The gap between Everest and Legend at the top of the UK box office chart last weekend was only £42,642 but thanks to “previews” gap was £713,294. Everest opened in IMAX cinemas on September 11th similar to its US opening on September 18th but whereas it’s opening in the US was counted as its opening weekend the 7 day box office for Everest was “previews”.
In two weeks this will be repeated again with The Walk opening in IMAX in the US and UK October 2nd and then regularly cinemas the following weekend and again the US will report October 2nd as the film’s opening but the UK will report October 9th is its opening and similarly add the 7 days box office to its 3 day total.
In the UK as in the US films have had paid previews for a long time but whereas in the US these were normally midnight previews and in recent years have started with Thursday 7pm screenings in the UK they start up to two weeks before the film’s opening.
25 years ago previews were 9pm performances on Thursday night with films like Indecent Proposal and Jurassic Park along with many other films having one preview screening the night before or having paid preview screenings immediately after the films premiere the Empire Leicester Square often had in the 80s and 90s. For family films matinees the Saturday/Sunday before opening but it wasn’t until Warner Bros opening Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2001 previews became much more than one off screenings as to help boost its opening held preview screening over the two weeks before the film officially opened on November 16th helping it open with a massive £16.33m.
In the years that followed the many more films repeated the weekend previews and opened their films on Thursday but with Orange Wednesday few studios would opt to opening a film on Wednesday unless they wanted to buil up word of mouth and awareness.
Last year Universal “previewed” Bad Neighbours on Saturday May 3rd giving it a 9 day opening weekend taking £8.42m £3.3m of if from its official Fri-Sun opening which would have seen it top the chart. Its 9 day opening was less than £9.3m Ted opening in August 2012 in 5 days and Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason£10.4m opened in 2004 with a couple days of previews.
Will likely repeat this 9 day preview opening next May with Bad Neighbours 2.
The 9 day opening was repeated in July for both Transformers Age of Extinction and How to Train Your Dragon 2 which opened with £11.71m and £9.57m. To put those two openings in perspective Skyfall opened in October 2012 and took £20.1m in 3 days and that was also without 3D. It is also less than the £12m The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opened with last November in 4 days.
Next month Suffragette opens on Monday October 12th to give it a 7 day opening weekend. Allowing it to build from the media coverage generated from its London Film Festival premiere but away from the crowded October 9th weekend and giving it a head start against the busy following weekend.
Hotel Transylvania 2 opens on October 16th but will have two weekends of previews added to its opening.
Pan has one weekend of previews the weekend before opening.
Spectre opens October 26th (start of school holidays) with a 7 day opening weekend. The big question is will Spectre take more than Skyfall in its opening “weekend” £37.1m? With official average ticket prices (from BFI/Cinema UK) up 11.8% since 2012 along with Odeon increasing their “blockbuster tax” by 50% for Spectre it should do and when it does they industry will be celebrating its success even though they all know the hidden truth behind the numbers.
Disney have recently brought forward the release by a day to Thursday for Star Wars The Force Awakens but with it opening in France the day before it’s likely that there will be previews on Wednesday night giving it a 5 day opening compared to Spectre 7 day opening.
The problem with these films having extended previews is that it’s impossible to compare a film’s opening with another as when the box office chart is made all it shows it the totals and what films is where it doesn’t say this film opened in 3 days, this one with 5 days and this with a 10 day opening. But it is surprising that the previewing opening hasn’t crossed over to the US as a preview for them has always been midnights the day of opening.
