29th May 2026 - 31st May 2026

 

1. (NE) Backrooms - £4,281,936 Weeks: 1 (£4,281,936)

2. (01) Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu - £2,660,970 (-50%) Weeks: 2 (£11,329,182)

3. (02) Michael - £1,763,682 (-1%) Weeks: 6 (£48,019,081)

4. (03) Obsession - £1,565,342 (+21%) Weeks: 3 (£6,834,514)

5. (04) The Devil Wears Prada 2 - £875,713 (-24%) Weeks: 5 (£32,144,914)

6. (06) The Sheep Detectives - £711,255 (+32%) Weeks: 4 (£8,305,170)

7. (NE) Tuner - £361,457 Weeks: 1 (£361,457)

8. (09) The Super Mario Galaxy Movie - £221,621 (+81%) Weeks: 9 (£38,052,187)

9. (NE) Power Ballad - £203,650 Weeks: 1 (£203,650)

10. (07) Passenger - £148,158 (-56%) Weeks: 2 (£749,125)

Falling out:

Drishyam 3 (1 week)

Finding Emily (1 week)

The Christophers (2 weeks)

It’s a great year for horror already as ‘Backrooms’ debuts at #1 with a brilliant £4,281,936. This helps it become one of the top 5 debuts for horror films of all-time in the UK and the highest non-franchise horror (3-day opening) as the only ones that beat it are ‘It’, ‘It: Chapter Two’, ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites’ and ‘Hannibal’. Just like every other debut horror hit of recent times, the director Kane Parsons started on YouTube and this film is actually an adaptation of his YouTube series (that was originally based on a popular Creepypasta). If you want to feel old, Parsons is currently 20-years old which surely makes him the youngest director to ever have a #1 film. With a $10 million budget and opening with over $100 million worldwide in its opening weekend, he will have the whole of Hollywood begging to release his next film. A24 were already celebrating having their biggest UK opening earlier in the year with ‘The Drama’ (£2,144,798, #3) and now they need to keep the champagne bottles popping. I’m very interested to see if this will fall quickly like ‘Iron Lung’ or ‘Five Nights At Freddy’s’ or continue to be massive.

 

The second highest new entry is ‘Tuner’ (£361,457, £280k without previews). This is directed by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher in his narrative debut and sees Leo Woodall star as a deaf piano tuner who gets involved in crime. It’s earned great reviews and has a solid debut having only released in 180 cinemas. It’s releasing wider next weekend so has potential to build from here.

 

The final new entry this week was released in many more cinemas (525) but didn’t have the same appeal, ‘Power Ballad’ (£203,650, £181k without previews). This comes from Irish director, John Carney whose films (‘Once’, ‘Begin Again’, ‘Sing Street’) always have a musical twist. This one stars Paul Rudd as a down-on-his-luck wedding singer whose song is stolen by a pop-star (Nick Jonas) desperate for a hit.

 

Last week’s big new release was ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu’ and it falls to #2 this week after a 50% drop. It has now reached £10 million and is within the top 10 films of the year but isn’t looking to be the saviour of Star Wars like Disney were hoping. Last week’s other new film ‘Passenger’ drops 56% but bags another week in the top 10.

 

I said last week that the warm weather led to a reduced box-office and the remaining holdovers are all proving this. ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ has a much more solid hold (-24%) as it remains in the top 5 for a 5^th week. But, having the climb it should have had last weekend, ‘Obsession’ makes it two independent horrors killing it this summer with a 21% climb in its third weekend. We haven’t seen a film perform like this for a while and seeing who wins the war between this and ‘Backroom’s is going to be one of the stories of this year’s box office.

 

Films that have kid-appeal had another boost this weekend as it was half-term across the country and they could fill the screens on Friday too. ‘Michael’ only drops 1% and passes £48 million to overtake ‘Wicked: For Good’ meaning that ‘A Minecraft Movie’ is the only film to have made more in 2025-2026. But the true kids films ‘The Sheep Detectives’ (+32%) and ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (+81%) are the real winners with former now looking a sure bet to hit £10 million.

 

There are two further new entries in the #11-15 section: ‘Playboy Of The Western World: NT Live 2026’ (#11) and ‘Chardikala’ (#15).

 

Next week sees the openings of ‘Scary Movie’, ‘Masters Of The Universe’, ‘Savage House’, ‘The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act’, ‘Madfabulous’, ‘Erupcja’, ‘Köln 75’ and ‘Being Towards Death’. We also see a re-release of ‘Bridesmaids’. Can any of them top the charts?

_

Summer Box Office Top 5:

1. (01) The Devil Wears Prada 2 - £32,144,914

2. (03) Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu - £11,329,182

3. (02) The Sheep Detectives - £8,305,170

4. (04) Obsession - £6,834,514

5. (NE) Backrooms - £4,281,936

Star Wars is up to #2 but won't go any higher. Backrooms debuts at #5 knocking out 'Mortal Kombat II'.

I kinda feel Backrooms will drop, unlike Obsession it doesn't have the greatest reception. Intrigued to see how Scary Movie will do and if three horror movies can co-exist without dragging each other down.

Shame Obsession didn't make enough to make it a #1-#2 for horror like it did in the states.

I wasn’t expecting Backrooms to go number 1. I was expecting it to go number 2 with Mandalorian getting a second week at the top

Obsession managing an increase whilst Backrooms opens with over £4m feels crazyyyy 😯

Not seen Backrooms yet, but so pleased to see Renate Reinsve get a commercial hit, and not just critical acclaim!

Tuner over performed my expectations, whilst Power Ballad performed a lot worse than I expected (thought it may end up being the 2nd biggest opener of the week), and amazed that Obsession has increased in week 3: I didn’t think in the modern era that many films would increase beyond week 2, it’ll be interesting if it increases or holds in the next few weeks.

I believe “The Amazing Digital Circus” will outperform expectations next weekend (seems to be popular on pre-orders), but “Scary Movie” will top the chart, with He-Man being a relative flop.

I actually expected a much harsher drop than that for 'The Mandalorian & Grogu'! I'm really pleased about that tbh.

I hope 'Obsession' can stay above 'Backrooms' (in total) but it's still nice to see horror movies do so well! The word of mouth seems to be quite mixed for 'Backrooms', so its legs will be interesting (I suspect it'll still have solid holds though). Looking to be a very rainy weekend though so lets see how well everything can hold and whether or not that leads to yet another increase for 'Obsession'!

If cinemas such as Cineworld or Odeon had done secret screamings of Backrooms, it might not be number 1 now

I know it was the last of half term but TSMGM actually climbing the week it was released on digital is pretty impressive 🙌

I was... Not a fan of 'Tuner' at all. 'Power Ballad' seemed like the sort of film that should be opening around 1m though, I really liked that - I wonder what went wrong! I wish they traded fortunes 🤣

Any predictions for how Scary Movie will do?

I am very excited but can see it having like 1 week of hype then disappearing

I think Scary Movie will perform similarly to Scream 7. Huge opening weekend but falls off fairly quickly (but opening is big enough for it to become a profit by the end of its run).

On 02/06/2026 at 11:08, Hadji said:

If cinemas such as Cineworld or Odeon had done secret screamings of Backrooms, it might not be number 1 now

I don't understand what you mean? Pretty sure Secret Screenings ADD to the opening weekend totals...

Its meant to be one of the biggest horror movies of the year to finally push the franchise into the billion club.

It will debut high but would need to be really good to keep momentum going

2 hours ago, Tafty said:

I don't understand what you mean? Pretty sure Secret Screenings ADD to the opening weekend totals...

I’m pretty sure secret screenings/screamings don’t add to the opening weekend totals because people go for the secret screenings/screamings without knowing what film they’re watching

On 02/06/2026 at 17:24, Juranamo said:

I was... Not a fan of 'Tuner' at all. 'Power Ballad' seemed like the sort of film that should be opening around 1m though, I really liked that - I wonder what went wrong! I wish they traded fortunes 🤣

Just got home from seeing Tuner and I rather enjoyed it. Was maybe a bit more ‘musical’ and romantic drama than I expected, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing!

Goodness Power Ballad really flopped big time! I want to see that one too hope it sticks around in the cinema for a couple of weeks.

I think this weekend could potentially go:

01. Scary Movie [£5.7m]

02. Masters Of The Universe [£2.6m]

03. Obsession [£1.4m]

04. Michael [£1.2m]

05. Backrooms [£1.2m]

'Obsession' is NOT slowing down where I work and has been out performing 'Backrooms' for the last few days! MOTU will be #2 but on an incredibly low amount for what it should be aiming for...

All should clear £1m again! I think 'Mando' will too... just about.

EDIT: I think that's being generous for MOTU...

3 horrors in the top 5! Those should surely be the top 5 films rn.

My cinema has more screens for Obsession then any other film that aren't new this week. Like there's 13 times on Wednesday compared to Backrooms's 6 which came out later so defo catering to audience demand.

So Obsession totally expect to be the highest old release

My local Cineworld has more showings of Backrooms than it does of Masters Of The Universe

Backrooms was a brutal watch, and not in a good way! Don’t think the hype will last