Top 5 Breakdown
- La La Land – £6,596,256 – NE
After the massive media coverage, La La Land has received over the last month and very positive reviews was expected to open well but few would have predicted would have opened as big as it did having Lionsgate’s fourth biggest opening behind the three Hunger Games sequels.
Took £943,672 from 5 days of previews nationwide Sunday/Thursday and West End Sun-Thurs.
Many have described La La Land as the film we need right now with Blue Monday and Twilight Friday was similar to how The Full Monty opened the weekend of Princess Diana’s death in August 1997 and Moulin Rouge opened the weekend after 9/11 Attacks in 2011 these were all films that by chance opened just when audiences needed them.
While The Full Monty and Moulin Rouge success was viral both lasting in cinemas for months La La Land is more forced fed ‘promoted as the film audiences need to see’. While 16 and 20 years later both are the films they were then will La La Land as I believe, it will be similar to 2005’s Crash when critics and Academy members went fell for it like lemmings shocking everyone as their Best Film.
La La Land is a lovely film but is just that as with so many films critics swoon over them like teenagers at film festivals in a few years’ time when the pixel dust fades away it will be what it is another nostalgic memberries movie that plays to the heartstrings of Hollywood.
Damien Chazelle’s previous film 2014’s Whiplash received similar critical acclaim but failed to find an audience in cinemas opened the same weekend two years ago with £573,546 taking £1.62m.
Looking at Best Picture Oscar winners over the last 25 years must go back to Titanic and The Silence of the Lambs for a compared sized opening.
The hype for La La Land has been immense and is favourite to win Best Picture at Oscars (after winning 7 Golden Globes including Best Actor and Best Actress for Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and receiving 11 BAFTA nominations) will be the fourth film about Hollywood to win Best Picture in the last 6 years The Artist, Argo and Birdman before while last year’s Spotlight was about print media, 2013’s 12 Years A Slave was the only non-media related film since The King’s Speech won in 2010. Much talk about diversity how about diversity away from films about Hollywood?
Best Picture Oscars UK Opening Box office
| Spotlight | 29th January 2016 | £1.05m | £5.85m |
| Birdman | 1st January 2015 | £1.15m | £5.81m |
| 12 Years A Slave | 10th January 2014 | £2.51m | £20.02m |
| Argo | 7th November 2012 | £1.28m | £4.92m |
| The Artist | 30th December 2011 | £629,495 | £9.29m |
| The Kings Speech | 7th January 2011 | £3.52m | £44.40m |
| The Hurt Locker | 28th August 2009 | £308,887 | £794,769 |
| Slumdog Millionaire | 9th January 2009 | £1.82m | £31.28m |
| No Country For Old Men | 18th January 2008 | £2.75m* | £6.31m |
| The Departed | 6th October 2006 | £2.29m | £12.57m |
| Crash | 12th August 2005 | £818,604 | £5.60m |
| Million Dollar Baby | 14th January 2004 | £803,899 | £5.15m |
| LOTR: Return of the King | 17th December 2003 | £15.02m | £60.66m |
| Chicago | 26th December 2002 | £1.98m* | £16.11m |
| A Beautiful Mind | 22nd February 2002 | £1.51* | £7.51m |
| Gladiator | 12th May 2000 | £3.55m | £30.78m |
| American Beauty | 4th February 2000 | £3.55m* | £21.26m |
| Shakespeare in Love | 29th January 1999 | £1.81m | £20.08m |
| Titanic | 23rd January 1998 | £4.80m | £68.53m |
| The English Patient | 14th March 1997 | n/a | £11.49m |
| Braveheart | 8th September 1995 | n/a | £16.67m |
| Forrest Gump | 7th October 1994 | n/a | £15.08m |
| Schindler’s List | 18th February 1993 | £1.23m* | £13.82m |
| Unforgiven | 18th Sept 1992 | n/a | £4.86m |
| Silence of Lambs | 31st May 1991 | £4.64m* | £17.20m |
Hard to compare La La Land’s opening with recent musicals Chicago opened on one screen December 26th 2002 with £113,386 on limited release for three weeks before expanding to 276 screens taking £1,983,505 expanding further to 324 screens the following weekend dropping only 3% £1,918,232 going on to take £16.11m. A year earlier Moulin Rouge opened in September 2001 with £2.4m (similar to about £5m+ today) dropping only 23% in its second weekend taking £17.93m (£34m+ today). Les Misérables opened 13th January 2013 with £8.12m taking £33.45m but Les Misérables stage show was one of the longest-running shows in London and on Broadway.
The film La La Land is most similar to even though has nothing in common with is last years The Revenant after opening immediately after receiving 8 BAFTA and 12 Oscar nominations with £5.11m while La La Land took £5,630,468 of its £6,569,883 Fri-Sun.
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story £1,764,104 – £62,728,519
2D took £1,417,644 (80.4%)– total £44,726,456 (71.3%)– IMAX/3D took £234,798 (13.2%)– total £6,399,161 (10.2%)
3D took £86,703 (4.9%)- total £10,653,907 (16.9%) – IMAX took £23,204 (1.3%) – total £944,629 (1.5%)
Showing how 3D sales continue to drop a third more people saw The Force Awakens in 3D with 29.7% watching The Force Awakens in 3D compared to only 16.9%. But IMAX has seen a slight increase from 11.4% to 11.7%.
Down 45.8% in its fifth weekend; in recent years, most of the highest grossing films in the UK had taken over 90% of their final box office showing despite the massive opening these films now has only a third of the theatrical playing time than films used to 20 years ago, of the most recent films only Jurassic World and Skyfall had longer playing times as 6 weeks after opening was summer and Christmas holidays.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace played in over 100 screens in the UK for over 18 weeks in 1999 as did Avatar in 2009/10 and Titanic in 1998 was in over 100 screens for over 24 weeks’ half of those weeks too over £1m at the box office.
Rogue One will likely be played out of cinemas by February 24th but then not released on DVD till then end of April. By February the marketplace will be flooded with pirates from China so holding Rogue One to its 17-week theatrical window as all other films can only harm its home entertainment release. While Rogue One will still be playing in a small number of cinemas after February 24th it won’t add much more to its box office.
| 5th w/e comparisons | ||||||||||||||||
| Av P | 5th we | 5 we T | 5 A | % final | Final BO | Final A | ||||||||||
| Rogue One | 16 Dec 2016 | £7.74 | £1.72 | £62.72 | 8.10m | 93.6%* | £67m* | 8.66m* | ||||||||
| The Force Awakens | 17 Dec 2015 | £7.21 | £3.11 | £113.93 | 15.80m | 92.6% | £123m | 17.06m | ||||||||
| Revenge of the Sith | 22 May 2005 | £4.71 | £709,777 | £36.89 | 7.83m | 94.1% | £39.18 | 8.32m | ||||||||
| Attack of the Clones | 19 May 2002 | £4.29 | £1.08 | £33.77 | 7.87m | 90.4% | £37.32 | 8.70m | ||||||||
| The Phantom Menace | 15 July 1999 | £4.12 | £2.31 | £39.37 | 9.55m | 77.6% | £50.73 | 13.69m | ||||||||
| Jurassic World | 11 Jun 2015 | £7.21 | £1.85 | £57.14 | 7.92m | 88.5% | £64.5m | 8.95m | ||||||||
| Avengers Age of Ultron | 23 Apr 2015 | £7.21 | £1.06 | £44.99 | 6.23m | 93.1% | £48.3m | 6.70m | ||||||||
| Avengers Assemble | 25 Apr 2012 | £6.37 | £872,664 | £46.89 | 7.36m | 90.3% | £51.9m | 8.15m | ||||||||
| Skyfall | 26 Oct 2012 | £6.37 | £3.80 | £89.62 | 14.06m | 86.8% | £103.2m | 16.2m | ||||||||
| Spectre | 26 Oct 2015 | £7.21 | £2.17 | £88.37 | 12.25m | 92.8% | £95.2m | 13.2m | ||||||||
| Avatar | 17 Dec 2009 | £5.44 | £5.52 | £49.37 | 9.07m | 52.8% | £93.44 | 15.74m | ||||||||
| Titanic | 23 Jan 1998 | £4.07 | £3.65 | £34.11 | 8.38m | 42.7% | £80.3m | 18.05m | ||||||||
But comparing Rogue One and The Force Awakens fourth weekend box office with the prequels and the likes of Titanic and Avatar you can see while their box office might be impressive admission figures aren’t nearly as impressive. Rogue One fourth weekend is 19.9% more than Jurassic World but with price difference of 7.3% the difference between the two isn’t far and Rogue One will likely end with similar box office but admissions tell a different story why it’s impossible to compare box office with films released even a year apart.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens had taken £113.9m 92.6% of its final box office by week 5 (in the US was 91.7% after 5 weeks) taking £3.11m in its fifth weekend compared to £1.76m for Rogue One. If it continues as The Force Awakens will likely add £4.64m ending on £67.36m which will be 55% the box office of The Force Awakens. Rogue One has moved up to #12 highest grossing film in the UK likely ending as the 9th highest grossing film in the UK (in the US likely to end with $560m becoming the sixth biggest film)
| UK Top 20 Highest Grossing Films | |||||||||
| R-Date | OP W/E | Total BO | 2016 | Av P | Ads | ||||
| SW: The Force Awakens | 17 Dec 2015 | £33.90m | 3.71x | £123m | £132.1m | £7.21 | 17.06m | ||
| Skyfall | 26 Oct 2012 | £20.18m | 5.11x | £103.2m | £125.3m | £6.37 | 16.20m | ||
| Spectre | 23 Oct 2015 | £41.21m | 2.31x | £95.2m | £102.1m | £7.21 | 13.20m | ||
| Avatar | 17 Dec 2009 | £8.50m | 11.05x | £94m | £121.8m | £5.44 | 15.74m | ||
| Titanic | 23 Jan 1998 | £4.80m | 16.7x | £80.3m | £139.7m | £4.07 | 18.05m | ||
| Toy Story 3 | 19 July 2010 | £21.18m | 3.49x | £74m | £96.2m | £5.95 | 12.44m | ||
| HP: Deathly Hallows Part 2 | 15 July 2011 | £23.75m | 3.07x | £73.1m | £93.3m | £6.06 | 12.06m | ||
| Mamma Mia! | 19 July 2008 | £6.59m | 10.4x | £68.6m | £102.1m | £5.20 | 13.19m | ||
| HP: Philosopher’s Stone | 16 Nov 2001 | £16.33m | 4.04x | £66.1m | £84.3m | £6.06 | 10.90m | ||
| Jurassic World | 11 Jun 2015 | £19.28m | 3.34x | £64.5m | £69.2m | £7.21 | 8.95m | ||
| LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring | 19 Dec 2001 | £11.05m | 5.71x | £63m | £117.8m | £4.14 | 15.22m | ||
| SW: Rogue One | 16 Dec 2016 | £17.30m | 3.62x* | £62.72m* | £62.7m* | £7.74 | 8.10m* | ||
| LOTR: The Return of the King | 17 Dec 2003 | £15.02m | 4.06x | £61.1m | £105.2m | £4.49 | 13.60m | ||
| LOTR: The Two Towers | 18 Dec 2002 | £13.06m | 4.41x | £57.6m | £103.9m | £4.29 | 13.43m | ||
| SW: The Phantom Menace | 15 July 1999 | £9.51m | 5.93x | £56.4m | £105.9m | £4.12 | 13.69m | ||
| The Dark Knight Rises | 20 Ju 2012 | £14.36m | 3.92x | £56.3m | £64.8m | £6.37 | 8.38m | ||
| Casino Royale | 17 Nov 2006 | £13.37m | 4.15x | £55.6m | £88.3m | £4.87 | 11.41m | ||
| HP: The Chamber of Secrets | 15 Nov 2002 | £18.71m | 2.93x | £54.8m | £98.8m | £4.29 | 12.77m | ||
| Fantastic Beasts | 18 Nov 2016 | £15.33m | 3.52x* | £54.00m* | £54.0m* | £7.74 | 6.97m* | ||
| POTC: Dead Man’s Chest | 6 July 2006 | £13.74m | 3.82x | £52.5m | £82.9m | £4.87 | 10.72m | ||
After rumours Disney planned to digitalise Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in Star Wars IX Disney announced they have no plans to do so which must mean that she dies in Star Wars VIII as it was previously announced she finished filming scenes for Star Wars VIII before her death.
It was also revealed last week that the key Darth Vader end scene in Rogue One wasn’t in the original film and as added very late during the reshoots. But the Darth Vader scene does cause an issue with the start of A New Hope as Captain Antilles claims they didn’t receive the plans but Vader already knows the truth.
- Moana – £1,050,979 – £17,580,869
2D took £1,044,907 (99.8%)– total £16,904,517 (96.1%) – 3D took £1,951 (0.2%) – total £671,686 (3.9%)
Down 11.2% in its seventh weekend; after having a disappointing opening last month has held well over its following weeks.
Showing how cinemagoers have lost interest in 3D for family films 96.1% of its box office has come from 2D. But Moana like many animated films was made in 3D rather than retrofitted but due to exhibitors adding surcharges to 3D films cinemagoers rarely will pay extra to see films in the format as they feel ripped off.
Despite opening with 53% less than Frozen £2.21m Vs £4.70m Moana has held almost as well as Frozen currently taking 7.91x opening compared to 8.32x for Frozen even though its final box office will be 50% less than Frozen £39.14m.
Moana opening will be about 11.2% of its opening which compares to 12% for Frozen which will be the lowest opening percentage for a Disney animated film since 2002’s Lilo & Stitch.
But with Sing having previews this weekend its likely to start dropping down the charts.
- Assassin’s Creed – £950,168 – £6,949,314
2D took £871,411 (91.8%)– total £5,432,428 (78.2%) – 3D took £77,169 (8.2%)– total £1,514,750 (21.8%)
After having an 8-day opening weekend giving Assassin’s Creed was always going to be very front-loaded opening similar to Warcraft: The Beginning last June which inflated its second-weekend drop to 82% slightly more than Warcraft which had a 7-day opening weekend.
The drop for both films not including previews was similar at 50% with Assassin’s Creed’s second-weekend box office taking 30.4% more than Warcraft £728,168 Vs £950,168.
With Underworld: Blood Wars and The Bye Bye Man cannibalizing themselves it allowed Assassin’s Creed and Passengers to hold surprisingly better than expected.
Showing how computer game film adaptions have underperformed in recent years Assassin’s Creed has already overtaken the box office f films including Need For Speed, Tron Legacy, Prince of Persia and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Should overtake the box office of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider £7.93m but as the two Tom Raider films opening in 2001 and 2006 can’t be compared.
- Passengers – £783,390 – £11,837,426
2D took £779,238 (99.5%) – total £10,208,591 (86.3%)– 3D took £3,199 (0.4%) – total £1,620,167 (13.6%)
Down 42.8% in its third weekend held surprisingly strong after four of the five new releases had disappointing debuts.
More surprising was the Passengers was the film that would be most likely affected by La La Land but as often happens in a crowded marketplace the holdovers hold better than the new releases.
Other box office news
Also, released
Underworld: Blood Wars – Sony – £314,000 – the lowest opening for the film series. Opening the same weekend as The Bye Bye Man cannibalized the horror market as both films underperformed.
Similar to the box office cannibalization of adult dramas in the US there was similar in the UK with Manchester By The Sea and Live By Night opening with £729,477 (from 146 screens) and £695,000 (449 screens) and big drops for last weekend’s films A Monster Calls and Silence down 62% and 80%. Casey Affleck is favourite to win Best Actor Oscar Manchester By the Sea will expand over the next few weeks.
Live By Night was Ben Affleck’s worst opening for a wide release since Jersey Girl in June 2004 £226,970. The failure of Live By Night was due to Warner Bro seemingly more interesting in courting Academy voters than cinemagoers as many reviews said the film felt rushed.
Live By Night did open ahead of Gone Baby Gone which was delayed by seven months due to similarities to the Madeleine McCann disappearance opened 6th June 2008 £351,127 taking £1.69m.
Four years ago, this weekend Warner Bros opened Gangster Squad which was delayed from September 2012 after the Aurora cinema shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises as was a scene in the trailer with a shootout in a theatre. The film opened with a similar £791,799 taking £4.75m was the second film Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone appeared together are now getting award glory and box office success with La La Land. On Monday and Tuesday Live By Night climbed into the top 5
Sherlock: The Final Problem – BBC Worldwide – £322,253 from 292 screens; Sherlock: The Abominable Bride last year took £224,022 from only 127 screens
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £14,046,174 down 18.3% from last weekend £17,194,216;
Weekend admissions 1,704,633 down 18.3% from last week 2,088,116
The weekend was down 9.9% from same weekend last year (£15,591,252) The Revenant £5,192,151, Creed £2,22,675, Room £624,951 opened.
Next weekend in 2016: Ride Along 2 £2,133,078, The Big Short £1,251,850, The 5th Wave £495,649 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 January 13th – 15th 2017
| Hidden Figures | Fox | 25-Dec-16 | 4 | $22.84m | -8.60% | $55.22m |
| La La Land | Lionsgate | 09-Dec-16 | 6 | $13.81m | 43.10% | $74.08m |
| Sing | Universal | 21-Dec-16 | 4 | $14.50m | -33.30% | $233.41m |
| The Bye Bye Man | STX | 13-Jan-17 | 1 | $13.53m | NE | $13.53m |
| Rogue One | Disney | 16-Dec-16 | 5 | $13.36m | -39.40% | $498.45m |
| Patriots Day | Lionsgate | 21-Dec-16 | 4 | $12.00m | 11350% | $12.52m |
| Monster Trucks | Paramount | 13-Jan-17 | 1 | $10.95m | NE | $10.95m |
| Sleepless | Open Road | 13-Jan-17 | 1 | $8.34m | NE | $8.346m |
| Underworld: Blood Wars | SGems | 06-Jan-17 | 2 | $6.13m | -55.20% | $24.25m |
| Passengers | Sony | 21-Dec-16 | 4 | $5.38m | -38.90% | $89.76m |
Despite the arrival of three new wide releases and three films expanding (Patriots Day, Live By Night and Silence) Hidden Figures held top spot for a second weekend to become the first film since 2011’s The Help to have multiple female leads to remain #1 for more than one week. Hidden Figures is also the first Kevin Costner film since 1995’s Waterworld to stay at 1 for two weeks (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991 was his only other film to achieve this) will likely become his highest grossing film (not including cameos) in the US since 1992’s The Bodyguard.
As with all this year’s award contenders Hidden Figures Oscar campaign started at Toronto Film Festival in September which had them all an advantage over the films that arrived late Live By Night and Silence both of which had an Oscar pedigree with their directors Ben Affleck and Martin Scorsese but even that couldn’t stop the strength of the buzz generated from the other films. After last year’s Oscars So White Hidden Figures is also a good antidote while unlikely to win Hidden Figures and Fences (not to confuse the two as was done recently at Golden Globes)
Disappointing expansions for two films previously seen as Oscar contenders was predictable when studios date these films for the 6500 Academy members rather than the millions of cinemagoers. Both films were late additions to the award season Live By Night was originally set for October, 20th 2017 and Silence was completed in October with the trailer released only a month before its opening.
Had Live By Night kept its original release date it wouldn’t have had as much competition and would have been able to premiere at Toronto or Venice to build buzz. A Monster Calls was similarly delayed by two months from October 21st to December 23rd dropping 75% in its second weekend on wide release. These films box office potential has suffered by dating them for awards rather than cinemagoers.
Expansion
Warner Bros – Live By Night – up 20,050% – $5.42m – $5.61m
Paramount Pictures – Silence – up 302.5% – $1.94m – $3.02m
After expanding disappointingly to 474 screens means Silence will probably not go much wider as with Live By Night Silence was dated for Oscars opening in an already crowded marketplace of adult dramas which Paramount Pictures already had a far stronger Oscar hopefully in Fences. But the prestige of opening a Martin Scorsese film was too much for Paramount but instead of playing the Oscars lottery studies should date films for cinemagoers rather than Academy members as there are always far too many similar films opening
On limited release
A24 – 20th Century Women – up 135.7% – $307,572 adding 19 screens – $751,219
Opened January 13th
Opening UK
- xXx: The Return of Xander Cage – Paramount Pictures
The second sequel to xXx the first film released in 2002 the sequel in 2005 starring Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, Toni Collette and Samuel L. Jackson and directed by D. J. Caruso.
The film also stars Indian actress Deepika Padukone with Paramount deciding to open the film 6 days ahead of its US opening in India with piracy a major issue in India pirate copies leaked online within days of the film opening.
In 2006 Vin Diesel, first announced plans for the film even though he was killed in the sequel; in April 2010 was announced Paramount Pictures would distribute and it would be shot in 3D.
xXx opened 17th October 2002 with £2.43m in October 2002 taking £11.41m
xXx2: The Next Level opened 29th April 2005 with £920,506 in May 2005 taking £2.62m
Last month Vin Diesel interview with Brazilian journalist Carol Moreira went viral after she was objectified by actor Vin Diesel while interviewing him.
The trailers are even crazier than Mechanic: Resurrection but will this be another of the many sequels that have gone past their sell by date 15 years later? But this year has many sequels to films made many years ago, from Trainspotting 2 to Bladerunner 2049 and next year Bad Boys 3 opened 14 years after Bad Boys 2 and 23 years after the first. While films like Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens are cross-generational will these films be too? Last year 20 years after Independence Day much was expected for Independence Day: Resurgence but audiences weren’t that interested in experiencing the same film again.
Seems to be a new thing with trailers such as xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and Baywatch and ChiPs which are completely crazy and stupid rather than funny is this being done on purpose by Hollywood to ‘celebrate’ Donald Trump’s Idiocracy presidency?
It’s the first film for ten years produced by Revolution Studios since 2007’s The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. Revolution Studios was founded by former Disney Chairman Joe Roth in 2000 with films distributed by Sony Pictures until 2007. They released almost 50 films including films like Black Hawk Down to the infamous Gigli. In 2007 they made almost a third of the films Sony Pictures released.
Joe Roth sold the studio in 2014 to an investment company who also acquired foreign rights to Morgan Creek Films and brought a 50% stake in Cross Creek Pictures in 2015 and in 2016 acquired rights to GK Films. Revolution Studios signed a deal with Universal Pictures to distribute sequels, prequels and spinoffs for home entertainment which was separate to Paramount acquiring rights for xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.
With the marketplace crowded with adult dramas xXx: The Return of Xander Cage could do similar to last years Ride Along 2 £2,133,078 but with Split also opening the same weekend and xXx being another unnecessary sequel will cinemagoers be interested in seeing a sequel opening 12 years after the last. But this year we have many sequels and remakes to films older than this with the likes of Trainspotting 2, Bladerunner 2049 and Flatliners.
- Split – Universal Pictures
Psychological horror written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan starring James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy and Betty Buckley; been described as a thematic sequel to 2000’s Unbreakable’ received world premiere at Fantastic Fest September 26 also screened at AFI Fest on November 15, 2016; early reviews have been positive with many said has another great twist ending M. Night Shyamalan has been famous for with his films.
M. Night Shyamalan-directed The Sixth Sense opened 7th November in 1999 on limited release £257,479 opening wide with £4.79m going on to take £25.4m but hasn’t been able to repeat his success.
In 2000 – Unbreakable opened 29th December £2.004m taking £11.22m
In 2002 – Signs opened 13th September £3.76m taking £16.08m
In 2004 – The Village 20th August £2.94m taking £9.98m
In 2006 – Lady in the Water 11th August £452,744 (dropping out top 10 after only a week)
In 2008 – The Happening 13th June £1.63m taking £3.89m
In 2010 – The Last Airbender – 13th August £1.65m taking £4.22m
In 2013 – After Earth – 7th June £2.24m taking £6.22m
In 2015 – The Visit – 9th September £1.03m taking £2.08m
After The Visit performed well in 2015 Universal acquired the film in October 2015 retitling as Split.
Split sees James McAvoy play 23 alternative personalities reminds me of the long in development James Cameron film The Crowded Room which was to be based on The Minds of Billy Milligan. James Cameron started developing the film after making The Abyss in 1989 a few years later John Cusack was signed and the $11 budget was set but then the lawsuits started. In 2015 Leonardo DiCaprio and New Regency were developing the project a role Leonardo DiCaprio has been interested playing for 20 years.
- Jackie -eOne
Biographical drama starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and John Hurt and directed by Pablo Larraín; received its world premiere at Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival after receiving critical acclaim Fox Searchlight acquired the film (had previously developed with Rachel Weisz starring in the lead and Darren Aronofsky directing but dropped the project when both left the film) and dated it for December with many seeing Natalie Portman as the front-running to Best Actress Oscar that was until critics and Academy members went gaga for La La Land and Emma Stone’s performance.
- Lion – Entertainment Films
Drama starring stars Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham and Nicole Kidman directed by Garth Davis based on the non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley with Larry Buttrose; had world premiere at Toronto Film Festival receiving positive reviews praising performances by Patel and Kidman both nominated for Supporting Actors for Golden Globes and BAFTAs.
Jackie and Lion joining the already congested adult drama marketplace in the UK will find it hard to find audiences despite both getting strong reviews and buzz with films including A Monster Calls, Silence and Live By Night all having disappointing debuts.
Opening in US
- xXx: The Return of Xander Cage – Paramount Pictures
The first trailer was viewed 100 million times in its first 2 days when it was released last November. Vin Diesel is the biggest Hollywood star on social media with 100.3m followers on Facebook, and another 28.4m on Instagram.
But despite his social media presents Vin Diesel last live action non-Furious box office hit was The Pacifier in 2005
When the first film was released in 2002 was expected to be that start of a new film franchise for Vin Diesel a year after the first The Fast and the Furious film was released. Vin Diesel three live-action non-Furious films this decade but none were box office hits 2013’s Riddick took $42m, 2015’s The Last Witch Hunter $27.3m, and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk took $1.73m.
XXX – opened August 9th 2002 with $33.5m taking $142.1m
XXX: State of the Union -opened 29th April 2005 $12.7m taking $26.87m
- Split – Universal Pictures
M.Night Shyamalan was hailed in an early Newsweek cover story as “the next Spielberg,” after directing 1999’s The Sixth Sense $293.5 million and 2002’s Signs with $227.9 million. But then in 2006 Lady in the Water was a disappointment but it was The Last Airbender in 2010 and After Earth in 2013 which were much bigger failures.
In 2015 he went back to his roots with low budget horror The Visit which was a moderate success. The buzz for Split has been positive and after disappointing performances for horrors Underworld: Blood Wars and The Bye Bye Man, Split should spark up box office.
In 1999 – The Sixth Sense opened 6th August $26.68m taking $293.5m
In 2000 – Unbreakable opened 22nd November $30.3m taking $95.01m
In 2002 – Signs opened 2nd August $60.1m taking $227.96m
In 2004 – The Village 30th July $50.74m taking $114.1m
In 2006 – Lady in the Water 21st July $18.04m taking $42.2m
In 2008 – The Happening 13th June $30.5m taking $64.5m
In 2010 – The Last Airbender – 1st July $40.3m taking $131.7m
In 2013 – After Earth – 7th June $27.5m taking $60.5m
In 2015 – The Visit – 11th September $25.4m taking $65.2m
- The Founder – Weinstein Co
biographical drama starring Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, Linda Cardellini, Patrick Wilson, B. J. Novak and Laura Dern and directed by John Lee Hancock; received its world premiere in December before having a one week Oscar qualifying week also in December.
Reviews have been positive with a strong performance from Michael Keaton after similar strong performances in Oscar-nominated Birdman and Spotlight but many describe The Founder as Oscar bait which Weinstein’s are experts at producing. At Cannes 2015 famously Harvey Weinstein said Jake Gyllenhaal would get Oscar nomination for Southpaw but didn’t.
Director John Lee Hancock first film since 2013’s Saving Mr Banks which opened with $9.34m after having a platform release. 2009’s Oscar winner The Blind Side is his biggest box-office hit in the US opening with $34.11m taking $255.95m.
Michael Keaton has starred in 26 films over the last 35 years but removing voice roles and Batman and its sequel 1988’s Beetlejuice is still his biggest box office success in the US with $73.7m.
The Founder was original dated for November, 25th 2016 before being brought forward to August 5th pushed back to January, 20th 2017 with a one week Oscar qualifying week on December 16th. The Founder is another film being dated for 6500 Academy members rather than cinemagoers as it joins the likes of Silence, Live By Night and A Monster Calls that were dated for Oscar nominations rather than box office.
Opening in an already cannibalised adult drama marketplace The Founder will find it hard to find an audience. When The Founder had August 5th release date was expected to open with $8.5m four months later it’s expected to open with half and unlikely to receive any Oscar nominations so have to ask the logic over the delay.
