UK/US Box Office Summary January 1st – 3rd 2016

Top 5 Breakdown

Star Wars: The Force Awakens – £10,191,550 – £97,245,306

(2D 62.2%) 2D £6,344,148 total £56,074,962 (57.6% of total)

(3D 24.2%) 3D took £2,466,900 total £30,487,370 (31.3% of total)

(IMAX 13.5%) IMAX 3D £1,380,503 total £10,465,903 from 41 screens (10.7% of total)

After 16 days on release it became the second biggest film of all time overtaking SPECTRE and Avatar and by next weekend will overtake Skyfall to be the biggest ever in UK.

Has overtaken SPECTRE to become the biggest IMAX release in UK with £10.4m and no wonder with tickets £22 BFI IMAX is the highest grossing IMAX cinema in the world. SPECTRE recently broke the record set by The Dark Knight Rises in 2012 but prices have increased by over 45% since for The Dark Knight Rises they were nearer £15 and for Avatar in 2009 they were £12.

After 17 of the most lucrative days of the year at the box office The Force Awakens has taken a huge amount at the box office breaking many records along the way but with schools returning will now see how front-loaded it really is; likely to perform similar to mega-movies in the weeks to come with £5.5m week 4 and £3.05m week 5 so likely loose top spot with The Revenant and Creed both opening.

With 42.1% of box office from 3D/IMAX it took over £12.2m+ from surcharges including £9.14m+ from 3D. Add Odeon Cinemas blockbuster tax more than a quarter of its box office is from surcharges inflating its box office. The Force Awakens was always going to be a massive success in UK but these cynical surcharges have inflated its box office even more.

(while box office cannot be comparable as third weekend is higher due holiday weekend the percentage drops are more interesting as is Avatar increasing in week 3 by 55% while The Force Awakens held its box office. But if included Mondays its third weekend drop is 37.7%.

For months many have asked Where’s Rey in the merchandise for the film with all the other male characters featuring but Rey mysteriously missing. It came to a head this week after an 8 year old girl Tweeted Hasbro asking why there wasn’t a Rey in Star Wars Monopoly. This Tweet went viral and Hasbro gave some crazy excuse that she was missing to avoid spoilers. The Monopoly game was released in September 2015 11 months after Disney released the first teaser so made no sense.

Original cut film was 2hr 40mins a lot of the cut footage has been mentioned in the novelisation of the film which was probably the reason Disney held back the release of it until after the opening; was also picked up by the screenplay Disney have sent out to Writers Guild of America.

For its final few days at the Odeon Leicester Square tickets have dropped from top price of £28 to a more decent top price of £15 cheaper than most local cinemas.

Daddy’s Home £2,889,445 – total £8,123,602

While Sisters failed to capitalise with its #YouCanSeeThemBoth campaign Daddy’s Home was a great alternative to Star Wars boosted by Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell generating much media coverage when they came to the UK in early December.

Their second film together has already overtaken first The Other Guys £8.1m in 2010 also overtaken Will Ferrell’s similarly themed Step Brothers £6.2m in 2008.

Its box office was up 78.7% on its opening 2-day weekend up 10.3% from its opening 3 days.

With its Christmas themed storyline and schools ending will suffer a big drop next weekend.

Joy £1,399,556 – total £1,505,182

After opening in the West End on Boxing Day taking £105,626 expanded nationwide on 1^st January; similar to director David O. Russell previous films with Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle Joy is very much a Marmite film receiving mixed reviews from critics. While I was enjoyed Silver Linings Playbook felted hustled by American Hustle as it felt like The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Silver Linings Playbook opened November 23^rd 2012 with £1.26m taking over £4.5m

American Hustle opened January 3^rd 2014 with £3.61m (including £1.27m in previews) taking £12.8m

While previous films earnt Jennifer Lawrence Golden Globe Best Actress and Supporting Actress award she has been nominated again for Joy but unlikely to get it this time. While she will likely get nominated again for Oscars this year be interesting to see if she does also for BAFTAs when they are announced on Friday.

The Danish Girl £1,370,181- NE

Opening a year after Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar winning The Theory of Everything, The Danish Girl was a much harder sell to audiences as Stephen Hawking’s story is much more accessible to audiences than Einar Wegener.

Reviews were good but not as strong as many expected several months ago Universal will be hoping for strong word of mouth and BAFTA nominations announced on Friday to help it against tough competition with other Oscar contenders opening over the next few weeks.

Its opening was behind director Tom Hooper’s 2013’s Les Misérables £8.13m and 2011’s The King’s Speech £3.51m. The Theory of Everything opened last January with £3.75m. It did open bigger than Eddie Redmayne’s last film Jupiter Ascending 31.34m but doubtful anyone who saw that also went to see The Danish Girl.

Eddie Redmayne will likely help it hold better than it has done in the US similar to The Theory of Everything but it’s doubtful it will breakout into mainstream audiences similar to Carol could have helped with a platform release which both received in the US but strangely not in UK.

Snoopy and Charlie Brown £1,288,995 = total £7,130,718

2D took £1,267,088 – total £6,780,024 – 3D took £21,907 – total £350,694

As its opening last weekend included 11 days of previews box office was down 64.5% but compared to its actual weekend box office last weekend of £592,518 it was up 117.5%.

But with schools back today will be limited to weekend matinees dropping heavily this coming weekend. Box office performance was more similar to The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water £7.9m rather than £24.9m of Home. of predicted 3 months ago Hotel Transylvania 2 would have taken more than both Snoopy and Charlie Brown and The Good Dinosaur combined.

Other box office news:

SPECTRE stumbled its way to overtaking Avatar to become the third biggest film in UK after its massive opening most expected it to do this weeks ago.

Also opened

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride – £224,022 from 127 screens

Sleeping with Other People -Icon – £10,100 from 15 screens

At Any Price – Studiocanal – £346 from 2 screens

–

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £19,267,045 up 13% from last weekend £17,050,101 (2-day week); was down 0.8% from same weekend last year. (£19,422,464);

Star Wars The Force Awakens took 52.89% of top 10 box office compared to Spectre 53.1%, Avengers: Age of Ultron’s 40.4% Jurassic World 29.2%.

Last year The Theory of Everything opened £3,746,296, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death £2,430,740 and Birdman £1,154,294.

This weekend last year Taken 3 with £6.7m, Into the Woods £2.48m, Foxcatcher £876,379

UK Box Office Top 10 – January 1st – 3rd 2015

US Box Office

Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens $88.3m down 41% in its second weekend and $740.2m to date; will overtake Avatar to become the biggest ever film in US but cannot match the admissions it received due to tickets costing up to $30.

Having now taken $1.51bn after three weeks it’s now unlikely to overtaken the global box office of Avatar unless it breaks records when opens in China on Saturday. It is currently tracking lower than expected while The Force Awakens has broken records in the US and Europe it has not performed to the similar levels of Avatar 6 years ago. With many expected it to now do a maximum of $2.4bn not heating Avatar’s global box office. After opening with $529m and doing incredibly over the two lucrative two weeks of Christmas this must be a little disappointing.