Top 5 Breakdown
- Rogue One – A Star Wars Story £5,969,299 – £52,070,413
Up 4% from last weekend which was a two-day weekend taking £5.6m would normally be very positive but apart from Ballerina which had a 6-day weekend last week, Indian cinema Dangal and Passengers all other films in the top ten increased far more. Last year The Force Awakens dropped 0.7% in its third weekend taking £10.19m and £97.24m.
Became the biggest film of the year on New Year’s Eve with Rogue One taking £50.99m on Saturday adding £1.31m on Sunday to £52.3m but then took £1.89m it looks like Disney overestimated their Saturday box office for it to squeeze past Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to become the biggest film of the year.
Rogue One has become the 18th biggest film in the UK over the next week will overtake Star Wars: The Phantom Menace £56.41m; but box office tells half the story as admissions are the only way you can compare the box office of a film released more than a couple years old due to the ticket inflation over recent years just between 2012 and 2016 its 21.5% going from £6.37m to £7.74; but in reality, the increases are far bigger.
Comparing Rogue One third weekend box office with other films can see the similarity with Jurassic World especially when adding the 7.35% ticket price inflation to its total, but as Rogue One its third weekend was part of the lucrative Christmas period while Jurassic World opened during term time its box office performance isn’t as strong.
After three weeks The Force Awakens had taken £97.24m almost 80% of its final box office with schools going back on Thursday Rogue One has probably taken a similar amount of its total which would see Rogue One taking a similar box office to Jurassic World £64.5m almost 50% of what The Force Awakens took last year but having similar admission of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith showing that Rogue One only played to its fanbase unlike The Phantom Menace and The Force Awakens which as first parts were much more accessible to non-fans.
| 2nd/3rd w/e comparisons | |||||||||
| 2nd we | Av P | 3rd we | 3weA | 3 we T | 3 A | Final BO | Final A | ||
| Rogue One | 16 Dec 2016 | £5.6 | £7.74 | £5.96 | 0.770 | £53.96 | 6.97 | £65m* | 8.40m |
| The Force Awakens | 17 Dec 2015 | £10.16 | £7.21 | £10.91 | 1.514 | £97.24 | 13.49 | £123m | 17.06m |
| Revenge of the Sith | 22 May 2005 | £5.42 | £4.71 | £3.31 | 0.702 | £32.66 | 6.08 | £39.18 | 8.32m |
| Attack of the Clones | 19 May 2002 | £5.95 | £4.29 | £2.44 | 0.568 | £26.09 | 6.34 | £37.32 | 8.70m |
| The Phantom Menace | 15 July 1999 | £5.10 | £4.12 | £3.12 | 0.758 | £27.36 | 6.64 | £50.73 | 13.69m |
| Jurassic World | 11 Jun 2015 | £11.13 | £7.21 | £5.77 | 0.800 | £49.91 | 6.92 | £64.5m | 8.95m |
| Avengers Age of Ultron | 23 Apr 2015 | £8.59 | £7.21 | £3.50 | 0.485 | £40.35 | 5.60 | £48.3m | 6.70m |
| Avengers Assemble | 25 Apr 2012 | £8.12 | £6.37 | £4.16 | 0.653 | £40.27 | 6.32 | £51.9m | 8.15m |
| Avatar | 17 Dec 2009 | £3.82 | £5.44 | £5.94 | 1.092 | £18.40 | 3.38 | £93.44 | 15.74m |
| Titanic | 23 Jan 1998 | £4.77 | £4.07 | £4.27 | 1.050 | £20.28 | 4.98 | £80.3m | 18.05m |
In its second weekend dropped 67.2% in its second weekend holding slightly better than Star Wars: The Force Awakens which dropped 70.1% last year taking £10.11m in its second weekend (Sat/Sun); both two day weekends last year Christmas Day was Friday and this year Sunday so likely had similar influence on its box office.
After 7 days on release Star Wars: The Force Awakens had taken £50m; Spectre took 11 days, Jurassic World 14 days Rogue One took 16 days.
As with Fantastic Beasts Rogue One wasn’t expected to open as strongly as The Force Awakens even but some box office experts predicted it would have long legs. Rogue One was always likely to perform like comic-book movies being front-loaded fan heavy as Rogue One isn’t as accessible as other Star Wars films even though it is a much better film than The Force Awakens.
Reviews weren’t so widespread positive for The Force Awakens probably likely to many realising months later it was just a fan remake of A New Hope, wonder how long it will take people to realise Rogue One is just a remake of Return of the Jedi without Ewoks?
Rogue One is performing similar to Avengers Assemble which opened with £15.77m in April 2012; had Rogue One second weekend been three days would have taken about £8.12m after 15 days Avengers Assemble had taken £29.85m which is 14.9% less than Rogue One but as average ticket prices are up 21.5% from £6.37m in 2012 to £7.74 in 2016 their box office are similar which would see Rogue One ending with a total of £65m which would be the same as Avengers Assemble with ticket inflation added.
While Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Rogue One were never expected to get close to last year’s totals for After Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Spectre box office last year took £123m and £95m. But both were expected to take far more than the £50m+ box office they will take at the UK box office.
| UK Top 20 films 2015/16 | |||||||||||||
| Rogue One | £17.30m | 2.98x | £65m+* | The Force Awakens | £33.90m | 3.62x | £123m | ||||||
| Fantastic Beasts | £15.33m | 3.26x | £55m+* | Spectre | £41.21m | 2.30x | £95m | ||||||
| Bridget Jones’s Baby | £8.03m | 5.96x | £47.87m | Jurassic World | £19.29m | 3.28x | £63.31m | ||||||
| The Jungle Book | £9.86m | 4.69x | £46.19m | Age of Ultron | £17.99m | 2.68x | £48.32m | ||||||
| Finding Dory | £8.12m | 5.27x | £42.86m | Minions Movie | £11.55m | 4.09x | £47.25m | ||||||
| Deadpool | £13.79m | 2.70x | £37.37m | Inside Out | £7.34m | 5.30x | £38.91m | ||||||
| CA: Civil War | £14.46m | 2.55x | £36.94m | Fast & Furious 7 | £12.74m | 3.01x | £38.38m | ||||||
| Batman Vs Superman | £14.62m | 2.47x | £36.17m | 50 Shades of Grey | £13.47m | 2.59x | £35.01m | ||||||
| The Secret Life of Pets | £9.58m | 3.76x | £36.04m | Mockingjay Part 2 | £11.24m | 2.56x | £28.86m | ||||||
| Suicide Squad | £11.21m | 2.98x | £33.41m | Home | £6.02m | 4.14x | £24.97m | ||||||
| The BFG | £5.28m | 5.80x | £30.64m | The Martian | £6.52m | 3.57x | £23.32m | ||||||
| The Girl on the Train | £6.96m | 3.40x | £23.65m | Theory of Everything | £3.74m | 5.73x | £21.45m | ||||||
| Zootropolis | £5.30m | 4.45x | £23.61m | Cinderella | £3.80m | 5.60x | £21.28m | ||||||
| Trolls | £5.43m | 4.30x | £23.36m | Mission Impossible 5 | £5.33m | 3.95x | £21.07m | ||||||
| Doctor Strange | £9.28m | 2.49x | £21.15m | Hotel Transylvania 2 | £6.31m | 3.12x | £19.72m | ||||||
| Jason Bourne | £7.60m | 3.04x | £23.11m | Big Hero 6 | £4.29m | 4.50x | £19.34m | ||||||
| The Revenant | £5.07m | 4.51x | £22.86m | Legend | £5.16m | 3.55x | £18.35m | ||||||
| X-Men: Apocalypse | £7.35m | 2.50x | £18.34m | Pitch Perfect 2 | £5.01m | 3.43x | £17.23m | ||||||
| Alvin & Chipmunks 4 | £4.29m | 3.83x | £16.45m | Mad Max: Fury Road | £4.53m | 3.79x | £17.20m | ||||||
| Ab Fab Movie | £4.01m | 3.99x | £16.01m | Taken 3 | £6.71m | 2.55x | £17.17m | ||||||
Top 10 2015 took £543m compared with £418m for 2016 (23% less) which is due to the big drops of the top two films in 2016 to 2015.
While many will see Bridget Jones’s Baby and The Jungle Book as surprises but Bridget Jones’s Diary and Edge of Reason were one of the biggest films of their years; while The Jungle Book animated film has always been a UK cinema audiences favourite its last re-release in 1993 took £7.14m the tenth biggest film of the year; while The Secret Life of Pets was an original film the secret life concept is nothing new, the same can be said for next year’s Sing which many will confuse thinking it’s a sequel to Zootropolis.
Much has been said about the footage and dialogue in the trailers for Rogue One that didn’t end up in the final film which explains the reported extensive reshoots done in June. The question must be asked how was so much of this cut material still used in later trailers and marketing material as similar happened with The Force Awakens.
In a recent interview the editors of Rogue One spoke about how the film was changed in the editing and how the film was literally mocked up without a script but from clips from other movies while director Gareth Edwards said originally Rogue One had an opening crawl hr also said the iconic shot of Jyn with the Tie-fighter was never in the film but was kept in the trailer because marketing wanted it in. what include was unused X-Wing footage from A New Hope.
The Force Awakens took £87.05m in its opening 2 weeks 70% of its final box office of £123m its opening weekend took 27.5% of its box office. If Rogue One was to perform like The Force Awakens will have taken £42.36m after 14 days going on to take £60.52m. Fantastic Beasts in comparison had taken £32.93m after 2 weeks 68% approx. of its £48m+ final box office (currently £44.8m).
| Phantom Menace | 15 July 1999 | £9.51m | n/a | £20.57m | n/a | n/a | £27.93m | n/a |
| Attack of the Clones | 19 May 2002 | £11.38m | £5.95m | £21.43m | -48% | £2.44m | £26.10m | -59% |
| Revenge of the Sith | 22 May 2005 | £14.36m | £5.42m | £24.30m | -62% | £3.31m | £32.66m | -39% |
| The Force Awakens | 17 Dec 2015 | £33.90m | £10.16m | £65.91m | -70% | £10.3m | £97.38m | +1% |
| Rogue One | 16 Dec 2016 | £17.30m | £5.6m | £34.3m | £5.96m | £52.07m |
After the sad news of Carrie Fisher’s death was announced she had completed work on Star Wars VIII. If Leia lived Star Wars IX was due to start shooting next year and chances are they will use the same technology used to bring Peter Cushing back in Rogue One.
A deleted scene from The Force Awakens was released featuring Leia and the resistance
With Rogue One now released for two weeks and the fact that no one reads this I can say that her appearance at the end of Rogue One is now even more poignant as it pulled together the prequel with the first movie of the film series. The dialogue was taken from A New Hope but the image was a 3D composite image.
Are many questions about Rogue One first being the all the many different data formats featured; why did the Imperial Archive use a data centre to store their files on magnetic tape disks which saw Jyn use a giant claw machine to find the files which was like a scene out of a Mission Impossible film or Eraser.
In a scene, which featured in the trailer but wasn’t in the film Jyn is carrying a hard-drive but then that same data is on a small disc after its transmitted to the Rebels; at the end of Rogue One Darth Vader knowns Tantive IV were given the files they weren’t intercepted which he says they were in A New Hope? There must be a second storage archive for the Imperial Archive as after the Death Star blows up Scarif facility as they would have needed those files to build Death Star 2 which must have been being built at the same time?
After Darth Vader, couldn’t get the plans on Tantive IV why didn’t the Death Star just blow up the ship? Which does make me think the Empire is like Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner as the Empire is big and bad and the Emperor knows what will happen but he can’t predict the failure within his organisation.
Next year is the 40th anniversary of A New Hope opening while promoting Rogue One director Gareth Edwards said Lucasfilm had just completed a 4K restoration of the film which is expected to be released as part of the anniversary. The first Star Wars film is owned by 20th Century Fox while they still own theatrical rights for the other 5 films until May 2020.
To celebrate A New Hope’s 20th anniversary 20th Century Fox re-released the three films in a special edition. On March 21st, A New Hope opened taking £16.34m (#7 biggest film of 1997 and 20h Century Fox’s second biggest film of 1997 behind The Full Monty) Empire Strikes Back opened three weeks later taking £7.18m (#22 biggest film of 1997) and Return of the Jedi two weeks later taking £5.47m (#27 biggest film of 1997).
39 years ago, last weekend Star Wars opened in London cinemas at the Dominion Theatre and the Odeon West End tickets were £2.20 with touts selling the tickets for over £30. (last time I remember touts selling cinema tickets was outside the Warner West End in August 1989 for Batman). The Odeon West End cinema is no more but Rogue One is currently showing at the Leicester Square Odeon with tickets 855% more.
- Why Him? – £2,183,715 – NE
After recent Christmas comedies, Bad Santa 2 and Office Christmas Party underwhelmed both critically and at the box office the hope was Why Him? could be a similar alternative as Daddy’s Home last Christmas with families seeking out an alternative to Rogue One.
Last year Daddy’s Home opened Boxing Day with £1.61m, in its second weekend was up 72% taking £2.9m going on to take £16.71m. But hard to compare the two as Boxing Day last year was Saturday while in 2016 it was Monday so Daddy’s Home was a two-day weekend while Why Him? was a seven-day opening taking £821,000 Fri-Sun.
Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg having also starred together in 2010’s The Other Guys have had much more success at the cinema than James Franco and Bryan Cranston. James Franco last film was as a voice in The Sausage Party and in 2015’s The Night Before while Bryan Cranston might be known by many as Walter White and Hal on TV but film-wise most recently in The Infiltrator and Trumbo with a voice in Kung Fu Panda 3.
John Hamburg’s last film was 2009’s I Love You, Man opened with £1.12m in April 2009 taking £4.03m previously directed Along Came Polly opening with £2.25m in February 2004 taking £7.8m.
John Hamburg is better known for writing screenplays to Meet The Parents trilogy and Zoolander films; Meet the Parents opening with £2.26m taking £15.1m also writing the sequel Meet the Fockers in 2005 opening with £7.91m taking £28.5m and Little Fockers in 2010 opening with £3.03m taking £18.79m.
As with Daddy’s Home, Why Him? is the only comedy on release over the next month crowded with award contenders.
- Passengers – £1,898,267 – £7,470,970
Down 22% after opening with £2.4m; after receiving much negative media coverage after discovering the dark “twist” which the trailers hid as the first trailer made it look like Titanic in Space while the second trailer made it look like a rom-com but reality was very different.
The casting of Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt stars of huge franchises (The Hunger Games, Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy) in a film together should be box office gold but despite footage being received positively in April at CinemaCon and at CineEurope in June Sony Pictures were surprisingly very slow with the release of a trailer was like how they were with the release of a Ghostbuster trailer.
While Jennifer Lawrence has had huge success with The Hunger Games and X-Men franchises and in ensembles Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and Joy the Oscar-winning actress has yet to have success on her own. Next stars in spy thriller Red Sparrow with Joel Edgerton and Jeremy Irons directed by Francis Lawrence due for release 10th November.
Similarly, Chris Pratt starring in The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World hasn’t had success outside a franchise and upcoming are sequels to those films Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, Jurassic World 2, The Lego Movie 2 and featuring in Avengers: Infinity War.
Putting together Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in a film together must have been studio executive dream team but the problem was the film wasn’t right for the pair and the chemistry they had off-screen didn’t show up on-screen. By selling Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt they also mis-sold the film to audiences with its marketing and trailers many did say it might have been more interesting with the roles switched or of the same sex.
Passengers will overtake Sausage Party, Inferno and Goosebumps (currently #28 and #29 biggest films of 2016) this week to become Sony Pictures UK third biggest film of 2016 behind The Angry Birds Movie and Ghostbusters and Passengers could overtake both of those depending on how it holds over the coming week but is still far from what they were expecting from Passengers.
After 2012 was a massive year for Sony thanks to Skyfall and 2015 with Spectre and Hotel Transylvania 2 2016 has been a annus horribilis year in comparison with many films underperforming but 2017 does look far more promising with T2: Trainspotting 2, The Smurfs: The Lost Village, Spider-Man Homecoming, The Dark Tower, The Emoji Movie, Baby Driver, Flatliners, Bladerunner 2049 and Jumanji there is a distinct nostalgic memberries element to their slate with many remakes and long in development sequels which as seen in recent years can go both ways with audiences as they said they are tired of reboots, remakes, and sequels but they are very fickle as some they are happy to see. The big question is Jumanji reboot as many were outraged after announcing the reboot so soon after Robin Williams death.
- Monster Trucks – £1,726,229 – NE
Originally due for release May 29th 2015 delayed many times to January 13h 2017 before being brought forward three weeks in the UK ahead of its US opening to access the lucrative Christmas holidays box office.
Its £1.73m opening is inflated with £979,000 from Mon-Thursday taking £746,000 Fri-Sun and £288,000 from Bank Holiday Monday, but after all the bagging and negativity surrounding the film after it was reported in September, Paramount would take a $115m write-down on the film and that the idea for Monster Trucks was based on an idea from former studio executive’s four-year-olds. (but with so many bad ideas coming from adults these days maybe sometimes it might work getting script ideas from the target audience.
Reviews were surprisingly more positive that you would expect given the history of the film and produced by Michael Bay making a children’s Transformers meets Tremors been several successful talking cars children’s movies from Pixar’s Cars films to Herbie: Fully Loaded; Monster Trucks Fri-Sun opening is similar to Herbie: Fully Loaded opening with £774,412 in August 2005 taking £6.06m.
With schools returning this week Monster Trucks won’t likely last that long in the chart but has still taken much more than most thought it would do; Christmas holidays have become the most lucrative time of the year for cinema with Rogue One taking half what The Force Awakens took last year has meant there has been much more box office for other films.
- Moana – £1,620,268 – £13,701,447
Up 45% from last weekend which took £1.1m over two days; after disappointing first three weeks on release being limited to weekend matinees the Christmas holidays as expected saw Moana box office double over the last two weeks and will shortly overtake last year’s total box office of The Good Dinosaur £14.81m; but with schools returning on Thursday Moana will again be limited to weekend matinees and likely to end with about £16m which is probably about third less than many would have expected it to do at the box office a couple of months ago given the comparison by many to Frozen.
It is also unlikely that many would have expected Trolls to of taken more than Moana especially after Zootropolis performed so well earlier in the year.
Disney has another strong slate of films in 2017 their only weakness could be animation with Cars 3 and Coco far bigger unknowns; Coco has also to deal with Paddington 2 opening three weeks before.
| 5th WE | 5th WE T | % of T | Total | ||
| Kung Fu Panda 3 | 11th Mar 2016 | £627,959 | £12.83m | 91.7% | £13.99m |
| Zootropolis | 25th Mar 2016 | £674,337 | £21.57m | 91.3% | £23.61m |
| The Angry Birds Movie | 13th May 2016 | £579,144 | £9.43m | 91.4% | £10.31m |
| The Secret Life of Pets | 24th June 2016 | £1.21m | £28m | 78.1% | £35.82m |
| Ice Age: Collusion Course | 15th July 2016 | £55,954 | £6.76m | 96.1% | £7.03m |
| Finding Dory | 29th July 2016 | £1.51m | £35.83m | 83.8% | £42.75m |
| Storks | 14th Oct 2016 | £343,898 | £6.24m | 94.8% | £6.58m |
| Trolls | 21st Oct 2016 | £1.24m | £20.80m | 90.1% | £23.1m* |
| Moana | 2nd Dec 2016 | £1.62m | £13.70m | 88%* | £16.87m* |
| The Good Dinosaur | 27th Nov 2015 | £398,994 | £10.08m | 68.1% | £14.81m |
| Paddington | 28th Nov 2014 | £2.55m | £23.95m | 66.5% | £35.99m |
| Frozen | 6th Dec 2013 | £2.92m | £30.80m | 78.6% | £39.14m |
Other box office news
Last year Star Wars: The Force Awakens took 52.7% of the weekend’s box office but Rogue One only took 34.4% of the weekend’s box office with six other films taking £1m with 44.1% from family movies showing how lucrative they are at the box office during the Christmas holidays which are the most lucrative 10 days of the year.
–
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £17,313,519; n/a from last weekend n/a;
weekend admissions 2,240,458 up 11.3% from last year 2,526,228
The weekend was down 11.4% from same weekend last year (£19,553,004) Joy £1,399,556, The Danish Girl £1,370,181, Sherlock: The Abominable Bride £224,022 opened.
Same weekend opening in 2015: The Theory of Everything opened £3,746,296, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death £2,430,740 and Birdman £1,154,294.
Next weekend in 2016: The Hateful Eight £2,767,886 and A War £17,916 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. If the same percentage was used 2016 average ticket price would be £7.74.
US Box Office
December 30th– January 2nd 2017
| Rogue One | Disney | 16 Dec 2016 | 3 | $64.33m | +0.5% | $439.71m |
| Sing | Universal | 21 Dec 2016 | 2 | $56.40m | +60% | $180.01m |
| Passengers | Sony | 21 Dec 2016 | 2 | $20.70m | +37.5% | $66.0m |
| Moana | Disney | 23 Nov 2016 | 6 | $14.30m | +85.4% | $213.36m |
| Why Him? | Fox | 25 Dec 2016 | 2 | $13.0m | +18.1% | $37.55m |
| Fences | Paramount | 16 Dec 2016 | 3 | $12.70m | +89.9% | $32.40m |
| La La Land | Lionsgate | 9 Dec 2016 | 4 | $12.33m | +114.4% | $37.04m |
| Assassin’s Creed | Fox | 21 Dec 2016 | 2 | $10.87m | +5.8% | $41.91m |
| Manchester By the Sea | Roadside | 18 Nov 2016 | 7 | $5.46m | +97.4% | $29.69m |
| Fantastic Beasts | Warner | 18 Nov 2016 | 7 | $5.40m | +84.6% | $225.42m |
Rogue One
No surprise Rogue One ended 2016 as the second biggest film of the year behind Finding Dory which gave Disney four out of the top 5 biggest films of the US, other two Captain America: Civil War and The Jungle Book. But Rogue One had the smallest increase for its 4-day weekend of the top 25 (only Office Christmas Party box office had worse dropping which wasn’t unexpected given its title).
The 3-day weekend was more telling Office Christmas Party again had the biggest drop in the top 25 but Rogue One was the second bigger than Assassin’s Creed and Collateral Beauty the two; taking $49.53m over is 3-day weekend Rogue One could possibly loose top spot this weekend which would be a week earlier than The Force Awakens last year if Underworld: Blood Wars opens similar to its previous films or the very positively reviewed Hidden Figures is able to expanded opening similar to The Help opening $26.04m in 2011.
After three weeks, The Force Awakens had taken $742.2m 79.2% of its final box office of $936.6m if Rogue One performs similarly will add $90m+ ending with $532m+ which will see it becoming the sixth biggest film in the US behind 2012’s The Avengers.
Rogue One is currently the thirtieth biggest film in the US moving ahead of E.T: The Extra Terrestrial (but E.T was released 35 years ago, $435.1m BO today would be almost $2 billion; similarly, Rogue One will move ahead of 2004’s Shrek 2, 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, 1977’s Star Wars and 1999’s Phantom Menace in the next week but its box office can’t be compared with any of them as ticket prices are up over 9% from 2012.
La La Land
After opening 4 weeks ago, in 5 screens after receiving very positive reviews and receiving strong buzz has performed strongly. Expanded into 195 screens week 2 climbing into the top 10 in only 200 screens against films showing on 10x or more the screens; in week 3 added 534 screens and week 4 another 16 screens now playing in 750 screens holding in 7th/8th as it has been holding for the last three weeks.
While it has received incredible reviews and is seen as Oscar favourite it is a lovely film playing into Academy voters who look back fondly on the classic Hollywood musicals and set in Los Angeles it feels like Oscar bait the nostalgic elements of old Hollywood with Emma and Ryan going to see Rebel Without a Cause in an old style movie theatre a few weeks later walking past to see the theatre closed plays into the memberries element that is influencing films in recent years as modern films aren’t connecting to audiences as well today.
While La La Land is a lovely film Emma and Ryan performances are great but a comment made by director Damien Chazelle at a Q&A screening calling Emma Stone’s live performance of the song Audition as brave (Emma Stone said immediately it wasn’t brave which made you love her more as words like brave and heroic shouldn’t be used to describe someone’s acting or singing).
La La Land now on 750 screens is in the position so many limited release films get to after performing strongly on limited release studios feel the next expansion is to double its screens which normally is only a short-term gain as Hell or High Water in September had done opening in 32 expanding to 472,909 and 1,303 but then dropped heavily the following weekend. The danger for La La La Land is to expand too wide and think it’s a regular release now after all the buzz and word of mouth it has received. With many other Oscar contenders going wide over the next few weeks be far better to tread water for the next couple of weeks.
Top 20 Highest Grossing films US 2016
On limited release
20th Century Fox – Hidden Figures –up 131.2% – $1,191,683 from 25 screens – $2.65m (expands January 6th); after receiving positive reviews has received strong buzz since a word in progress version was screened at the Toronto Film Festival.
Lionsgate – Patriots Day – up 29.1% – $202,038 from 7 screens -$689,248 (expands January 13th)
Paramount – Silence –down 12.9% – $114,010 from 4 screens -$341,384 (expands January 13th); disappointing limited release performance which was expected after the mixed reviews it has received likely to be another Oscar bait movie that was dated for late December expected to receive award nominations just because it’s directed by Martin Scorsese but as many have described it as looks good but long and boring unlikely to interest many; it’s another long in development vanity projects that have limited appeal away from Scorsese film fans.
If a film takes so long to be made there must be a reason for the delay especially when it’s a project directed by an Oscar-winning director as it was seen to be a follow up to his 1997 film Kundun.
Warner Bros – Live By Night – up 49.6% – $49,882 from 4 screens – $124,500 (expands January 13th); disappointing limited release for the Ben Affleck gangster film which received not as strong reviews as was expected after Warner Bros decided to bring forward its release to be an award contender but as films like Silence and A Minster Calls looks likely to miss out on award recognition
Focus Features – A Monster Calls – down 2.8% – $30,058 from 4 screens -$81,609 (expands January 6th); after received positive reviews has had a very disappointing launch on limited release as many others have had. Was surprising the release date was moved from October which would have allowed it to build on the momentum received after its positive Toronto Film Festival premiere to move to a crowded Christmas date especially as his previous film The Impossible had a similar platform opening Christmas 2012 before opening in January which had an underwhelming performance at the box office.
Opening on limited release
A24 – 20th Century Women –opens $112,705 from 4 screens
Opened January 1st with 8 day opening weekends
Opening UK
- Assassin’s Creed – 20th Century Fox
While creating video games from films has been very successful over the years going the other way has been not nearly as successful but filmmakers continue to try to adapt them as if they could cross the streams from computer game into films they could be very lucrative.
The digital games market was worth $91.5bn globally in 2015 (up from $83.6bn in 2014) over 60% more than global film box office of $38 billion in 2015 (up from $36.7bn in 2014); computer games are far more lucrative with far bigger profit margins so it’s no wonder studios keep trying to adapt them with Nintendo announcing earlier this year to try to repeat the success of Marvel creating their own Cinematic Universe based on their computer games.
Super Mario Bros was the first attempt in 1993 which was a massive failure, Street Fighter followed in 1994, Mortal Kombat in 1995 and Pokeman: The First Movie in 1998 were all moderately successful. Sony has had steady success with their Resident Evil film series launched in 2002 with the final film opening in 2017 while Paramount had success with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001 and its sequel in 2003 Warner Bris are currently rebooting it with a 2018 release with Alicia Vikander replacing Angelina Jolie.
In 2016 had the successful animated adaption of The Angry Birds Movie but Warcraft flopped everywhere except China where Warcraft has fanatical following and despite the failure elsewhere as was made by Legendary Pictures owned by Wanda Group there could still be a sequel.
In October 2011 Sony Pictures had plans to make a film version of Assassin’s Creed (which has sold over 93 million copies). In July 2012 Michael Fassbender was announced to star but then the film was put on hold as Motion Pictures wanted more creative control. Three months later it was announced New Regency would finance the film and it would be released by 20th Century Fox.
In 2014 Justin Kurzel came on as the director who had just made Macbeth with Michael Fassbender. In early 2015 Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling and Michael K. Williams joined the cast as filmmakers looked to repeat the success comic-books have had in recent years having a strong acting foundation to the film.
But similar to Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt while Michael Fassbender has previously starred in X-Men movies he was part of an ensemble Assassin’s Creed was the first time he would lead a film since 2011’s Shame which was a very different film.
Critical reaction was mixed saying it was better made and better cast than other computer game adaptions but was still an over-plotted slog; were plans to make it into a franchise with two more films planned which is unlikely after its uninspiring debut in the US at Christmas. $125m budget.
- A Monster Calls – eOne
Fantasy drama starring Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Lewis MacDougall and Liam Neeson, directed by J. A. Bayona and written by Patrick Ness, based on his own novel; had its world premiere at Toronto Film Festival in September receiving positive reviews.
A. Bayona first film since 2012’s The impossible opened January 1st 2013 with £4.03m (including £1.56jm from previews) taking £12.75m;
The Orphanage opened 21st March 2008 with £329,009 taking £1.48m
A. Bayona next film is Jurassic World 2 which he starts filming next year for June 2018 release.
- Silence – Studiocanal
Historical drama film starring Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, and Ciarán Hinds and directed by Martin Scorsese based upon the 1966 novel by Shūsaku Endō; had premiere in Vatican City in November receiving mixed reviews many describing it as gorgeous to look at but long and dull too.
Seen as Martin Scorsese third part of his religious film trilogy his first the controversial 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ, Kundun opened with £57,729 in 10 screens in 1997 was his second part with Silence planned to be made soon after. But Scorsese decided to make Bringing Out the Dead, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed and Shutter Island. In 2011 Scorsese was finally set to make Silence but decided to make Hugo instead and followed it with The Wolf of Wall Street and in 2013 announced Silence would finally start production in 2014; the film finally started shooting in January 2015.
In July 2014 Paramount Pictures acquired US rights to Silence; Paramount released his previous three films Shutter Island (worldwide) Hugo and The Wolf of Wall Street and upcoming The Irishman (US only). Paramount have a production deal with Martin Scorsese until 2019. But production deals are meaningless as they signed a three-year deal with Jerry Bruckheimer in December 2013 but Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, Deliver Us From Evil, Geostorm and Bad Boys for Life are the four films he has produced over that time but none have been for Paramount.
Studiocanal acquired UK rights in April
Hard to compare Silence with Martin Scorsese’s films since Kundun in 1997 as all have been much more commercial The Wolf of Wall Street, Hugo, Shutter Island, The Departed, The Aviator and Gangs of New York.
It’s hard to identify the audience for Silence as not similar to recent Martin Scorsese films while religious films are rarely successful in the UK except for 2004’s The Passion of the Christ. The cast of Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver except for Liam Neeson is unlikely to excite regular cinemagoer and Liam also stars in A Monster Calls which most critics will say is a far better film.
Open Silence immediately wide also makes no Silence missed out on Golden Globe nominations while it will likely get BAFTA and Oscar nominations only because it’s a Martin Scorsese film it’s not expected to win anything which does question the logic of rush-releasing the film. Silence was originally expected to be released November 2015 but was delayed to a similar date in 2016.
Scorsese announced in August the film would be completed in October with a December release date announced but the trailer wasn’t released until November 22nd only a month before its US opening. As Paramount already had Fences dated for December would have been better for Silence to be delayed but the prestige of having a Martin Scorsese film for Christmas was too much for Paramount in so doing another vanity project is likely to fail just a month after Warren Beatty’s Rules Don’t Apply.
Opening in US
Underworld: Blood Wars – Sony
Fifth part of the Underworld film series and sequel to 2012’s Underworld: Awakening starring Kate Beckinsale and directed by Anna Foerster; was released in several countries in November/December 2016 and is expected to open with $15.19m in the US which will be lower than the previous installments,
| Underworld | 19th Sept 2003 | $21.75m | $51.97m |
| Underworld: Evolutions | 20th Jan 2006 | $26.85m | $62.31m |
| Underworld: Rise of the Lycans | 23rd Jan 2009 | $20.82m | $45.80m |
| Underworld: Awakening | 20th Jan 2012 | $25.30m | $62.32m |
