Top 5 Breakdown
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – £15,333,146 – NE
Having the biggest opening of the year ahead of Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice £14.62m also had a three-day opening weekend.
Fantastic Beasts took £4.3m on its opening day which was ahead of Bridget Jones’s Baby £4.08m in September but below Suicide Squad £4.7m in August while those films were front-loaded Fantastic Beasts as most family films saw an increase Fri-Sat holding well Sat-Sun.
With so many films nowadays opening Thursday and Fantastic Beasts opened in several other countries on Thursday it was surprisingly Warner Bros didn’t do similar in the UK but as with Batman Vs Superman and Suicide Squad opened Fantastic Beasts with the traditional Friday opening.
Even though Fantastic Beasts is a prequel to the Harry Potter film series it was always hard to compare its opening with the films which makes its UK opening even more impressive. But if you were to try to compare Fantastic Beasts with the Harry Potter films all bar 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire openings were boosted by previews so hard to do a direct Fri-Sun comparison. When a film opens mid-week cinemagoers who might normally go to see the film on first Friday will go the day before so comparing Fri-Sun just Fri-Sun box office of a four-day opening is hard to do.
Comparing only Fri-Sun box of Harry Potter films, Fantastic Beasts had the third biggest opening behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2 and ahead of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire £14.93m and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban taking only £9.51 Fri-Sun but had four days of previews taking £14.37m of its £23.88m 7-day opening weekend. As with other 7 day openings the box office that would normally be concentrated Fri-Sun is spread over the 7 days so whilst Prisoner of Azkaban only took £9.51m Fri-Sun its box office can’t be compared which makes direct comparisons of Fri-Sun box office of 7-day opening impossible to compare.
Comparing Fantastic Beasts with its final box office of Harry Potter films, Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows Part 1 both released in November not benefiting for summer holidays as many Harry Potter films have done would see a final box office between £44m – £50m which should see it squeeze past Bridget Jones’s Baby total £47.54m.
In 2001 Warner Bros launched the Harry Potter film series in the UK but they also changed the way films were released; up to then time distributors would have a couple of “preview” screenings the weekend ahead of opening or have one show on Thursday evening but with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone it had all day screenings on the Saturday and Sunday before opening which was added to its opening weekend which has made direct comparison between the Harry Potter films and Fantastic Beasts impossible.
Going into the weekend even after getting massive media coverage after its New York world premiere on November 10th and its UK premiere on November 15th many was expecting it to open to a similar box office as The Hobbit prequels which it did do in the US.
| Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | 14 Dec 2012 | £11.6m | 22.3% | £51.99m |
| Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug | 13 Dec 2013 | £9.32m | 21.8% | £42.69m |
| Hobbit: The Battle of the 5 Armies | 12 Dec 2014 | £9.75m | 23.6% | £41.21m |
375 Harry Potter fans paying £145 had a once in a lifetime experience of seeing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at Warner Bros Studio Tour with three screenings one a day over its opening weekend. As Event Cinema and Secret Cinema screenings are included as UK box office was this included as part of its weekend opening box office?
Fantastic Beasts is the third “British” film that has performed far stronger in the UK than the US following Bridget Jones’s Baby in September and The Girl on the Train in October. All three films screenplays are based on British origins with some English cast but that’s as British they are. Is it that British factor which helped them have far superior openings in the UK than US as thry might be seen as British but they are very much American made.
Bridget Jones Baby – US opening $8.5m Vs UK £8.03m – total box office $24.1m Vs £42.6m
The Girl on the Train – US opening $24.5m VS UK £6.96m – total box office $74.4m* Vs £22.89m*
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them US opening $75m Vs £14.82m UK
In the US, Fantastic Beasts played to older audiences than the last two Harry Potter films 65% of its audience over the age of 25, compared to 56% and 55% for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2. At the same time, there was a large concentration of moviegoers in the 25-35 age range, with 55% of Friday’s audience under the age of 35. (Females made up 55% of ticket buyers overall). In the UK given the opening, it must have been able to play to old as well as new fans.
| OWE | % O | total | 2WE | drop | 2WE T | 3WE | drop | 3WE T | |||
| HP and the Philosopher’s Stone | 16 Nov 2001 | £16.33 | 24.7% | £66.1 | 4.04x | £8.36 | 49% | £29.1 | £5.8 | 31% | £38.1 |
| HP and the Chamber of Secrets | 15 Nov 2002 | £18.71 | 34.1% | £54.8 | 2.92x | £7.31 | 61% | £30.0 | £4.6 | 26% | £37.1 |
| HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 31 May 2004 | £23.88 | 51.8% | £46.1 | 1.78x | £4.29 | 82% | £31.5 | £3.3 | 23% | £36.5 |
| HP and the Goblet of Fire | 18 Nov 2005 | £14.93 | 24.6% | £60.5 | 4.05x | £9.27 | 38% | £29.6 | £4.8 | 48% | £37.0 |
| HP and the Order of the Phoenix | 12 July 2007 | £16.49 | 28.4% | £58 | 3.51x | £6.63 | 60% | £30.1 | £2.8 | 57% | £37.8 |
| HP and the Half-Blood Prince | 15 July 2009 | £19.78 | 39.1% | £50.7 | 2.56x | £5.17 | 74% | £33.1 | £2.9 | 44% | £40.5 |
| HP and the Deathly Hallows P1 | 19 Nov 2010 | £18.31 | 35.1% | £52.2 | 2.85x | £8.34 | 54% | £33.2 | £3.7 | 55% | £39.1 |
| HP and the Deathly Hallows P2 | 15 July 2011 | £23.75 | 32.4% | £73.1 | 3.07x | £8.52 | 64% | £44.2 | £4.5 | 46% | £55.2 |
Without previews, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone second weekend drop was 12%
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets opening included £8.61m from previews its second-weekend drop without previews was 29%.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban included £14.37m from previews Mon-Thurs without previews second-weekend drop was 54%
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince second weekend drop was 57% without previews
LEGO Harry Potter In 90 Seconds
- Arrival – £1,496,205 – £5,782,996
Down 48.8% in its second weekend which was slightly disappointing after positive reviews and strong word of mouth despite the arrival of Fantastic Beasts as the audience for Arrival is different to Fantastic Beasts.
Over the last three years’ adult Sci-Fi Gravity, Interstellar and The Martian performed well in the autumn; Gravity and The Martian as with Arrival received its world premiere at Toronto and Venice Film Festivals in September receiving strong reviews and that buzz that built up their films awareness ahead of their openings. Both had strong openings and held well in the weeks after opening.
Gravity opened with £6.23m, Interstellar opened with £5.36m the same weekend in November 2013 and 2014 and The Martian opened last October with £6.52m. All three films had strong legs
In November 2013: Gravity dropped only 14% in its second weekend and 45% in its third against the arrival of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire £12.1m still managing to take £19.4m (after 3 weeks) but its box office was inflated by 3D with over 90% coming from 3D.
In November 2014: Interstellar dropped 30% in its second weekend and 50% in its third against the arrival of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 £12.64m taking £15.8m (after 3 weeks) but without 3D surcharges, without those for Gravity its box office would have been less than Interstellar £12.9m.
In October 2015: The Martian dropped 19% in its second weekend and 37% in its third weekend against arrivals of Hotel Transylvania 2 £6.30m, Suffragette £2.93m and Pan £2.73m taking £17.48m (after 3 weeks) 38% of its box office came from 3D compared to 78% of Gravity’s box office also had IMAX box office The Martian never had.
- Trolls – £1,241,564 – £20,807,832
Despite the arrival of Fantastic Beasts Trolls held well in its fifth weekend down 31.8% has one more weekend before the arrival of Disney’s Moana.
Has overtaken the final box office of last year’s Hotel Transylvania 2 which had taken £19.72m as it had two weekends of previews must be compared with its fourth weekend box office of £1.1m having taken £17.5m. If Trolls was to do like Hotel Transylvania 2 over the next few weeks even with Moana, Trolls should take upwards of £23.02m which would see it become 20th Century Fox’s second biggest film of 2016 moving ahead of The Revenant but will just fall short of beating Zootropolis final box office of £23.61m.
20th Century Fox is currently ramping up their animation to replace the 2 films a year Dreamworks Animation has given them since 2013.
The success of Trolls has much to do with the casting of Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick who both generated much media coverage with the film media tour as well as Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling which has now been viewed over 294 million times on YouTube still a long way from the 903 million views for Pharrell Williams Happy for Despicable Me 2 or the 2.198 billion views Wiz Khalifa – See You Again ft. Charlie Puth for Furious 7 no pressure at all for next month’s launch of Furious 8 trailer.
- Christmas with Andre – £1,192,403 – NE
Christmas with Andre became the highest-grossing single day concert event on Saturday 19th with two performances in 480 screens while Andre Rieu’s first concert film Maastricht Concert 2016 took £1,408,251 in July broke records for a concert event in July for two days having performances on Saturday and Sunday; which was up 23% from his 2015 concert.
Maastricht Concert 2016 took £1.4m from two performances over two days from 544 screens having one evening on Saturday and an afternoon matinee on Sunday in July while Christmas with Andre had the two screens on the same day.
As with Secret Cinema screenings, it’s impossible to compare the box office for Event Cinema screenings against regular films as ticket prices are up to double regular price tickets.
Event Cinema is a great addition to cinema but at what cost as with a distributor being able to concentrate on just two screenings it can target its marketing but there is the issue with the price and the fact that it must be eating into smaller and independent films who can’t compete with the targeted releasing and marketing which Event Cinema screenings can.
The YouTube trailers for the other films in the top 10 in the UK and US have all been viewed millions of times each but CinemaLive’s Christmas with Andre has only been viewed 6,443 times. Even the Take That: Live in Cinemas trailer for the film screened almost 18 months ago, has only be viewed 66,666 times showing audiences who go to Event Cinema screenings likely more to go to cinema websites for the information as the audiences are probably similar for many of the classical music concerts, opera and live theatre.
- Doctor Strange – £941,628 – £21,456,562
Down 60.1% in its fourth weekend with the arrival of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was always expected to have a heavy drop but was still more than expected due to Fanatic Beasts playing to a much wider audience than was expected and different to its US performance.
Despite the negative surrounding Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad both films held better in their fourth weekends than Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange but strangely both DC films are still seen as disappointments to the Marvel films
Deadpool – 4th w/e £1.57m total £34.1m – 90.3% of final box office £37.73m
Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice – 4th w/e £988,879 total £35.3m – 97.5% of final BO £36.17m
Captain America: Civil War – 4th w/e £662,227 total £ 35.6m – 96.3% of final BO £36.94m
X-Men: Apocalypse – 4th w/e £703,505 total £17.07m – 93% of final BO £18.34m
Suicide Squad – 4th w/e £1,263,980 total £30.63m – 91.6% of final BO £33.41m
Doctor Strange 4th w/e £941,628 total £21.45m – (estimate 96.5% of final BO £22.75m)
Deadpool – final box office 2.73x opening w/e
Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice – final box office 2.47x opening w/e
Captain America: Civil War -final box office 2.55x opening w/e
X-Men: Apocalypse – final box office 2.49x opening w/e
Suicide Squad – final box office 2.98x opening w/e
Doctor Strange – estimate final box office 2.45x opening w/e
Doctor Strange final box office about £22.75m must be similarly disappointing as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 last year which took £28.86m even after being the fourteenth Marvel film people seem to be more accepting of Marvel films as it is an “original” movie. But as all films are linked together the audience demographics are similar for all films so their box office should be similar as seen by Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War, Deadpool, and Suicide Squad all taking similar box office this year.
2016’s comic book movies
| OW | 2WE | D% | total | 3WE | D% | total | 4WE | D% | total | ||
| Deadpool | 10 Feb 2016 | £13.79 | £5.6 | 48% | £25.8 | £2.97 | 47% | £31.14 | £1.57 | 47% | £34.1 |
| BvS | 25 Mar 2016 | £14.62 | £4.6 | 68% | £27.8 | £2.27 | 51% | £33.30 | £988k | 56% | £35.3 |
| CA: Civil War | 29 Apr 2016 | £14.46 | £4.8 | 67% | £27.3 | £2.78 | 42% | £32.16 | £662k | 50% | £35.6 |
| X-Men Apocalypse | 20 May 2016 | £7.35 | £2.5 | 65% | £12.1 | £1.25 | 50% | £15.85 | £703k | 43% | £17.1 |
| Suicide Squad | 5 Aug 2016 | £11.21 | £4.2 | 39% | £22.2 | £2.55 | 39% | £27.66 | £1.26 | 50% | £30.6 |
| Doctor Strange | 25 Oct 2016 | £9.28 | £3.4 | 63% | £15.7 | £2.34 | 32% | £19.58 | £930k | 60% | £21.4 |
Other box office news
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This weekend’s top 10 box office took £21,657,132 up 97.1% from last weekend £10,984,043; 2,559,800 weekend admissions up 92.1% from last weekend 1,333,017.
The weekend was up 15.1% from same weekend last year (£18,815,300) The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 £11,247,588, The Dressmaker £235,668, The Perfect Guy £102,924 opened.
Same weekend opening in 2014: Paddington opened £5,112,367 and Horrible Bosses 2 £1,257,202.
Next weekend in 2015: The Good Dinosaur £2,917,266, Bridge of Spies £1,676,092, Black Mass £1,270,048, Carol £481,495 and Tamasha £254,750 opened.
A recent survey said average ticket price was £8.24 (the same cost as 13 pints of cider) up from Cinema Exhibitors Association average ticket price of £7.21 for 2015 a 7.3% increase from 2014.
Event Cinema used an average of £15 but for most exhibitor’s tickets for Christmas with Andre was £20.
Complete UK Box office top 10 – November 18th – 20th 2016
US Box Office
- Warner Bros – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – opens with $74.4m; received A CinemaScore.
There was always going to be a massive question with Fantastic Beasts if it was going to play to the existing Harry Potter fan-base who were pre-teens when the first films opening 15 years ago, or will they be accessible to new fans.
Disney got around this issue with Star War: The Force Awakens by remaking Star Wars: A New Hope; Star Wars fans were too excited to see a new Star Wars film not starring Jar Jar Binks it took them a few months to realise this by which time it has taken $2.1 billion globally while it was accessible to new fans as it was seen to new fans as it was telling a whole new story introducing new characters.
From research, Fantastic Beasts played 18% under-18 and 45% over the age of 35 meaning it was playing more to existing fans rather than attracting the next generation of Harry Potter fans and performed like The Hobbit films which some saw as disappointing but must be Fantastic Beasts is launching a new set of stories with new characters.
Fantastic Beasts performed far stronger internationally taking $143.3m with a very impressive £15.33m so why did Fantastic Beasts attract a wider audience outside the US but only fan-base in the US? You must look at the cast which as while Eddie Redmayne Les Miserables and The Theory of Everything were box office successes in the UK apart from Les Miserables his films haven’t been as successful in the US.
After having Benedict Cumberbatch doing his pompous pretentious private school Englishman acting for Doctor Strange Eddie Redmayne repeating this was probably too much for US audience. As it feels like it has become more arrogance with these two actors rather than the Hugh Grant or Colin Firth charm.
| OWE | 2WE | 2WE total | Final BO | ||
| Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | 14 Dec 2012 | $84.61m | $36.88m | $150.04m | $303.0m |
| Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug | 13 Dec 2013 | $73.64m | $31.5m | $127.55m | $258.36m |
| Hobbit: The Battle of the 5 Armies | 17 Dec 2014 | $54.72m | $40.91m | $168.01m | $255.11m |
Hard to compare Fantastic Beasts with the openings of the Harry Potter films as being a prequel it’s the same world as Harry Potter but with new characters in a new setting; Fantastic Beasts is similar to The Hobbit films and Star Wars prequels versus the Lord of the Rings films and original Star Wars films and will be seen next month with Star Wars Rogue One as the film needs to play for the fan-base but also needs to be accessible for new audiences how they got rounds this issue with The Force Awakens was to remake Star Wars: A New Hope and hide it beneath memberries.
| HP and the Sorcerer’s Stone | 16 Nov 2001 | $90.29m | $57.48m | $186.9m | $317.57m |
| HP and the Chamber of Secrets | 15 Nov 2002 | $88.35m | $42.22m | $148.3m | $261.98m |
| HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 4 June 2004 | $93.68m | $34.9m | $157.9m | $249.54m |
| HP and the Goblet of Fire | 18 Nov 2005 | $102.68m | $54.72m | $201.1m | $290.54m |
| HP and the Order of the Phoenix | 11 July 2007 | $77.11m | $32.51m | $207.8m | $292.0m |
| HP and the Half-Blood Prince | 15 July 2009 | $77.83m | $29.46m | $221.2m | $301.95m |
| HP and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 | 19 Nov 2010 | $125.01m | $49.08m | $219.1m | $295.98m |
| HP and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | 15 July 2011 | $169.18m | $47.42m | $273.5m | $381.01m |
- Disney – Doctor Strange – drops 58.7% – $17.7m – $181.6m; is now the 33rd biggest comic-book movie in the US going above Ant-Man and Thor and should overtake its sequel Thor: The Dark World over the next week but is likely to end on about $240m+ which will see it miss out from climbing into the top 20. While many will keep saying its an original Marvel film and its performance is good but this is now the fourteenth Marvel Cinematic Universe film and the audience should be similar for all especially as Captain America: Civil War took $408m. As the one thing, Warner Bros can say about the two DC films Batman Vs Superman and Suicide Squad they did similar box office $3303m Vs $324.1m.
- 20th Century Fox – Trolls – drops 50.1% – $17.4m – $116.2m; has overtaken Epic and Mr. Peabody & Sherman to become 20th Century Fox’s 15th biggest animated film and should by next weekend even with the arrival of Moana overtake Robots, The Peanuts Movie and Rio 2 and should climb into their top 10 biggest animated film becoming their fourth biggest Dreamworks Animation film.
- Paramount – Arrival – drops 49.6% – $12.1m – $43.7m; disappointing second-weekend drop after strong reviews and positive word of mouth especially as the audience for Arrival, would be different to Fantastic Beasts.
| OWE | 2 WE | Drop | Total | 3 WE | Drop | total | |||
| Gravity | 4 Oct 2013 | $55.7 | $43.1 | 22.6% | $122.3 | $30.1 | 30.5% | $169.5m | 4.92x |
| Interstellar | 5 Nov 2014 | $47.5 | $28.3 | 40.4% | $96.9 | $15.3 | 45.8% | $120.9m | 3.96x |
| The Martian | 2 Oct 2015 | $54.3 | $37.0 | 31.9% | $108.7 | $21.3 | 26.1% | $143.5m | 4.2x |
| Contact | 7 July 1997 | $20.58 | $16.1 | 21.7% | $47.4 | $9.7 | 39.8% | $64.9m | 4.9x |
| Arrival | 11 Nov 2016 | $24.1 | $11.8 | 51.% | $43.3 |
- Universal – Almost Christmas – drops 52% – $7.2m – $25.6m
- Lionsgate – Hacksaw Ridge – drops 37.3% – $6.6m – $42.7m;
- STX – The Edge of Seventeen – opens $4.7m; received A- CinemaScore; after receiving very positive reviews with many comparing it to John Hughes films of the past the Edge of Seventeen was expected to open far better but these kinds of films are being squeezed in the market.
Audiences have become much pickier on the films they pay to see and those they wait to see. While James L Brooks The Simpson’s celebrates its 600 episode the fil producer of Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, Big, Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and As Good As It Gets only film success in almost 20 years was The Simpsons Movie.
- Open Road – Bleed For This – opens $2.3m; received A- CinemaScore but poor reviews for this dull boxing movie opening almost 40 years to the day Rocky opened.
9.Warner – The Accountant – drops 51.1% – $2.1m – $81.2m;
10. Europacorp – Shut In – drops 55.6% – $1.6m – $6.1m;
On limited release expansion
A24 – Moonlight – up 17.7% – $1.48m – adding 474 screens – total $6.64m
After three weekends of slow expansion adding four times its screen additions last weekend but sees a much smaller increase than would have been expected and should have managed to climb into the top 10. But as so many films recently they seem to expand far too quickly than they used to do. With Moonlight now on 650 screens, it’s now in an awkward if it will be able to expand anymore.
Moonlight has been a potential award contender so still get a chance with Golden Globe Nominations announced in a few weeks’ time.
Sony Pictures – Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – up 689.5% – $901,062 adding 1,174 screens $1.1m
Very disappointing opening for Ang lee’s latest film the new technology 120FPS 4K 3D overshadowed the release even thought it was only screening in this format in a couple of screens. Ang Lee’s previous film was 2012’s Oscar-winning Life of Pi which took over $600m worldwide.
After the poor handling of Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk last year which also had a limited opening before going would have thought Sony Pictures would have learned from their mistakes handling its release which seemed to be repeated with Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. As like The Walk Billy Lynn a few months ago, was a potential award contender but then the technology overshadowed its release like the 3D for The Walk.
Maybe the problem is US audiences don’t like films with Walk in the title as the last film to be a success was 2005’s Walk the Line.
Audiences have had issues with new formats being launched many had with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey being released in 48FPS in 2012 while many have 4K HDR TVs in their home most aren’t used to seeing content in these formats making the image look too real almost like a computer game. James Cameron hopes to use similar technology with Avatar sequels and you can bet it will be shown in many more screens than the handful Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk was screened in and I’m sure exhibitors will be willing to put their hands in their pockets too. As previous films like Jurassic Park in 1993 in a new digital sound format DTS and Universal requested cinemas who wanted to show it must have it installed in cinemas.
Focus – Loving – up 69.5% – $869,430 – adding 91 screens – total $1.73m
Sony Classics – Elle – up 152.7% – $128,701 – adding 22 screens – $214,787
Opened on limited release
Focus – Nocturnal Animals – opens $493,648 from 37 screens
Roadshow Attractions – Manchester By the Sea – opens $256,498 from 4 screens
Main opening Friday weekend predictions:
Opening UK
- Allied – Paramount Pictures
Romantic thriller starring Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Lizzy Caplan, Matthew Goode and Jared Harris and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Steven Knight wrote the screenplay said it was based on true story about two assassins who fall in love during a mission to kill a German ambassador in Casablanca. Which sounds like a World War II version of Mr and Mrs Smith.
Received its world premiere in Los Angeles November 10th with its UK premiere November 21st.
The film was untitled for many months before given the working title of Five Seconds of Silence which did sound a bit corny but better than the generic title Allied like Story of Your Life being changed to Arrival.
Sometimes non-film issues affect films performance The Full Monty opened the same weekend as Princess Diana in 1997 while in 2001 Moulin Rouge opened the weekend before 9/11 attacks cinema audience wanting something to feel good away from the horrible headlines. On September 20th Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt citing irreconcilable differences the media tried to find a reason for it going back to 2004 when they both met and fell in love on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith Allied is very similar with Brad Pitt getting steamy with Marion Cotillard. Before September 20th Allied was just one of many November releases now for many it is a film of interest.
Paramount Pictures strangely released a new TV spot on September 20th showing them getting all loved up not exactly what either Mr or Mrs. Smith would have wanted to see. The question was it planned to be released yesterday or did Paramount see an opportunity to do so added fuel to the fire that Brad Pitt getting close to Marion Cotillard might have been the reason for the divorce.
A few months after Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married she directed him in the divorce drama By the Sea a depressing drama about a marriage breaking down this was the film they decided to make on their honeymoon.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie met on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith in 2004 as Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander during the filming of The Light Between Oceans in 2015; when it was announced Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were going to split the media speculated it was due to Marion Cotillard having an affair with Brad Pitt both denied it but that didn’t stop the media from asking questions during the media junket.
While it might seem like perfect casting if husband and wife appear in the same film together the chemistry they have together in real life is not often shown on screen; Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez starring in Gigli in 2002 and in 1992 Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise met on the set of Days of Thunder were married when they made Far and Away in 1992 but then starred in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut in 1999 and then divorced in 2001. In 1995 I did a screening for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman for her new film To Die For and the way they interacted together you could tell they were in love
Some have worked most famously Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith opened in June 2005 with £3.94m taking £9.97m.
Strange coincidence the week after Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone opened Brad Pitt’s Spy Game opened with £1.01m
Similar films include 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank, 2012’s This Means War opened with £1.82m and 2014’s 3 Days to Kill £323,911. But opening a couple of weeks after modern-day hitman movie The Accountant could that harm its potential box office especially opening a week after Fantastic Beasts. There is little buzz about the film and was surprisingly not screened at any film festivals unlike Robert Zemeckis last film Flight in 2012
- A United Kingdom – Pathe
Biographical romantic drama starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike and directed by Amma Asante based on the true-life romance between Seretse Khama and his wife Ruth Williams Khama.
Received its world premiere at Toronto Film Festival and opens the 60th London Film Festival in October. US reviews have described the film as simplistic with the lead performances making the film worth watching; I’m sure British critics will give it stronger praise as similar themed Loving is much more the film it should have been which had a standing ovation following its premiere at Cannes, A United Kingdom will too at the London Film Festival but be more forced than deserved.
Amma Asante’s last film was Belle opened June 13th, 2014 opening with £402,805 taking £1,764,700.
- Bad Santa 2 – eOne
Black comedy crime film starring Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Kathy Bates, and Christina Hendricks and directed by Mark Waters.
After the first film took $60.1m in 2003 and became a cult success on DVD have been plans for a sequel for many years originally planned for Christmas 2011 release then delayed to Christmas 2013 to be made by Dimension Films. Filming finally started last October with Christmas 2016 release date; the first trailer was released in August.
Original Bad Santa opened a year after opening in the US in November 2004 with £474,450 taking £.2.4m became a cult favorite over the years since.
December used to be when Christmas films were released in November for Thanksgiving based films but like shops Christmas decorations going up earlier and radio stations play Christmas songs earlier Christmas films are opening earlier to give them a longer run as no one wants to see a Christmas film in January saying that back in 1990 Warner Bros released National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in May.
- Almost Christmas – Universal Pictures
Christmas comedy starring Kimberly Elise, Mo’Nique, Nicole Ari Parker, Gabrielle Union, Jessie Usher, Danny Glover, Omar Epps, and Romany Malco and directed by David E. Talbert.
Dysfunctional Christmas American family comedy rarely successful in the UK see 2005’s The Family Stone opening with £247,515 and even worse with 1995’s Home From the Holiday.
but then add African American comedy minus Kevin Hart equals box office openings of the likes of 2006’s Last Holiday £399,542; 2012’s Think Like a Man £81,516; 2014’s About Last Night £172,181; 2014’s Think Like a Man 2 £131,000; opening during a busy time for films Universal Pictures must be dumping it.
Have of course been many successful Christmas family comedy films including 2006’s The Holiday opening £2.82m taking £12.1m and 2003’s Love Actually, which opened £6.65m taking £36.2m but Almost Christmas won’t be one of them.
Opening US
- Moana – Disney
Animated musical fantasy comedy adventure; the 56th Disney’s animated feature film includes voices of Auli’i Cravalho as Moana and Dwayne Johnson as Maui and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker their seventh animation for Disney and first since 2009’s The Princess and the Frog which was Disney’s last animated film to disappoint at the box office but they also directed two of Disney’s best 1989’s The Little Mermaid which was the animated film which revitalised their animation and 1992’s Aladdin.
The film’s songs were co-written by Lin-Manuel Miranda his first project since starring in musical Hamilton on Broadway his next project is Disney’s live action reimagination of The Little Mermaid
Received its world premiere at the AFI Festival on November 14th receiving positive reviews; Dwayne Johnson second animated film (Planet 51) but will take more in its opening weekend than it did in its whole release. Dwayne Johnson has come a long way since his acting debut 15 years ago, in The Mummy Returns going to last year starred in Furious 7 and San Andreas and this year in Central Intelligence to make him become Forbes world’s highest-paid actor of 2016 ahead of Robert Downey Jr and People’s sexiest man alive. It has also seen Dwayne Johnson attached to countless film projects next year starring in Fast 8, Baywatch and Jumanji and in 2018 Rampage.
Occasionally film titles get changed for their international release; Disney have had to do several title changes recently last year Tomorrowland title was changed due to European music festival Tomorrowland, Zootopia was changed to Zootropolis this year and next year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will be called Salazar’s Revenge in the UK and The Revenge of Salazar in France, Spain, and Italy.
But Moana title change in Italy must be one of the strangest being renamed as Oceania as Disney Italia were concerned that people might confuse it with the country’s most famous porn star Moana Pozzi. Disney Italia will of course not want people to google Moana in Italy but in the global world we live in children will Google the title and find content that isn’t very Disney. In Spain, its title is changed to Vaiana due to Moana being a registered brand in Spain and several other European countries.
In September Disney pulled a Moana costume after racism claims which depicted Dwayne Johnson’s character Maui with a long-sleeve brown shirt and long pants featuring full-body tattoos describing Polyface as Disney’s new version of blackface.
Disney has had eight of the top ten biggest Thanksgiving Openings Frozen, Toy Story 2, Tangled, The Good Dinosaur, Enchanted, Unbreakable, A Bug’s Life, and 101 Dalmatians remake; Warner Bros Four Christmases and Universal’s Back to the Future Part II are the two non-Disney films.
Moana is expected to open with around $75-80m over the five-day holidays which would see it have the third biggest Thanksgiving 5 day opening behind Frozen $93.5m and Toy Story 2 $80.1m.
| Zootropolis | 4 March 2016 | $75.1m | 22.1% | $341.2m |
| Big Hero 6 | 7 November 2014 | $56.2m | 25.2% | $222.5m |
| Frozen | 22 November 2013 | $67.3m* | 16.7% | $400.7m |
| Wreck-It Ralph | 2 November 2012 | $49.1m | 25.9% | $189.4m |
| Winnie the Pooh | 15 July 2011 | $7.8m | 29.3% | $26.6m |
| Tangled | 24 November 2010 | $48.7m | 24.2% | $200.8m |
| The Princess and the Frog | 25 November 2009 | $24.2m* | 23.1% | $104.4m |
| Bolt | 21 November 2008 | $26.2m | 22.9% | $114.1m |
| Meet the Robinsons | 30 March 2007 | $25.1m | 25.6% | $97.8m |
| Chicken Little | 4 November 2005 | $40.1m | 29.6% | $135.3m |
| Home on the Range | 2 April 2004 | $13.8m | 27.5% | $50.1m |
| Brother Bear | 24 October 2003 | $19.4m* | 22.7% | $85.3m |
| Treasure Planet | 27 November 2002 | $12.1m | 31.7% | $38.1m |
| Lilo & Stitch | 21 June 2002 | $35.2m | 24.1% | $145.7m |
- Allied – Paramount Pictures
Reviews have been very mixed some describing it as Robert Zemeckis best film in 20 years’ others calling it dull and surprisingly given the headlines off the screen with no chemistry between Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard.
Allied has a lot of baggage to deal with even before Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie separation first being many seeing it would immediately think Mr. and Mrs. Smith while it’s another World War 2 film for Brad Pitt after 2009’s Inglourious Basterds and 2014’s Fury as well as another romantic drama after last year’s dreadfully dull By the Sea which he starred alongside Angelina Jolie and she also directed.
Its 25 years ago, since Brad Pitt breakthrough role in Thelma & Louise over the years starred in many memorable movies including True Romance, Legends of the Fall, Seven and Fight Club but away from the Oceans films he hasn’t had the regular box office success of similar actors as Juba says to Maximus in Gladiator “You have a great name. He must kill your name before he kills you”.
2013’s World War Z was Brad Pitt’s biggest film to date at the US box office taking $202m and $540m worldwide but did have a $190m budget the sequel was due for release next summer but as with the original film has had production issues and is likely to be delayed (Paramount recently announced an Untitled Event Movie November 2nd, 2018 is likely its new release date).
Director Robert Zemeckis last film was last year’s The Walk which for months was Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk as an Oscar contender but was overshadowed by The Martian only taking $10m at the box office. Robert Zemeckis has directed many great films from Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future to the more technology based Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump and The Polar Express also directing 1997’s Contact which many are comparing to Arrival which brings it to the title as similar to Arrival Allied is such a generically dull title would have hoped for a more exciting title for this kind of film as does make it sound like a melodrama which many reviews have described it as.
Brad Pitt has had mixed success at the box office recently his last was ensemble The Big Short opened with $10.5m after two weeks on limited release went on to take $70.2m but also last year starred in the massive turkey which was released two weeks after Thanksgiving By the Sea which only took $538,460; Fury in 2014 opened with $23.7m which is what many expect Allied to open to.
- Bad Santa – Broad Green Pictures
The first film was a surprise hit described as an “evil twin” of Miracle on 34th Street and many were surprised Walt Disney Company who then owned Miramax would want Santa Claus seen in this way; Opened November 2003 opening with $12.2m and taking $60.1m;
Billy Bob Thornton first discussed a sequel in 2009 for a 2011 release but was delayed many times until October 2015 was announced it would start shooting January 2016 for a Christmas 2016 release; first trailer was released in August; reviews have been average with many comparing him to the old man swearing and misbehaving who is now President-elect.
While the first film was enjoyable it was a one off and the sequel is another of the many sequels made in recent years nobody wants; apart from Bad Moms and Central Intelligence comedies have underperformed at the box office this year.
Billy Bob Thornton last box office success as the lead was the first Bad Santa film in 2003 he co-starred in 2008’s Eagle Eye with a voice in 2011’s Puss in Boots but neither can he be the reason they were successful at the box office.
Expected to have a similar opening to the first film of around $12-16m
- Rules Don’t Apply – 20th Century Fox
Romantic comedy-drama film written, co-produced and directed by Warren Beatty-starring ensemble cast including Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick, Lily Collins, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Haley Bennett and Alden Ehrenreich.
Received its world premiere at AFI Festival on November 10th receiving positive reviews and was a possible Oscar contender. With many calling it an old-fashioned Hollywood movie but the problem for Rules Don’t Apply is there the cinema audience out there anymore as it is one of the most interesting movies as it’s like to disappoint against Allied and Moana which are targeting the mainstream cinema audience.
Rules Don’t Apply is Warren Beatty’s first directed role since 1998’s Bulworth and first acting role since 2001’s Town & Country and has been a film he has been working on for over 40 years. In June 2011 Paramount Pictures announced would produce the film but three later they pulled out with New Regency Pictures picking it up stayed in development till 2014 when it was announced New Regency and RatPac Entertainment were producing the film and started production February 2014.
In April 2016 Warren Beatty and producer Arnon Milchan came to CinemaCon to announce 20th Century Fox would release the then-untitled film in the Fall.
Warren Beatty’s last acting role was Town & County a massive failure at the box office opened with $3.1m in April 2001 taking only $6.7m with a budget of $90m. As with Rules Don’t Apply, Town & Country had a long production started filming in June 1998 with a $44m budget with a planned Fall 1999 release delays occurring during shooting due to Beatty’s meticulous demand for numerous takes (was like Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut just finished a record breaking 15-month shoot).
1998’s Bulworth was Warren Beatty’s last directed film released in May 1998 the film received positive reviews. In an interview with the New York Times in 2013, President Obama talked about wanting to “go Bulworth” and say what he really thought (hopefully he could do so and tell us what he really thinks of President-Elect Trump)
The trailers for Rules Don’t Apply has the glamor of an old-fashioned Hollywood movie but problem is that audience rarely goes to the cinema and with Rules Don’t Apply opening over a busy Thanksgiving weekend for new released is unlikely to find the audience it deserves and is expected to open with about $8-10m.
- Lion – Weinstein Company (on limited release)
Drama starring Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham and Nicole Kidman directed by Garth Davis; received its world premiere in September at Toronto Film Festival and was also screened at Zurich and London Film Festivals receiving positive reviews with the performances of Patel and Kidman receiving the most praise.
- Miss Sloane – EuropaCorp -(on limited release)
Thriller film directed by John Madden starring Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alison Pill, John Lithgow, and Sam Waterston; received its world premiere on November 11 at the AFI Fest receiving positive reviews.
