Top 5 Breakdown
- Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – £9,735,930 – NE
Opened with £3.65m on Friday the fourth biggest opening day for Universal Pictures in the UK despite 80 degrees temperatures proving again to quote Field of Dreams if you screen it, they will come no matter the weather or sporting event.
Over the last month, many have blamed the low box office on the hot weather, but it was more a lack of content that opening after Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom during the World Cup.
Having the fourth biggest opening of 2018 after Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Black Panther.
Had #81 biggest opening in the UK between The Incredibles and Incredibles 2 and #149 inflation inflated opening between Toy Story and Incredibles 2; Mamma Mia! #143 biggest opening between Terminator Salvation and Logan.
Opened 47.2% bigger than Mamma Mia! opening with £6,594,058 including £1,373,487 from Thursday previews since 2008 ticket inflation is 47.5% so admissions are very similar for the two films 1,268,088 Vs 1,264,668.
In 2008 Mamma Mia! opened #1 with Hancock #2 £3,666,398 and Kung Fu Panda £2,812,094; it held #1 for two weeks dropping only 31% taking £4,561,109 and £16,851,641 against Wall-E £4,253,736 dropping to second in its third weekend taking £2,830,207 against The Dark Knight opening with £11,191,824.
Mamma Mia! stayed in top 5 for 13 weeks and top 10 for 17 weeks in comparison earlier this year The Greatest Showman took 6 weeks to become #1 and was in the top 10 for 18 weeks.
Over the last 25 years Mamma Mia! had the seventh smallest opening percentage to final box office total behind The Full Monty, The Greatest Showman, Slumdog Millionaire, Titanic, The Kings Speech and Avatar and slightly ahead of Jurassic Park. Mamma Mia! was also the fourth biggest opening and total box office after Titanic, The Kings Speech and Avatar.
But it’s impossible to compare Mamma Mia! with The Greatest Showman as Mamma Mia! was based on very popular stage show featuring classic ABBA songs that have been enjoyed for almost 40 years their 1992 Greatest Hits album has sold over 28 million copies and the films soundtrack sold over 5 million copies in 2008 including over 1.5m in the UK;
In comparison, The Greatest Showman soundtrack has sold 1m copies in the US and UK but were original songs. As the first Mamma Mia! film the sequel generated huge media coverage something The Greatest Showman only received after fan-generated content became big news.
Critics especially British critics have been much more positive about the sequel over the first film helped by the tear-jerking script written by Richard Curtis doing the same thing he has done in all of his films since Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994. The same critics who called The Greatest Showman fake loved Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, but the sequel feels far faker.
While Lily James is wonderful as she is in the everything she does since appearing in 2015’s reimagination of Cinderella (currently filing untitled Danny Boyle/Richard Curtis musical which is set for release in September 2019) rest of the film feels staged as the first film was.
Why do British audiences keep falling for the Richard Curtis scripts that cynically pulls at your heartstrings and critics also seem to fall for it each time but US audiences are far more ambivalent about the films as they are with James Bond films
The first trailer was released in December attached to Pitch Perfect 3; the absence of Meryl Streep’s character Donna in the trailer made many worried that she might be dead especially Julie Walters tells Amanda Seyfried: “Your mother was the bravest person we ever met.” The death of a key character is something Richard Curtis has done in many of his films since Four Weddings and a Funeral as he knows exactly how to get audiences to get teary-eyed as most were coming out of screenings. As this is a regular occurrence with screenplays written by Richard Curtis feel that the screenplay was more manipulating than the first film which he didn’t write.
Lyrics of Abba’s song When I Kissed the Teacher was changed in the film to make them politically correct. The original lyrics were changed from “I’m a bashful child, beginning to grow” to “I’m a curious child, beginning to grow”. The original also features the lyrics “One of these days, gonna tell him I dream of him every night, One of these days, gonna show him I care. Gonna teach him a lesson alright.” The new lyrics are “What a mad day, now I see everything in a different light. “What a mad day, I was up in the air. And she taught me a lesson alright.”
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again originally was due to open July 27th opposite Mission Impossible: Fallout thought that would mean that it would have had extended previews as Universal Pictures has often done with their films. But was surprised that the sequel didn’t have any previews.
It’s interesting since Universal Pictures split with Paramount Pictures their rivalry has grown as regularly now open their films opposite each other. For decades the two studios released their films through UIP but it’s interesting how over the years distributors have partnered up that you wouldn’t think would of. In the 80s and early 90s, Warner Bros released Disney films international while also in the 80s Columbia-Warner-EMI also partnered up. In the 70s early 80s was Fox-Rank (Rank Films were up to the 60s was on par with US studios in size releasing Universal films internationally, also produced as many films as studios but in the 70s 80s and 90s dropped off before being sold to Carlton TV now part of ITV).
With Disney buying Fox will rival studios seek partnerships again to allow them to try to compete with Disney who will have over 50% share. In the 80s and 90s, UIP had 30%+ share of the UK box office.
- Incredibles 2 – £6,803,384 – £22,424,082
Down 29.5% in its second weekend; had the 29th biggest second weekend in the UK between Black Panther and The Dark Knight and 55th biggest second weekend after 10 days between Alice In Wonderland and The Inbetweeners Movie 2 holding similar to Despicable Me 2 went on to take £47,436,199 in 2013 a similar total is likely for Incredibles 2.
Had the 69th biggest inflation inflated the second weekend in between The Lego Movie and Paddington 2 which was less than Incredibles #63 which is surprising as Incredibles 2 second weekend was during school holidays, but Incredibles second weekend was in early December. Will be interesting to see how Hotel Transylvania 3 affects Incredibles 2 box office this weekend playing to a young audience
Incredibles 2 had the second biggest second weekend for a Pixar film after Toy Story 3 taking £8,115,193 and £39,791,223 but Toy Story 3 took £9,693,440 from previews but Incredibles 2 didn’t have previews; Incredibles 2 was also the second biggest Pixar film after 10 days on release taking £22,424,082 Vs Toy Story 3 £39,791,223.
After 10 days on release Incredibles 2 has overtaken Cars 3, The Good Dinosaur, Cars 2, Cars, Coco, Brave, Toy Story and Wall-e to become 12th biggest Pixar film in the UK.
After 10 days on release Incredibles 2 is also ahead of all six Illumination Entertainment films Despicable Me £7,585,348, Despicable Me 2 £22,914,407, Minions £20,973,912, The Secret Life of Pets £16,615,725, Sing £15,292,036 and Despicable Me 3 £19,578,209 and is likely to overtake the totals of all those films.
Over recent years there have been several possible occasions when Pixar and Illumination Entertainment would go head to head but then the release date of one of them was moved. Next year this isn’t possible due to Disney releasing their Lion King reimagination in July so The Secret Life of Pets 2 will open only two weeks before Toy Story 4.
By next weekend will overtake A Bug’s Life, Monsters University and Incredibles breaking the £30m barrier becoming the 112th film to take over £30m at the UK box office since Jurassic Park released 25 years ago.
The 19 Pixar film has taken over £585m over the last 22 years with an average box office is £30.5m; Disney brought Pixar in 2006 for $7.4bn have also brought Marvel Entertainment for $4bn, Lucasfilm for $4bn in 2012 and is in the process of buying 20th Century Fox for $71bn
Pixar was always seen as a studio of originality but in the last five years have released seven films four of them were sequels, with Toy Story 4 released next summer it won’t be until March 2020 until they release another original animated film.
- Skyscraper – £892,723 – £3,813,384
Down 51.21% in its second weekend; with Mission Impossible: Fallout opening Wednesday Skyscraper will drop 50%+ again this weekend becoming Dwyane Johnson’s worst film at the UK box office since 2014’s Hercules £5,178,467 and 2013’s Pain and Gain £1,923,892.
Recent Dwyane Johnson second weekends
San Andreas dropped -61.22% taking £1,794,747 and £8,334,562 total £11,316,171
Central Intelligence dropped -56.00% taking £1,342,004 and £5,680,743 total £8,459,045
Baywatch dropped -75.39% taking £1,139,773 and £6,983,836 total £9,511,833
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle dropped -36.10% taking £5,210,725 and £17,835,902 total £36,968,605
Rampage dropped -65.59% taking £1,413,973 and £6,483,777 total £8,695,722
After starring in Moana, The Fate of the Furious, Baywatch, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Rampage and Skyscraper over the last two years his next films are Fighting with My Family, Hobbs and Shaw (Fast and Furious spinoff), Jungle Cruise and Jumanji 2 all set for release next year.
Dwayne Johnson producer Hiram Garcia revealed that all of his films are connected with family being central to the Dwayne Johnson Universe “That’s the thing, right? In our business, the ultimate goal is everyone wants to create a universe, so if we can somehow if there’s a master plan happening right now that you just don’t know. But maybe in about 10 more years, we’re gonna have our version of an ‘Infinity War,’ a Dwayne Johnson War. Just say you heard it here first, and that we’re damn brilliant for doing it.”
Die Hard in February 1989 took £2,975,086; Die Hard 2: Die Harder in August 1992 took £5,536,813; Die Hard with a Vengeance in August 1995 took £10,183,239; Die Hard 4.0 in July 2007 took £13,644,640; A Good Day to Die Hard in February 2013 took £10,686,411
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – £618,226 – £39,682,147
Down 25.04% in its seventh weekend; 11% less than Jurassic World took in its seventh weekend which took £1,004,125 down 12% and £61,485,607 95.88% of £64,322,933 total; if Fallen Kingdom holds similar will take £41.3m 35.8% less than Jurassic World
Will shortly become the 60th film since Jurassic Park 25 years ago to take over £40m at the UK box office overtaking Peter Rabbit to be the third biggest film of the year after Avengers Infinity Wars and Black Panther. After opening with £14,334,894 and with no competition Fallen Kingdom should have taken £50m+ after Jurassic World was the biggest film of the year in 2015 taking £64.32m (currently 13th biggest film in the UK) until Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened.
Fallen Kingdom is the 61st biggest film in the UK between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith and Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End and is 9th biggest Universal Pictures film in the UK and will shortly overtake Les Miserables.
Fallen Kingdom is the 93rd biggest film in the UK including ticket inflation between The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Shrek Forever After.
Fallen Kingdom has taken exactly 10% of its US box office the same as Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool; UK taking 10% of US box office is used often comparing their box office as the popular difference of the two countries is about 80%. But while UK and US audiences are similar for tentpoles other films especially with a British element UK will often take up to 40% as with Peter Rabbit, Darkest Hour and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
On July 18th a 25ft topless statue of Jeff Goldblum appeared in London near Tower Bridge to celebrate Jurassic Park 25th anniversary (two days after its actual anniversary July 16th as back then distributors would hold back their major summer releases to the start of the summer holidays rather than going day and date with the US which is not always the best date to open).
Fallen Kingdom take about £42m 30%+ less than Jurassic World £64.32m in 2015 and 6% less of Jurassic Park and 61%+ than its inflation inflated £47.79m took in 1993. While Fallen Kingdom has overtaken The Lost World: Jurassic Park £25.79m total will also come short of its inflation inflated total £48.62m.
Jurassic Park took 9.75x opening (£4.9m); The Lost World: Jurassic Park 4.53x (£5,700,000); Jurassic Park 3 3.8x (£4,762,155): Jurassic World 3.32x (£19,350,727): Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (£14,334,894) will be about 2.86x opening.
- The First Purge – £506,578 – £4,500,108
Down 36.56% in its third weekend overtaking the total box office of all the previous films in the franchise.
The First Purge was helped to be the only major film released since Ocean’s Eight opening showing that the reason for the low box office in June was due to a lack of content after Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom and Ocean’s Eight opened.
Many blamed the drop off due to the hot weather and World Cup, but summer is a very lucrative time for cinema and white England World Cup games were seen by 20m+ that was still less than a third of the UK population with most games having less than 10m. Since the 1948 Olympics have come every four years and the World Cup every four years since 1950 so they should be able to date films that will play opposite those sporting events.
Four years ago, 22 Jump Street, Mrs Browns Boys D’Movie and The Fault in Our Stars attracted alternative audiences while the last weekend of July 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony The Dark Knight still managed to take over £7m in its second weekend.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £19,632,861 up 38.27% from last weekend £14,198,893;
The weekend admissions 2,494,646 up 31.59% from last weekend 1,895,752; 2018 average ticket price up about 3.87% from last year’s £7.49 to £7.87 for 2018;
12 films opened at weekend taking £10,437,575; Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again 93.27% (£9,735,930); remaining 11 films shared 6.72% (£701,644 ): top 2 films took 84.24% of top 10; Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again took 49.58% and Incredibles 2 34.65%
The weekend was down 26.06% from last year (£22,066,254); Dunkirk £10,023,720; Andre Rieu’s 2017 Maastricht Concert £1,439,604;
Up 16.07% from 2016: (£16,914,463); The BFG £5,288,529; Star Trek Beyond £4,740,040; Andre Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert £1,414,075;
Up 50.16% from 2015; (£13,074,413); Ant-Man £4,011,345; Andre Rieu’s 2015 Maastricht Concert (Concert) £1,107,000; The Gallows £335,875; Self/Less £215,247; True Story £137,463; 13 Minutes £12,572
Up 21.16% from 2014: (£16,203,729); Dawn of the Planet of the Apes £8,705,995; Monty Python Live (Mostly) – O2 London 2014 £1,178,091; Andre Rieu’s 2014 Maastricht Concert £830,586; Pudsey the Dog: The Movie £446,450;
Up 100.58% from 2013: (£9,787,596); The World’s End £2,123,576; The Frozen Ground £89,515; Easy Money £21,346
Up 4.69% from 2012 (£18,751,675); The Dark Knight Rises £14,362,443;
Up 15.76% from 2011 (£16,959,452): Cars 2 £3,541,664; Horrible Bosses £2,077,239; Beginners £146,096;
Down 32.48% from 2010: (£29,078,984): Toy Story 3 £21,187,264; The Rebound £360,015; Splice £110,225;
Down 3.33% from 2009 (£27,606,395); Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince £19,784,924; Moon £157,867; The Informers £6,149
Down 28.88% from 2008 (£14,835,085); Wall·E £4,253,736; Meet Dave £681,584; Donkey Punch £144,953; City of Men £17,000; Standard Operating Procedure £3,539
Up 64.01% from 2007 (£11,971,119); Hairspray £2,045,912; Firehouse Dog £90,730;
Up 71.09% from 2006; (11,474,975); The Break-Up £2,412,097; Stormbreaker £1,244,892; Garfield 2 £739,560;
Up 65.58% from 2005 (11,856,897); Fantastic Four £3,541,391; Dark Water £480,199; Kicking and Screaming £240,452;
Up 120.08% from 2004 (£8,920,625): Thunderbirds £1,350,974[ Two Brothers £293,237; Before Sunset £139,278;
Up 150.73% from 2003 (£7,829,988); The Hulk £3,529,440; Buffalo Soldiers £113,664; Brown Sugar E90,877; Four Feathers £61,800;
Up 148.51% from 2002 (£7,900,053): Stuart Little 2 £1,343,398; Jason X £233,090; The Abduction Club £24,940;
Next weekend in 2017: (£20,414,621): Captain Underpants £2,495,744; Girls Trip £1,557,981; 47 Meters Down £637,964; The Big Sick £488,718;
Also opened
- Spitfire – Altitude – £211,464 from six cinemas (£210,000 was taken from previews on July 19th in 228 cinemas
- Hotel Artemis – Warner Bros – £357,261 from 312 sites cinemas
Received better reviews in the UK than in the US (58% Rotten Tomatoes) opening with only $3.2m after its third weekend was pulled from most of its screens taking only $72,151 having the 28th largest third weekend drop.
Other News
Admissions for the first six months of the UK are up 1.5% with 85.5m admissions according to the Cinema Advertising Association. While box office for the UK and Ireland is down by 2% to £665.8m compared to the same period in 2017 according to from data from comScore.
As average ticket price is calculated by dividing box office with admissions average ticket price for the first 6 months of 2018 is £7.87 up almost 4% from last year. In the US was announced last week average ticket price went up to $9.38 up 2.4% from the 1st quarter of 2018 $9.16. Of course, as with UK average doesn’t give the true average ticket price which is closer to $12.50 in the US and £11.50 in the UK.
Biggest films of the first 6 months of 2018 were Avengers: Infinity War £70.8m; Black Panther £50.6m; Peter Rabbit £41m; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom £39.7m; Deadpool 2 £32.6m. The Greatest Showman took £33.6m of its £46.9m in 2018.
Biggest British films were The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society £5.9m; Finding Your Feet £5.8m; You Were Never Really Here £1.1m; On Chesil Beach £1m.
The biggest films for the first of months of 2017 were Beauty and the Beast £72.35m; Guardians of the Galaxy 2 £40.83m; La La Land £30.40m; Furious 8 £29.54m; Sing £28.84m.
UK box office between 1st June and 12th July is 19% down from 2017 taking £103m compared with £128m the hot weather and World Cup has been blamed but issue was more a lack of major releases in June. While Universal Pictures brought forward Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom two weeks and Ocean’s Eight opened the day of England’s first World Cup match (which has just overtaken 2016’s female Ghostbusters reboot) there was a lack of major films released at the end of the month which saw the UK box office have their lowest weekend since 2011. The performance of The First Purge taking more than previous films of the series shows audiences wanted to see films but there wasn’t anything to see.
Four years ago, Warner Bros brought forward Edge of Tomorrow a week and 22 Jump Street, Mrs Brown’s Boy’s D’Movie and The Fault in Our Stars were released as an alternative all performed strongly. Rather than delaying Ant-Man and the Wasp to August 3rd, they could have opened it a week earlier as many MCU have done or Hotel Transylvania 3 could have opened (the last weekend of June has been lucrative for animated films and it would have meant it opened two weeks before Incredibles 2 rather than two weeks after.
Phil Clapp “said we always expected World Cup to be a challenging period for cinema” so why didn’t the industry do something to get people into cinema over those quiet weeks, I always think back to the success of National Cinema Day in 1996/97 and have always wondered why it never became an annual event. While £1 a film might hurt films box office for the day those two days brought many people back into the cinema habit which is far more important now with the growth of streaming services over the last decade and the lack of growth in cinema admissions for over 15 years.
The box office is currently down 4% from last year and apart from Incredibles 2, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald and Mary Poppins Returns its hard to see what other remaining films this year could take £40m+.
UK Box Office Top 10
US Box office
- The Equalizer 2 – Sony Pictures
Opened with $35.82m; received 50% Rotten Tomatoes score compared to 60% for The Equalizer and received A CinemaScore.
The opening was director Antoine Fuqua biggest opening ahead of The Magnificent Seven $34.7m and Denzel Washington’s third biggest opening American Gangster $43.5m and Safe House $40.1m. also gave Sony Pictures their second #1 of the summer after Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation.
Going into the weekend it was expected that Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again would open #1 taking $40m+ but instead many were shocked to see The Equalizer 2 open #1 but highlights again how tracking fails films targetting non-white audiences.
The Equalizer opened with $34.13m receiving mixed reviews taking $101.53m having a $55m budget and taking $192.33m worldwide.
Denzel Washington biggest film to date at the US box office was 2007’s American Gangster his films have taken almost $2.4bn at the US box office and $3.72bn globally. Also directing three films Fences, The Great Debaters and Antwone Fisher.
As with the recent Sicario: Day of the Soldado it was surprising Sony Pictures moved The Equalizer 2 away from the less crowded September into a busy July only a week before Mission Impossible: Fallout and a week after Skyscraper.
It is the third year running studios have opened three action films over three weeks last year Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes and Dunkirk and the year before Star Trek Beyond, Jason Bourne and Suicide Squad.
Opened with $3.3m from 11 territories as its release has been held back in most countries to open a few weeks after Mission Impossible Fallout
- Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – Universal Pictures
Opened with $34.82m; received 79% Rotten Tomatoes compared with 54% for Mamma Mia! and A- CinemaScore playing to a younger female audience than the first film.
Opening exactly 10 years after Mamma Mia! The first film opened with $27,751,240 (opened second behind The Dark Knight which opened with $158.41m) taking $144,130,063 performing far stronger internationally taking 76.4% $465,711,574 of its worldwide $609,841,637 total internationally. It became the biggest love-action musically internationally until Beauty and the Beast overtook it last year.
Universal Pictures has now taken over $1 billion at the US box office this year for the eighth year in a row and the second studio to pass that mark this year after Disney’s $2.5bn.
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! took $42.4m internationally from 41 territories #1 in 24 with a global total of $76.8m; with UK and Australia having the biggest openings.
- Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation – Sony Pictures
Dropped 46.1% in its second weekend taking $23.65m and $91.7m;
2012’s Hotel Transylvania dropped 36.4% in its second weekend taking $27.05m and $76.71m of $148.3m
2015’s Hotel Transylvania 2 dropped 31.5% in its second weekend taking $33.19m and $90.73m of $48.56m taking $169.7m; the first film took $358 million at the worldwide and the sequel $473 million worldwide.
Took $37.7m from 51 territories internationally $115.6m total and $206.7m globally; Hotel Transylvania took $358.37m globally and Hotel Transylvania 2 took $473.22m but both films opened in September/October with far less competition Hotel Transylvania 3 has far tougher competition with Incredibles 2.
- Ant-Man and the Wasp – Disney
Down 61.6% in its second weekend taking $29.09m and $134.08m;
Ant-Man dropped 48.6% in its third weekend in July 2015 taking $12.8m and $132.33m.
The 20 Marvel Cinematic Universe films have taken $6.81bn in the US and $17.25bn worldwide; Captain Marvel opens March 2019, Untitled Avengers 4 in May 2019 and Spider-Man: Far from Home in July 2019 with three more untitled MCU films set for release in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 was expected to be released in 2020 but Disney fired director James Gunn at the weekend after racist tweets resurfaced from 2009 its unknown if this will impact on the release of the third film was the only confirmed film of the next phase as Marvel are waiting to announce their slate until after the release of the currently untitled fourth Avengers film.
Ant-Man and the Wasp took $21.6m from 46 territories $188.9m total and $353.5m worldwide; Ant-Man took $519.3m worldwide the 16th biggest MCU film globally.
- Skyscraper – Universal Pictures
Dropped 54.4% in its second weekend taking $11.36m and $47.14m
Internationally Skyscraper took $75m from 67 markets including $48m from China international total $132.8m and global total of $179.5m.
Ahead of its opening most expected Skyscraper to open to Rampage $35.7m which took $99.04m and $425.13m worldwide and the first film Rawson Marshall Thurber directed starring Dwayne Johnson the first was 2016’s Central Intelligence opened with $35.53m taking $127.44m and $217m worldwide
Opened almost 30 years to the day Die Hard opened in the US opened first on a limited release of 21 screens taking $601,851 before opening wide 1,276 screens taking $7,105,514 (Skyscraper opened in three times the number of screens as Die Hard inflation inflated opening $15,836,133).
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – Universal Pictures
Down 30.5% in its fifth weekend taking $11.26m and $384.16m; 34th biggest film in the US between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had the 59th biggest fifth weekend between The Hangover and Batman; Jurassic Park was #21 taking $15.31m and Jurassic World #11 taking $18.15m
2015’s Jurassic World took $18.15m down 37.9% taking $590.68m of $652.27m total
2001’s Jurassic Park 3 took $4.44m down 41% taking $188.32m of $190.69m total
1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park took $8.03m down 35.6% taking $204.93m of $229.08m total
1993’s Jurassic Park took $15.31m down 19.3% taking $236.42m of $357.06m
(for The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park ticket inflation is more than 100% since so their totals need to be more than doubled does highlight how Fallen Kingdom really performed).
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom took $17.3m from 67 territories (including $259.1m from China; Jurassic World opened with $99.15m taking $228.74m) and $813m total and $1.196n worldwide.
Fallen Kingdom is the 16th biggest film worldwide between Iron Man 3 and Minions. It’s likely to end with about $1.3bn which will be 30% less than Jurassic World in 2015 with Chinese box office again being responsible for the film taking over $1bn globally; 25 years ago, Jurassic Park took $1.029bn without China.
- Incredibles 2 – Disney
Down 26.9% in its sixth weekend taking $11.89m and $557.71m; #9 biggest film in the US overtaking Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Dark Knight.
2004’s Incredibles took $261.44m was then fifth biggest animated film after Shrek 2, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and Shrek, so, the success of Incredibles 2 14 years later shouldn’t have been a surprise especially after Finding Dory became the biggest animated film in the US 13 years after Finding Nemo.
Had the 18th biggest sixth weekend between How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Blind Side
The Incredibles dropped 44.1% in its sixth weekend taking $5.03m and $232.57m ($331.8m inflation inflated) 86.38% of its $261.44m total ($385.63m inflation inflated);
In 2003 Finding Nemo dropped 20.8% in its sixth weekend taking $11.05m and $274.93m of $339.71m total ($516.05m inflation inflated total); In 2016 Finding Dory dropped 35.9% in its sixth weekend taking $7.23m and $460.21m of $486.39m total
Internationally took $36.5m from 42 territories and $383.1m total and $940.4m globally (#45 biggest film worldwide between The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and Finding Nemo) globally it has already overtaken the original’s $633m 2004 global total.
- Unfriended: Dark Web – BH Tilt
Opened with $3.65m
Unfriended opened April 2015 with $15.84m taking $32.48m
UK Box Office Predictions
This weekend could be one of the strongest weekends for many years with Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Incredibles 2 likely to hold well in the second and third weekends and with the arrivals of Mission: Impossible: Fallout, Hotel Transylvania 3:A Monsters Vacation and Andre Rieu 2018 Maastricht Concert (has been one of the most popular Event Cinema screenings in recent years taking over £1m over the last three years). As all the films are targetting different demographics they shouldn’t cannibalize each other.
Mission Impossible: Fallout has received 96% Rotten Tomatoes having the best reviews of the franchise being described as the best summer action film since The Dark Knight released the same weekend 10 years ago; Mission Impossible: 62%; Mission Impossible: 22 67%; Mission Impossible 3 70%; Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol 93%; Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation 93%.
Mission Impossible was released in 1996 but unlike James Bond films openings over the same period their box office has remained flat with previews over recent years inflating their openings (like most other films) to make their openings look much bigger than they are. Mission Impossible opened with £6,452,331 then previews were limited to one even show with average ticket prices over 100% less than today.
In 1996 there were two standard ticket prices, adult and children, unlike today when cinemas have more tariffs than EasyJet with Fallout released in IMAX, 3D, PLF and 4DX all that have additional surcharges. With Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again showing in multiple screens Fallout will be showing on fewer screens but in those premium screens that will make audiences have to see it in those formats.
Mission Impossible opened with £6,452,331 still the second biggest opening for the film series after Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol but its opening was inflated with previews of £5,482,870 with its Fri-Sun opening only £2,705,339.
22 years later Mission Impossible inflation inflated opening would be £13,375,508; as admissions tell a different story as Fallout will be seen by over 800,000 fewer people in its opening weekend probably closer to 1m with all the surcharges has.
Mission Impossible: Fallout opens with two days of previews taking £2m+ (similar to last year’s War for the Planet of the Apes and Kingsman: The Golden Circle) and take £7.5m+ similar to Jason Bourne opening in 2016.
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again will likely drop about 35% taking £6.4m taking more than Fallout over Fri-Sun sparking debate over who is the real #1. While the US only includes box office from Thursday screenings the UK includes all previews in the opening weekend making it impossible to compare box office more so during school holidays.
One question is how Hotel Transylvania: A Monsters Vacation will perform against the third weekend of Incredibles 2 as previous films opened in less crowded October also having previews to inflate their box office. Hotel Transylvania films play to younger children so will likely open fourth with £3m+.
Opening in the UK
- Mission: Impossible: Fallout – Paramount Pictures
The sixth part of the Mission: Impossible film series released over 22 years starring Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin, Henry Cavill and Angela Bassett and directed by Christopher McQuarrie (his second Mission Impossible film after directing Rogue Nation); received its world premiere in Paris on July 12th and immediately afterwards the embargo broke receiving acclaim from critics who called it the best part of the series.
The one notable absence from the sequel is Jeremy Renner who was also missing from Avengers: infinity War the reason given for his absence is he was already committed to Avengers 4 and at the time of casting they didn’t have a script so probably didn’t want to get into the mess Warner Bros had with Henry Cavill and his moustache for Justice League reshoots as he was shooting Fallout last summer, but Warner Bros needed to do reshoots for Justice League, but Paramount wouldn’t let him shave it off, so Warner Bros had to digitally remove his moustache from Justice League reshoots but it’s much harder to digitally remove a moustache as can be seen in the finished film.
It is the first film of the series to be released in 3D while 3D is still popular in Asia will be interesting to see how it does in 3D elsewhere.
In August 2016 Paramount had stopped pre-production on the film after a dispute between the studio and Tom Cruise over salary wanting to be paid more than Universal was paying him for The Mummy.
Filming started in Paris in April 2017 filmed using IMAX 3D digital cameras in August Tom Cruise injured his leg while filming in London filming resumed in October; in 2015 production was reportedly shut down for a week during Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol to come up with a new ending Paramount did similar with World War Z.
Many expected the first teaser to be released in December with the Christmas films but the teaser trailer for Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation as released in March 2015 with the second released in June so could be released with Ready Player One and Deadpool 2.
Instead, the first trailer premiered during the Superbowl in February which generated 53,000 new conversations and 6.4m views on YouTube (currently seen 24.36m times) and 8.2m on Facebook (the fourth most watched Superbowl trailer after Avengers: Infinity War, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The second trailer was released in May with 18.82m views; Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation trailer was seen 13.03m times in 2015
In January Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson appeared on Graham Norton Show showing a clip of the film when he broke his ankle performing a stunt in the film days before the first trailer was shown during the Superbowl. Normally actors will come on the show to promote something opening that weekend not almost 6 months later.
All the Mission Impossible films (except for Ghost Protocol due to its release as had previews over the lucrative Christmas holidays opening with £8.18m) have had similarly sized openings between £6.45m for the first film in 1996 to £5.33m for Rogue Nation in 2015 so similar sized opening would be expected.
The five films have taken almost £90m at the box office more than the five Bourne Identity films which have taken £76.5m but of course, much less than almost £370m the last six James Bond films have taken in the UK since 1999 (inflation inflated over £500m).
But how will it be affected by the third weekend of Incredibles 2 and second weekend of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again both are targetting different demographics as André Rieu’s 2018 Maastricht Concert and Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monsters Vacation also opening against it. But as all five films play to different demographics along with it being the first weekend of school holidays it could be a record-breaking weekend, but the only issue is temperatures are expected to rise again over the weekend.
While it’s easy to find the box office totals of all of Tim Cruise’s US box office much harder to find UK data before 2002 and as many of his biggest films were released before it harder to compare his box office total from the 29 films I have £308m as their inflation inflated total is £528m. This shows how big his earlier films really were as Top Gun took £8.54m in 1986 but that would be over £35m today. Tom Cruise’s next film is Top Gun: Maverick opening July 2019 33 years after the first film.
Tom Cruise has recently said that he wants to continue to make Mission Impossible films until he dies so Mission Impossible 7 will likely be released in 2021 but how much further can Tom Cruise go with the films as the “Impossible” stunt is raised bigger and bigger in every film.
While James Bond films are still hugely popular in the UK US Jason Bourne and Mission Impossible films have taken the spy film to the next level in the early 00s. When James Bond returned in 2006 was after the first couple of Jason Bourne films were released and had similar energy but the James Bond films after failed to build on that momentum Quantum of Solace, Skyfall and Spectre.
After the critical acclaim Mission Impossible: Fallout recieved the pressure is on Danny Boyle with Bond 25 set for release in October 2019; The last James Bond film released in 2015 Spectre had a mixed reception many felt it was far too similar to Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.
The five Jason Bourne has taken $801.01m in the US and $1.637bn worldwide; five Mission Impossible films have taken $934.86m in the US and $2.777bn worldwide and the seven James Bond films released since the first Mission Impossible film in 1996 have taken $1.25bn in the US and $4.3bn worldwide.
In 2015 when the last Mission Impossible film was released Rogue Nation there were five major spy films released Spy, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Spectre. Despite the misogynistic ending Kingsman: The Secret Service brought new life to the spy film while Spectre felt like a Rogue Nation reboot while my favourite spy film of the year was the underrated The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which also starred Henry Cavill.
Away from Mission Impossible films 2005’s War of the Worlds is Tom Cruise’s last film to take over £10m at the UK box office; but his is still the only 80s and 90s star that can still open films and apart from American Made he has come to the UK to premiere every film since The Firm in 1993.
- Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monsters Vacation – Sony Pictures
The third part of the Hotel Transylvania franchise featuring the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, Keegan-Michael Key, Kevin James, and Mel Brooks and directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.
Hotel Transylvania two previous films have been very successful opening in October when it had very little competition but opening in July two weeks after The Incredibles 2 will see how well it plays against the big boys. This is especially so in the UK opening against Mission Impossible 6 and André Rieu’s 2018 Maastricht Concert.
Was original set for October release but was switched with Goosebumps: Horror Land moving to October in February 2017.
Hotel Transylvania opened with £1.73m taking £8.1m
Hotel Transylvania 2 opened October 2015 with £6.31m including £3.21m from two weekends of previews taking £19.72m
As Incredibles 2 opening two weeks earlier Hotel Transylvania 3 doesn’t have weekend previews to inflate its opening weekend
Part of the films marketing in the UK was replacing Trivago woman posters on the tube with vampires; over the last year the Trivago woman has seemingly taken over the tube as everywhere you go she is there.
Opening in US
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout – Paramount Pictures
Tom Cruise 39 films have taken $6.56bn at the US box office since making his acting debut in 1981’s Endless Love and $9.33bn worldwide Mission Impossible: Fallout will see his global box office close to $10bn.
Tom Cruise was king of the world in the late 80s and 90s starring in Top Gun, Rain Man, Days of Thunder, A Few Good Men and The Firm but since appearing in the first Mission Impossible film in 1996 hasn’t had as many massive hits. Over the years since the first sequel in 2000 he bookends them with less commercial films including Tropic Thunder, Valkyrie, Rock of Ages and Oblivion with Edge of Tomorrow and American Made two of his best films in recent years.
Mission Impossible: Fallout has received rave reviews with many calling it the best summer action film since 2008’s The Dark Knight. Mission Impossible: Fallout opens 10 years and a week after The Dark Knight opened in the US Warner Bros recently announced they will re-release it in IMAX for one week in August.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation opened with $55.52m in 2015 was the second biggest opening of the film series Mission Impossible 2 despite being the worst film of the series had the biggest opening in 2000 with $57.84m; Mission Impossible: Fallout is expected to open with $65m+ taking about $240m.
The five Mission Impossible films have taken $934.86m in the US and $2.77bn worldwide; Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation took $694m worldwide.
After several disappointing years at Paramount Pictures since they celebrated their 2011 anniversary in 2011. Wasn’t helped losing Marvel to Disney (despite having the chance to buy Marvel before Disney) losing Dreamworks Pictures also to Disney and Dreamworks Animation to 20th Century Fox and then swapping Indiana Jones rights with Disney for Jerry Bruckheimer in 2013.
Jerry Bruckheimer moved to Paramount in 2014 after 18 years at Disney (before that he had many successful years at Paramount making films including Flashdance, Days of Thunder, Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun with his producing partner Don Simpson who died in 1996). It was only this year Jerry Bruckheimer started making films for Paramount with thriller Gemini Man starring Will Smith and Top Gun: Maverick currently in production for release in 2019.
Jim Gianopulos joined Paramount Pictures in March 2017 and since has been putting together his first slate of films having a big success with his first A Quiet Place released in April and in 2019 Paramount has their strongest slate since 2011 but Mission Impossible 6 was in development before he joined the studio.
Away from the success of A Quiet Place and Book Club, Paramount has had a disappointing year starting off selling Cloverfield Paradox to Netflix and also international rights to Annihilation which only took $32m, Sherlock Gnomes took $43m and Action Point only $5.05m. They only have three films remaining for 2019 the latest Tyler Perry film Nobody’s Fool, Overlord (first crazy trailer was released last week) and Bumblebee (the first Transformers film not to be directed by Michael Bay).
- Teen Titans Go! To the Movies – Warner Bros
Animated superhero comedy based on the television series Teen Titans Go! featuring voices of Greg Cipes, Scott Menville, Khary Payton, Tara Strong, Hynden Walch, Will Arnett, and Kristen Bell and directed by Aaron Horvath and Peter Rida Michail.
It’s the second theatrical film based on an animated Warner Bros. television series, 25 years after 1993’s Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
In January/February first teaser trailer played with Paddington 2, Peter Rabbit, Early Man and Sherlock Gnomes and in June/July plated with Incredibles 2 and Hotel Transylvania 3.
Currently has 100% Rotten Tomatoes score; while DC still try to get the balance right with their live-action extended universe have had much more success with their characters in The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie. Warner Bros screened the first trailers for Aquaman and Shazam at Comic-Con over the weekend both were well received by fans.
It is expected to open with up to $20m opening as an alternative to Mission Impossible: Fallout.
