7th March 2025 - 9th March 2025

 

1. (NE) Mickey 17 - £2,132,080 Weeks: 1 (£2,132,080)

2. (01) Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy - £2,059,533 (-50%) Weeks: 4 (£40,398,810)

3. (NE) Marching Powder - £1,079,492 Weeks: 1 (£1,079,492)

4. (02) Captain America: Brave New World - £615,074 (-58%) Weeks: 4 (£16,767,499)

5. (03) Dog Man - £374,781 (-45%) Weeks: 5 (£12,500,064)

6. (04) The Monkey - £234,899 (-61%) Weeks: 3 (£2,716,031)

7. (NE) One Of Them Days - £203,136 Weeks: 1 (£203,136)

8. (RE) Anora - £179,044 (+451%) Weeks: 19 (£2,558,290)

9. (07) Mufasa: The Lion King - £146,967 (-46%) Weeks: 12 (£33,032,279)

10. (8) Conclave - £124,382 (-37%) Weeks: 15 (£9,249,452)

 

 

Falling out:

The Last Showgirl (1 week)

Attack On Titan: The Last Attack (1 week)

I'm Still Here (2 weeks)

Jesus Christ Superstar: Live Arena Tour (1 week)

 

 

In a very tight battle with only about £70k separating the top 2, Bridget is dethroned by Mickey. 'Mickey 17' is the long-awaited follow-up to 2020's Best Picture winner 'Parasite' from Korean director Bong Joon-ho. This is his second Hollywood production his 2017 Netflix film 'Okja', although 2013's 'Snowpiercer' was also in English despite being a Korean production. 'Parasite' opened on Oscar weekend in 2020 to £1,397,387 before soaring 81% in week 2 after it's win and eventually passing £12 million to become the biggest foreign-language hit of all-time in the UK. While this is a nice increase on the opening to his previous film and is solid for a new IP sci-fi (admittedly adapted from a novel), the large budget ($118 million) means this still has a long way to go to be profitable. Starring in this film is Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Colette, Mark Ruffalo and one of the most eclectic leading-men of today, Robert Pattinson doing an incredibly odd accent.

Not having a problem making it's budget back is the next highest new entry of the week: 'Marching Powder' (£1,079,492, #3). If you thought Bong Joon-ho left us waiting with that 5-year gap between films then you'd be shocked to hear that this marks the return to film for star Danny Dyer (aside from a cameo in 'Teen Spirit') for the first time since 2015's straight-to-DVD release 'Assassin'. This film was created on a budget of just £1.6 million and saved money by deciding against traditional TV adverts and instead focusing on social media campaigns so an opening above £1 million is a huge win. Especially for an 18-rated film. It's also a great result for British cinema as there was a distinct lack of purely British productions in the box office charts last year. This sees both Dyer and director Nick Love go back to their roots with a film after previously collaborating on three films that really made their names at the start of their careers ('The Football Factory', 'The Business', 'Outlaw'). Love's biggest opener, 'The Sweeney' (£1,545,294, #1, 2012) starred another 'proper Cockney gangster' instead with Ray Winstone and, in a move that really dates it, rapper-singer Plan B. That film ended on about £4.5 million.

The third-and-final new entry in the top 10 this week is 'One Of Them Days' (£203,136, #7). Already a big hit in America since it's January release ($47 million on a $14 million budget), this is a comedy starring Keke Palmer and, in her debut role, R&B superstar SZA as friends who go on an adventure to earn enough after one of their boyfriends steals their rent money. This is a well-reviewed, tight 90-minutes screwball comedy that we just don't seem to get anymore so sounds like it's well worth a watch.

Re-entering the top 10 after it's historic night at the Oscars last week, 'Anora' jumps a massive 451% and adds another £300k-ish over the full week. It's now up to passed £2.5 million so I will have to update my other EOY thread as it's climbed a few places. There's really very little coming out next week so I think it would make sense for Universal to keep pushing it this weekend. I saw it last Thursday and very much enjoyed it. Although I did think that I walked into the wrong screen originally because I must have been the youngest in the audience by at-least 30 year and I saw sat right between two couples who were both in their 70s. If you're wondering how the film connects through the age-ranges, they seemed to enjoy it too! I will also have to move 'Conclave' up a position in the EOY chart too as that continues to hold well after Oscar weekend and pushes itself above the £9.2 million mark.

'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy' has it's first significant drop at 50% but is still doing well in midweek showings, breezing past the £40 million mark. It should be above 'Bridget Jones's Diary' (£42 million) by next week and then it's only 'Bridget Jones's Baby' (£48.3 million) left in it's path. I think it's very likely to return to #1 again next weekend. It's not so good news for 'Captain America: Brave New World' as it has a harsh 58% drop with 'Mickey 17' proving tough competition. The £19.1 million of 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' is starting to look further and further away.

We'll conclude with the animal section with 'Dog-Man' and 'Mufasa: The Lion King' both having similar drops (-45%) and (-46%) while 'The Monkey' is performing much more like the average horror flick (-61%). It's up to £2.7 million which makes it (a very distant) second-placed horror hit of the year behind 'Nosferatu'.

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

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Black Bag', ‘Opus’, ‘In The Lost Lands', 'Away', ‘Oh My Goodness!’, 'The Rule Of Jenny Pen' and 'All Happy Families'. We also see a re-release of ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’. Can any of them top the charts?

~

Danny Dyer/Nick Love Openings

The Football Factory (£207,683, #4, 2004)

The Business (£531,267, #5, 2005)

Outlaw (£582,434, #5, 2007)

Marching Powder (£1,079,492, #3, 2025)

14th March 2025 - 16th March 2025

 

1. (01) Mickey 17 - £1,246,946 (-42%) Weeks: 2 (£4,534,615)

2. (02) Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy - £1,196,488 (-42%) Weeks: 5 (£42,934,167)

3. (NE) Black Bag - £915,377 Weeks: 1 (£915,377)

4. (03) Marching Powder - £563,897 (-48%) Weeks: 2 (£2,106,355)

5. (04) Captain America: Brave New World - £395,421 (-36%) Weeks: 5 (£17,388,962)

6. (05) Dog Man - £344,222 (-9%) Weeks: 6 (£12,894,367)

7. (NE) Last Breath - £328,301 Weeks: 1 (£328,301)

8. (09) Mufasa: The Lion King - £133,058 (-10%) Weeks: 13 (£33,189,343)

9. (06) The Monkey - £115,698 (-51%) Weeks: 4 (£2,959,724)

10. (NE) Fidelio: Met Opera 2025 - £98,920 Weeks: 1 (£98,920)

 

 

Falling out:

One Of Them Days (1 week)

Anora (1 week) *In this run

Conclave (2 weeks) *In this run

 

 

With both films dropping 42% it was another tight race for #1 but winning for the 2nd week is 'Mickey 17' although there was now just £50k separating it from 'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy'. 'Mickey 17' is now up to £4.5 million which is already more than enough to mean that it would have been in the EOY top 50 had it released last year. It's performing well for a high-concept sci-fi not attached to an already popular franchise, but that ridiculously high budget it what is killing it. 'Bridget Jones' is still ticking along nicely but the last couple drops have been slightly higher than I was expecting. Let's see if it can recover to a position where it dropping more like 30-39% weekend on weekend. I still think it has enough in the tank to reach 'Bridget Jones's Baby' (£48.3 million) but it's not going to smash past it in the way it looked like it might when it was first released.

The most prolific director in Hollywood, Steven Soderbergh, is back with his second film of the year 'Black Bag' which is this week's highest new entry at #3. Earning £915,377 (£897,744 without previews), it has already out-grossed the total of his January release 'Presence' (£835k) and his second biggest debut out of his last 10 films (only behind 2023's 'Magic Mike's Last Dance' (£1,529,155, #2). A completely original spy caper starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, this has earned rave reviews and there was a time where the star-power alone would have been enough to power this into being a massive worldwide smash. However the film has only made $12 million worldwide so far against a $50 million budget and looks unlikely to make it's money back. I think people have been conditioned to see all non-IP releases as 'streaming films' and it's proving difficult to win over audiences to return to the big screen for these.

Debuting at #7 is deep-sea diving, survival drama 'Last Breath' (£328,301). This is an fiction-adaptation of the 2019 documentary of the same name and is written and directed by one of the directors of the doc, Alex Parkinson. I've saw absolutely no promotion for this film at all so I'm surprised that it's even made this much. It's earned pretty solid reviews so maybe it can catch on and stick around. It's done pretty well in America so far, debuting at #2 last weekend.

The final new entry this week is the latest event cinema release 'Fidelio: Met Opera 2025' (£98,920. #10). This is the third Met Opera release to make the top 10 since I've been posting these charts after 'Roméo et Juliette: Met Opera 2024 (£81,880, #10, 2024) and 'Madama Butterfly: Met Opera 2023/24' (£96,727, #9, 2024) which makes this, marginally, the best performing of the lot.

'Marching Powder' has a solid hold in it's second week (-48%) that already put it's over £2 million and means it becomes the 2nd biggest film for director Nick Love (behind 'The Sweeney', £4.4 million) and the 3rd biggest film starring Danny Dyer (behind 'Human Traffic', £2.2 million and 'Mean Machine', £4.4 million). This is a great result for a cheaply made, British film and looks like it will be a great investment for True Brit Entertainment.

The really winners this week were the holding kids films. 'Dog Man' and 'Mufasa: The Lion King' both had small drops in business (-9% and -10%) as they take advantage of the light release schedule. Bigger competition is coming next week with the release of 'Snow White'. 'Captain America: Brave New World' has a stronger hold than most this week (-36%) but is still one of the weaker performances from the MCU (currently 28th out of 35). 'The Monkey' has held on for a fourth week in the top 10 and is just short of £3 million in total.

I will discuss in more detail next weekend, but Chinese phenomenon 'Ne Zha 2' was released pretty much wide this weekend before it's official release next week and has already bagged £789k. This would have been enough for it to debut at #4 had they not decided to count these as previews. So watch out next weekend as the film is going to have a HUGE opening with a full 7-days of previews in it's total.

There are two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Opus' ('11) and 'In The Lost Lands' (#13).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Snow White', ‘Ne Zha 2’, ‘Flow', 'Santosh;, 'Y2K', 'The Alto Knights', ‘Locked’, 'When Autumn Falls', Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other' and 'The Thinking Game'. We also see a re-release of ‘Bad Boys’. Can any of them top the charts?

Wait Ne Zha 2 was on previews this weekend??? Ohhh expect a big number for that next week. Sold out nearly every show at my cinema.

Surprising at the top this week, thought Bridget would easily return to #1.

Also surprised that Black Bag didn't do a bit better. I haven't yet seen it but it looks quite good to me

21st March 2025 - 23rd March 2025

 

1. (NE) Snow White - £3,856,173 Weeks: 1 (£3,856,173)

2. (NE) Ne Zha 2 - £1,235,546 Weeks: 1 (£1,235,546)

3. (02) Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy - £775,855 (-36%) Weeks: 6 (£44,481,396)

4. (03) Black Bag - £735,933 (-20%) Weeks: 2 (£2,282,295)

5. (01) Mickey 17 - £730,276 (-41%) Weeks: 3 (£5,892,294)

6. (NE) Flow - £411,675 Weeks: 1 (£411,675)

7. (NE) The Alto Knights - £388,530 Weeks: 1 (£388,530)

8. (04) Marching Powder - £305,232 (-46%) Weeks: 3 (£2,657,213)

9. (06) Dog Man - £253,397 (-27%) Weeks: 7 (£13,205,192)

10. (05) Captain America: Brave New World - £227,181 (-43%) Weeks: 6 (£17,749,330)

 

 

Falling out:

Last Breath (1 week)

Mufasa: The Lion King (13 weeks)

The Monkey (4 weeks)

Fidelio: Met Opera 2025 (1 week)

 

 

In a busy week, debuting at #1 despite controversy and poor reviews is the latest Disney live-action remake 'Snow White' (£3,856,173). 1937's 'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs' was the first ever full-length Disney film and with this remake being announced in 2016 and filmed in 2022, you feel like it was originally planned to be released during Disney's 100 year celebrations in 2023. However, this has had a LONG journey to cinema screens marred with controversy, from Peter Dinklage criticism on the WTF podcast during filming meaning that the decision was made to make the Dwarfs fully-CGI characters, to Rachel Zegler (unfairly) becoming the internet's least favourite actress her comments about the original Snow White (and Trump), to Zegler and Gadot's reported 'feud' to the trailer becoming the most disliked in YouTube history, the rollout for this film has been a disaster. 2023 reshoots helped see the budget for this film balloon to a reported $240-270 million figure which it is not going to make back. An opening of £3,856,173 does not compare favourably to other Disney live-action openings. 'The Little Mermaid' opened to £5,012,929 in 2023 while 'Mufasa: The Lion King' opened with £4,415,961 last year before showing great legs. Looking further back, the comparisons are even worse, 'Alice In Wonderland' (£10,555,220, #1, 2010), 'The Jungle Book' (£9,901,921, #1, 2016), 'Beauty And The Beast' (£19,700,000, #1, 2017), 'Aladdin' (£7,066,773, #1, 2019) and 'The Lion King' (£16,671,764, #1, 2019) all feel like they're from a different era for Disney. However the opening is slightly higher than other Princess-adjacent titles 'Cinderella' (£3,803,799, #1, 2015) and 'Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil (£3,300,000, #2, 2019)'. Next week is looking quiet for new releases so we'll see how this can hold but, so far, it's not looking good.

Thanks to a bit of preview-manipulation, debuting at #2 this weekend in Chinese phenomenon 'Ne Zha 2' (£1,235,546). Already the 5th highest grossing film ever worldwide, 'Ne Zha 2' has been breaking records left, right and centre in recent months, the most notable of which was that it's the first film to ever make $1 billion in a single country, a record it earned 11(!) days after release in China. It's now made over $2 billion in China alone. However, it's not showing the same sort of legs in it's UK release. It's £1.2 million opening weekend actually includes £1 million of previews since it's 7-day window of such. If we take those previews out, it only made £206,631 in the 3-day weekend and would rank at #10 in the chart. Surprisingly, none of the sources I follow for Box Office news have decided to collate a list of the biggest Chinese films in the UK but the biggest is certainly 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' that made £9 million in 2001. The preview-boosted number looks like it might help 'Ne Zha 2' record the biggest opening weekend for a Chinese film, although 'Hero' £1,005,571, #3, 2004) still wins for non-preview openings.

The winner of 'Best Animated Feature' at this year's Oscars, 'Flow' finally receives a UK release and opens to £411,675 (£351,392 without previews) at #6. This is a crazy result for an independent Latvian animated film created using the free open-software Blender. Without knowing for sure, I think it's safe to say that this is already the highest grossing film from Latvia in the UK market and is doing brilliant numbers for a film without any dialogue. With it being one of the most universally loved films for quite a while, I think this will continue to play well for a while and stick around the top 10.

The final new entry this week is 'The Alto Knights' (£388,530, #7). Coming from Academy Award winning director Barry Levinson ('Rain Man'), this is a mob-drama written by 'Goodfellas' scribe (and author of it's source material 'Wiseguys') Nicholas Pileggi. This seems his repair with Robert De Niro who stars alongside himself as the films two main characters, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. When you think of actors doing dual-roles, you probably go to Eddie Murphy in 'Norbit' or Mike Myers in 'Austin Powers' but I'm assured this is a more serious take. This also serves as the fourth collaboration between Levinson and De Niro following 'Sleepers' (£662,006, #7, 1997), 'Wag The Dog' (£98,148, #11, 1998) and 'What Just Happened' (£178,818, #7, 2008).

Losing top spot after 2 weeks is 'Mickey 17' (-41%). Despite a similar hold to last week, it drops all the way to #5. 'Bridget Jones': Mad About The Boy' remains in the top 3 with a 36% drop. But just behind with the best hold in the top 10 is 'Black Bag' (-20%, 18% without previews). The film is up to £2.2 million which puts it above Soderbergh's debut 'Sex, Lies, And Videotape' (£2 million).

'Marching Powder' is up to £2.7 million and is Danny Dyer's 2nd biggest hit. 'Dog Man' continues to have some decent holds and leapfrogs 'Captain America: Brave New World' despite being out for longer.

There are two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Romeo & Juliet: ROH, London 2025' (#12) and 'Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond In The Desert' (#13).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Lucifer 2', Novocaine', ‘A Working Man’, ‘The Woman In The Yard', 'La Cocina', 'Sikandar', 'The End', ‘Time Travel Is Dangerous’, 'War Paint: Women At War', 'Misericordia', 'The Swimming Pool' and 'Dr. Strangelove – NT Live 2025'. Can any of them top the charts?

~

Marc Webb Openings:

(500) Days Of Summer (£1,242,631, #3, 2009)

The Amazing Spider-Man (£11,091,972, #1, 2012)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (£9,011,114, #1, 2014)

Gifted (£305,323, #6, 2017)

Snow White (£3,856,173, #1, 2025)

Numbers for Novocaine look really underwhelming this week, I'm surprised, I really enjoyed it and had seen the trailer every time I went to the cinema over the past couple of months (excluding before the U & PG releases like Flow and Snow White obvs) Compared to A Working Man, I don't recall seeing the trailer for that once, and I think I'd only seen posters in cinemas rather than whilst out and about.

28th March 2025 - 30th March 2025

 

1. (01) Snow White - £2,015,179 (-48%) Weeks: 2 (£6,781,343)

2. (NE) L2: Empuraan - £1,210,579 Weeks: 1 (£1,210,579)

3. (NE) A Working Man - £658,134 Weeks: 1 (£658,134)

4. (03) Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy - £562,233 (-29%) Weeks: 7 (£45,522,424)

5. (NE) Novocaine - £544,179 Weeks: 1 (£544,179)

6. (04) Black Bag - £421,458 (-43%) Weeks: 3 (£3,100,522)

7. (05) Mickey 17 - £330,188 (-55%) Weeks: 4 (£6,568,156)

8. (NE) Billy Elliot: The Musical Live (20th Anniversary) - £295,143 Weeks: 1 (£295,143)

9. (06) Flow - £293,275 (-29%) Weeks: 2 (£869,262)

10. (NE) Dr. Strangelove: NT Live 2025 - £203,070 Weeks: 1 (£679,014)

 

 

Falling out:

Ne Zhe 2 (1 week)

The Alto Knights (1 week)

Marching Powder (3 weeks)

Dog Man (7 weeks)

Captain America: Brave New World (6 weeks)

 

 

Half the top 10 are new entries, but it's 'Snow White' that gets a second week at #1, albeit with an underwhelming £2 million weekend (£6.8 million total) after a 48% drop. When you consider that 'The Little Mermaid' was on £16,214,841 at the same stage and that film was considered a disappointment, it shows just how poorly received this one has been. I was honestely expecting the drop this week to be heavier, but with big competition coming at the weekend, I think this will now fade very fast. The only positive story I can think of is that it has passed the £6 million take for 'Shazam! Fury Of The Gods' to become the third biggest film that Rachel Zegler has been in. It won't be touching the £18.1 million of her biggest hit 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes'.

The biggest new entry this week is the Indian release 'LL2: Empuraan' (£1,210,579, #2). In fact, the film almost took up two spots in the top 10 as the Irish release (counted separately due to a different distributor) debuts at #11 with £199,952 (£655,821 including previews). Combined together, this has already made £1,866,400 across the UK & Ireland which is a brilliant result for an Indian film and would have almost bagged it the #1 had they been combined. It's the fourth Indian film to debut with more than £1 million, ahead of 'Pushpa 2: The Rule' (£1,118,894, #5, 2024) and trailing behind 'Pathaan' (£1,967,854, #2, 2023) and 'Jawan' (£1,346,689, #3, 2023). It feels like we're getting close to our first Indian release to top the box office as 'The Greatest Of All Time' also debuted at #2 last year (£768,842) behind 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'. 'L2' is a three-hour action epic and is a prequel to 2019's 'Lucifer' (£147,682, #8) and was originally planned to be released in 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic.

Opening in third is the latest Jason Statham release, 'A Working Man' (£658,134. This one pairs his up again with director David Ayer after they worked together on last year's 'The Beekeeper' (£956,380, #5). That film legged out to £3.8 million but I can't see this one doing the same, despite being co-written by Sylvester Stallone. It's had a shock win at the US box office where it has pipped 'Snow White' to #1, although on a small $15.2 million gross.

Another film that has topped the US box office in recent weeks is 'Novocaine' which has to settle for a #5 debut here (£544,179). This is an action-comedy about a man who has a condition that means he doesn't feel pain. It's a fun premise and it feels like there's a lot of scope there but it is kinda the same idea as 'Kick-Ass' which has already done the concept very well over two films so maybe audiences felt like they've seen it before. It is already the second major release this year to star Jack Quaid who seems to be going for leading-man stardom after the brilliant 'Companion' (£739,553, #3) opened higher in January. That film has closed on £2 million (although it deserved much more) which is the same sort of ballpark I think this will be targeting after this opening.

The final two entries are both event cinema: 'Billy Elliot: The Musical Live' (£295,143, #8) and 'Dr. Strangelove: NT Live 2025 (£203,070, £679,014 including previews). The 'Billy Elliot' (£1,904,098, #1, 2014) recording was first released in cinemas in 2014 where it topped the box office, beating 'The Equalizer' in the process. It has been re-released to celebrate 20 years since the musical opened in 2005 and has more showings on Wednesday. 'Dr. Strangelove' is the latest National Theatre release and sees Steve Coogan play four roles, one more than Peter Sellers did in the 1964 movie. I'm sure further showings will help this pass £1 million.

The best hold of the week comes from 'Flow' (-29%, -17% without previews). It's currently at £870k so will easily pass £1 million by next week. 'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Door' also has another solid hold (-29%) as it passes £45 million. About £3 million to go before it can call itself the biggest film of the franchise and production company, Working Title's biggest film. 'Black Bag' continues to do ok as it climbs over £3 million and 'Mickey 17' is dropping heavy (-55%).

Despite a disastrous March, we are still running 4% above last year's box office at this stage in the year. It was 20% at the end of February.

As well as the Irish release of 'L2' mentioned above, there are two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'The Woman In The Yard' (#12) and 'Sikander 2' (#13).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'A Minecraft Movie', 'Death Of A Unicorn', ‘Mr. Burton’, ‘Last Swim', 'Sebastian', 'The Most Precious Of Cargoes', 'The Martial Artist', 'Sylvanian Families: The Movie', ‘Seventeen; Right There World Tour In Cinemas’, and 'Four Mothers'. Can any of them top the charts?

~

David Ayer's Openings:

Harsh Times (£281,609, #11, 2006)

Street Kings (£619,647, #4, 2008)

End Of Watch (£618,546, #7, 2012)

Sabotage (£300,521, #7, 2014)

Fury (£2,692,786, #1, 2014)

Suicide Squad (£11,252,225, #1, 2016)

The Beekeeper (£956,380, #5, 2024)

A Working Man (£658,134, #3, 2025)

Do you have the weekend figures for “Time Travel is Dangerous”? I went to see it on Saturday and it had a decent cast of household British comedy names in supporting roles, but seems to have gone completely under the radar (there were only 3 people at our screening, including me and my wife).

9 minutes ago, Brett-Butler said:

Do you have the weekend figures for “Time Travel is Dangerous”? I went to see it on Saturday and it had a decent cast of household British comedy names in supporting roles, but seems to have gone completely under the radar (there were only 3 people at our screening, including me and my wife).

From Screen Daily:

UK independent comedy Time Travel Is Dangerous started with £8,340 for Jade Films at a £128 site average, and has £17,698 including previews.

4th April 2025 - 6th April2025

 

1. (NE) A Minecraft Movie - £15,013,136 Weeks:1 (£15,013,136)

2. (NE) Six: The Musical Live! - £2,139,374 Weeks: 1 (£2,139,374)

3. (01) Snow White - £669,793 (-67%) Weeks: 3 (£7,991,067)

4. (NE) Death Of A Unicorn - £487,459 Weeks: 1 (£487,459)

5. (03) A Working Man - £331,406 (-50%) Weeks: 2 (£1,362,371)

6. (06) Black Bag - £167,964 (-60%) Weeks: 4 (£3,509,395)

7. (09) Flow - £166,010 (-43%) Weeks: 3 (£1,173,959)

8. (04) Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy - £159,637 (-72%) Weeks: 8 (£45,979,734)

9. (05) Novocaine - £149,621 (-72%) Weeks: 2 (£966,299)

10. (NE) Mr. Burton - £138,682 Weeks: 1 (£138,682)

 

 

Falling out:

L2: Empuraan (1 week)

Mickey 17 (4 weeks)

Billy Elliot: The Musical Live (20th Anniversary) (1 week)

Dr. Strangelove: NT Live 2025 (1 week)

 

 

After an awful March, the box office has been saved by the arrival of video-game adaptation 'A Minecraft Movie' comfortably tops the chart with the biggest 3-day opening weekend since 'Barbie' in July 2023 with Vue confirming it's been their best weekend since then with over 1 million people projected to visit their cinemas to see it by the end of the week. It's official weekend figure (£15,013,136) comes up just short of 'Deadpool & Wolverine' last year with it's preview-inflated gross of £17,276,622 but I don't think Warner Bros. will be too disappointed at that. In terms of video-game openings, 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' opened slightly higher with £15,691,810 but that included a huge £7 million of previews and included a bank holiday (Good Friday). In pure 3-day gross terms, this is the 5th biggest opener of the 2020s, only trailing 'No Time To Die', 'Spider-Man: No Way Home', 'Barbie' and 'Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness'. There isn't really another big 'Kids' film until 'Lilo & Stitch' in 7 weekends time so expect this film to feast until then. 'Mario' has made about £56 million which 'Minecraft' will be looking to beat. It's great news for stars Jason Momoa and Jack Black who seemed to be getting clowned on when the trailer for this first dropped. This was directed by Jared Hess who first made a name for himself by directing and (co-)writing cult-classic 'Napoleon Dynamite' (£58,109, #20, 2004) and is his first-live action feature since 2016's 'Masterminds'.

It won't make as many headlines, but with an equally impressive opening is 'Six: The Musical Live!' at #2. This recording of the hit-West End musical was only released yesterday which means that it has hit #2 based on one-days gross. The £2,139,374 total means it officially has the 2nd best day for an event cinema release, putting it behind the £2.43 million 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour' made on it's release on 13th October 2023. It will probably overtake 'Macbeth: David Tennant & Cush Jumbo' today to become the biggest event cinema release of the year, and since 'Taylor Swift'. Unlike most event cinema releases, this seems to be having quite a long wide-release so it will be fascinating to see just how much this can earn in the coming weeks.

Opening at #4 is the latest A24 film, 'Death Of A Unicorn' (£487,459). Compared to their usual fare, this one seems to be designed to have a more general appeal, especially with the big-name cast (Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant) so I think there may be some disappointment that is has opened lower than some of their other recent releases 'Babygirl' (£1,091,180, #5), 'The Brutalist' (£754,678, #5) and 'Anora' (£509,005, #6). Although, it has done considerably better than 'Opus' did three weeks ago (£91,851, #11).

The final new entry of the week is 'Mr. Burton' (£138,682, #10). This is a British-drama starring Toby Jones and Lesley Manville about the teacher (Phillip Burton) who inspired a young Welsh actor called Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. before he found fame under the name Richard Burton.

As expected, 'Snow White' cannot compete with Minecraft and has a harsh 67% drop in week 3 as it falls just short of £8 million. This is a disaster for Disney and the only small victory would be if it can reach double-figures and overtake the pandemic-effected release of 'Cruella' (£9.5 million) in the process. Another one having a bad weekend is 'Bridget Jones'. Minecraft must have stole all of it's screens as it has a huge 72% drop in week 8. Not only that but it has lost it's record as the biggest opening weekend of the year. This is the first drop it's had that makes me think that it might not be able to catch 'Bridget Jones's Baby'.

Last week's entries sees 'A Working Man' drop 50% and 'Novocaine' drop 72% (66% without previews). Both films are off-the-pace of their most direct comparisons. 'A Working Man' is up to £1.35 million (about £800k behind 'The Beekeeper' after 2 weekends) while 'Novcaine' is now just under £1 million and well-behind the pace of 'Companion' from earlier in the year. 'Flow'. however, had another good hold (-43%) that saw it climb back up twice places and pass the £1 million barrier. We'll have to wait until Wednesday to get the full figure, but 'Black Bag' is about £3.5 million and will be within Soderbergh's personal top 10 films by the end of the week.

For the second weekend in a row, a film has debuted at #2 and dropped straight out of the top 15 the following week with 'L2: Empuraan' and 'Ne Zha 2'. I'm pretty confident that 'Six: will buck that trend.

There are two further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'Four Mothers' (#12) and 'Puccini’s Turandot – ROH, London 2025' (#13).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'The Amateur', 'The King Of Kings', ‘Drop’, ‘The Return', 'Holy Cow', 'The Chosen: The Last Supper: Episodes 1 & 2', and 'André Rieu's 75th Birthday Celebration: The Dream Continues'. We also see a re-release of 'Babe'. Can any of them top the charts?

~

No bonus chart for now but I might make a list of Jack Black openings if I get time in the week.

How cute that Flow rebounded position wise

That's SO GOOD for SIX! The cinemas that are near me are only showing it Sunday and Tuesday this week. But showing it all weekend next week.

Wow at Minecraft, I didn't expect it to be beating the opening of Bridget Jones level of huge (especially as it was quite a good weekend weather wise) - everyone conveniently forgot about the trailer looking awful then? And how we should all be boycotting Jack Black 😂 Not that it was going to interest me as I've never played the games.

Very impressive for Six, and very well deserved as it's an excellent show.

I'm hoping to catch Six, been trying to get to a theatre performance for years but there is always something blocking me attending a captioned one! If there is a captioned cinema screening of it I'll be there next week!

Ps, poor Snow White, I genuinely really enjoyed the film. It doesn't deserve the backlash it is getting, there really seems to be a big media campaign to make it flop.

11th April 2025 - 13th April 2025

 

1. (01) A Minecraft Movie - £7,201,922 (-52%) Weeks: 2 (£31,056,475)

2. (NE) The Amateur - £1,101,452 Weeks: 1 (£1,101,452)

3. (02) Six: The Musical Live! - £915,149 (-57%) Weeks: 2 (£3,944,753)

4. (NE) André Rieu's 75th Birthday Celebration: The Dream Continues - £596,897 Weeks: 1 (£596,897)

5. (03) Snow White - £411,079 (-39%) Weeks: 4 (£9,148,946)

6. (NE) Drop - £382,902 Weeks: 1 (£382,902)

7. (NE) The Chosen: The Last Supper: Episodes 1 & 2 - £256,797 Weeks: 1 (£427,818)

8. (NE) Good Bad Ugly - £253,062 Weeks: 1 (£253,062)

9. (04) Death Of A Unicorn - £179,406 (-63%) Weeks: 2 (£1,013,665)

10. (05) A Working Man - £130,425 (-61%) Weeks: 3 (£1,700,336)

 

 

Falling out:

Black Bag (4 weeks)

Flow (3 weeks)

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (8 weeks)

Novocaine (2 weeks)

Mr. Burton (1 week)

 

 

Although some might claim it's not a great thing for cinema chains with the multiple reports of disruptive and inconsiderate crowds, 'A Minecraft Movie' continues at #1 with a 52% drop pushing it past £30 million after just two weekends. This means that it is already at #2 in two big charts, it trails only 'Bridget Jones' as the biggest grossers of the year so far and is only behind 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' when it comes to video-game adaptations overall. 'Mario' was at £35,855,948 after to weekends, but bear in mind that film opened on a Wednesday pre-Easter weekend so has two-extra-days gross in that tally. Both 'Sonic The Hedgehog 2' and last December's 'Sonic The Hedgehog 3' closed out between £26-27 million.

In a busy week for new entries, the only one to pass £1 million was 'The Amateur' (£1,101,452) which opens at #2. This is a spy-thriller starring Rami Malek, Laurence Fishburne and Rachel Brosnahan and is an adaptation of the 1981 novel of the same name which was previously adapted for the big screen in the same year. This is the type of film that 'Hollywood just doesn't make anymore' according to all of the armchair experts, a two-hour, mid-budget ($60 million) thriller aimed at adults. The UK debut isn't too bad and with $30 million made so far, it's not going to be a breakout hit but it also won't be a huge money-loser for Disney, unlike 'Snow White' and 'Captain America: Brave New World'. This is the second feature for British director James Hawes after a lot of TV work ('Black Mirror', 'Doctor Who', 'Slow Horses') and the runaway success of last year's 'One Life' (£10 million). I think this has been the film that has caught me most off guard so far in 2025. I saw so little promotion for this that I was expecting it to open more in line with last month's 'The Alto Knights' (£388,530, #7). Especially when the trailer made it feel like the other Rami Malek film 'The Little Things' that went straight-to-home-premium to little fanfare when cinemas were closed in 2021.

It's another great week for event-cinema with 'André Rieu's 75th Birthday Celebration: The Dream Continues' opening at #4 (£596,897) and 'The Chosen: The Last Supper: Episodes 1 & 2' opening at #7 (£256,797). 'The Chosen' actually opened on Thursday and would have made the top 5 with £427,818 if that gross was included. If you've never heard of it, 'The Chosen' is a TV show based around the life of Jesus Christ and this release is the first two episodes of the fifth season which, based on the title, I reckon focuses on the Last Supper. This is a market improvement on the their release for the first two episodes of 'Season 3' which reached #19 on release in November 2022 with £45,277. In America, the cinema releases have made a combined total of over $100 million. If you follow the video chart I post in another thread, you'll have noticed that there seems to be a new 'Doctor Who' release to take advantage of their dedicated fans every other week, well André Rieu is the cinematic equivalent of 'Doctor Who' and his latest release to celebrate his 75th birthday is the peak position of his last 4 releases (4th) but on the lowest gross as £596,897 compares unfavourably to last Summer's 'Power Of Love' (£629,652, #5) and his two most-recent Christmas releases '2023' (1,001,094, #5) and '2024' (£931,024, #6). The holdover event cinema release' Six: The Musical Live!' also has a good weekend, nealy achieving another 7-digit weekend as it easily passes 'Macbeth: David Tennant & Cush Jumbo' to be the year's biggest event-cinema hit. It's already at £4 million which is the best result since 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour'.

Just missing out on the top 5 is 'Drop' (£382,902, #6). This is a thriller about a woman who receives threatening Airdrop messages while on a dinner date. This is directed by Christopher Landon in his first project since being announced as and then quickly exiting his role as the director of the upcoming 'Scream 7'. After making his name as a writer (and eventual director) of the 'Paranormal Activity' sequels, he has really found a lane for himself with fun slashers 'Happy Death Day', 'Happy Death Day 2 U' and 'Freaky' which would have made him perfect for 'Scream'. This has opened higher than 'Freaky' (£834k total) so it would be nice to see this reach £1 million. Landon co-wrote 'Heart Eyes' (£710,234, #4) which opened in February.

The final new entry this week is 'Good Bad Ugly' (£253,062). This is the latest crossover release from India and had the 3rd biggest opening weekend of the year over there. It's an action/comedy about a retired gangster who is forced back into the game and stars Ajith Kumar for his biggest UK opening.

The best hold in the top 10 actually goes to 'Snow White' this week (-39%) which has taken advantage of the Easter holidays enough for where £10 million is now looking like a lock but it probably won't have much more left after that. At least Rachel Zefgler is staying booked as she will be making her west-end debut in 'Evita' in the summer. 'Death Of A Unicorn' has a 63% drop on week 2 as it reaches a £1 million total while 'A Working Man' has a similar drop at it reaches £1.7 million.

There are four further new entries in the #11-15 section: 'The King Of Kings' (#11), 'Alappuzha Gymkhana' (#13), 'One To One: John & Yoko' (#14) and 'The Return' (#15).

 

Next week sees the openings of 'Sinners', 'The Penguin Lessons', ‘Warfare’, ‘Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story', 'Freaky Tales', 'Kesari Chapter 22', 'Neil Young: Coastal', 'Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon' and 'My Love Will Make You Disappear'. We also see a re-release of 'Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit'. Can any of them top the charts?

~

Christopher Landon Openings:

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (£1,584,354, #5, 2014)

Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse (£297,263, #8, 2015)

Happy Death Day (£998,388, #4, 2017)

Happy Death Day 2 U (£735,454, #6, 2019)

Freaky (£344,918, #6, 2021)

Drop (£382,902 #6, 2025)

The past few weeks I've been so bad at judging how well new releases are going to perform, I'm glad it's not just me from reading your commentary Lewis 😅 I'm now up to 19 cinema trips this year, and I don't remember seeing the trailer for "The Amateur" once, only noticed the poster for it a few times.

Meanwhile, I was seeing the trailers for "Novocaine" and "Death of a Unicorn" constantly, thought both looked like fun movies with cool concepts and both opened with half of what "The Amateur" has managed 🤨

The promotion for 'The Amateur' really ramped up a couple of days or so before the actual release. I really can't call 'Sinners' next week. The pre-orders where I work are pretty non-existent atm. But I'm seeing it advertised everywhere and ofc the hype around it getting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes will surely cause enough curiosity?

It got 100% on Rotten!! 🫨

I was wanting to catch it anyway but was going to wait for it to be released on streaming or something first but might have to check it in the cinema now!

18th April 2025 - 20th April 2025

 

1. (01) A Minecraft Movie - £5,307,316 (-27%) Weeks: 3 (£45,467,916)

2. (NE) Sinners - £2,424,594 Weeks: 1 (£2,424,594)

3. (NE) The Penguin Lessons - £1,057,236 Weeks: 1 (£1,057,236)

4. (02) The Amateur - £903,139 (-18%) Weeks: 2 (£3,020,212)

5. (NE) Warfare - £752,942 Weeks: 1 (£752,942)

6. (05) Snow White - £471,275 (+14%) Weeks: 5 (£10,594,412)

7. (03) Six: The Musical Live! - £409,909 (-56%) Weeks: 3 (£5,104,511)

8. (06) Drop - £203,974 (-47%) Weeks: 2 (£961,018)

9. (11) The King Of Kings - £169,889 (+31%) Weeks: 2 (£530,821)

10. (NE) Kesari Chapter 2 - £123,800 Weeks: 1 (£123,800)

 

 

Falling out:

André Rieu's 75th Birthday Celebration: The Dream Continues (1 week)

The Chosen: The Last Supper: Episodes 1 & 2 (1 week)

Good Bad Ugly (1 week)

Death Of A Unicorn (2 weeks)

A Working Man (3 week)

 

 

Happy Easter everyone and it’s certainly been a happy Easter for cinemas as ‘A Minecraft Movie’ sails to a third week at #1 with an impressive hold of just a 27% drop. At end of play on Easter Sunday, the £45.5 million total meant that it was just behind ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy’ in the race to be the biggest release of 2025. However, it added another £1.94 million on Bank Holiday Monday and can now lay claim to that crown. Do you remember last week when I said that it was off the pace of ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ after two weekends but Mario had already had the Easter break by that stage? Well, Minecraft’s Easter feast this weekend has completely changed the narrative. At this stage in its run, ‘Mario’ was only on £41,605,147 which means that ‘A Minecraft Movie’ looks very likely to beat that film’s £55 million total and become the biggest video-game adaptation ever in the UK.

 

Opening strongly in 2nd place is Warner Bros.’s other release, ‘Sinners’. A £2.5 million debut is a great result for a fully original concept and proves that Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan is a killer director/actor duo. The only original film opening higher last year was animation ‘Migration’ (£3,577,675, #1) with ‘Sinners’ just about topping both ‘IF’ (£2,435,054, #1) and ‘Red One’ £2,403,829 (#2). However, we have already seen a bigger original opening weekend this year with ‘We Live In Time’ (£2,843,517, #3). With this being a period set, horror-drama featuring vampires, the apt comparisons feels like it should be January’s ‘Nosferatu’ that opened to a massive £5,246,910 including previews (£3 million three-day) and closed on a strong £12.9 million. ‘Sinners’ has had great word-of-mouth and still seems to be building hype so Universal will definitely be looking for this to get above the £10 million mark.

 

Opening in third thanks to previews is ‘The Penguin Lessons’ (£1,057,236, £772,196 without previews). This is the latest film from the Oscar-nominated director of ‘The Full Monty’, Peter Cattaneo and his first since 2020’s ‘Military Wives’ (£968,468, #3). This is the real-life tale of a British teacher, played by Steve Coogan, in Argentina that rescued and kept a Penguin in his school in the 1970s. This feels like your standard ‘heartwarming British drama for a lazy Sunday afternoon’ sort of film and it certainly brought out a crowd on Bank Holiday weekend. It’s opening is even more impressive seeming that Odeon have looked to have decided not to show it.

 

The next new entry to discuss is ‘Warfare’ (£752,942, #5). This is the latest from acclaimed British writer and director, Alex Garland and follows last year’s ‘Civil War’ (£1,823,179, #2) which became his biggest success as director. This is similarly distributed by A24 but sees Garland pair up with a co-director, Ray Mendoza. In fact it’s based around Mendoza’s experience as a Navy SEAL and re-enacts, in real-time, an encounter where they were ambushed. There’s nothing civil about this warfare and the film is a tense, realistic, no-thrills retelling of the incident. This feels like a potential hard-sell so making over £750k on a Bank Holiday weekend feels impressive. The film had a small budget ($20 million) so should be a decent hit for A24.

 

Climbing into the top 10 on week 2 is ‘The King Of Kings (+31%). Loosely adapted by the Charles Dickens novel ‘The Life Of Our Lord’, this is an animated re-telling of Jesus’s life and comes from Christian-movie releasers, Angel Studios who release ‘The Chosen’ episodes and really made a name for themselves with ‘Sound Of Freedom’ (£760,060, #4) that had a unique release strategy in 2023.

 

The final new entry this week is the token Indian film, ‘Kesari Chapter 2’ (£123,800, #10). As the title suggests, this is a sequel to ‘Kesari’ that opened with a slightly higher £159,046 (#13) in 2019. It’s a historical courtroom drama about an atrocity committed by the British Indian Army so I can see why it might not have translated brilliantly over here.

 

‘The Amateur’ had a great hold in week 2 (-18%) that has seen it already pass the £3 million barrier and entere the top 20 films of the year. It was so close to getting a second weekend above £1 million. Even ‘Snow White’ is having a good Easter, increasing 14% in week 5 and comfortably climbing into double-figures in total gross.

 

‘Drop’ had a better-than-average horror drop (-47%) and will pass £1 million within the week. It’s already above the total gross of Landon’s last film ‘Freaky’ (£834k). That was a really underrated film starring Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn and I would recommend checking it out if you haven’t seen it. ‘Six: The Musical Live’ drops 55% but this is still great for an event cinema release on week 3 and it has already grossed more than £5 million in total as it enters the YTD top 10 at #10.

There are no further new entries in the #11-15 section but ‘Flow’ was only about £1k short of re-entering the top 10.

Next week sees the openings of ‘The Accountant 2’, ‘Until Dawn, ‘The Legend Of Ochi’, ‘Escape From Extinction: Rewilding', ‘Julie Keeps Quiet, Pink Floyd at Pompeii: MCMLXXII’, 'The Friend', The Ugly Stepsister', ‘April’, ‘Cloud’, ‘An Army Of Women’ and ‘Goldbeak’. We also see  re-releases of ‘Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith', ‘Pride & Prejudice’ and ‘Miss Congeniality’. Can any of them top the charts?

~

Ryan Coogler Openings:

Fruitville Station (£30,162, #17, 2014)

Creed (£2,221,758, #3, 2016)

Black Panther (£17,700,000, #1, 2018)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (£12,363,870, #1, 2022)

Sinners (£2,424,594, #2, 2025)