J❄️hq

I'm really struggling to grasp the point here - if you don't want to be sitting next to someone, surely having at least two seats between yourself and someone else, is better than having just a single seat between yourself and someone else? Or does that make too much sense? Yeah, this isn't just really annoying for us as Unlimited members, but surely annoying for staff as well as people having to make individual bookings mean multiple QR codes to scan even when people are in a group. I went to see "Pressure" with my parents (we all have Unlimited) on the day that the new app and website came in, so we went and 'bought' the tickets in the cinema. The member of staff at the till couldn't process us in one transaction either, it had to be three transactions (with my parents paying a £2 uplift each, as they have group 1 membership and we were at a group 2 Cineworld). Really boggles the mind! I've only had this three times in the space of about a decade luckily (I do like to arrive promptly which might have helped avoid this too much, rather than trying to miss the adverts), I think the best thing to do is either sit in a seat next to them, or directly in front or behind. Then if someone arrives and says you've sat in their seat, you can point and loudly say "I'd move but they are sat in my seat" 😝

'Digger' just creeping past the £1m mark is...not as much of a disaster as I may have feared after seeing the US numbers. Why they were given a budget of $180m I have no idea (I mean, I can see where the money went, the production design was fab, but it feels like a bonkers amount because a massive audience for this story was never going to be there). Also gagged to see that 'Birdman' did £1.5m a decade ago to only open at #7! I think 'Verity' holding on is most likely next weekend. I don't expect 'The Social Reckoning' to do much, I feel like this release has crept up out of nowhere. I've seen the trailer in the cinema a couple of times but idk if it mentioned a date, when I read on Screendaily yesterday that it's out this weekend, my reaction was oh. Early reaction looks middling at best. I'm guessing 'The Uprising' is heading for a flop, like it did in the US and the similar looking Hugh Jackman does Robin Hood movie did not that long ago. No idea about 'Other Mommy', my only awareness of it is seeing the poster at the cinema.

'Endgame Encore' was #1 last weekend with over £4m though? 'Digger' isn't going to come anywhere close to that so moving that forward a week wouldn't have done anything, I'd be surprised if 'Verity' went that high either (I think 'It Ends With Us' opened around the £4m mark? But isn't that the most popular/famous of Colleen's books) 'Digger' had hype from cinephiles for months based on Inárritu, Cruise's transformation and the expectation that it would be a major awards players, but then people saw it and turns out it's messy and divisive and awards predictions are really dropping. I think a lot of casual cinema go-ers have found the marketing quite off-putting and bizarre. 'Verity' never had awards prospects and was never going to be liked by the film bros and critics, but there was always going to be the casual audience turning out for it as it's based on a popular book and we've seen how Colleen Hoover adaptations have done before (with this one having the biggest name cast and budget of all). I'll be rooting for 'Verity' to be #1 but I found a great amount of enjoyment in both. I didn't expect them both to have big twists that are central in a way that it's hard to discuss them in too much detail without giving something away.

Ok, that feels solid for Oak Street! Don't think that's a bad opening for 'Tony' considering that Anthony Bourdain wasn't a massive name in the UK (or at least, I've seen reviews from some people mentioning that they weren't really aware of him ), and Dominic Sessa is still a rising talent rather than a major established movie star. Good to see the lower end of the chart looking healthier, even if it means 'Sunny Dancer' missed out on the top 10. Such a shame that couldn't break 100k.

I'm wondering what will eventually replace Spider-Man at the top. There is A LOT that I'm personally looking forward to over the remainder of August, but nothing that feels like it will be that big/released wide enough ('Tony', 'Sunny Dancer', 'I Want Your Sex', 'Spa Weekend', 'One Night Only'). Maybe 'The Dog Stars'? Not one that I'm really anticipating, but Ridley Scott is a big director and it's a big budget release. If I'd have known that 'Tony' was likely to be a secret screening tonight, I wouldn't have forked out on a preview at Curzon (due to a worry about how I'm going to find time for everything over the next few weeks) I think it could've been on course to open at #1, but it was an Unlimited screening on Monday night so will now probably miss the top 5 x

wdym The Odyssey had almost zero drop Will be interesting to see what impact Spider-Man has, although of course The Odyssey is retaining all of the IMAX screens..

The film that opened on just under £1m? Week 2 of The Odyssey will probably be around the £5m mark if it has a typical drop...I'd expect it to hold on even better considering that word of mouth is overwhelmingly positive, and as Lewis says, there will be no World Cup to compete with. Oh dear at the numbers at the bottom end of the chart, especially sub-£50k being enough to get in. Although I guess it might be even worse next week

Oh thank god for some PROPER event viewing returning now that the football is out of the way 😍

Wtf I did not expect Moana to open lower than the new Minions, and barely higher than the original animation. I guess they've all been released too close together (like how often is the top 3 made up entirely of kids/family movies?) but I thought Minions would suffer the most. Will be interesting to see how they play out over the summer holidays. Having seen Moana this afternoon, I'm certainly not mad about this underwhelming opening, as poor critical reviews aren't going to stop Disney, but maybe box office figures will send them the message that they need to stop being so lazy.

Really hope Muchova takes it in the final, she feels well deserving of a slam now that she's made the last 4 (at least) of them all, and this seems like a great opportunity - before injury holds her back again. Noskova would just feel more random, despite being seeded a place higher. My gut says neither Zverev or Fery would beat Sinner in the final...it just depends whether Djokovic is able to pull a repeat of AO. If we end up with a Zverev/Sinner final then I have no interest in watching how it plays out.

I'm happy for Djokovic to have beaten FAA, as I have more hope for him taking out Sinner. Let's have a repeat of the Australian please Novak... Naomi was my top pick to win in the women's, now crossing fingers for a Muchova vs. Paolini final and then I'd be delighted either way.

I think this is Naomi's to lose now. The only woman left who is yet to drop a set, and she looked really impressive against Sabalenka - commentary said that Sabalenka had won 21 tie-break sets in a row at Slams? And a run of 14 Slams where she made it to at least the quarters, now over... She had a career best run at the French too, great to see her finding success outside of the hard courts. Brilliant to see Coco also having a career best Wimbledon run!

I'm glad that 'Obsession' is now ahead of 'Backrooms' in the weekly figures so will stay ahead in total, as I totally got the hype with the former but the latter was not for me. Also will love it if at current trajectory, 'Obsession' ends with a higher total than Grogu!

Second WTA final of the year for Emma tomorrow, hopefully this time she finally gets that second title, but I'd also be really happy for Donna Vekic too considering how narrowly she missed out on making the Wimbledon final two years ago.

Hoping for a repeat of Wimbledon, with an Italian man and a Polish woman winning. I'm ready for another completely random women's champion who never goes on to have any other notable success, it's been a while, and Mirra will get her slams at some point. Zverev winning is just not even worth thinking about. Even if he goes two sets up in the final, I'll remain in denial.