UK/US Box Office February 28th -March 1st, 2020 week 9

 

 

 

1. The Invisible Man – £2,163,797 – NE

702^nd biggest opening in the UK between Immortals and Get Out (close to The Ring, Saw II, The Conjuring and Scream 4) and 940^th biggest inflation inflated opening between Creed and Need for Speed (close to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Annabelle Comes Home, John Wick: Chapter Two and Annabelle).

37^th biggest horror film opening between Immortals and Get Out (close to The Exorcist (RE), The Wolfman, The Omen and Annabelle: Creation) and 59^th biggest inflation inflated horror between 30 Days of Night and Get Out.

84^th biggest Universal Pictures opening between Immortals and Get Out (close to Yesterday, Public Enemies, The Addams Family and Safe House)

Opened with £3,698 more than 2017’s Get Out (£2,160,099); -22% Us (£2,766,839); -19.9% 2018’s A Quiet Place (£2,696,892); -18.7% Halloween (£2,656,097); and -15.2% 2017’s Split (£2,548,516);

Comparisons have been made with 1991’s Sleeping With The Enemy opened with £1,083,868 (£2,582,682 inflation inflated) taking £2,258,049 (£5,380,566 inflation inflated).

Opened 26.1% more than 2014’s Dracula Untold (£1,713,283 taking £4,454,648) which was originally the start of the Dark Universe but 35.4% less than 2017’s with The Mummy (£3,343,650 inflated with £1,219,345 without previews opened 1.7% more (£2,124,305) taking £8,744,766; The Mummy was the second attempt to reboot Dark Universe, but after it disappointed Universal Pictures moved the film to Blumhouse Productions shrinking its budget to $7m.

9th biggest opening for Blumhouse Pictures film in the UK after 2010’s Paranormal Activity 2 (£3,764,722); 2009’s Paranormal Activity (£3,593,762); 2019’s Glass (£3,423,380); 2011’s Paranormal Activity 3 (£3,405,036); 2013’s Insidious 2 (£2,877,742); 2018’s Halloween (£2,656,097); 2017’s Split (£2,548,516); 2012’s Paranormal Activity 4 (£2,544,701);

The highest-grossing Blumhouse Pictures films are 2017’s Split taking £11.4m; 2010’s Paranormal Activity 2 £11.01m; 2019’s Glass £10.98m; Paranormal Activity 3 £10.7m; 2017’s Get Out £10.4m.

Opening so close to Get Out and with similar positive reviews and strong word of mouth it should hold well over the next two weeks before A Quiet Place 2 opens;

Opened much bigger than other female lead Blumhouse Production horrors

2019’s Black Christmas opened £283,507 taking  £475,617

2017’s Happy Death Day opened with £998,388 taking £2,678,427

2018’s Truth or Dare opened with £931,250 taking £2,400,490

2019’s Happy Death Day 2U opened with £735,454 taking £1,318,935

2014’s Ouija opened with £1,373,907 taking £3,207,638

2016’s Ouija: Origin of Evil opened with £779,626 taking £2,524,013

In late 2019 The Invisible Woman was put in development as a spinoff with Elizabeth Banks attached to direct.

Jason Blum was criticised on Twitter for revealing almost the whole plot of the film in the trailer and just like the Black Christmas trailer that ruined the big twist at the end, Jason Blum responded saying “I wish we didn’t have to do that but there is almost no other way to tear people away from Netflix and all the great choices they have at home.    So you have my sincerest apologies and maybe in future your idea to watch our trailers after you’ve seen our movies is a good one!”

Horror films have been very successful over recent years but since It Chapter Two opened last September all the films since have failed to find a wide audience mostly because they were poorly received critically, saying that horror films used to be critic-proof. What made The Invisible Man play to a wider audience was that it wasn’t your typical horror and that it played strongly to women, which should see it hold strongly in its coming weeks before A Quiet Place 2 opens in two-three weeks’ time.  

2. Sonic the Hedgehog –  £1,937,938   – £17,215,551

Down 53.5% in its third weekend

2019’s Pokemon Detective Pikachu dropped 63% in its third weekend (dropping heavily due to Aladdin opening with £7,066,773 and The Secret Life of Pets 2 £3,490,598) taking £10,544,424 78.9% of £13,368,175.

Sonic The Hedgehog and Dolittle will likely come short of last year’s half-term films How to Train Your Dragon 3 (£19.71m) and The Lego Movie 2 (£18.9m) lower than previous February half-term children’s films.  

Previous February half-terms children’s films

February 2018

Coco took £18.1m; Early Man £11.2m

While The Greatest Showman was also performed strongly during February half-terms

February 2017

The LEGO Batman Movie took £26.77m; Sing took £28.84m

February 2016

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip took £15.9m; Goosebumps took £8.6m

February 2015

Big Hero 6 took £20.2m; Shaun The Sheep Movie took £13.7m

While Paddington boosted its box office three months after opening.

February 2014

The Lego Movie took £32.9m; Mr. Peabody and Sherman took £13.55m

18th biggest Paramount Pictures film in the UK between Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and How to Train Your Dragon and 23^rd biggest inflation inflated between Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn and Puss in Boots.

Sonic The Hedgehog has become the biggest film based on computer game overtaking last year’s Detective Pikachu taking £13,368,17; 2016’s The Angry Birds Movie £10,408,235; 2010’s Prince of Persia £8,829,805; 2018’s Rampage £8,695,722; 2017’s Assassin’s Creed £7,996,695; 2018’s Tomb Raider £7,739,354 and 2016’s Warcraft: The Beginning £5,947,228.

312^th biggest film in the UK between Mission: Impossible II and The Silence of the Lambs (close to Ralph Breaks The Internet, Bolt, How to Train Your Dragon and Enchanted) and 441^st biggest inflation inflated between St. Trinian’s and Pitch Perfect 2 (Over the Hedge, Pokemon: The First Movie, Puss in Boots and Mulan).

Following Sonic the Hedgehog Paramount Pictures release A Quiet Place Part II opens in three weeks’ time and then The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, Top Gun: Maverick, Infinite, Without Remorse, Snake Eyes, The Tomorrow War and Coming 2 America

 

3. Parasite – £1,047,024   – £10,361,508

Down 39.2% in its fourth weekend

Had the biggest fourth weekend for Best Picture Oscar winner since 2014’s 12 Years A Slave (£1,422,066) and the 9^th biggest fourth weekend Oscar winner since Titanic in 1998 ahead of 2006’s The Departed (£1,036,275)

Parasite has become the biggest Best Picture Oscar winner since 2014’s 12 Years A Slave (£20,027,551) and will likely be the 9^th biggest since Titanic between Chicago and 12 Years A Slave.

Parasite is currently the 6^th biggest film this year after 1917 (£42.84m); Sonic the Hedgehog (£17.21m); Bad Boys For Life ( £15.7m); Dolittle (£15.18m); The Gentlemen (£11.53m).

99% of audiences rated Parasite excellent or very good with 22% saying they are planning to see it again, but the question is will Parasite success be a one-off for foreign-language films or will cinema-goers come back to see more in future. As there are hundreds of foreign-language films released every year and most open in less than 50 screens and barely register at the box office. Will exhibitors give cinema-goers a wider choice of films which is what was expected from multiplexes when they arrived in the UK over 30 years ago     

In 2004 The Passion of the Christ expanded after two weeks (week 1 took £229,426 from 46 screens #10; week 2 took £198,355 from 48 screens #10) up 573% adding 275 screens to 323 taking £2,019,935 (£3,248,091 inflation inflated) #1 ahead of Dawn of the Dead £1,944,745; Starsky & Hutch £1,846,576; Welcome to the Jungle £635,485 (Dwayne Johnson’s first lead role) taking £10,604,723 (£17,052,584 inflation inflated).

2001’s Amelie opened with £559,747 (£957,248 inflation inflated) from 82 screens taking 7 weeks to play to its widest of 115 screens (Moulin Rouge #1 in its 5th weekend £1,072,657 from 397 screens); Amelie stayed in the top 10 for 8 weeks and top 15 for 13 weeks taking £4,320,466 (£7,388,623 inflation inflated).

Parasite has become the 2^nd biggest foreign-language films in the UK after 2004’s The Passion of the Christ (£11.1m) overtaking 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (£9.37m).  

At the Golden Globe’s Bong Joon Ho said: “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” This follows on from similar comments last year from Alfonso Cuarón after winning Best Foreign-Language Oscar for Roma saying, “I grew up watching foreign-language films and learning so much from them — films like Citizen Kane, Jaws, Rashomon, The Godfather and Breathless.”

In 2002 131 foreign language films were released in the UK 38% of the films released taking 2.2% of the yearly box office with Y Tu Mama Tambien taking £1.74m was the biggest foreign language film of the year.

Over the following years, the number of foreign language films released has more than doubled but its box office share and its box office hasn’t grown, so similarly to the growth of Event Cinema much of this is due to the number of titles released with box office shared more rather than audience growth.

In 2017; 349 foreign language films were released in the UK taking £28.6m 45.9% % of the films released taking 2.1% of the yearly box office; The Handmaiden taking £1.5m was the biggest foreign language film of the year.

In 2016 368 foreign language films were released in the UK; 44.8% of all film releases, but only took 2.4% of the box office gross, more foreign-;language films are being released than ever before, but they are cannibalizing themselves. In 2004 there were 259 films released in the UK but last year there were over 900, but the number of screens in the UK hasn’t grown nearly as much which means box office cannibalization.

After Parasite Oscar success will it make the Cannes Film Festival popular again for studios to launch award contenders early as most Oscar winners over recent years have premiered at the Venice/Toronto/Telluride Film Festivals, the previous Best Picture winner also premiered at Cannes was The Artist in 2011.

4. Dark Water –  £860,942     – NE  

Surprisingly strong opening for Dark Water thanks to a strong marketing campaign with Mark Ruffalo coming to promote the film last month. Before starring in the MCU films Mark Ruffalo had strong success starring in dramas including 2007 Zodiac (taking £3.8m), Foxcatcher (£2.2m) and 2016 Spotlight (£6.4m).

Had the biggest opening for a film directed by Todd Haynes but Dark Waters was his most commercial saying that it was a harder sell than Carol which was always seen as an award contender.

Todd Haynes most recent film Wonderstruck opened with £30,642 from 18 screens in April 2018 but is best known recently for directing the Oscar-nominated 2015’s Carol opening with £540,632 from 206 screens taking £2,668,478; 2003’s Far from Heaven opened with £460,000 taking £1.9m.

20 years on from Oscar-winning Erin Brockovich, Dark Water is a powerful film telling a more important story as PFOA is still in the blood of 99% of life on Earth; Many are called out Oscar snubs for Little Women but more surprising is Mark Ruffalo wasn’t nominated for Dark Water.

Dark Water received positive review (89% Rotten Tomatoes); the film opened in the US in November performed well on limited release, but as so many films expanded far too quickly going from 94 screens to 2,012 playing wide for only two weeks and not given a chance to find an audience.

While there was much outrage over Little Women not receiving Best director nomination there were many other films including Dark Water that failed to get any nominations at all. 19 years ago Erin Brockovich received five Oscar nomination and Julia Roberts won Best Actress.

5. Dolittle – £837,444    – £15,187,431

Down 58.8% in its fourth weekend 

With Onward having previews over the weekend both Sonic The Hedgehog and Dolittle saw heavy drops in the weekend after half-term holidays and will both drop heavily again next weekend.

373rd biggest film in the UK between Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and How the Grinch Stole Christmas 9close to Gnomeo and Juliet, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Cars 2 and Gulliver’s Travels); 499th biggest inflation inflated between Judge Dredd and Lucy (close to Charlotte’s Web, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Spiderwick Chronicles).  

Fourth weekend

1998’s Doctor Dolittle dropped 5.7% taking £1,297,925 (£2,280,226 inflation inflation) and £10,230,091 (£17,972,468 inflation inflated) taking £19,671,348 (£35,242,465 inflation inflated) and $294.45m worldwide

2001’s Doctor Dolittle 2 dropped 39% taking £379,053 (£648,236 inflation inflation) and £6,775,933 (£11,587,827 inflation inflated) taking £8,286,365 (£14,451,100 inflation inflated) and $176.1m worldwide.

 

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £9,249,286 down 33.3% from last weekend £13,862,132

The weekend admissions 1,306,396 down 33.3% from last weekend 1,957,928

15 films opened at weekend taking (£3,884,049); The Invisible Man 55.7% (£2,163,797); Dark Waters 22.2% (£860,942); Portrait of a Lady on Fire 5.9% (£229,678); Downhill 4.8% (£188,720); remaining 11 films shared 11.3% (£440,911);

Top three took 55.6% (£5,148,759) of the top 10; The Invisible Man 23.4% (£2,163,797); Sonic The Hedgehog 20.9% (£1,937,938); Parasite 11.3% (£1,047,024);

Up 8.9% from 2019; (£8,486,971); Fighting With My Family (£2,022,174); The Aftermath (£595,657); La Fille Du Regiment – Met Opera 2019 (£240,965); Alien (40th Anniversary) (£129,245); What They Had (£16,686); #1 Fighting With My Family £2,022,174 1st week 573 screens (23.8% of top 10)

Down 18.9% from 2018: (£11,400,044); Red Sparrow (£1,843,124); Game Night (£1,094,478); Monster Family (£126,235); A Fantastic Woman (£98,445); The Flames of Paris – Bolshoi 2018 (£74,391); #1 Black Panther £3,736,954  3^rd week 599 screens 46% drop (32.8% of top 10)

Down 42.8% from 2017: (£16,157,614); Logan (£9,443,363); Viceroy’s House (£921,309); Fist Fight (£400,112); Trespass Against Us (£32,569); #1 Logan £9,443,363 1^st week 602 screens (58.4% of top 10)

Down 2.1% from 2016: (£9,440,280); Grimsby (£1,928,789); The Forest (£448,258); Secret In Their Eyes (£117,094); #1 Deadpool £2,987,877 3^rd week 568 screens 48% drop (31.6% of top 10)

Down 24.9% from 2015; (£12,304,244); The Second-Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (£3,771,852); Focus (£1,910,245); The Boy Next Door (£406,174); It Follows (£371,142); Catch Me Daddy (£37,679); #1 The Second-Best Exotic Marigold Hotel £3,771,852 1^st week 589 screens (30.6% of top 10)

Down 22.1% from 2014: (£11,864,224); Non-Stop (£2,652,364); Ride Along (£1,420,992); The Book Thief (expansion) (£1,370,649); Prince Igor – Metropolitan Opera 2014 (£259,667); Nymphomaniac Part 2 (£15,354); Unforgiven (£4,778); #1 The Lego Movie £3,266,594 3^rd week 549 screens 45% drop (27.5% of top 10)

Up 18.7% from 2013 (£7,788,702); Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (£1,502,782); Safe Haven (£812,460); Broken City (£499,283); Arbitrage (£402,873); Stoker (£367,509); #1 Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters £1,502,782 1^st week 404 screens (19.3% of top 10)

Down 14.2% from 2012 (£10,782,506); This Means War (£1,821,698); Project X (£561,655); Wanderlust (£490,592); Hunky Dory (£31,930); #1 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel £2,342,095 2^nd week 1^st #1 509 screens 5% up (21.7% of top 10)

Down 33.1% from 2011 (£13,823,666); I am Number Four (£1,628,523); No Strings Attached (£978,974); West is West (£758,226); Drive Angry (£651,344); The Rite (£626,159); Animal Kingdom (£155,081); #1 Gnomeo and Juliet £2,502,806 3^rd week 1^st #1 487 screens 13% up (18.1% of top 10)

Down 0.4% from 2010: (£9,286,544); The Crazies (£1,194,207); Leap Year (£728,251); From Paris With Love (£678,950); Extraordinary Measures (£131,759); Everybody’s Fine (£68,948); Capitalism: A Love Story (£29,595); #1 Avatar £2,260,319 11^th week (10 weeks #1 with week gap) 398 screens (24.4% of top 10)  

Down 5.3% from 2009; (£9,768,713); The Unborn (£1,300,543); The International (£760,382O; New in Town (£438,979); Franklyn (£52,567); #1 Slumdog Millionaire £1,676,508 8 week split over several weeks 449 screens up 7% (17.2% of top 10)

Up 38.5% from 2008; (£6,676,677); The Bank Job (£951,013); Semi-Pro (£774,698); The Accidental Husband (£703,631); Untraceable (£549,524); Margot at the Wedding (£33,958); #1 The Bank Job £951,013 1^st week 324 screens (14.2% of top 10)

Up 14.5% from 2007: (£8,075,563); Ghost Rider (£1,851,897); The Illusionist (£675,293); Material Girls (£300,962); Freedom Writers (£233,382); #1 Hot Fuzz £2,219,655 3^rd week 441 screens 33% drop (27.5% of top 10)

Up 44.7% from 2006; (£6,392,804); Syriana (£864,796); The Weather Man (£406,217); Last Holiday (£399,524); The Matador (£335,017); Kidulthood (£100,056); #1 Date Movie £1,057,768 2^nd week 356 screens 18% drop  (16.5% of top 10)

Up 33.9% from 2005 (£6,908,179); Hide and Seek (1,594,508); Coach Carter (£469,062); The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (expansion) (£455,722); Hotel Rwanda (£81,476); #1 Hide and Seek £1,594,508 1^st week 345 screens (23.1% of top 10)

Up 36.6% from 2004 (£6,768,162); Along Came Polly (£2,252,808); The Missing (£497,573); House of Sand and Fog (£132,163); 1^st week 385 screens (33.3% of top 10)

Up 10.3% from 2003 (£8,381,722); Jackass: The Movie (£1,314,740); Analyze That (£575,278); Solaris (£313,804); Adaptation (£238,958); #1 The Ring £1,692,154 2^nd week 398 screens 23% drop (20.2% of top 10)

Down 6.1% from 2002 (£9,851,530); A Beautiful Mind (expansion) (£1,226,446); The Mothman Prophecies (£762,516); The Shipping News (limited) (£96,694); #1 Ocean’s Eleven £2,623,689 2-week #1 split 3^rd week 437 screens 27% drop (26.6% of top 10)

Next weekend in 2019: (£17,220,357); Captain Marvel (£12,750,000); The Sleeping Beauty – Bolshoi Ballet 2019 (£176,849); Everybody Knows (£118,080); Miss Bala (£18,832); #1 Captain Marvel £12,750,000 1^st week 655 screens (74.1% of top 10)

Also Opened

• Portrait Of A Lady On Fire – Curzon

Opened with £229,678 from 51 screens

The film won best screenplay and the Queer Palm at Cannes (Céline Sciamma was the first female director to win the prize)

2011’s Tomboy took £52,018 from an £11,930; 2015’s Girlhood opened with £68,658 taking  £232,511.

The film was released in cinemas and on-demand only took £20k less than Bad Boys For Life in 10^th playing in far more screens.

• Downhill – 20th Century Fox/Disney

Opened with £188,719 from 387 screens

As with Greed last weekend (dropped 73% in its second weekend) Downhill opened far too wide as it did in the US opening in 2,301 screens and as Greed will drop heavily next weekend.

Ruben Östlund’s original 2014 black comedy Force Majeure opened with £87,398 taking £593,432.

• True History of the Kelly Gang – Picturehouse Entertainment

Opened with £79,187 from 94 screens

Had world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival receiving positive reviews

Opened in Australia in January 2020 and opens in the US in April.

Despite the cast and received critical acclaim the film will struggle to find an audience in the UK as did 2003’s Ned Kelly opened with £211,643 taking £505,836 being a film about a historical Australian that isn’t well known elsewhere, would be like selling a British film about Dick Turpin to foreign audiences.

Justin Kurzel’s 2011’s Snowtown (opened: £52,323 taking £121,260); 2015’s Macbeth (opened: £733,662 taking £2.9m) and 2017’s Assassin’s Creed (opened £1.9m taking £8m).

Other Box Office News

The first seven weeks of 2020 was 18% ahead of last year due to 1917 (£41.6m); Little Women (£21.6m) Bad Boys For Life (£15.3m); Sonic The Hedgehog (£14.7m); Dolittle (£14.1m); The Gentlemen (£11.8m) and Parasite (£8.4m); top 10 £30.1m first 7 weeks.

In comparison 2019 biggest films for January/February were How to Train Your Dragon 3 (£19.71m); The Lego Movie 2 (£18.6m); Glass (£10.7m); instant Family (£10.6m); Stan & Ollie (£10.2m); Green Book (£10m); top 10 £106m first 7 weeks

The difference between the two years was the performance of Oscar nominees 1917 and Parasite compared to The Favourite and Green Book which took much less than 1917 and Parasite this year as they became must-see films that The Favourite and Green Book never really became.

With 1917 and No Time to Time along with Peter Rabbit 2 and Mulan, the first four months were always likely to be stronger than last year the issue was always going to be the rest of the year.

While this year could also be hit by Coronavirus, cinemas in China, Italy and Japan have closed, could UK cinemas also be closed in the weeks ahead, cinemas have only been closed once before after World War 2 was declared in September 1939, but they reopened days after to boost morale. Cinemas now are probably far less hygienic, with air conditioning, food and the disgusting behaviour of some cinemagoers.

This week many critics found out that 20^th Century Fox House and many mourned the loss of 20^th Century Fox’s two preview theatres, in the late 90s to early 00s I worked in the preview theatres screening many films working as a projectionist for almost 10 years. Previously at Rank Film Distributors in Wardour Street till they were sold and closed in 1997, despite many ups and downs I really enjoyed working as a projectionist while my focus wasn’t perfect and missed a few changeovers. 

The first film I screened at 20^th Century Fox was a dupe print of Speed in May 1994 for the MD and my last was X-Men 2 for Patrick Stewart, the Century Theatre has a widescreen and always loved opening the tabs with the 20^th Century Fox logo opening behind it

Soho was the home of the UK film industry for decades, but one by one film distributors moved away from Soho area but20th Century Fox were the one company that had stayed in Soho Square since April 1938 with the Fox logo., it’s very sad that the building will be knocked down and become yet another retail block as so much of Soho has become, Wardour Street had Rank Film Distributors with Warner Bros next door for decades.

 

UK Box Office Top 10

US Box office

• The Invisible Man – Universal Pictures

Opened with $28.2m; receiving positive reviews (90% Rotten Tomatoes) and B+ CinemaScore (Split received B+ and Get Out‘s A).

Took $1.65m from Thursday previews similar to Blumhouse Production’s Get Out ($1.8m) and Split ($2m).

Was tracking earlier this month to open with $20m which would be the biggest opening for a horror film since It Chapter 2 which is surprising given the popularity of horrors, but shows the lack of quality horrors released since. (Doctor Sleep, Brahms: Boy II, Countdown, The Grudge, The Turning and Black Christmas).

First trailer was released in November with Doctor Sleep with the second trailer released with Bad Boys for Life and 1917, the two trailers were seen over 100m times.

IMAX and PLF took a third of its box office

Comparisons have been made with Julia Roberts 1991’s Sleeping With The Enemy (opened with $13.77m ($32m inflation inflated) taking $101.59m ($243m inflation inflated) and $175m worldwide ($470m inflation inflated).

2000’s The Hollow Man opened with $26.41m taking $73.2m and $190,21m worldwide.

1992’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man opened $4.6m taking $14.35m

Universal Pictures first attempt to reboot their Monsters Universe was 2014’s Dracula Untold ($70m budget) opening with $23.51m taking $56.28m and $217.12m; their second attempt was 2017’s The Mummy opening with $31.68m taking $80.22m and $409.23m and The invisible Man was expected to be a sequel starring Johnny Depp, but it wasn’t big enough a success for Universal Pictures to continue the Dark Universe.

The timing of The Invisible Man opening days after Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape will make the film play like a thriller rather than a horror having themes of gaslighting and abuse telling the story from the women’s point of view. As horrors Get Out and Us being a social horror will likely gold stronger than a normal horror that opens big and drops big, being a very different film than it was originally conceived as part of the Dark Universe.

Doctor Sleep took $72m worldwide; Black Christmas took $18m worldwide; The Grudge $42 m and  The Turning ($15m)

While Elisabeth Moss is well known from the small screen starring in The Handmaid’s Tale and Mad Men has had little success in films, most recently starring in The Kitchen and Us and will be seen later in the year in The French Dispatch and Next Goal Wins.

Blumhouse Productions has had success with women in the lead including

2017’s Happy Death Day opened $26.03m taking $55.68m and $125.47m worldwide

2018’s Truth or Dare opened $18.66m taking $41.41m and $95.33m worldwide

2019’s Happy Death Day 2U opened $9.49m taking $28.05m and $64.5m worldwide

2014’s Ouija opened $19.87m taking $50.85m and $103.59m worldwide

2019’s Black Christmas opened $4.24m taking $10.42m in the US and $18.52m

While Universal Pictures have had mixed success with their high-budget films recently including Cats and Dolittle Blumhouse Productions continues to make as part of their 10-year production deal with the studio a steady slate of low budget successes.

The Invisible Man has a budget of only $7m a fraction of the budget of 2017’s The Mummy and the originally planned version of The Invisible Man that was to star Johnny Depp and will be hugely more successful and will surely see the planned The Invisible Women sequel go into production very soon.

Opening with $20.2m from 47 territories; UK at $2.86m; France a$2.2m; Mexico $1.85m; Spain $1.12m; Brazil $794K.

• Sonic The Hedgehog – Paramount Pictures

Dropped 38% in its third weekend taking $16.26m and $128.55m; 3^rd biggest film based on computer game between Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and The Angry Birds Movie.

2019’s Detective Pikachu dropped 46.6% in its third weekend taking $13.41m and $116.23m 80.6% of $144.1m and $431.7m worldwide.

489^th biggest film in the US between The Nutty Professor and Borat; 956^th inflation inflated film between Eagle Eye and Housesitter and 62^nd biggest Paramount Pictures film between An Officer and a Gentleman and Coming to America.

Took $26.8m from 62 territories and $137.2m total internationally and $265.5m worldwide; UK $22.3m; Mexico $15.7m; France $13.2m; Russia $10m; Brazil $8.3m. (still to open in Japan and of course China); 568^th biggest film worldwide between Maze Runner: The Death Cure and The Incredible Hulk and 71^st biggest Paramount film worldwide between Indecent Proposal and The Truman Show.

• The Call Of The Wild – 20th Century Fox/Disney

Dropped 46% in its second weekend taking $13.36m and $46.01m

If it wasn’t for its $100m+ budget The Call of the Wind could have been a moderate success for the studio but the crazy decision to make the dog CGI made the film look fake and make it impossible to turn a profit and continue the list of failures the studio has had since Disney acquired 20^th Century Fox.

The conspiracy theorists would say this is exactly what Disney wanted to happen with 20^th Century Fox as it proved them right to stop making the original films and instead make remakes and reboots of library titles, that said The Call of the Wild was exactly that and probably why Disney choose to continue to make the film as they shutdown many other films the studio was going to make in the months after the acquisition.

About 30 years ago Disney made several films based on Jack London novels including White Fang with a budget of $14m they were moderately successful and saw them make video sequels to several of them. While Disney also has had much success over the last decade from DisneyNature making nature films with real animals, so a CGI Buck was always a strange choice.

Director Chris Sanders has had much success directing animated films (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods) The Call of the Wild was a surprising film to make his live-action debut with, while the Disney connection with Chris Sanders goes back 30 years to 1990s The Rescuers Down Under and then being a writer on the animated Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan, Fantasia 2000 and Lilo & Stitch. Probably the reason why Chris Sanders decided to go with a CGI dog as he had far better knowledge of the capabilities of animation over real animals.

While remaking the film was part of Disney’s current policy of remaking library titled, since announcing plans to remake Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Home Alone and A Night at the Museum all probably for Disney+.

The switch from animation to live-action is often quite challenging as seen previously with Andrew Stanton directing several Pixar films and then flop John Carter and then went back to animation directing Finding Dory. Brad Bird had more success with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol but then made flop Tomorrowland and then directed The Incredibles 2.

1993’s Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey took $41.83m; 1994’s Iron Will took $21.1m; 2000’2 My Dog Skip took $34.13m; 2005’s Because of Winn-Dixie took  $32.64m; 2006’s Eight Below took $81.61m; 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose took $64.5m

Took $11m from 50 territories $33.4m total and $79.3m worldwide; France $6m; UK $3m; Mexico $3m; Russia $2.7m; Spain $1.9m; Germany $1.5m; Indonesia $1.4m; Australia $1.1m; Italy $1.1m.

• Bad Boys For Life – Sony Pictures

Dropped 26% in its seventh weekend taking $4.35m and $197.41m  

Seventh weekends

2003’s Bad Boys 2 dropped 26.3% taking $1.49m and $134.61m 97.1% of $138.6m ($215.38m inflation inflated) and $273.33m WW ($589 WW inflation inflated)

Bad Boys 2 was the 10th biggest film of 2003 having the 10th biggest opening of the year

The biggest films of 2003 were The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($377.1m); Finding Nemo ($339.71m); Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ($305.39m); The Matrix Reloaded ($281.57m); Bruce Almighty ($242.82m); X2: X-Men United ($214.84m); Elf ($167.54m); Chicago ($167.51m); Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ($150.37m); Bad Boys II ($138.6m).

1995’s Bad Boys dropped 37.1% taking $1.26m and $59.27m 90.1% of $65.8m ($141.74m inflation inflated) and $141.4m WW ($305m WW inflation inflated)

The biggest films of 1995 were Batman Forever ($184.1m); Apollo 13 ($172.1m); Toy Story (146.2m); Pocahontas ($139.21m); Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls ($103.97m); Casper ($100.32m); Die Hard with a Vengeance ($92.73m); Crimson Tide ($91.38m); Goldeneye ($91.34m); Waterworld ($88.24m).

Will Smith’s 27 films have taken $3.9bn in the US; $5.64bn internationally and $9.55bn worldwide. 

220^th biggest film in the US between Happy Feet and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; 491^st  biggest inflation inflated between Kindergarten Cop and How to Train Your Dragon 2 and 18^th biggest Sony Pictures film between Spectre and 22 Jump Street.

Jerry Bruckheimer’s 34 films have taken $4.6bn in the US, $6.86bn international and $11.46bn worldwide; most of his biggest hits were released in the 80s and 90s including Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Bad Boys, The Rock, Con Air, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Coyote Ugly and Remember the Titans and next has Top Gun: Maverick opening in June.

Took $4.9m from 55 territories and $208m internationally and $406m worldwide; UK $20.5m; Germany $17.3m France $14.5m; Mexico $12.5m; Australia $12.7m; Russia $11.9m; Saudi Arabia $7.9m; Spain $7.2m; Netherlands $6m; United Arab Emirates $5.4m.

299^th biggest film worldwide between The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Kingsman: The Secret Service; 27^th biggest Sony Pictures film worldwide between Men in Black 2 and Hotel Transylvania.

• 1917 – Universal Pictures

Down 36% in its tenth weekend taking $2.71m and $155.9m

349^th biggest film in the US between Fatal Attraction and What Lies Beneath; 739^th biggest inflation between Groundhog Day and The Wedding Singer; 45^th biggest Universal Pictures film between The Secret Life of Pets 2 and The Mummy (1999).

1917 is Sam Mendes biggest non-Bond film in the US overtaking his Oscar-winning American Beauty (opened $9,505,313 wide taking $130,058,047) that won Best Picture and Director 20 years ago a few weeks ago many expected 1917 to repeat American Beauty’s Oscar success.

Tenth week

1998’s Saving Private Ryan dropped 26.2% taking $2.51m and $181.81m 84.1% of $216.11m and $481,840,909 worldwide

2017’s Dunkirk dropped 55.6% taking $582,713 and $186.29m 99.1% of $188.04m and $525,245,546 worldwide

Took $5.3m from 66 territories internationally and $206.5m total and $362.4m worldwide:

362^nd biggest film worldwide between Alvin and the Chipmunks and Planet of the Apes; 44^th biggest Universal Pictures film between Fast & Furious and The Flintstones.

In the UK 1917 has taken £42.84m 62md biggest film in the UK between The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Paddington 2 (only £2.2m away from overtaking The King’s Speech) and 92nd biggest inflation inflated between Finding Dory and Paddington 2.

• Emma – Focus Features

Up 395% in its second weekend adding 92 screens taking $1.15m and $1.46m total

Jane Austen’s adaptations on the small and big screen have been hugely popular over the years so it’s no surprise we have another adaptation of Emma 25 years after also having another adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women as even with original films studios are looking for an inbuilt audience.

While Emma has received positive reviews many have said it’s too much of a straight adaptation of the novel unlike Little Women which was a new interpretation of the book as Clueless was a modern-day (90s) version 25 years ago. Over the years there have been many versions of Emma on the big and small screen and this Emma doesn’t stand out from them.

Over the years there have been many adaptations of Jane Austen novels on the big and small screen including 1995’s Persuasion (took $5.26m); and 1999’s Mansfield Park (took $4.77m).

1995’s Sense & Sensibility opened on platform $721,341 slowly expanding over 10 weeks taking $43.18m taking $134.58m

1996’s Emma opened on platform $240,649 from 9 screens slowly expanding over 7 weeks taking $22.32m

2005’s Pride & Prejudice opened on platform $2.8m expanding over 4 weeks taking $38.4m and $121.6m worldwide

Also having modernised version of Emma with 1995’s Clueless (opened $10.61m taking $56.63m; 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and 2013’s Austenland modern-day versions of Pride & Prejudice

The success of Little Women (opening with $16.75m taking $103m to date and $170m worldwide should help Emma’s box office performance.

Took $1.5m from 17 territories and $11.4m total and $12.9m worldwide; the UK $7.9m; Australia $2.1m; expands further this week internationally.

 

UK Box Office Predictions

After taking £2m from previews last weekend Pixar’s Onward opens, previously a Pixar film would have a short made by Pixar attached to the film but with Onward it’s a Simpson’s short,

The 21 Pixar films have taken over £685m at the UK box office and almost £900m inflation inflated since Toy Story was released in 1996.

As with Coco, Onward plays strongly to boys as Inside Out and Brave played more strongly to girls, Pixar knows exactly how to tug at the heartstrings and get audiences emotionally connected with their films making adults sob like children.

Onward is expected to open similar to Home (£6,025,917); Bolt (£5,457,438); Trolls (£5,440,878); The Croods (£5,372,290); How to Train Your Dragon 3 (£5,323,448); Zootropolis (£5,306,726); Brave (£5,269,402); Coco (£5,209,214). This will be about half of what Captain Marvel opened with a year ago, so while the first 7 weeks of 2020 have been stronger than 2019 until Peter Rabbit 2 and Mulan open at the end of the month the next few weeks will likely be softer as last weekend was.

Ever since The Full Monty was released in 1997 there have been many feelgood British films that was seen to be the next, but none have managed to come close to its success with Calendar Girls and Bend It Like Beckham is the most successful. Often wonder if The Full Monty was to be released today if it would be a similar success or be given the time to find its audience.

The latest is Military Wives from Peter Cattaneo who also directed The Full Monty, the film gas received positive reviews, generated strong buzz and with all the gloom and doom on the news with COVID-19 is the perfect time to release a feelgood film. Despite this, while Military Wives will probably open similar to The Full Monty the marketplace is so much more crowded exhibitors won’t let it find its audience.

As with many of these feel-good films Lionsgate has had a strong talker screening program to build up word of mouth, but never know if the film will find an audience, 23 years ago 20th Century Fox knew they had a winner with The Full Monty extensively screening it months before opening. Cinema was very different in the 90s as there were far fewer films being released and exhibitors would give films a chance to find an audience.

The Full Monty opened with £1.6m but held very strongly for months afterwards, the difference today is Military Wives will need to find its audience in its opening weekend or exhibitors will be pulling it quickly with Misbehaviour and Radioactive opening over the following two weeks.  Do often wonder if The Full Monty opened today would exhibitors give it a chance, or would they quickly pull it if it didn’t open strongly in its opening weekend.

Over the years since many other feel-good British films have tried to repeat the same formula including 2000’s Billy Elliot, 2001’s Blow Dry, 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham, 2003’s Calendar Girls, 2005’s Kinky Boots and Mrs. Henderson Presents, 2007’s Once, 2009’s Slumdog Millionaire, 2010’s Made in Dagenham, 2011’s Chalet Girl, 2014’s Pride and Once Chance, 2016’s Eddie the Eagle but not come anywhere near the success of The Full Monty.

Fox Searchlight acquired The Full Monty after Film 4 and Miramax had turned it down as they had a similar feel-good British film Brassed Off and knew they had a hit on their hands screening the film very early and holding many screenings months before opening in August.

The Full Monty opened #1 the end of August with £1.6m with the big new release action thriller Conspiracy Theory opening third with £1.35m and held #1 for 6 weeks before Hercules moved it into second for a week but then returned back to #1 for another 3 weeks until Face/Off, The Full Monty stayed in the top 10 for 21 weeks.

The only film to come close over the last decade was The Greatest Showman, stayed in the top 10 for 18 weeks only Mamma Mia! in recent years has stayed in cinemas for longer. It became this generation Titanic as fans came back to see it again and again while the soundtrack was #1 for 21 non-consecutive weeks in the UK. Critics were quite snotty about the film but as Barnum is asked in the film “does it bother you that everything your selling is fake” his reply “do the smiles seem fake” The Greatest Showman does to quote the famous Ronseal advert What it says on the tin.

In its 18th weekend took £300,947 and £45,974,245 which was comparable with Titanic released 20 years earlier took £199,618 in its 18th weekend its inflation inflated box office would be a similar £374,000. While The Full Monty took £394,620 in its 18^th weekend in the too 10 and £228,368 in its last weekend (21^st week).

In 2014 Lionsgate UK suggested that films should reflect the budget of the films so tickets for a British film would be cheaper than a US blockbuster, exhibitors at the time were including a blockbuster tax for the big films,  but then all others were a standard price. As the problem the industry has failed to deal with is while box office might grow year on year the divide between the megamovies and the rest has grown. Last year there were over 900 films released by over 90% of the box office came from the 100 biggest films.

In the 1950s the Eady Levy was brought to support the British Film Industry, it was a percentage of the cinema ticket price that was divided among qualifying films, US studios go round this by making low budget British films In a similar way to studios now finance many films that are claimed to be British.

Exhibitors have brought in dynamic ticket pricing in many cinemas in the UK but prices go up from an already high level, despite industry claims ticket prices have dropped over the last two years the majority are still going up and cinemagoers have become much more selective with the films they pay to see and those they wait to see unless they have subscription cinema.

March/April has become a regular time to release British films with Military Wives, Misbehaviour Radioactive, The Secret Garden, Dream Horse, A Promising Young Woman, Our Ladies and Blithe Spirit opening within 8 weeks this year. 

The other new releases Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island and The Photograph are unlikely to find a wide audience but due to the top-heavy box office could find their way in the bottom half of the top 10 for a week.

Opening in the UK Next Week

• Bloodshot – Sony Pictures

Superhero film based on the Valiant Comics planned to be the first part of a film series in a shared cinematic universe (In September 2019 was announced that one of its sequels Harbinger Wars would be made by Paramount) starring Vin Diesel, Eiza González, Sam Heughan, Toby Kebbell, and Guy Pearce and directed by David S. F. Wilson.

While Vin Diesel has had huge success with the Fast and Furious franchise with the ninth film opening in May (10^th in April 2021) and as Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy hasn’t had similar success with other films over the last decade.

Valiant Comics aren’t well known as Marvel or DC but as both are now owned by Disney and Warner their rivals have to look at other comic-book series to adapt but none have been anywhere nearly as successful.

• Misbehaviour – Fox/Pathe/Disney

Comedy-drama starring Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley, Keeley Hawes, Phyllis Logan, Lesley Manville, Rhys Ifans and Greg Kinnear and directed by Philippa Lowthorpe about the story of the 1970 Miss World competition, and how the Women’s Liberation Movement targeted the pageant.

Philippa Lowthorpe previously directed 2016’s Swallows and Amazons (opened with £676,175 taking £3,014,105) but is best known for directing TV dramas including The Crown and Three Girls.

2015’s Suffragette opened with £2,938,446 (including £1,394,771 previews) £1,543,675 (Fri-Sun) taking £10,600,616; the film had a much higher profile opening the London Film Festival.

UK Premiere on March 9^th

• My Spy – STX

Action comedy starring Dave Bautista, Chloe Coleman, Kristen Schaal, and Ken Jeong and directed by Peter Segal.

Was originally set for release in August and then was moved to March 2020 in July 2019, the film opened in Australia in January and has received mixed reviews

My Spy US release was likely delayed after Dave Bautista’s Stuber flopped in July (opening with £211,274).

Dave Bautista is trying to find similar success Vin Diesel had with The Pacifier and John Cena with Playing With Fire and they all were trying to repeat what Arnold Schwarzenegger did 30 years ago with films like Kindergarten Cop.  

2005’s The Pacifier opened with £729,070 taking £4,075,641

2019’s Playing With Fire opened with £762,850 taking £2,597,261

Director Peter Segal has had a long career making comedies since 1994’s Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult and mostly recently directed STX’s Second Act (opening with £403,211).

• The Hunt – Universal Pictures

Thriller based on the 1924 short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell; stars Betty Gilpin, Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts and Hilary Swank and directed by Craig Zobel and produced by Blumhouse Productions.

Was originally set for release on September 27, 2019, but after Dayton and El Paso mass shootings in early August 2019, Universal Pictures pulled the release after the film received criticism from President Donald Trump.

Expected to open similar to The Purge film series (the fifth Purge opens in July which is expected to be the final film of the series).

The Purge opened May 31st, 2013 with £1,019,877 taking £3.36m

The Purge: Anarchy opened 25th July 2014 with £1,165,143 taking £4.43m

The Purge: Election Year opened 26th August 2016 with £807,803 taking £1.91m (was due for release on 15th July in the UK but was delayed 6 weeks only weeks before its release date).

The First Purge opened 6^th July 2018 with £1,778,157 taking £6,085,402

Opening in US Next Week

• Bloodshot – Sony Pictures

Bloodshot is expected to open similar to Hellboy which opened with $12.04m taking $21.9m and $44.66m worldwide.

• My Spy – STX

Was due to be released in August but My Spy released date was delayed due to Dave Bautista’s Stuber underperforming opening a month earlier (opened with $8.22m taking $22.37m) and financial issues at the studio STX which saw them delay several other releases in order to release Hustlers in September.

Expected to perform similar to last year’s Playing with Fire opening with $12.72m taking $44.45m and $67.31m worldwide.

1990’s Kindergarten Cop opened with $7.91m taking $91.45m

2005’s The Pacifier opened with $30.55m taking $113.08m

2019’s Playing With Fire opened with $12.72m taking $44.45m

• The Hunt – Universal Pictures

Originally set for release September 27^th became the most talked-about film nobody saw last year and 6 months later Universal Pictures will be hoping to generate more media coverage ahead of its release with trailers played with The Invisible Man.

Opening the week before A Quiet Place Part II, The Hunt will likely be front-loaded opening cashing on the opening on Friday the 13^th was tracking to open low teens as will probably be more talked about than seen in cinemas.

2013’s The Purge opened $34.09m taking $64.47m

2014’s The Purge: Anarchy opened $29.81m taking $71.96m

2016’s The Purge: Election Year opened $31.51m taking $79.21m

2018’s The First Purge opened $17.37m taking $69.48m

(the fifth and possibly final Purge film will be released in July)

Blumhouse Productions have taken $2.389bn in the US and $4.51bn worldwide