Top 5 Breakdown
- The Boss Baby – £8,025,886 – NE
The Boss Baby had 20th Century Fox’s biggest Dreamworks Animation opening in the UK ahead of 2014’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 £7.81m and had the biggest opening in the UK for an original Dreamworks Animation ahead of 2008’s Kung Fu Panda £7.76m.
But as The Boss Baby had six days of previews compared with only two for Kung Fu Panda and being released 9 years ago the ticket price difference is almost 50%. The Boss Baby benefited from having four of those six days of previews from being part of the Easter holidays but was affected by the hottest temperatures of the year on Saturday/Sunday.
After taking a strong £2.52m from previews last weekend took £2.79m from Fri-Sun in comparison last year Trolls took £2.43m from previews and took £3.01m Fri-Sun with an opening weekend of £5.44m. The Boss Baby was also below Home, Shrek and Monsters Vs Aliens comparing its Fri-Sun but this is expected when films have extended previews and when the sun comes out.
With more children starting their Easter holidays and cooler temperatures, this week should be lucrative for The Boss Baby especially with Smurfs: The Lost Village dropping 60% in its second weekend. The Boss Baby will also suffer similar drop next weekend but by then would have overtaken Turbo and moved close to Mr. Peaboy & Sherman and Kung Fu Panda 3 to be 20th Century Fox’s fifth biggest Dreamworks Animation film.
Boss Baby is the ninth Dreamworks Animation film released by 20th Century Fox final film is Captain Underpants opening 28th July. Universal Pictures release Dreamworks Animation films from start of 2018 with How to Train Your Dragon 3, Everest and Trolls 2 while 20th Century Fox looks to the future with Ferdinand opening in December with Anubis in 2018 and Pigeon Impossible in 2019 from Blue Sky Animation.
| Trolls | 21 October 2016 | £5.44m | 23.2% | £23.36m |
| Kung Fu Panda 3 | 18 March 2016 | £4.76m | 34.1% | £13.99m |
| Home | 20 March 2015 | £6.02m | 24.1% | £24.97m |
| Penguins of Madagascar | 5 December 2014 | £1.61m | 20.2% | £7.96m |
| How to Train Your Dragon 2 | 11 July 2014 | £7.81m | 32.2% | £24.25m |
| Mr. Peaboy & Sherman | 7 February 2014 | £3.91m | 28.8% | £13.55m |
| Turbo | 17 October 2013 | £3.89m | 34.3% | £11.32m |
| The Croods | 22 March 2013 | £5.37m | 20.5% | £26.15m |
- Beauty and the Beast – £2,759,448 – £58,485,266
Down 59.1% in its fourth weekend a similar drop to The Jungle Book in its fourth weekend last year which took E2.13m down 63% taking £36.83m 80% of its final box office if Beauty and the Beast holds similar will take close to £74m.
Beauty and the Beast has become the 14th biggest film in the UK and over the next two weeks will overtake Rogue One to be the biggest film in the UK since Star Wars The Force Awakens. But with The Fate of the Furious opening this weekend and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 in two weeks’ time even with an Easter boost its likely to end as the sixth biggest film topping 2010’s Toy Story 3. But as the chart below shows admissions tell a different story.
With Easter holidays now started Beauty and the Beast can be compared directly with Toy Story 3 box office which held stronger in its fourth weekend taking 13% less £3.16m Vs £2.76m taking 1% less £58.9m Vs £58.49m. While their box office is similar admissions tell a different story with Toy Story 3 admissions 24% more than Beauty and the Beast 10.1m Vs 7.68m showing how the 30% increase on ticket prices since is affecting the box office on films released only a few years ago.
While their box office is similar admissions tell a different story with Toy Story 3 admissions 24% more than Beauty and the Beast 10.1m Vs 7.68m showing how the 30% increase on ticket prices since is affecting the box office on films released only a few years ago.
While their box office is similar admissions tell a different story with Toy Story 3 admissions 24% more than Beauty and the Beast 10.1m Vs 7.68m showing how the 30% increase on ticket prices since is affecting the box office on films released only a few years ago.
While their box office is similar admissions tell a different story with Toy Story 3 admissions 24% more than Beauty and the Beast 10.1m Vs 7.68m showing how the 30% increase on ticket prices since is affecting the box office on films released only a few years ago.
If Beauty and the Beast holds close to Toy Story 3 in its fourth week will add £2.84m Mon -Thurs and £1.8m+ for its fifth weekend which will see it taking £63m+ while see it coming close to Jurassic World box office of £64.5m.
Beauty and the Beast is 9% (ticket prices increased 6% since) ahead of 2015’s Jurassic World (took £2.61m in its fourth weekend dropping 55% and £53.76m). In its fourth weekend Terminator: Genisys, Magic Mike XXL and Amy opened. Hard to compare Jurassic World directly with Beauty and the Beast fourth weekend as holidays will share its box office over all 7 days instead of concentrating it over its weekend as Jurassic World.
In an interview with Marie Claire Australia Emma Watson had a theory on why men have been upset over Star Wars films with female leads. “It’s something they’re not used to, and they don’t like that,” “Anything that deviates from the norm is difficult to accept. I think if you’ve been used to watching characters that look like, sound like, think like you, and then you see someone [unexpected] up on the screen, you go, ‘Well, that’s a girl, she doesn’t look like me. I want it to look like me so that I can project myself onto the character.’ But “Women are great about that,” she quipped. “We see whoever is on screen and recognize the human qualities in the man that we relate to, and there’s not such a gap. But for some reason, there’s barrier there where [men] are like, ‘I don’t want to relate to a girl.’ I think it is inherently part of the problem.”
- Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience – £1,050,962 – NE
Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience opened similar to Ballerina opened in December with £1.1m went on to take £4.03m aimed at a younger audience as the Tinkerbell films have done previously; 2014’s Tinkerbell and the Fairy, 2011’s Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings and 2009’s Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue.
Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience is probably one of the most important films being released this year as cartoon TV series is beloved by pre-schoolers and was probably the first cinema experience of most of the children who saw it.
I went with my brother sister-in-law and their children on Saturday morning wanted to see how they would react to going to cinema for the first time, their first comment was that’s a big TV. But when the film started they were both totally immersed watching the film.
At the cinema, I was the children were far better behaved than the adults which several recording clips of the film on their mobile overhearing one afterwards say to their child lets go home and show daddy the clips. I did mention this later to the cinema on Twitter.
I was surprised exhibitors didn’t see Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience as a chance to nurture this audience as to quote Edward Lewis comment about opera in Pretty Woman “People’s reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic; they either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it.” The same could be said about cinema if the children enjoyed their first cinema experience they would be back again and again. But the one thing that could alienate parents from taking their children to see Peppa Pig is exhibitors charged regular prices for the 60-minute film.
Exhibitors could have made more of Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience the clue was in its title by making children’s first cinema experience more memorable as parents were taking pictures of their children watching the film as it was a momentous occasion for many of them being their first time.
Vue Cinemas had a promo before the start of Peppa Pig saying they are much more than film offering theatre, TV, and sporting events but these should be priced accordingly so a 60 minute Peppa Pig film or the final episode of Broadchurch which is being screened in cinemas on Monday shouldn’t cost the same as a 2-hour film.
Exhibitors need to be price sensitive with films like Peppa Pig and Broadchurch seeing it as a long-term project of expanding its audience while many complain about the cost of cinema they will still pay to see the big films but when it’s a new product or service won’t be so accepting of the cost as seen by the drop in 3D sales in recent years and there are questions over Event Cinema with tickets often more than double regular prices how long will audiences be willing to pay these surcharges.
The previous Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots opened February 13th, 2015 with £687,417 taking £2.32m and Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience should do a similar.
- Ghost in the Shell – £725,720 – £4,161,002
Down 69.6% in its telling second weekend after poor reviews and word of mouth helped the film generate much coverage on social media most the 15,000 comments were negative
Paramount recently admitted the whitewashing controversy hurt the films box office. But as this was caused by the casting of Scarlett Johansson in the lead Paramount should have expected this especially after similar issues with casting of Emma Stone in Aloha, Rooney Mara in Pan and white cast of Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings all happened close to the time Scarlett Johansson was cast in the lead. It is, of course, understandable why she was cast in the lead as she was signed up for the film months after 2014’s Lucy opened.
Originally Disney was releasing the film in the US and Paramount Internationally in January Disney dropped the film from its release schedule and Paramount acquired US rights did Disney know something or maybe were concerned after whitewashing controversies?
With the arrival of The Fate of the Furious, this week Ghost in the Shell will quickly drop out of the charts in the next couple of weeks.
- Get Out – £596,746 – £8,046,042
Despite dropping 45.6% in its fourth weekend Get Out is holding well helped by strong word of mouth and the poor performance of many films that have opened over recent weeks.
Get Out is holding close to Split which took £682,691 in its fourth weekend dropping 45% taking £9.58m 72% of its final box office of £11.18m if Get Out continues to hold close to Split it could still take £10m.
Get Out and Split were both produced by Blumhouse Productions upcoming films include The Belko Experiment opening in the UK in two weeks’ time and long-delayed Amityville: The Awakening opening in June over 2 years after was originally set for release. Lowriders opening in May a year after premiering at the Los Angeles Film Festival and Insidious: Chapter 4 opening in October. Next Blumhouse Production film to be released by Universal is horror Stephanie and The Purge 4 in July 2018.
Also, released
Going in Style – Warner – £569,352 from 454 screens
With the hottest temperatures of the year to date was expected Going in Style would suffer the most of all new releases but still gave Zach Braff his biggest opening as a director in the UK. But his previous two films only had limited releases in the UK 2004’s Garden State (opened with £128,366 in 48 screens taking £692,749 and 2014’s Wish I Was Here £27,739 from 36 screens.)
Table 19 – 20th Century Fox – £130,602 from 221 screens
Raw – Universal Pictures – £67,042 from 77 screens
City of Tiny Lights – Icon Films – £28,038 from 57 screens
Other box office news
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £15,013,493 up 3.1% from last weekend £14,560,829;
Weekend admissions 2,026,112 up 3.1% from last week 1,965,024; (but as many cinemas have free tickets to under 2s the 141,830 admissions for Peppa Pig could be double this)
The weekend was up 35.7% from last year (£11,057,951): The Huntsman Winters War £3,029,680, Midnight Special £497,023, Hardcore Henry £206,578 and The Man Who Knew Infinity £147,000 opened.
2015: (£8,030,369): Child 44 £505,422 and A Little Chaos £327,920 opened.
Next weekend in 2016 (£15,680,644): The Jungle Book £9,868,926, Eye in the Sky £1,102,667 opened.
Admission for the first three months are claimed to be 47m would mean a three-month box office of £348.27m as admissions are calculated by Cinema Exhibitors Association average ticket price of £7.41 but as anyone who actually pays to go to the cinema knows they won’t get change of £10 this is fake news as real admissions are nearer 35m over 25% less.
UK Box Office Top 10
US Box office
US Box Office Top 10
The Boss Baby held the top spot for a second weekend dropping 48% taking $26.36m and a total of $89.43m; 4.5% less than Trolls took after10 days but The Boss Baby had competition from both Beauty and the Beast and newcomer Smurfs: The Lost Village.
Beauty and the Beast drops 47..9% in its fourth weekend taking $23.65m and $430.94m total; has become the 15th biggest film in the US ahead of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Over the next week will get close to overtaking Finding Dory and overtake non-inflation increased box office of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Shrek 2, The Dark Knight Rises, Star Wars and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
After four weeks, The Jungle Book last year dropped similar 44% taking similarly $24.48m and total of $287.6m 79% of its final box office of $364m if Beauty and the Beast was to continue to hold as The Jungle Book will added another $100m+ overtaking Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and get close to overtaking 2008’s The Dark Knight $534.8m the sixth biggest film ever in the US.
Globally Beauty and the Beast added $36.1m taking its worldwide box office to $975m topping last year’s global box office of The Jungle Book $966m.
Smurfs: The Lost Village opening lower than predicted with $13.21m; 61% less than 2011’s The Smurfs and 20% less than 2013’s The Smurfs 2; while receiving an A CinemaScore opening was squeezed by the top two.
Must question the logic of Sony’s decision to open Smurfs: The Lost Village a week after The Boss Baby as Lionsgate opening Power Rangers a week after Beauty and the Beast as both films targeting the same audience and were always likely to lose.
Going in Style opened stronger than expected opening with $11.92m receiving a B+ CinemaScore; going into the weekend was tracking to opening with about $8m but again shows how tracking has failed to predict openings of many films this year, early tracking has Wonder Woman expected to open with about $80m which would be the lowest for a DC Universe film but as with other recent films by June 5th its opening will likely be $110m+ as it is one of the most eagerly awaited comic-book movies of the year and summer movies.
After Ghost in the Shell poor opening was no surprise dropped over 60% taking $7.3m and $31.52m total. Internationally took $41.3m ($21.4m from China) international total of $92.8m and global $125m.
Was reported Ghost in the Shell could lose up to $60m; global B.O. expected $200m ($50m US, $150m international and P&A/production costs of $250m+ while the budget was reported $110m some have said it was closer to $180m would see it losing close to the $115m Paramount lost with Monster Trucks last year.
Ghost in the Shell was made by Dreamworks with Disney releasing in US and Paramount international but Paramount acquired US rights in January 2016 but which time Disney could have known of issues with the film and didn’t need the hassle already having a strong slate of in-house films.
Power Rangers has now taken $75.1m in the US and almost $120m worldwide; Lionsgate originally had plans to make up to seven sequels but on its current performance it’s highly unlikely they will now happen. Was Smurfs: The Lost Village like Power Rangers hurt by poor dating opening a week after Beauty and the Beast and weeks after Logan and Kong: Skull Island always seemed strange as with Smurfs: The Lost Village opening week after The Boss Baby.
Logan has overtaken the box office of 2003’s X2 to become the fourth biggest X-Men film in the US while the 10 film series has taken over $2 billion and is close to taken $5 billion worldwide.
On limited release
After opening on 541 screens Focus Features The Zookeeper’s Wife had a strong debut opening in 10th but expanded into 265 screens but failed to build n its first weekend taking $2.68m and a total of $7.39m. With the new limited releases will The Zookeeper’s Wife be able to expand further this is the problem expanding to 800+ screens rather than over 1,000 as Searchlight is doing this weekend with their expansion of Gifted.
Fox Searchlight’s Gifted had a decent opening taking $446,380 from 56 screens expands to 850 screens this week and then over 1,500 screens by April 21st. The film has received positive reviews highlighted by the performances by Chris Evans and McKenna Grace.
Neon’s Colossal had strong debut taking $120,226 from 4 screens; the film generated strong media coverage after Ann Hathaway was asked during the press tour about how it felt after Hathahate in 2013 after her Oscar acceptance speech. In an interview with Jezebel she gave a response to the hate.
‘I was just reading Susan Sontag: The Complete Rolling Stone Interview at lunch, and she said, I’m going to paraphrase it right now, “I don’t try to change other people—it’s so much easier to change yourself.” How the world feels about me has nothing to do with me. How other people treat me has nothing to do with me. But if anything, that anybody said resonated with me as something I’d like to work on for myself, I took it in like that. And to that extent, I feel like I got to shortcut a lot of my growth. To that extent, even though I wouldn’t have chosen to go through it, I still found a way to be grateful to it.’
The film is the first released by Neon film distributor owned by owned by Tom Quinn & Tim League the CEO of Alamo Drafthouse theatres.
STX’s Their Finest had ok debut with $76,197 from 4 screens
Opened April 14th
Opening UK
- The Fate of the Furious – Universal Pictures
The eighth part of the film series starring star Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Kurt Russell, Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren and directed by F. Gary Gray. (Universal have already dated Furious 9 for April 2019 and Furious 10 for April 2021).
After the massive success, both critically (critics were in tears coming out of screenings) and at the box office taking a third more than Fast & Furious 6 can part 8 possibly get bigger; if the trailer is anything to go by then maybe as it’s crazier than ever trailers for similar Mechanic: Resurrection and XxX3: The Return of Xander Cage have been equally insane.
During filming break of Furious 7 in November 2013 Paul Walker died and Universal put the film on hold indefinitely but in December Vin Diesel announced on his Facebook page it would be released April 10th 2015 many seeing it the film as memorial to Paul Walker as the theme song was with Wiz Khalifa – See You Again ft. Charlie Puth which has received 2.28 billion views. Paul Walker.
it will be the first Furious film since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift not to star him which was the lowest performing film of the series in the UK/US and worldwide.
| The Fast and the Furious | 14th Sept 2001 | £1.76m | 3.68x | £6.49m |
| 2 Fast 2 Furious | 30 June 2003 | £2.74m | 2.56x | £7.04m |
| The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift | 16th June 2006 | £1.81m | 3.12x | £5.66m |
| Fast & Furious | 10 April 2009 | £4.92m | 2.75x | £13.53m |
| Fast & Furious 5 | 21 April 2011 | £5.33m | 3.37x | £18.01m |
| Fast & Furious 6 | 17 May 2013 | £8.72m | 2.78x | £24.3m |
| Fast & Furious 7 | 3 April 2015 | £12.74m | 3.01x | £38.38m |
- The Sense of Ending – Studiocanal
Drama starring Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Emily Mortimer and Michelle Dockery and directed by Ritesh Batra based in novel by Julian Barnes; had its world premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January (receiving positive reviews) and UK premiere April 6th.
Reviews have been positive The Sense of Ending hoping to repeat the success of films like Woman in Gold and Eye in the Sky that has performed strongly in April targeting the lucrative over 50 audiences. Will face competition with Going in Style opening last weekend was affected by the hottest temperatures of the year to date and Lone Scherfig directed Their Finest opening next weekend.
Opening in the US
- The Fate of the Furious – Universal Pictures
| The Fast and the Furious | 22nd Jun 2001 | $40.08m | $144.53m |
| 2 Fast 2 Furious | 6th June 2003 | $50.47m | $127.15m |
| The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift | 16th June 2006 | $23.97m | $62.51m |
| Fast and Furious | 3rd April 2009 | $70.95m | $155.06m |
| Fast Five | 29th April 2011 | $86.19m | $209.83m |
| Fast & Furious 6 | 24th May 2013 | $97.37m | $238.67m |
| Furious 7 | 3rd Apr 2015 | $147.18m | $353.01m |
The seven films to date have taken almost $1.3 billion in the US and almost $3.9 billion worldwide
The seventh film has been tracking to open over the last few weeks with $120m but as tracking has fallen short in many films this year including The Lego Batman Movie, Logan, Kong: Skull Island, Beauty and the Beast and Boss Baby The Fate of the Furious could open as big as Furious 7.
After holding a premiere for their trailer for Furious 7 (November 1st 2014) Universal Pictures again pulled out all the stops for the trailer of The Fate of the Furious in December with a live-streaming event on Facebook featuring cast members Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Tyrese Gibson in New York City.
The trailer debuted during pre-game show for NBC’s Sunday Night Football and was released online soon after becoming the most-viewed in history 139 million views within first 24 hours, beating previous records Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, 127.6 million times, also beating Fifty Shades Darker 114m and Star Wars: The Force Awakens 112 million. Its record was recently broken by the trailer of Stephen King’s It in March seen by 197 million in its first 24 hours.
This record will likely be broken again this month with the release of the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi expected to be released next weekend during the Star Wars Celebrations in Orlando.
Universal Pictures have already dated two more sequels for release in 2019 and 2021 parts 9 and 10 ending a trilogy of films starting with Furious 8 by which time Vin Diesel will be in his mid-50s but after xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and all other films he has starred since 2005’s The Pacifier have flopped apart from vocally in Guardians of the Galaxy and upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. He and Universal Pictures will surely want to make these films forever more as Paramount plan to do with Transformers and Disney with Star Wars and Marvel movies.
The film screened last month at CinemaCon being well received my exhibitors and early reviews have described it as insane as all previous parts and the interviewer asked the possibility of a future part set in space which was told it could be a possibility.
The Fate of the Furious is expected to open with between $375m-$450m worldwide likely to beat the $397.7m Furious 7 opened with in April 2015 which became Universal Pictures second biggest global opener behind Jurassic World $525m. Furious 8 opens in 63 countries in over 20,000 screens. Experts are predicting while Furious 8 will take more globally its US debut will be less than Furious 7 $147.1m as Furious 7 received far better reviews was a goodbye to Paul Walker.
The big question for The Fate of the Furious is will it can match the Chinese box office of Furious 7 which took $391.3m 11% more than its US box office of $353m and 26% of its global box office. The Fate of the Furious has already set a Chinese presale ticket record of $18.1mbeating previous record holder Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back $14.6m the film went on to take $240m.
- The Lost City of Z – Bleecker Street
Action adventure starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller and directed by James Gray, based on the 2009 book of the same name by David Grann; had the world premiere in October at the New York Film Festival and screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and UK premiere in February.
The film was originally based at Paramount Pictures developed by Plan B Productions to star Brad Pitt producers brought the film back after it was being delayed at Paramount. Amazon Studios acquired US rights in September 2016 with who sold theatrically rights weeks after to Bleecker Street.
While exhibitors won’t have anything to do with Netflix are happy to work with Amazon especially after Amazon’s CinemaCon presentation last month promising to support the traditional theatrical window. Amazon has now released 15 films including Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea and as Netflix are spending billions producing and acquiring original film and TV content for their streaming services.
Amazon’s upcoming slate includes The Big Sick starring Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter and Ray Romano. Amazon acquired the rights at Sundance opens June 23. Also, Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying starring Laurence Fishburne, Steve Carell, and Bryan Cranston, Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel opening September starring Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake and Jim Belushi.
