UK/US Weekend Box Office Summary February 12th – 14th 2016

Top 5 Breakdown

Deadpool – £13,719,726 – NE

2D – £8,969,886 with previews £12,266,016 – IMAX £987,327 – with previews £1,453,710

Biggest ever opening for a 20^th Century Fox/Marvel film adaption and 20^th Century Fox’s second biggest ever opening in the UK

20^th Century Fox biggest ever opening Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in May 2005 £14,361,469 and third The Simpsons Movie in July 2007 £13,626,853 both only released in 2D too.

Had biggest ever February opening ahead of last year’s 50 Shades of Grey £13,271,409

Deadpool has had a huge marketing campaign but it was still a huge unknown quantity in the UK with the comic-book far less well known that previous adaptions along with the fact it was a 15 rather than the regularly 12A comic-book adaptions normally receive. Its opening can’t be compared with the Disney Marvel films which are more accessible being the lower certificates.

Opening was more impressive as did it without 3D surcharges that all Marvel films have been released in since X-Men: First Class in 2011.

The previous biggest 20^th Century Fox comic-book adaption was X-Men Days of Future Past opened in May 2014 with £9.1m. opened with £4.75m in 2011. The first X-Men film opened with £4.7m in 2000 with X-Men 2 & 3 opening in 2003 and 2006 with just over £7m.

Taking £3.762m from previews opening Wednesday with £2.34m (42% more than X-Men: Days of Future Past) and £1,422,513 on Thursday; in comparison Avengers: Age of Ultron had opening day box office of £3.6m.

While it was expected to open well in the US it was never expected to open with almost double amount it was being tracked at for the past few weeks; but more impressive was its UK opening. Its marketing campaign was extensive and unique for a comic-book movie but even that can’t just be the reason for its huge opening as Zoolander 2 had equally as big campaign with a fan-base probably bigger than Deadpool’s but they weren’t interested in the sequel.

Cameron Saunders, Twentieth Century Fox’s UK managing director said “We are thrilled with Deadpool’s opening weekend success. The response to our anti-hero has been staggering, especially in such a big year for superhero movies,” “This fantastic result demonstrates the great appetite for Deadpool’s existing and newfound fans to see him on the big screen.”

What is surprising about Deadpool is reviews have been mixed it had early rave reviews from fans but many took issue of its dated plot and it didn’t add anything new to the genre apart from being raunchier and breaking the fourth wall which the comic-book also did.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip – £4,286,955 -NE

2D – £2,587,138 – with previews £4,286,955

Boosted by last weekend’s previews Alvin managed to surprise most opening ahead of Zoolander 2 in its opening weekend. Both films openings were boosted by previews (£1,480,313) without which both would of opened lower down in the chart.

But despite negative reviews and adults hating it Alvin still managed to open strongly in second place perfectly positioned to have a very lucrative half term week. Even without previews would of opened in second place would of been slightly up from the third film released in December 2011 Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked with £2,361,867

In comparison the first Alvin and the Chipmunks opened December 2007 £1.43m while the sequel Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel opened December 2009 with £5,347,191 (can’t be compared as was 7 day opening weekend over Christmas with £4m from previews).

This fourth film was seen as the last part of the franchise after it was the worst performer of the series in the US may probably continue as a straight to DVD film series.

The top three films openings were all artificially inflated by “previews”.

Zoolander 2 – £2,085,512 – NE

After massive worldwide promotional tour and massive marketing and promotional campaign similar to Anchorman: The Legend Continues in 2013 and similarly it received mixed reviews but was boosted by last weekend’s previews of £666,730 which was more than the first film opened with in November 2001 £676,518 and is already close to overtaking the box office the first film took in 2001. But the original found its audience similar to Anchorman when it was released on DVD.

The positive spin was the opening was 208% above first Zoolander released 15 years ago (but without previews was only up 109%), 15.8% above Dumb and Dumber To, 0.4% above Grown Ups 2. But down 6.7% from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and -54% below Anchorman 2.

With half term this week and then a quiet weekend for new releases next weekend even with the poor reviews will still likely have a decent 10 days as Dirty Grandpa before Sacha Baron Cohen’s “outrageous” Grimsby opens.

Zoolander 2 had a pointless embargo till last Wednesday’s US premiere after it had paid previous the previous weekend in the UK.

As with Entourage you know when a film is in trouble when the trailers heavily promote the cameos with 29 in Zoolander 2. What made Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder in 2008 so good was you were watching Les Grossman thinking is that really Tom Cruise.

Dad’s Army £1,301,164 – total £4,872,485

Down 37.1% similar to last years The Second Best Marigold Hotel but while that took almost £3m Mon-Thurs Dad’s Army took only half showing that it wasn’t attracting older audience many were predicting.

In comparison the first The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel increased it box office by 5% in its second weekend, The Lady in The Van dropped only 28.1% taking £2.58m Mon-Thurs and Las Vegas dropped only 29%.

Goosebumps – £1,070,203 – total £4,178,485

2D took £974,121 – total £3,412,824 – 3D took £96,082 – total £765,838

After its opening weekend was inflated by weekend previews (£968,437) suffered a huge 60.1% drop in its second weekend with the arrival of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.

But still should perform strongly over half term holidays this week as both could double their box office over the next seven days if they perform similar to Shaun the Sheep and Big Hero 6 last year.

Goosebumps was the only film in the top ten to report 3D box office with only 8.9% showing that audiences really have little interest in seeing films in 3D which has been seen in recent months with Sky Movies closing 3D channel and most TV manufacturers planning to cut back production of 3D TVs.

Complete UK Box office top 10 – February 12^th – 14^th 2016

US Box Office

20^th Century Fox – Deadpool with $135.1m opening way beyond anyone’s expectations was tracking between $65-75m; receiving A CinemaScore.

20th Century Fox – Kung Fu Panda 3 $19.6m down only 7.5% with $93.6m total.

Warner Bros – How To Be Single – $18.7m with a B- CinemaScore.

Paramount Pictures – Zoolander 2 – disappointing opening with less than the original opened 15 years ago taking $15.6m with only a C+ CinemaScore.