- The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard – £1,636,128 – NE
Took £604,920 from previews Mon-Thurs (36.97% of its opening) without would have opened fourth (In the Heights took £5,309 more without previews)
Monday openings rarely work unless they are for children’s films or James Bond as all they do is spread the box office over 7 days and if the film has bad of mouth like Warcraft and The Happytime Murders the films are DOA by the weekend. They are of course done to artificially inflate films opening weekend, but then will mean they often drop very heavily 80%+ in their second weekend, but with F9 opening the following week.
Opened 17.5% less than The Hitman’s Bodyguard which had one day of previews taking £366,581 (18.5% of opening) compared with £604,920 from 4 days of previews (36.97% of opening).
965th biggest opening in the UK between You, Me and Depree and Emma (2020) close to RED, Let’s Be Cops, Geostorm and The Accountant and 1,204th biggest inflation inflated between Isle of Dogs and Emma (2020) close to The Avengers (1998), Atomic Blonde, Taken and Sicario.
31st biggest Lionsgate UK opening between The Expendables 3 and A Simple Favour (close to The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Jigsaw, Hacksaw Ridge, Robin Hood and Hacksaw Ridge.
It was due to open in August 2020 before being delayed to August 2021 due to COVID, was brought forward in March to June 16th when F9 was brought forward and opens in the UK a few days ahead of the US.
2017’s The Hitman’s Bodyguard opened #1 with £1,982,951 (taking £7,111,031) squeezed past Dunkirk #2 due to taking £364,919 from Thursday previews, without which it would have taken £1.62m Fri-Sun and Dunkirk would have been the first film since Avatar in January 2010 to be top for five weekends.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard opened close to This Mean’s War opened March 2012 for £1,821,698 which took £4,826,653.
The Transporter opened in January 2003 with £338,420 taking £623,493.
Transporter 2 opened November 2005 with £414,400 taking £991,940.
Transporter 3 opened in December 2008 with £958,615 taking £2,446,717.
The Bodyguard opened £2.48m December 1992 taking £16.83m
Despite poor reviews, The Hitman’s Bodyguard was helped with its strong marketing campaign with the pairing of Deadpool meets Nick Fury with Samuel L Jackson and Ryan Reynolds and the first red-band trailer released in April parodying 1992’s The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston I Will Always Love You featuring on the trailer and its poster Samuel L Jackson being carried by Ryan Reynolds.
The Hitman’s Bodyguard was helped with the films marketing campaign using Ryan Reynolds to replicate marketing for Deadpool breaking the fourth wall with a TV spot voiced by Jon Bailey who does the excellent Honest Trailers replacing positive review quote with comments from Reynolds and Jackson about each other. Paramount tried to do similar with Baywatch marketing but while its marketing was strong the film was poor.
Many films over the years have broken the fourth wall with characters talking directly to the audience including American Psycho, Fight Club, Spaceballs, High Fidelity, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Trading Places, Annie Hall, Blazing Saddles and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
The preview box office has artificially inflated films openings for decades, in the 90s used to be one Thursday night preview screening, that became a whole day of previews and then in 2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone had Sat/Sun previews the weekend before opening taking £6,735,259, 41.2% of its £16,335,627 opening. Its been common ever since for children’s films to have weekend previews the weekend before opening (some have had two weeks of previews, in October 2015 Hotel Transylvania 2 opened with £6,302,576 taking £3,211,638 from two weekends of previews taking £2,804,447 over its official Fri-Sun opening).
One of the longest opening weekends was 2014’s Transformers Age of Extinction had a 9-day opening taking £8,044,230 68.4% of its £11,756,482 opening from 6 days of previews taking £3,712,252 from its official Fri-Sun opening, so no surprise it dropped 85% in its second weekend taking £1,790,491 and took 81% (£15,516,101) of its total box office after 2 weekends £19,074,771.
The 10 highest percentage of box office from previews are A Peanuts Movie. Mortal Engines, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Ferdinand, Gulliver’s Travels, Ice Age: Collision Course, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, The Boss Baby, Paper Towns and The Watch.
In the US preview box office is rarely included in the film’s opening weekend The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard opened on Wednesday in the US but only the Fri-Sun box office included within its opening weekend box office.
it’s only the last decade when films have opened on Monday giving them 7-day opening, it always amazes me distributors keep opening films on Monday as 7-day opening don’t work all they do is spread out the films box office over 7 days not 3 and means the films have up to 80% second-weekend drops, as F9 pens on Thursday it would be even more for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.
10 years ago, this week Ryan Reynold’s Green Lantern opened with £2,472,969 #1 from 478 screens (21.8% of top 10) taking £5,969,754.
2. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway – £1,115,199 – £15,288,119
Up 39.5% in its fifth weekend; after dropping much more than expected last weekend (61%) due to the hot weather increased its box office this weekend due to the cold wet weather. Peter Rabbit 2 would be #1 removing Mon-Thurs previews for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, but as Peter Rabbit 2 itself had a 7-day opening preview box office has to be included. In the US preview box office is not always included.
Sunday box office for Peter Rabbit 2 was up 136% from the previous Sunday with dad’s “celebrating” Father’s Day watching Peter Rabbit 2
385th biggest film in the UK between Peter Rabbit 2 and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (close to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Rio and Christopher Robin) and 594th biggest inflation inflated film in the UK between The Firm and Spice World (close to Charlotte’s Web, Santa Claus The Movie, Peter Pan (2003) and The Polar Express).
Peter Rabbit 2 is now only £2,178,940 away from overtaking last year’s saviour of cinema Tenet (£17,467,059) it should overtake over the next two weeks, but as most of Peter Rabbit 2 tickets have been children’s tickets with no extra charges for IMAX or PLF formats it has probably already overtaken Tenet by admissions. While it will come short of taking £20m taking less than half the first film took in 2018 it will be the biggest film in the UK since Sonic the Hedgehog in February 2020.
Peter Rabbit is the 67th biggest film in the UK taking £40,999,583 (Paddington 2 is just slightly ahead #63 taking £42,642,938) and is Sony Pictures UK’s 5th biggest film in the UK (behind Skyfall, Spectre, Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace) as they have lost distribution rights to James Bond films Peter Rabbit is their MVP.
In 2018 Peter Rabbit dropped 36% in its fifth weekend taking £2,021,163 and £38,093,407 92.9% of £40,999,583.
Peter Rabbit took 58% (£22,067,135) of its box office during the 17 days of the Easter holidays, £5.9m in the final week. It was helped to be the only major family film released this year compared to The Boss Baby, The Smurfs: The Lost Village, and Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience last year and the cold wet weather which was perfect weather for the cinema.
In Easter 2017 The Boss Baby took £19,466,656 (66%) of its total £29.11m box office and Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience £3,017,361 (83.1%) of its £3.62m total. The two films combined took £22,484,017; the difference was those two films opened over the Easter holidays The Boss Baby did have weekend previews of £5,227,582 which was Peter Rabbit’s £16,032,865 taken before the Easter holidays began wasn’t included.
Peter Rabbit overtook 2014’s Paddington £37.9m 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory £37.35m, 2005’s Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit £31.95m 2016’s The BFG £30.51m also based on classic children’s characters as well as 2001’s Monster’s Inc £37.9m, 2003’s Finding Nemo £37.4m and 2016’s The Secret Life of Pets £36.6m.
Other British sourced children’s fifth-weekend drops
2017’s Paddington 2 – dropped 42% taking £1,690,027 and £29,332,318 (68.8%) of total £42,614,170
2016’s The BFG – up 10% (summer holidays) taking £1,236,002 and £25,767,760 (84.4%) of total £30,514,629
2014’s Paddington – up 2% (Christmas holidays) taking £2,558,263 and £23,959,025 (63.7%) of total £37,608,112
Their popularity is seen by their performances at the UK box office with their adaptions including Paddington, The BFG, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Borrowers, Matilda, The Jungle Book, and Nanny McPhee all performed far stronger in the UK than anywhere else in the world.
Had Peter Rabbit 2 had two-week school holidays as the original and opened in normal conditions it would have likely taken a third more taking over £30m over 5 weeks on release.
3. In the Heights – £1,073,687 – NE
Includes £37,170 from previews in 252 screens
After having a soft opening last week in the US even with very positive reviews it was likely In The Heights would struggle to find an audience in the UK as the stage show wasn’t as popular in the UK when it had its UK premiere at Southwark Playhouse in 2014 before transferring to the King’s Cross Theatre, running from 2015 to 2017 and winning three Olivier Awards.
In the Heights originally developed by Universal Pictures in 2008 for release in 2011 with Kenny Ortega attached to direct but was cancelled due to the studio wanting bankable Latino stars like Shakira or Jennifer Lopez. In January 2012 Lin-Manuel Miranda said the adaption was in development but then Hamilton took over, 2016 was announced he would produce the film with Harvey Weinstein and Jon M. Chu was attached to direct, but after the sexual allegations made against Weinstein he was removed from the film and Warner Bros acquired rights for $50m in 2018 with a budget of $55m.
Musicals are extremely popular in the UK with the massive success of films like The Greatest Showman, A Star Is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Mamma Mia!, La La Land, Rocketman, Les Misérables, Hairspray, Chicago, and Moulin Rouge (20th anniversary this year, opened in the US in May and in September in the UK have long legs).
But film versions of Cats, Annie, Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages (opened this weekend in 2012 with £1,003,107 taking £2,556,436), The Producers and Rent (after flopping in the US the film had an extremely limited release in the UK opening in only 61 screens with £40k).
Opening in October is the film version of Dear Evan Hanson while Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and Cinderella were originally due to be released in cinemas this year, but both were recently sold to Amazon.
Sony Pictures will release Matilda: The Musical on December 2nd, 2022, in the UK before being released in the rest of the world by Netflix, as Roald Dahl adaptions are hugely popular in the UK The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox and original Matilda so this reboot based on the hugely successful musical will likely be a BO hit in the UK.
Hamilton stage musical has been phenomenally successful globally, Disney paid $75m for global rights to the filmed version of the musical, it was originally set for October 15th, 2021, cinema release, but Disney brought it forward to July 3 for Disney+ release; the stage musical came to the UK in December 2017 and has been a box office hit ever since.
Expected In The Heights to struggle to find a wide audience in the UK opening similar to Jersey Boys (£415,608) instead it opened similar to 2012’s Rock of Ages (£1,003,107); there were 200,000+ free cinema tickets for National Lottery Cinema Weekend wonder how many of those tickets went on In the Heights if all of those tickets were used they would have added over £1.5m to the weekend box office.
20 years ago, Moulin Rouge opened in the UK four months after the US in September performing far stronger than it did in the US opening with £2,403,378 down 22.6% in its second weekend taking £1,859,732 and £5,668,964 (31.21% of total box office) taking £18,166,288 (£31,681,304 inflation inflated) was in the top 15 for almost 3 months.
Likewise, 2017’s The Greatest Showman opened with £4,754,049 (including £2,575,147 previews) down 49% in its second weekend taking £2,409,143 and £9,998,783 (20.1% of total box office taking £49,523,728 and played wide in cinemas for over 16 weeks, was still in the top 10 when it was released on DVD.
Many other musicals performed far better in the UK than the US including Mamma Mia!. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Bohemian Rhapsody, Les Miserables, La La Land, A Star Is Born, Rocketman, High School Musical 3, Evita, Hairspray and even Cats.
In The Heights was #2 behind A Quiet Place Part 2 on Monday, showing that it has good word of mouth but will likely lose many screens on Thursday when F9 opens.
4. A Quiet Place Part 2 – £1,024,942 – £8,339,827
55th biggest Paramount Pictures film in the UK between Tropic Thunder and True Grit (close to Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield, Super 8 and Paranormal Activity 4).
25th biggest horror in the UK between Saw III and Scream 2 (close to The Conjuring, Us, Scream and Halloween).
2018’s A Quiet Place dropped 46% in its third weekend #2 taking £1,024,722 from 582 screens and £8,262,665 70.1% of £11,801,912: Rampage #1 £1,413,973 and Peter Rabbit #5 6th weekend £487,412; A Quiet Place dropped 10% in its fourth weekend #3 £920,235 taking £9,871,073.
5. Cruella – £731,639 – £7,024,010
Down 0.1% in its fourth weekend as many other films over the weekend, Cruella had a minimal drop due to the cold wet weather after dropping 43% the previous weekend after very hot weather.
Comparisons were made with 2006’s The Devil Wears Pada #5 fourth weekend £ 900,618 drown 34% taking £11,659,069 of £13,681,185 (£20,282,989 inflation inflated); they had a cast reunion recently of The Devil Wears Prada to celebrate the films 15th anniversary, and had a similar third weekend to Birds of Prey dropping 54% taking £358,436 and £8,386,648 of £8,820,000.
Cruella is a similar Disney reimagination to 101 Dalmatians as Maleficent was to Sleeping Beauty switching the story to the villain’s side which is often the more interesting story that isn’t often developed in these films as they are normally told from the heroes perspective.
Fourth weekends
2013’s Oz: The Great and Powerful #6 dropped 27% taking £975,577 and £11,865,344 of £14,987,064
2014’s Maleficent #3 dropped 38% taking £970,381 and £15,230,777 of £19,292,000
2015’s Into the Woods #6 dropped 21% taking £734,370 and £8,411,168 of £9,644,236
2019’s Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil #3 dropped 4% taking £1,025,043 and £13,074,572 of £13,074,572
The 13 Disney reimaginations have taken over £415m at the UK box office, the next to be released in cinemas The Little Mermaid (currently undated) and Snow-White starring Rachel Zegler starts production in 2022, with Peter Pan & Wendy, Pinocchio, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood and Lilo & Stitch to be released straight to Disney+.
After releasing ten reimagination between 2015-2019 Disney has only released one over the last two years, which would have been the case before COVID, the only difference would have been Mulan would have been released in cinemas in March 2020.
Also released.
The Father – Lionsgate
Drop 14.8% in its second weekend taking £338,408 and £1,155,553.
Dropping down one place to sixth, The Father performed stronger during Mon-Thurs taking £420k on Mon-Thurs (+17% more than Fri-Sun £359k); Monday #4; Tuesday #5; Wednesday #4; Thursday #3. The Father was always likely to perform as well, if not stronger during the week compared to the weekend as older audiences prefer to go to the cinema during the week.
The Father dropped only 9 screens over the weekend from 626 to 617 despite its soft opening, having a screen average of £548 with 77 people per screen over the weekend, 8.57 per screening with 47,596 admissions over the weekend and 168,776 to date. This compares to In the Heights opening in 630 screens with a £1,704 screen average of 240 people per screen over the weekend, 26.63 per screen and 151,011.
Mi d-week shows tend to be cheaper than the weekend, with some chains having Silver Screenings, and as they will be mixing with other people of similar age, many of them will have been doubled vaccinated.
Had The Father opened on less than half the screens it opened in this would be a decent performance for it, especially in the current environment. It will be interesting to see how wide Studiocanal open similar themed Supernova this weekend. (it was surprising they opted to bring forward the release from July 9th).
Why Lionsgate decided to open The Father in 626 screens being their fourth widest release to date behind Military Wives, The Personal History Of David Copperfield and Knives Out, never made any sense at all, neither did opening any of those other films so wide, as distributors would open a film as wide as possible when a film has poor word of mouth, Warner opened In the Heights in 630 screens over the weekend after it’s disappointing opening the previous weekend and didn’t expect it to have any legs.
While films like The Father even after Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor at Oscars and BAFTAs (and also won Best Adapted Screenplay) was never going to be a film people would rush out to see over opening weekend, even though there has been huge awareness of the film for many months.
Expected a release similar to 2017’s Death of Stalin opened in 138 screens October 20th taking £995,458 #5, expanding to 314 in its second weekend climbing up to fourth taking £812,288, expanding to 476 screens week 3 #5 taking £420,275, dropping down to 290 screens week 4 #6 taking £296,693; had Death of Stalin opened in 476 screens in its first weekend it might have opened #1 but unlikely it would have had the legs it had taking £5,037,835 over 12 weeks on release.
While exclusive openings are still common in the US with award contenders opening exclusively in New York and Los Angeles for a week or two they have become a rarity in the UK. It was common for films to open exclusively at the Odeon Leicester Square for a week almost 30 years to the day The Father opened Anthony Hopkins’s previous Best Actor Oscar-winning performance in The Silence of the Lambs opened exclusively at the Odeon Leicester Square on May 31st for a week before opening wide across the UK.
It will be almost 30 years to the day his Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs opened in the UK, a week later opened with £4,348,483 (£10,361,732 inflation inflated) taking £17,119,333 (£40,792,602 inflation inflated) it was Rank Film Distributors biggest ever film at the UK box office before Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994.
There have only been a handful of exclusive London openings over this century including Kill Bill (Empire Leicester SQ), Chicago and The Artist (Vue West End) and Troy (Odeon Leicester Square).
Similar films include.
2002’s Iris took £3,647,197; 2003’s About Schmidt took £3,201,355; 2004’s The Notebook took £1,109,047; 2008’s The Savages took £72,823; 2012’s Amour took £287,839; 2015’s Still Alice took £2,332,764
• National Lottery Cinema Weekend
What impact did National Lottery Cinema Weekend have on the box office this weekend with 200,000+ free cinema tickets given away in cinemas across the UK on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th June? How many were used and what films did people see? Using the industry claimed average this could have added £1.5m+ to the weekend box office, did it attract people who wouldn’t have gone to the cinema but did because of the free ticket or did those who had already planned to go just see it free.
As the 40%+ increase from the previous weekend had more to do with the weather than the previous two National Lottery Cinema Day September 30th, 2018, in 146 cinemas across the UK and Sunday 25 August 2019 with over 500,000 free tickets available in over 250 cinemas across the UK had very little impact. That said to have no idea of the take up for tickets for any of the three years.
In 1994 it was to celebrate National Lottery helping to fund over 500 British films since 1994 investing about £50m a year on film production in the UK. Over the last 27 years, the UK Film Industry has had hundreds of millions of funding from the National Lottery making over 500 films, but their success rate has been poor. While they have had some hits and some received critical acclaim and winning awards including Billy Elliot, Philomena, Wild Rose, Pride, Suffragette, I, Daniel Blake, The Souvenir, Gosford Park and The King’s Speech, are hundreds that didn’t find audiences.
The film franchises created in 1997 was poorly run with millions spent on many films that were never released. This money should have been spent on building an infrastructure acquiring assets along the way to make the British Film Industry self-supportive as the US film industry is but except for Entertainment Films the British Film Industry still needs foreign investment alongside Lottery funding for these films to be made.
The cinema industry talks about the £1bn+ box office lost over the last year and exhibitors since April 2020 “We know there’s going to be a pent-up demand for cinemas like never before, and we want to hit the ground running when that happens.” But this failed to materialise either in July or last month, while numbers were much stronger in May that’s more to do with more choice being available targetting younger audiences.
So, the key for me was always to get people back into the cinemagoing habit, while exhibitors have talked much about their safety measures the problem is cinemas have long had hygiene issues and the biggest thing holding back many from going back to the cinema again is other cinemagoers. Why their short-sighted behaviour over rushing to reopen last July predictably backfired, as did their rejection to vaccine passports as there is a large demographic who have had their vaccines but don’t feel comfortable returning to cinemas anytime soon, why films like The Father predictably underperformed.
Exhibitors needed to be seen to be doing much more than the minimum required to get those older cinemagoers to go back to the cinema again, but exhibitors were only thinking about the cinephiles and subscription cinema customers whole would have kept going to the cinema if they stayed open. I’ve not been to the cinema since December 2019 and don’t plan to go back until at least September that’s not because I don’t want to go, and this will be the longest gap of not going to the cinema for me ever over my 48 years.
Ever since cinemas closed for the first time in March 2020 always believed cinemas should have to reopen with a “Global celebration of the cinema experience” campaign to get people back into the cinemagoing habit again, as part of the 125th anniversary of commercial cinema, (in December 1895 France, February 1896 in London, and May 1896 in New York).
Similar campaigns in 1985 for British Film Year started the renaissance of cinemagoing in the UK and that was boosted in 1996 with National Cinema Day when all cinemas were £1 on June 2nd to celebrate the 100th anniversary of cinema (1.2m+ people went to the cinema many for the first time in years). It was repeated the following year and was again successful, but in 1998 it was less successful as tickets were half price and it was during the World Cup. National Cinema Day didn’t become an annual event as exhibitors and distributors couldn’t agree on a revenue split, but National Cinema Day still happens in Ireland in August.
National Lottery Cinema Weekend is a nice idea, but the industry needed to think of something on a far bigger scale, in the US they have Cinema Week starting on June 22, but even that is too small it should be National Cinema Month or even year for the industry to work together exhibitors, studios and streaming companies, as Phil Clapp said, “It’s not a competition between us and the streaming sites,” he argues. “People with a voracious appetite for films use streaming and want to go to cinemas. We’re more worried about bars and restaurants. That, and the reinvention of golf and darts as shared communal experiences.” To get people back into the cinemagoing habit again as once to quote 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. If they don’t, they may learn to appreciate it, but it will never become part of their soul.”
The same could be said for the cinema experience, get people to love to get back into the cinema habit again they will keep coming back but with streaming services so cheap in comparison cinema needs to go back to what it used to be for more than a century a cheap night out. When the Point Milton Keynes opened in 1985 “Tickets are £1.95p and half price for children, but the key part of it is 95p twilight which has been particularly popular, a lot of people coming back to the movies who haven’t been for some time because it’s a cheap evening out.”
A million people went to the cinema the week cinemas reopened in May compared to 46.6m visits to indoor hospitality taking £1.17bn.
Dodona Research from 2004 said cinema was on track to have 200m+ admissions and £1bn+ box office by 2008, this was despite a drop of 8.5m admissions in 2003. In reality, it was 2011 until the box office topped £1bn but admissions only grew 1% between 2002 and 2017.
In 2004 UK box office was £769.6m, in 2008 increased to £854.4m despite admissions being flat, so the increase was ticket inflation as was its increase to £1bn+ in 2011. At the same time box office was flat streaming service in the UK grew with LoveFilm/Amazon and Netflix growing dramatically.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £6,842,018 up 43.4% from last weekend £4,771,829 and up 40.7% from 2019 (£11,536,988)
The weekend admissions 962,309 up 43.4% 671,143 from last week; admissions in 2019 this week was 1,560,431 (down 38.3%)
Top 3 took £3,825,014 55.9% of the top 10; The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard 23.9% (£1,636,128); Peter Rabbit 2 16.3% (£1,115,199); In the Heights 15.7% (£1,073,687).
2020 cinemas closed.
Down 40.7% from 2019 (£11,536,988); top three took 63.6% (£7,337,779) of the top 10; Aladdin 24.9% (£2,881,535); Men in Black International 24.5% (£2,823,117); Rocketman 14.1% (£1,633,127); #1 Aladdin £2,881,535 26.6% drop fourth weekend (#1 for 4 weeks)
Down 48.7% from 2018: (£13,335,853); Hereditary (£1,863,913); The Happy Prince (£107,178); Super Troopers 2 (£101,881); Swan Lake – ROH, London 2017/18 (£71,257); #1 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 2nd week £7,220,952 50% drop 667 screens (54.1% of top 10)
Up 19.1% from 2017: (£5,745,646); Churchill (£392,732); Gifted (£305,323); Whitney “Can I Be Me” (£93,867); Rock Dog (£13,351); #1 Wonder Woman £1,868,607 3rd week 613 screens 46% drop (32.5% of top 10)
Down 20.5% from 2016: (£8,610,329); The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case (£4,637,862); Gods of Egypt (£484,467); Barbershop: A Fresh Cut (£91,502); The Keeping Room (£26,199); #1 The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case £4,637,862 1st week 504 screens (53.8% of the top 10)
Down 71.5% from 2015; (£24,008,316); Jurassic World (£19,350,727); London Road (£216,248); Gascoigne (£47,455); Queen And Country (£31,966); #1 Jurassic World £19,350,727 605 screens 1st week (80.6% of top 10)
Down 0.7% from 2014: (£6,889,969); Oculus (£413,578); Belle (£407,120); Devil’s Knot (£122,892); The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (£44,777); The Hooligan Factory (£6,518); The Food Guide to Love (£1,293); #1 22 Jump Street £2,255,100 477 screens 2nd week (32.7% of top 10)
Down 58.8% from 2013: (£16,628,964); Man Of Steel (£11,198,786); Stuck In Love (£34,859); Admission (£33,557); #1 Man Of Steel £11,198,786 1st week 572 screens (67.3% of top 10)
Down 14.3% from 2012 (£7,983,254); Rock of Ages (£1,003,107); Red Lights (£445,109); Fast Girls (£335,700); Jaws (Re: 2012) (£187,197); Cosmopolis (£116,519); A Royal Affair (£75,960); #1 Prometheus £2,009,955 3rd week 522 screens 36% drop (25.2% of top 10)
Down 39.6% from 2011 (£11,331,755) Green Lantern (£2,472,969); Bad Teacher (£1,958,656); The Beaver (£55,185); #1 Green Lantern £2,472,969 1st week 478 screens (21.8% of top 10)
Up 26.1% from 2010: (£5,427,181); Letters to Juliet (£793,425); Brooklyn’s Finest (£468,279); Greenberg (£118,804); #1 Sex and the City 2 £1,489,833 3rd week 542 screens 40% drop (27.3% of top 10)
Down 22.8% from 2009; (£8,867,112); The Hangover (£3,193,806); The Last House on the Left (£392,163); Looking for Eric (£366,242); Red Cliff (£153,288); #1 The Hangover £3,193,806 1st week 422 screens (36.1% of top 10)
Down 30.4% from 2008; (£9,828,672); The Incredible Hulk (£3,253,723); The Happening (£1,632,055); Priceless (£125,433); #1 The Incredible Hulk £3,253,723 1st weeks 484 screens (33.1% of top 10)
Down 30.3% from 2007:( £9,816,017); Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (£4,137,169); Vacancy (£565,936); Tell No One (£173,852); The War on Democracy (£8,144); #1 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer £4,137,169 1st week 475 screens (42.1% of top 10)
Up 18.3% from 2006; (£5,781,153); The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (£1,813,359); Hard Candy (£527,910); Thank You for Smoking (£188,676); Imagine Me and You (£39,950); #1 The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift £1,813,359 1st week 415 screens (31.3% of top 10)
Down 14.2% from 2005 (£7,979,378); Mr and Mrs Smith (£3,943,422); #1 Mr and Mrs Smith £3,943,422 1st week 450 screens (49.4% of top 10)
Down 9.7% from 2004 (£7,575,851); Connie and Carla (£155,374); I’m Not Scared (£41,407); #1 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban £4,391,262 2nd week 536 screens (57.9% of top 10)Up 55.3% from 2003 (£4,406,684); Identity (£719,468); Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry (£673,202); A Guy Thing (£134,956); Iggy Goes Down (£86,581); #1 The Matrix Reloaded £1,071,551 4th week 457 screens 57% drop (24.3% of top 10)
Down 45.8% from 2002 (£12,613,797); Spider-Man: The Movie (£9,426,969); #1 Spider-Man: The Movie £9,426,969 1st week 509 screens (74.7% of top 10)
Next weekend in 2019 (£18,378,720); top three took 84.3% (£15,506,558) of the top 10; Toy Story 4 (72.4%) (£13,300,000); Aladdin 6.5% (£1,201,337); Men In Black International 5.4% (£1,005,221); #1 Toy Story 4 £13,300,000 1st week.
US Box Office
- The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard – Lionsgate
Opened with $11.39m taking $16.79m from 5 days; received poor reviews (25% Rotten Tomatoes) and B CinemaScore
Opened with $3.9m from Wednesday.
(2017’s The Hitman’s Bodyguard received mixed reviews (43% Rotten Tomatoes) Opened in August 2017 with $21.38m taking $75.46m and $176.6m worldwide; after the first film had success in August it was surprising the sequel didn’t open there but 20th Century Studio release Ryan Reynolds Free Guy originally due to be released 3rd July 2020 but was delayed due to COVID several times until it was moved to August in March.
The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard opened on the 10th anniversary of Green Lantern opened with $53.17m taking $116.6m and $219.85m worldwide, the film has been regularly ever since mocked by Ryan Reynolds including at the end of Deadpool 2.
“I think it’s more about just laughing at myself, not laughing at other people, necessarily, that are involved in a project. But laughing at myself and my contribution to that failure or however you want to characterize it. It was just something that I thought was worth examining, you know. And in examining it, you take that energy that is – typically, maybe it’s hurtful or maybe it’s something that’s dragging you down – and you end up creating a sort of mental Judo with it. You’re using its energy against it and creating something positive out of it.”
Took $7.8m internationally from 21 territories and $24.8m worldwide.
- A Quiet Place Part 2 – Paramount Pictures
Dropped 25% in its fourth weekend taking $9.08m and $124.94m.
Sunday was its 24 days on release and its set to be released on PVOD week beginning 12th July (45 days) showing that the shortened window had no impact at all on people wanting to see the film in cinemas, so exhibitors claiming shortened theatrical window would damage box office was predictably wrong. It will just mean that A Quiet Place Part 2 will still be in the top 10 when it’s released on PVOD, and people will have the choice to see it in cinemas or at home. With Black Widow opening the Friday before it was always likely to lose many of its screens that weekend.
Paramount Pictures had the last film to take $100m at the US box office before the pandemic, Sonic the Hedgehog in February 2020 and they also have had the first film to take over $100m and Warner’s Godzilla Vs. Kong became the second film to do so over the weekend. $100m US box office for decades used to be a sign of a film’s success at the box office, it’s the 766 films to do so since Mary Poppins in 1964 took $102,272,727 (768.37% inflation since would be $888,106,669 today). While both A Quiet Place Part 2 and Godzilla Vs. Kong took several weeks to top $100m F9 opening this weekend and Black Widow opening in two weeks are likely to take $100m+ within a week.
2018’s A Quiet Place dropped 47.4% in its fourth weekend taking $11m (Avengers Endgame opened) and $148.52m 79% of $188.02m (3.7x opening) and $341m worldwide.
525th biggest film between Life of Pi and The Fault in Our Stars; 992nd biggest inflation inflated film between Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie and 71st biggest Paramount Pictures film between The Truman Show and Rango. (106th $100m+ film since Love Story (1970).
Took $15.7m from 45 territories taking $96.7m and $222m worldwide (15% more than the original with 20 territories still to open); 725th biggest film worldwide between Constantine and Bedtime Stories; 5th biggest film 2021 film worldwide between F9 and Song Ni Yi Duo Xiao Hong Hua (A Little Red Flower); 82nd biggest Paramount Pictures film worldwide between Crocodile Dundee 2 and Jack Reacher.
- In the Heights- Warner Bros
Dropped 63% in its second weekend taking $4.2m and $10.65m
Has been much written about why In The Heights failed to open as expected last weekend many saying the same thing that it was tracking to open far bigger, but the industry has had issues with film tracking for more than a decade as it was never designed to track box office but marketing awareness. Many can be aware of a film (more so with social media), but it doesn’t mean they will see it, likewise, as seen often with social media a film can get a lot of social media coverage but that doesn’t always turn into box office, this has been often the case with young adult adaptations.
Tracking works best with a standard blockbuster, but even then they can be $20m+ out as often happens with Disney films, a film will be tracking to open with $100m+ and it will open with $120m+. Tracking for A Quiet Place Part 2 was all over from $20m to $60m as no one knew if audiences would come out being the first major release to open without PVOD support since Tenet.
A poll by Fandango on June 8th said 96% of people pre-ordering tickets for In The Heights said would be the first film many would see in a movie theatre since the pandemic began. This should have surely sent warning signs to Warner Bros as it showed the film was targetting older audiences so was never going to open with $20m+ and over-perform as 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians opening with $26.51m; Crazy Rich Asians performed far stronger in the US than internationally taking 73% of its $238.53m global box office in the US $74.53m Vs $64m.
In The Heights opened much lower than expected probably because the target demographic is older than the audiences for Godzilla Vs Kong, A Quiet Place Part 2, Cruella and The Conjuring 3 over the last few weeks and exhibitors ending the mask mandate has probably delayed older audiences returning to the cinema. The ending of the mask mandate is similar to DisneyWorld ending the indoor mask policy for vaccinated guests but then not needing visitors to show any proof of vaccination, instead, DisneyWorld will be relying on the honour system.
20+ years ago a film like In the Heights would be a sleeper playing throughout the summer and possibly being available also on HBO Max could benefit it as some will watch it at home and then want to see it with a cinema audience.
Even after In The Heights disappointing opening many thoughts that world of mouth could see it have legs like The Greatest Showman after opened #4 with $8.8m ($14.41m) over Christmas 2017 and was immediately written off by most people, but then increased 76.3% in its second weekend taking $15.52m and dropped only 11.3% in its third weekend taking $13.77m.
The difference was In the Heights had positive reviews, while The Greatest Showman had average reviews and it became the people’s champion holding its own against Pitch Perfect 3, after Pitch Perfect 2 opened with $69.21m in 2015 (taking $184.29m and $287.14m worldwide) felt like The Greatest Showman had no chance but then Pitch Perfect 3 only opened with $19.92m and due to poor word of mouth dropped 15.6% in its second weekend taking $104.89m and $185.4m worldwide.
20 years ago, Moulin Rouge opened in the US on May 18th after two weeks of exclusive the film opened in the US on June 1st with $13.71m taking $57.38m performed far stronger internationally taking 68% ($121.82m) of $179.21m; musicals often perform much stronger internationally.
Took $2m internationally from 31 territories ($1.4m from the UK) and $21.8m worldwide.
- Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway – Sony Pictures
Dropped 40% in its second weekend taking $6.4m and $20.5m
In 2018 Peter Rabbit dropped 30% in its second weekend taking $17.5m and $48.47m taking $115.25m and $351.26m worldwide.
After the disappointing opening of Peter Rabbit 2 in the US, Sony Pictures delayed the release of Hotel Transylvania 4 from July to October as the only films that are finding audiences in US cinemas are films targetting adults between ages 18 and 34. This is also the reason why studios have sold Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Cinderella and The Tomorrow War to streaming services as studios are nervous about opening anything that targets other demographics.
Has had a staggered release first opening Australia in March and the UK on May 17 taking $6m from 27 territories this weekend with a total of $70.5m and $90.8m worldwide; the UK is its top holdover territory taking $21.4m after 5 weeks; still has many key territories to open Japan (June 25), France (June 30), Germany (July 1), Italy (July 1), Spain (July 16), Brazil (August 26), and South Korea (Sept 29); 1,811th biggest film worldwide between The Karate Kid (1984) and White Men Can’t Jump and 233rd biggest Sony Pictures film worldwide between The Karate Kid (1984) and Burlesque.
- The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – Warner Bros
Dropped 52% in its third weekend taking $5.01m and $53.46m
1,620th biggest film in the US between Problem Child and Sabrina; 2,529th biggest inflation inflated film between The Island and Nights in Rodanthe and 265th biggest Warner Bros film between P.S., I Love You and Life as We Know It
The problem with the US BO over the last few weeks is there’s no stability, films are now opening well but then heavily dropping the second w/e, these films should be having much longer legs, but exhibitors recently ending the mask mandate is probably responsible for this not happening. This probably won’t improve dramatically until after July 4th with July 9th-11th will be the first weekend 2021 tops 2019 levels and will also August 6th-8th and then do multiple times in September and should then be steady with 2019 for the rest of the year.
Took $13.4m internationally from 56 territories and $89.2m total and $142.8m worldwide; 1,204th biggest film worldwide between Spy Game and Paranormal Activity 4 and 196th biggest Warner Bros film worldwide between Music and Lyrics and Conspiracy Theory.
- Cruella – Disney
Dropped 28% in its fourth weekend taking $4.82m and $64.36m.
1,303rd biggest film in the US between The Purge and The Wedding Ringer; 2,145th biggest inflation inflated between Heavy Metal and Friends with Benefits; 3rd biggest 2021 film between Godzilla vs. Kong and Raya and the Last Dragon; 197th biggest Disney film between Song of the South and Miracle.
Disney previously made a reimagination of 101 Dalmatians in 1996 dropped 21.8% taking $6.98m and $84.77m taking $136.2m and $320.7m worldwide and 2000’s 102 Dalmatians dropped 57.3% taking $2.66m and $47.99m taking $67m and $183.6m worldwide.
Took $12m from 41 territories and $95.2m total and $160m worldwide; 1,086th biggest film worldwide between Black Hawk Down and The Sting; 9th biggest film of 2021 worldwide between Ci Sha Xiao Shuo Jia (A Writer’s Odyssey) and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It; 158th biggest Disney film worldwide between Freaky Friday and Crimson Tide.
It was more about what was missing from this weekends box office as normally Father Day weekend sees the release of the latest Pixar film, Luca was due to open until Disney moved it to Disney+ in March, (as they also did with Soul at Christmas) opened last Friday for a one-week exclusive run at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles.
When the first trailer was released in February it felt like it was trolling audiences “we can go anywhere, do anything…we just gotta stick together… this is gonna be the best summer ever… see the whole world together… it will be amazing”. As at that time, no one thought the vaccine rollout would have worked so fast and the uptake been so strong.
Pixar’s next two films will have full theatrical releases Turning Red opening in March and Toy Story spinoff Lightyear opening in June.
UK Box Office Top 10
Opening next week
- F9 – Universal Pictures
Sequel to 2017’s The Fate of the Furious the 9th instalment of Fast ^ Furious film series and the 10th of the franchise starring stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, John Cena, Jordana Brewster, Michael Rooker, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell, and Charlize Theron and directed by Justin Lin (his first since 2013’s Fast & Furious 6).
In 2016 F9 was set for release April 19th, 2019, with F10 set for release April 2nd, 2021, in 2017 was delayed to May 2020 for Hobbs & Shaw and No Time To Die, in March 2020 F9 was delayed to June 25, 2021 (three days after the 20th anniversary of the original film) due to COVID. It was surprising Universal Pictures moved F9 to June 24th in the UK as that’s when the European Championship Semi-Finals are being held and normally studios avoid opening any major films whilst it and the World Cup are running.
Warner brought forward the release of Edge of Tomorrow forward in 2014 and Universal Pictures brought forward Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 2018, as F9 would have opened against Black Widow if it stayed on July 9th maybe they thought opening against European Championships was a lesser gamble. (released with F9 exclusively in IMAX will be the first trailer for Jurassic World: Dominion set to be released next June).
This could be seen as a test for next year’s Qatar World Cup November 21 – December 18, 2022, currently are untitled films for Warner and Disney for Thanksgiving and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Avatar 2 dated for December 16th.
F10 was going to be the final part of the film series but it has since been announced there will be two more films before the series ends along with a Hobbs & Shaw sequel.
It opened in Asia on May 19th receiving mixed reviews taking $268.9m from 8 territories including $212.2m from China (79%) $268.9m total; 2017’s The Fate of the Furious took $392.8m total took 32% of its global $1.236bn in China; has taken About 45% less F8 took $466m.
F9 will receive its French premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in July, opening on July 14 in France one of the last international territories. It was a strange choice to choose as the festival’s mystery blockbuster but there is a limited choice of other films available to premiere in July, as Dune will premiere in Venice and No Time to Die in London.
While the Fast and Furious series was very successful from the first film in the US it didn’t become globally successful till the fourth film in 2009 Fast and Furious opened with £4,928,784 taking £13,539,304 with 2017’s The Fate of the Furious taking more in its opening weekend (£14,026,301).
2019’s Hobbs & Shaw had the fourth biggest opening (£6,377,583 taking £1,468,289 23% from Thursday previews) of the Fast and Furious film series after The Fate of the Furious, Fast & Furious 7 and Fast & Furious 6; The 9 Fast and Furious films have taken over £165m at the box office since 2001 (3.8% of global box office) and over £184m inflation inflated; taking $1.691bn in the US (27.4% of global) and $6.16bn worldwide (4.472bn internationally 72.6%).
The box office of Fast and the Furious franchises shows the impact of the Chinese box office has had on the global box office as the first four films (except for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, by its title, would perform better in Asia) performed fat stronger in the US than international, and after the success of Tokyo Drift producers must have realised that they could expand the franchise going global, with 66% of 2011’s Fast Five box office from international; 69.7% of 2013’s Fast and Furious 6 box office came from international and then the franchise exploded with 2017’s Furious 7 taking 76.7% internally thanks to it taking $391m in China and $1.51bn worldwide; 81.7% of 2017’s The Fate of the Furious came from international with $392.8m from China and $1.236nm worldwide.
It was notable that F9 had the biggest opening in China of a Western film since Hobbs & Shaw in August 2019, but despite that, it has taken almost 50% less than the previous two films in China ($203m) showing that Chinese audiences are losing interest in foreign films as they are getting bored of the repetitive nature of US films, while at the same time local films are becoming even more successful as seen by their record-breaking New Year in February taking over $1.2bn in a week.
The year earlier China closed their cinemas two weeks before their New Year due to COVID as their New Year is their most lucrative week for cinema the rest of the world should have immediately seen this as how serious China saw COVID and taken immediate action to prepare for worst-case scenarios. Had they done so Western box office could have returned to pre-lockdown levels much quicker but as it is China is close to normal while many in the West down think box office will get back to normal until 2023 and then it will be a new normal due to streaming.
In normal conditions would expect F9 to open similar to 2019’s Hobbs & Shaw (£6,377,583 including £1,468,289 from Thursday previews) but we aren’t in normal conditions, which said A Quiet Place Part 2 opened 32% (£3,567,048) more than the first film (£2,696,892) but did have two extra days and sequel received much more media coverage as the first film was hugely popular on home entertainment.
Except for the first film 2001’s The Fast and the Furious (opening with £1,763,020 4.4% of US opening $40.08m) all other films have opened with 7%-9% o
All the films that have performed well in cinemas since they reopened on May 17 and previously on July 4th have targetting Millennials and General Z who have felt much more comfortable returning to cinemas as older audiences seen by Nomadland, The Father and In The Heights despite all receiving critical acclaim and strong media coverage failed to find a wide audience.
F9 took $19m from 23 territories (added 13 territories this weekend) and $292m worldwide opens in the US and UK this weekend.
F9 is tracking to open with $60m in the US about 40% less than 2017’s The Fate of the Furious opened with $98.78m taking $226m and similar to the opening of 2019’s Hobbs & Shaw $60.03m taking $173.95m. F9 will likely drop 60%+ in its second weekend.
Two weeks later Black Widow is expected to open with $70m+ again targetting the same 18 and 34 audiences. The question will be how will piracy effect F9 being widely available online for the the last month and Black Widow being released same day on Disney+, but as seen with Godzilla Vs Kong and other films if its a film people want to see in the cinema they will see it in the cinema, it probably just means they won’t have the repeat viewings, unless they have Cineworld Unlimited/Odeon Limitless.
- Supernova – Studiocanal
British drama film starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci and written and directed by Harry Macqueen; had its world premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2020 receiving positive reviews (89% Rotten Tomatoes) opened in the US in January many critics said Supernova included a career-best performance for both Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, despite this, it was overlooked during award season being overshadowed by The Father.
Studiocanal acquired UK rights in August.
It was surprising Studiocanal brought forward the release of Supernova from July 9th to open two weeks after The Father as it also about coping with dementia and as The Father struggled to find an audience Supernova will also but will likely open with less than half the screens The Father did.
- Dogtanian And The Three Muskehounds – Altitude
The animated film based on the 80s 1981 Spanish Japanese animated TV show broadcast on BBC from 1985 to 1987.
Used to watch the animated TV series when I was a child the problem I have with the movie is that the voices aren’t the same it’s similar to watching Christopher Robin and hearing another actor being Winnie the Pooh you are so used to a certain voice being a character that hearing another voice it doesn’t feel right.
