeks)

Singham Again (1 week)

Juror #2 (1 week)

 

 

The nation's sweetheart, Paddington Bear, is back, debuting at #1 with trilogy-closer 'Paddington In Peru'. It has the third biggest opening of the year (£9,649,984) behind 'Deadpool & Wolverine' and 'Inside Out 2', agonisingly failing just short of the £10 million mark after looking like it was going to get there after strong Friday numbers. After 'The Substance', 'Terrifier 3' and 'Heretic', this is now the 4th film in the past two months that has broken records for it's distributor as this is StudioCanal's biggest ever opening. Their previous record holder was in fact 'Paddington 2' which debuted to £8,260,160 in 2017. The original 'Paddington' opened with £5,125,519 in 2014. This debuts at #23 on the YTD charts, already ahead of the final total of another breakout British film this year, 'Wicked Little Letters'. This is a brilliant result, especially when you consider that there's been some notable departures since the last one. Sally Hawkins dropped out from reprising her role as Mrs. Brown (no, not that one) and has been replaced by Emily Mortimer. But more notably, the film has lost the director of the first two, Paul King who famously turned down 'Peru' to make last year's 'Wonka' which became the 2nd biggest film of last year. 'Wonka' debuted with £8,904,750 on it's way to £63.5 million total. If this can hold similarly to that, 'Inside Out 2' may not be the #1 film of 2024 for much longer.

 

It's closest competition this week came from 'Red One'. This is the big Christmas release of the year and is an 12A, action-comedy film starring The Rock, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu and, playing a ripped Santa Claus, J. K. Simmons. Produced by Amazon Studies for a reported budget of $250 million, it was originally meant to debut on Prime Video last year but they decided on a full theatrical releases, presumably to try and claw some of that money back. It's had a dismal worldwide opening ahead of it's release in America this coming weekend and projections over there aren't are far from great. However, the UK has seemed to embrace it more than anywhere else with it's £2,403,829 opening meaning that we are the biggest market for the film so far. This is only the 26th biggest opening of the year and we have a packed release schedule coming up but it has the whole Christmas season to rack up the grosses so I'm not writing this off fully yet. Worldwide it's doomed, but Christmas films always hold up well (until the magic date) so I can see it ending with a respectable total in the UK at least.

 

After having a limited opening last week where it debuted at #15, 'Blitz' climbs into the 10 as it released wider this weekend. Climbing to #8, this is the latest film from British director Steve McQueen who won Oscar glory with 2013's '12 Years A Slave'. It's a return to the big screens after TV work on 'Small Axe' and 'Uprising'. This is Apple's big Oscar push for the year and it will be available on Apple TV+ in 2 weeks time. Set during WWII, this tells the story of a young mixed-race child who journeys to go home after being sent away from London by his mother during the blitz. Said mother is played by Saoirse Ronan who is being tipped for nominations come award season. It's grossed £430,118 so far. It's sad to see such low figures for a film that feels like it has all of the attributes to be a big success at the box office. But I guess Apple are more focused on getting people to see it homes on their streaming service.

 

There's one final new entry in the top 10 this week, Pharrell Williams's Lego, biographical documentary 'Piece By Piece' (£186,978, #10), Robbie Williams is obviously upping the gimmick for his biopic next year, but it does feel like the only reason this film is in Lego is because they know that nobody would want to see a Pharrell documentary otherwise. Featuring Lego characters of all of your favourite Pharrell-adjacent musicians, I think the legacy of this film will be that it has actually had a positive change on the Lego company. They had to create a bunch on new hairpieces for the majority Black cast. Lego have realised that this was an audience that hadn't been catered for and have now introduced a bunch of new hairstyle pieces based on those popular in the Black community.

 

Even with Halloween over, 'Heretic' has managed a brilliant 2nd week hold (-49%) that allows it to remain in third place, overtaking the two films that beat it last weekend. This is even more impressive when you consider that the opening weekend had extensive previews from Halloween night and the drop without previews is closer to 35%. After the first half of the year was disastrous for the Horror, I wasn't expecting to end up as such a stellar year for the genre. We're on a run of hit-after-hit and 'Heretic' is now above 'The Substance' to be the 6th biggest horror of the year with £3,835,833. There's only one more notable film of the genre to come this year with Robert Eggers's 'Nosferatu' next month.

 

Last week's #1 'The Wild Robot' feels the effect of double competition in 'Paddington In Peru' and 'Red One' and this Friday not being half-term as it drops 70% to fall to #5. However, with £12,735,554, it has now overtaken 'IF' and has entered the top 15 films of the year in the YTD chart. 'Venom: The Last Dance' has another sizable drop (56%) but does pass the £10 million mark and 'Joker: Folie à Deux' in the process.

 

After an extraordinary opening, the best hold of the week goes to 'Small Things Like These' which dips 26% in week 2. It has already passed 'Kneecap' and looks to have more left in the tank. To me, this is showing just how big of a name that Cillian Murphy has got after 'Oppenheimer' and is making me think that '28 Years Later' might end up surprising a few next year. 'Anora' drops 53% as it moves past the £1 million barrier. When you take out previews, the drop is a much more respectable 37%.

 

There is one further new entry in the #11-15 section: 'Bird' (#12).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Gladiator II', 'Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point', 'Tumbadd', 'Shawn Mendes: For Friends & Family Only', 'The Last Dance', 'Hyper: The Stevie Hyper D Story' and 'Joy'. Can any of them top the charts?