Top 5 Breakdown
- The Lego Batman Movie – £7,906,468
After having a similar fun marketing campaign that 2014’s The Lego Movie had including four very funny trailers and promo campaigns with companies including Chevrolet and after Warner Bros 2014 Warner Bros took over and break during Dancing on Ice with adverts recreated in Lego watched by over 5 million Batman took over the ad breaks Friday February 3rd to Sunday 5th with 18 animated intros shown across four days in more than 40 ad breaks.
After taking £2.45m from previews last weekend The Lego Batman Movie was expected to top the charts on its opening weekend; but after The Lego Movie took £2.16m from previews in February 2014 taking £8.03m.
Going into the weekend after receiving very positive reviews (described as the best Batman movie since The Dark Knight) and strong word of mouth after the previous weekend previews it was expected to open with more than The Lego Batman Movie but with far tougher competition of Sing instead of Mr Peabody and Sherman taking £1,398,888 in its second weekend and Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy opening with £962,328
Lego recently overtook Disney as the world’s most powerful brand with many experts saying it was due in part by Emmet and The Lego Movie opening in February 2014 delighted critics and cinemagoers taking $469m worldwide including £34.3m in the UK and $257.7m in the US. After the film’s success, Warner Bros announced plans sequel to be released in 2019 and spinoffs Ninjago released September 2017 and The Lego Batman Movie.
Over half term week Mon-Thurs The Lego Movie took almost £8m in February 2014 taking £5.97m in its second weekend down only 1% taking £21.87m; The Lego Batman Movie should do similar this year getting close to £20m by the end of next weekend.
The Lego Batman Movie was seen to be a standalone spinoff film based around Batman character who had a supporting role in The Lego Movie but The Lego Batman Movie stars much more to The Lego Movie creating a Lego cinematic universe 9similar to the DC Extended Universe) with the film playing in the same universe of the other films. This will be seen more in Ninjago opening in September and The Lego Movie 2 in February 2019.
You can turn you iPhone into a Batcomputer as the voice of the Batcomputer is Siri, if you say the words ‘hey, puter’ when Siri is active you can talk to her like the Batman
- Fifty Shades Darker – £7,557,485
After the massive hype and marketing campaign original film had two years ago, the sequel marketing campaign has been far more muted reviews were expectantly poor but the fans of the books wouldn’t care what critics said.
Fifty Shades Darker had a far bigger drop in the UK than expected to the original film dropping 43% compared to about 30% which was expected which would have been similar to drop that Sex and the City 2in 2010 had compared to Sex and the City in 2008 and was expected to open with about £9.2m similar to The Lego Batman Movie which was squeezed by Sing. But in the US dropped lower than expected to the original film.
As expected Fifty Shades Darker had a strong opening day taking £3.2m but that was down 30% from Fifty Shades of Grey £4.81m.
The big question will be how much Fifty Shades Darker drops next weekend while Fifty Shades of Grey opened over Valentine’s Day weekend Fifty Shades Darker is likely to see an increase on Valentine’s Day before having a large drop off next weekend Fifty Shades of Grey dropped 66% in its second weekend a similar drop would see Fifty Shades Darker take £3.3m on its way to take about £20m. Fifty Shades Darker has much tougher competition than original film only had The Wedding Ringer opening with £986,123 the sequel has Hidden Figures and Fences both expanding both received positive reviews and generated strong buzz.
| Second-weekend drops | |||||||||||||
| Film | Year | O W/E | 2nd WE | Drop | 2 W/E T | final BO | % OWE | ||||||
| Sex and the City | Ent | 2008 | £8.76m | £3.08m | 65% | £16.06m | £26.4m | 33.1% | |||||
| Twilight: New Moon | eOne | 2009 | £11.68m | £4.30m | 63% | £20.32m | £27.4cm | 42.6% | |||||
| Sex and the City 2 | WB | 2010 | £6.14m | £2.47m | 60% | £13.65m | £21.6m | 28.4% | |||||
| Twilight: Eclipse | eOne | 2010 | £13.76m | £3.39m | 75% | £22.09m | £29.7m | 46.3% | |||||
| Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 | eOne | 2011 | £13.91m | £4.57m | 67% | £23.10m | £30.7m | 45.3% | |||||
| Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 | eOne | 2012 | £15.85m | £5.34m | 66% | £26.97m | £35.8m | 44.2% | |||||
| The Wolf of Wall Street | Univ | 2014 | £4.65m | £3.60m | 23% | £10.90m | £22.2m | 20.9% | |||||
| Gone Girl | Fox | 2014 | £4.10m | £3.06m | 25% | £9.82m | £22.1m | 18.5% | |||||
| Fifty Shades of Grey | Univ | 2015 | £13.27m | £4.56m | 66% | £25.2m | £35.1m | 37.8% | |||||
| Fifty Shades Darker | Univ | 2017 | £7.56m | £3.3m* | 66%* | £14.3m* | £19.9m* | ||||||
- Sing – £2,325,281 – £18,217,102
Down 38.9% in its third weekend despite the arrival of The Lego Batman Movie which had a slightly disappointing opening after its hype likely due to the strong hold of Sing as the first family film released during school holidays normally has the advantage over the film that opens second.
Sing has currently taken 18% less than The Secret Life of Pets
After three weeks, previous Illumination films box office
| OWE | 2nd w/e | 3rd w/e | 3rd T | total | |||
| The Secret Life of Pets | 24 Jun 2016 | £9.58m | £4.72m | £3.62m | £22.26m | £36.43m | 61.1% |
| Minions | 26 Jun 2015 | £11.55m | £.3.7m | £4.14m | £27.61m | £47.25m | 58.4% |
| Despicable Me 2 | 28 Jun 2013 | £14.78m | £3.9m | £2.25m | £27.08m | £47.4m | 57.1% |
| Despicable Me | 15 Oct 2010 | £3.66m | £2.58m | £2.58m | £15.06m | £21.2m | 71.1% |
Except for Despicable Me and Sing all the other films didn’t have the advantage of lucrative school holidays in their early weeks of their release but five weeks after their openings summer holidays started which gave them longer playing time than films opening during half term holidays; last year Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip took £5.3m and Goosebumps took £2.1m Mon-Thurs during half term holidays. With Big Hero 6 and Shaun the Sheep performing similarly strongly during half term week on 2015.
Sing is likely to add £3m+ during half term holidays and add £7-10m to its box office which will see Sing take upwards of £30m which will be the lowest grossing Illumination film since Despicable Me but of course, Despicable Me 3 opens in June which is expected to be the biggest animated film of 2017.
- T2 Trainspotting £1,420,910 – £13,515,865
Down 52.3% in its third weekend overtaking the original film’s total box office of £12.43m but it’s impossible to compare the performance of T2 Trainspotting and 1996’s Trainspotting with its box office as ticket prices have more than doubled since.
T2 Trainspotting admissions are 1.821m to date about 50% less than Trainspotting final admissions T2 Trainspotting will need to double its current box office to match the box office of the original film which of course it won’t be able to do likewise Trainspotting was the tenth biggest film in 1996 in the UK but the sequel is unlikely to be one of the top 20 films for 2017.
T2 Trainspotting has overtaken Sony Pictures UK’s Passengers £12.43m to become their biggest film of 2017 and is currently the third biggest film of 2017 behind La La Land and Sing.
Next up for Sony is Life in March described as Gravity meets Aliens starring Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal; the film was at Paramount produced by Skydance Productions but moved to Sony after having similar themed J.J Abrams God Particle which has since become Cloverfield sequel. Also in March for Easter The Smurfs: The Lost Village and then summer films include Spider-Man Homecoming, The Dark Tower, Baby Driver, The Emoji Movie and Rock That Body with eagerly awaiting Blade Runner sequel in October along with not so eagerly awaited reboots of Flatliners and Jumanji.
- La La Land – £949,283 – £26,497,599
Down 47.8% in its fifth weekend after winning five BAFTA awards on Sunday including Best Film, Director and Best Actress for Emma Stone expected to win similar in two weeks’ time at the Oscars.
Comparing La La Land UK box office with recent January openers for Oscar winners is behind only Les Misérables and The Kings Speech box office after five weeks as Slumdog Millionaire had only taken 53% of its final box office after five weeks.
La La Land has been performing similar to Les Misérables which had taken 83% after five weeks of but unlike Les Misérables, La La Land won five BAFTA awards and is likely to do similar at the Oscars; Les Misérables won three Oscars including Best Supporting Actress and four BAFTAs including Best Supporting Actress. If La La Land was to continue to the performance similar to Les Misérables it’s like to add £4-5m over the coming weeks to end with about £31m.
Last Monday La La Land took £203,000 but a week later the day after winning five BAFTAs it increased by 11% taking £225,000
By next weekend La La Land will overtake The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 £28.86m to become Lionsgate UK third biggest film in the UK and will likely overtake Mockingjay Part 1 £30.84m over the coming weeks but likely to come short of overtaking its current biggest film Catching Fire £32.2m.
Recent January openings Oscar winners
| O w/e | 2nd w/e | 2 w/e T | 3rd w/e | 3rd w/e T | 4th w/e | 5th w/e | 5th we T | total | |||
| La La Land | 13 Jan 2017 | £6.59 | £4.37 | £14.90 | £3.10m | £20.95 | £1.80m | £942k | £26.4m | ||
| Spotlight | 29 Jan 2016 | £1.06m | £864k | £2.64 | £451k | £3.65 | £326k | £191k | £4.78m | £5.85 | 82% |
| The Revenant | 15 Jan 2016 | £5.23m | £3.85 | £12.01 | £2.27m | £16.09 | £1.21 | £717k | £19.62 | £22.86 | 86% |
| Birdman | 1 Jan 2015 | £1.52m | £826k | £2.99m | £551k | £4.01 | £380k | £180k | £5.04m | £5.67 | 89% |
| 12 Years A Slave | 10 Jan 2014 | £2.51m | £3.05 | £7.12m | £2.23m | £11.03 | £1.42m | £893k | £15.45 | £20.02 | 77% |
| Les Misérables | 11 Jan 2013 | £8.12m | £4.40 | £17.36 | £4.01m | £24.61 | £2.78m | £1.64 | £33.45 | £40.47 | 83% |
| The Kings Speech | 7 Jan 2011 | £3.52m | £4.40 | £10.75 | £4.22m | £18.31 | £3.63m | £2.73 | £30.1m | £45.34 | 66% |
| Slumdog Millionaire | 9 Jan 2009 | £1.82m | £2.63 | £5.95m | £2.80m | £10.23 | £2.35m | £1.56 | £16.89 | £31.60 | 53% |
| No Country For Old Men | 18 Jan 2008 | £1.25m | £828k | £2.75m | £712k | £3.93 | E411k | £290k | £5.36 | £6.31 | 85% |
Upcoming for Lionsgate Patriot’s Day is unlikely to generate much interest as Trespass Against Us. For Easter Power Rangers, which look is similar to the recent Fantastic Four could go either way. Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets opening in the summer is a massive unknown opening twenty years after his visually stunning The Fifth Element is a massive unknown against more higher profile franchises.
Also, released
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Sony – £14,692 from 89 screens – having one of the lowest openings ever in the UK for director Ang Lee his last film Oscar-winning Life of Pi opened December 2012 with £3.61m. The technology the film was made with overshadowed its US release but as only a couple of screens screened the film in 120FPS and no screens in the UK showed the film this way did UK critics?
Fences – Paramount – £102,688 from 21 screens (expanding this weekend)
eOne – 20th Century Women – £60,203 from 13 screens (expanding this weekend)
Other box office news
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £22,550,909 up 76.6% from last weekend £12,764,288;
Weekend admissions 3,043,308 up 65.8% from last week 1,835,095
Weekend was down 9.7% from last year (£24,988,211) Deadpool – £13,719,726, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip – £4,286,955, Zoolander 2 – £2,085,512 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies £358,142, A Bigger Splash £348,000 and Concussion £115,000 opened
In 2015: (£21,497,481): 50 Shades of Grey £13,271,409 and Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots £659,381 opened.
Next weekend in 2016: (£10,481,241) How to Be Single £1,874,218, Triple Nine £813,817 and The Finest Hours £246,768 opened.
Cinema Exhibitors Association average ticket price of £7.41 for 2016 up only 2.77% from 2015 despite a 7.3% increase from 2014. If the same percentage was used 2016 average ticket price would be £7.74.
UK Box Office Top 10
US Box Office
The Lego Batman Movie topped the chart with $55.6m ahead of Fifty Shades Darker with $46.79m. Going into the weekend after very positive reviews and strong buzz most were predicting The Lego Batman Movie to open with upwards of $75m while Fifty Shades Darker to open with less than $40m.
Three years ago, The Lego Movie opened with $69.1m while The Lego Batman Movie is a spinoff rather than direct sequel the audience would be similar while after being described as the best Batman movie since The Dark Knight Warner Bros would have hoped it would also attract comic-book fans too who instead went to see John Wick Chapter 2 which opened with over double the first film $30m Vs $14.4m in 2014. The Lego Batman Movie received similar A CinemaScore as The Lego Movie with no real family competition until the release of Beauty and the Beast in three weeks’ time it should hold well and taking similar box office to The Lego Movie.
While Fifty Shades Darker opened far stronger than expected in the US down only 45.3% from the first film with many expecting a drop of closer to 60% opening with $46.6m compared to $85.17m for Fifty Shades of Grey in 2015. The big question will be how much the sequel drops in its second weekend as the original dropped 73.9% with its final box office 1.95x its opening taking $166.1m if Fifty Shades Darker was to do similar would take about $90m. Reviews for the sequel were worse than the original film but surprisingly CinemaScore was slightly better than the first film receiving a B+ compared to B+ for sequel.so its drop might not be as severe as the original only down 60%+.
The big surprise for the weekend as already mentioned was John Wick: Chapter 2 which received very positive reviews and an A- CinemaScore (the first received a B). After the first film in 2014 opened with $14.4m taking $43.1m it was surprising Lionsgate would make a sequel especially after how so many sequels to minor hits have performed lately. With John Wick Chapter 2 likely to take $80m+ he will surely be back in Chapter 3.
Night Shyamalan’s Split took $9.3m taking $112.3m will shortly become the director’s fourth biggest film in the US.
While Hidden Figures added $8m to take $131.4m the current highest grossing 2016 Best Picture Oscar Nominee. While unlikely to win any Oscars, or match the box office of Octavia Spencer’s 2011 film The Help which took $169.7m it has overtaken 1992’s The Bodyguard to become Kevin Costner’s third biggest film in the US (not including cameos) his biggest film since 1991’s Robin Hood: prince of Thieves
US Box Office Top 10
Opened February 17th
Opening UK
- John Wick: Chapter 2 – Warner Bros
Sequel to the 2014 action thriller film starring Keanu Reeves, Common, Laurence Fishburne, Ruby Rose, John Leguizamo and Ian McShane and directed by Chad Stahelski.
The original film was surprisingly acquired by Warner Bros as Pointbreak as would have expected Lionsgate UK to release both.
Opened seven months in the UK after its US opening April 10th 2015 with a disappointing £539,602 taking £1.5m despite receiving positive reviews likely due to opening the weekend after Fast & Furious 7 which took £5.4m in its second weekend. As in the US, it was a bigger success when it came to home entertainment.
As many 80s actors Keanu Reeves, has had a very up and down acting career with a very mixed slate of films of different genres as Johnny Depp and Nicholas Cage their follow-up choices of blockbusters hasn’t always been that successful; 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure was his breakthrough role followed by Parenthood but it was 1991’s Point Break and 1994’s Speed was the tenth biggest film in the UK taking £10.2m followed with flops Johnny Mnemonic, A Walk in the Clouds, Chain Reaction but then 1997’s Devil’s Advocate took £5.12m and The Matrix blew audiences away in 1999 while audiences were expecting Stars Wars: The Phantom Menace to be the sci-fi film of the year while taking only a quarter of its box office it was sci-fi fans film of the year opening with £3.38m taking £16.91m. As after Speed his follow-up movies disappointed returning in 2003 with The Matrix Reloaded opening with £12.16m taking £32.51m and The Matrix Revolutions opening with £8.71m and taking £17.75m.
His films since have had mixed success Something’s Gotta Give in 2004 opening £1.2m taking £6.68m, Constantine in 2005 opening £2.09m taking £6.45m, The Lake House in 2006 £761,465m taking £2.75m, The Day the Earth Stood Still in 2008 opened £2.75m taking £6.95m and 47 Ronin in 2013 opening with £1.41m taking £2.72m
Reviews for John Wick: Chapter 2 have been very positive while the marketplace is busy with family films and award nominees and with XxX3: The Return of Xander Cage disappointing hasn’t been a good action film for several months so should do far better than original.
- Hidden Figures – 20th Century Fox
Biographical drama starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst and Jim Parsons and directed by directed by Theodore Melfi.
Footage was first screened at Toronto Film Festival in September with a Q&A with Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe and Pharrell Williams which started generating the strong buzz for the film ahead of receiving positive reviews. Which built up over the following three months till its limited opening on Christmas Day expanding wide on January 6th holding top for two weeks the first film with females leads to doing so since 2011s The Help and received A+ CinemaScore in the US one of less than 60 films to do so.
Even with the strong buzz and reviews, Hidden Figures would be a hard sell to UK audiences, 20th Century Fox has had over recent weeks a big talker screening program across the UK to build word of mouth.
At the Golden Globes Micheal Keaton accidently mixed up Hidden Figures and Fences calling the film Hidden Fences and Stephen Colbert created the trailer for Hidden Fences.
The problem for Hidden Figures as films like Fences and Moonlight is even though they transcend race as a Kevin Hart film does now they are still unlikely to find the wide audience they deserve and are still overshadowed by hype for La La Land. While The Help was a massive surprise hit in the US in August 2011 opening (with $26.1m taking $169.7m) opened disappointingly in seventh with £896,387 in the UK in October 2011 taking £3.86m with a crowded marketplace Hidden Figures is likely to do similar.
Hidden Figures opened on limited release in 13 screens taking £83,000 with a total of £163,000 which will be added to its opening weekend.
- The Great Wall – Universal Pictures
Historical fiction action-adventure starring Matt Damon, Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe and Andy Lau and directed by Zhang Yimou the first English language film directed by him, opened in China in December taking $67.4m in its opening weekend.
Received mixed reviews which created controversy after film review website Douban gave it a low score the Communist Party’s official website People’s Daily write an article criticizing the website for doing harm to the Chinese film industry with bad reviews and the score was removed the same day from Douban website.
While Matt Damon’s last two films Jason Bourne opened with £7.59m and The Martian £6.52m The Great Wall is unlikely to get anywhere near with positive reviews John Wick should easily defeat Jason Bourne.
- The Founder – Studiocanal
Biographical drama starring Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch and directed by John Lee Hancock; reviews have been positive with a strong performance from Michael Keaton.
The Founder was a potential award contender being Michael Keaton’s first film since Oscar the winning Spotlight last year and director John Lee Hancock’s previous films Oscar-nominated 2013’s Saving Mr Banks and 2009’s The Blind Side.
Originally set for November 2016 in the US was brought forward to August but then delayed for a December Oscar-qualifying opening before opening in January. In the UK
In the US Weinstein Company are being sued over the timing of The Founder so close to Gold after both underperformed at the US box office; FilmNation, as many critics have said, are similarities between the two films both seen as potential award contenders starring Oscar-winning actors Michael Keaton and Matthew McConaughey as real-life businessmen who manipulate people as they build tremendous fortunes.
Had The Founder opened in August would have been an alternative to the many summer blockbusters but as with so many films now they get squeezed into December/January window causing many to cannibalize Nocturnal Animals, Miss Sloane, Silence, Live By Night and A Monster Calls all failed at the box office and award recognition.
With no award nominations, The Founder is likely to perform similarly to Gold opening with £400k.
- Moonlight – Altitude
Drama starring Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali and directed by Barry Jenkins, based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue; similar to La La Land ever since receiving its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival has been seen as one of the best films of the year winning Best Drama Film at Golden Globes and has received 8 Oscar nominations and 4 BAFTA nominations.
Many have compared the Oscar battle between Moonlight and La La Land with Brokeback Mountain and Crash in 2005 while most expected Brokeback Mountain to win Best Film Crash won surprising everyone. While won’t be any surprise La La Land wins as has been favourite to win since September but once the memberries have worn off many will wonder why.
Moonlight opened on 28 screens later weekend taking £77,000 with additional previews its box office was up to £193,000 which will be added to its opening this weekend.
Opening in US
- A Cure for Wellness – 20th Century Fox
Psychological horror thriller starring Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs and Mia Goth and directed by Gore Verbinski; had premiere in December at the Butt-Numb-A-Thon Film Festival in Austin, Texas; received mixed reviews from critics.
Its director Gore Verbinski since 2013’s flop The Lone Ranger; while better known now for directing the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films 15 years ago, he directed the first American remake of Rings in 2002 opened with $15.01m taking $129.1m.
Opening so soon after Split could be a positive or a negative as audiences for Split would have seen the trailer before it; opening is expected to be about $12-15m dependent on how Spit holds in its fifth weekend.
As part of its marketing campaign, 20th Century Fox planted Trump-Putin fake news stories claiming that President Donald Trump met with Vladimir Putin at a remote wellness center in the Swiss Alps prior to the November 2016 U.S. presidential election. The news story featured on The Sacramento Dispatch website. Some people criticized the planting of fake news Fox and Regency responded in a statement, “A Cure for Wellness is a movie about a ‘fake’ cure that makes people sicker. As part of this campaign, a ‘fake’ wellness site healthandwellness.co was created and we partnered with a fake news creator to publish fake news. As our movie’s antagonist says, ‘There is a sickness inside us. And only when we know what ails us, can we hope to find the cure.”
- Fist Fight – Warner Bros
Comedy starring Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Christina Hendricks, Dennis Haysbert and Tracy Morgan and directed by Richie Keen; a sorta remake of the 1987 teen comedy film Three O’Clock High.
But are Ice Cube and Charlie Day film leads? As have had success as co-stars Ice Cube in films including 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street along with Ride Along 2 and Barbershop: The Next while Charlie Day has had supporting roles in many films including Horrible Bosses two films Pacific Rim and Vacation.
Warner Bros last year showed low budget comedies can still successful in the US with Barbershop: The Next Cut taking $54.1m and How to Be Single $46.8m but Keanu disappointed $20.5m
- The Great Wall – Universal Pictures
While being Matt Damon’s follow-up to The Martian and Jason Bourne both opening strongly with $54.3m in 2015 and $59.2m in 2016 it’s unlikely this Chinese co-production will come close.
Was rumoured that Legendary Pictures founder Thomas Tull was forced out of the production company after its disappointing performance in China by owner Wanda Group. The Great Wall budget was $150 the most expensive US-China film ever taking $165m in China and $200m worldwide. With mixed reviews, it’s unlikely to find success at the box office in the US or UK.
In 2005 Legendary Pictures had a co-production deal with Warner Bros moving to Universal Pictures in 2014 with a five-year deal was acquired by the Wanda Group in January 2016. Since moving to Universal apart from Jurassic World which wasn’t a film developed by Legendary Pictures they have failed to repeat the success had at Warner Bros Steve Jobs, Crimson Peak, Warcraft were all disappointments.
