Top 5 Breakdown
1- Straight Outta Compton – £1.366,341 –total -£5,807,167
Down 44.9% in its second weekend but still managed to top the charts over the worst weekend of the year.
Will likely become director F. Gary Gray biggest film in the UK currently 2003’s The Italian Job’s £7.6m.
With Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Legend opening this weekend both should generate some excitement at the box office again which has been surprisingly flat for the last couple of weeks especially as the weather has been perfect for cinema-going.
2 – Inside Out – £725,156 – total £36,017,441
Showed how poorly the weekend box office was had lowest drop (39.3%) of top ten being limited to Sat-Sun box office compared with other releases in its seventh weekend with schools returning.
Has overtaken 2009’s Up £34.59m to become fourth highest grossing original animation of all time; should overtake both 2003’s Finding Nemo £37.5m and 2001’s Monsters Inc £37.9m in coming weeks.
Has overtaken 50 Shades of Grey to be fifth biggest film of 2015 and biggest original film of the year; after opening with in these days a modest £7.34m in July it will likely end up taking more than 5x its opening compared with 3.9x for Minions, 2.6x for Avengers Age of Ultron and 3.2x for Jurassic World.
3- No Escape – £636,924 – NE
Comparing it only against the other new releases this weekend had a decent opening but would have expected a £1m+ opening for this and Transporter Refuelled over such a quiet weekend. Both films were guilty surprises as the people who did see both enjoyed them much more than they were expecting but neither film are likely to hang around for very long.
The poor weekend wasn’t helped by having four second rate action films cannibalizing each other all likely to have more success on DVD where they will all likely appear shortly.
4- Mission Impossible Rogue Nation – £507,629– £20,036,415
Down 42.4% in its sixth weekend becoming the biggest film of the 19 year old film series. Tom Cruise already has announced plans for a sixth film he will likely make after Jack Reacher 2 to be released in summer 2017.
Having crossed $500m worldwide this weekend but it is still far from the global box office of 2011’s Ghost Protocol which took $694m.
Paramount’s two summer films marketing campaigns was like chalk and cheese with Terminator Genisys poorly handled from the start with spoilers aplenty in its marketing since the first pictures were released in October. While possibly due to Rogue Nation’s release being brought forward 5 months its marketing was far stronger and simpler. Many when they saw the trailer featuring the plane scene thought Paramount had done it again with the spoilers but as the scene happened at the start just teased what was to come.
5 – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – £394,192 (£49,193 from previews) – NE
After a big talker screening program, strong social media campaign, trailer and good reviews expectations must have been strong for a far bigger opening especially during such a quiet weekend.
This summer there has been an issue with spoilers in trailers but with this have a spoiler in its title might it been an issue similar to films like Shawshank Redemption or Fried Green Tomatoes.
20th Century Fox will be hoping with schools now back word of mouth will give it a chance to find an audience but with many more new releases in the coming weeks similar to the US exhibitors will quickly dump it for a new release.
Me and Earl after receiving a standing ovation at Sundance in January received strong reviews with many saying it wasn’t the young adult film many expected it to be many describing it as smart, funny and original. Indian Paintbrush sold world rights to Fox Searchlight; Lionsgate and Focus Films also bid for it but after Searchlight had success with The Fault in Our Stars and The Grand Budapest Hotel it was the logical home for it and many expected it to be the sleeper of the summer.
The reaction was very positive on social media when the trailers were released in April but like many indie films released this summer it failed to find an audience.
Complete UK Box office top 10 – September 4th -6th 2015
| Film | Studio | Release date | Weeks | w/e box office | Change +/- | Cumulative |
| Straight Outta Compton | Universal | 28/08/2015 | 2 | 1,366,341 | -44.9% | 5,807,167 |
| Inside Out | Disney | 24/07/2015 | 7 | 725,156 | -39.3% | 36,017,441 |
| No Escape | eOne | 04/09/2015 | 1 | 636,924 | NE | 636,924 |
| Mission Impossible Rogue Nation | Paramount | 29/07/2015 | 5 | 507,629 | -42.5% | 20,036,415 |
| Me and Earl | 20th Century Fox | 04/08/2015 | 1 | 394,192 | NE | 394,192 |
| Pixels | Sony | 12/08/2015 | 4 | 393,969 | -40.4% | 7,575,785 |
| Transporter Refuelled | Icon | 04/09/2015 | 1 | 350,438 | NE | 350,438 |
| American Ultra | Entertainment | 04/09/2015 | 1 | 346,769 | NE | 346,769 |
| The Man From U.N.C.L.E. | Warner | 14/08/2015 | 4 | 324,147 | -50.5% | 5,956,784 |
| Hitman: Agent 47 | 20th Century Fox | 28/08/2015 | 2 | 295,195 | -69.5% | 1,922,968 |
Also opened
Ricki and the Flash – Sony – £220,000 from 354 screens
Dope – Sony – £40,000 from 103 screens
Other box office news:
Top 10 weekend £5,275,540 box office down 37.5% from last weekend; one of the lowest weekends of 2015.
Weekend top 10 is down 21.1% from last year (£9,179,251) Sex Tape opened £1.42m, Before I Go to Sleep £785,022, The Hundred Foot Journey £687,226 and The Guest £312,816.
Down 31.3% from same weekend in 2013 About Time opened £1.76m and Riddick £1.4m
Last year this weekend The Boxtrolls opened with £2m, Pride £714,000 and A Most Wanted Man £609,722.
Legend and Maze Runner likely to open better than those films weekend is unlikely to match 2013’s Insidious 2 £2.9m, Rush £2.08m, White House Down £1.2m, Justin and the Knight of Valour £831k.
August box office was £104.8m down 17% from August 2014 (14.16m compared with 17.06m); first time this year monthly box office has been down year to year. With cooler weather and a strong lineup of films there was no excuse for this drop as exhibitors salivated over slate of films of the summer earlier in the year. Yearly admissions are likely to be about 180m for year will be highest since 1970 up 4.4% from last year but with average tickets prices up 5.9% (£6.72 to £7.12) increase won’t be as impressive as 200m should have been the target for 2015.
