- Black Widow – £6,889,187 – NE
Took £2.25m from previews from Wednesday and Thursday of opening (similar previews to Avengers Assemble, Thor, Iron Man 3 and Captain America: Winter Soldier); previews were 32.66% of its opening weekend similar to Star Wars; The Rise of Skywalker; Elysium; Fifty Shades Darker, GI Joe: Retaliation; The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; Atomic Blonde; Baby Driver and Angel Has Fallen.
Took £1.21m on Wednesday having the biggest opening day over the last year ahead of F9 opening day total of £1.18m; (69% of the total box office for Wednesday); took £1.03m from Thursday previews.
Took £2.1m on Saturday having the biggest single post-pandemic single day topping £2m single days for F9 on Saturday, June 26th and took £2.54m from Friday (£1.5m) and Sunday (£948k)
Final figures came in £219,992 more than an estimate (£6,669,195)
Had the biggest opening in the UK since 1917 in January 2020 (£7,446,302 no previews) and Disney’s biggest opening since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (£20,864,500).
Without previews, F9 had a bigger Fri-Sun opening but that was due to much lower-than-normal box office on Sunday due to over 30m watching England lose to Italy on penalties at Euro 2020.
2D took £6,085,219 and IMAX £290,989.
Had 170th biggest opening of the year between Terminator Salvation and True Lies (close to X-Men 2, Men In Black, Taken 3 and Maleficent) and 252nd biggest inflated opening between Clash of the Titans and Godzilla (close to Justice League, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 and Batman Begins).
The 38th biggest comic-book opening between X-Men 2 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (close to Iron Man 2, X-Men: Apocalypse, Wonder Woman and Captain America: The Winter Soldier).
The 39th biggest Disney opening between Aladdin and Maleficent (close to Mary Poppins Returns, Finding Dory, Zootropolis and Ant-Man and The Wasp).
16th biggest MCU opening between Iron Man 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1); Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ant-Man, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America: The First Avenger opening with less, three of them were released by Paramount and one by Universal and they were the launch titles of the MCU so can’t be comparable, likewise Ant-Man was a very different MCU film (why I enjoyed it much more than many other recent films).
Opening was 8.57% of US opening (normally 10% is used as a guide to the UK opening) similar to Batman Vs Superman; Black Panther; The Wolverine; The Lion King; Fast & Furious 7; F9; Birds of Prey; Suicide Squad; Captain Marvel and Thor.
10% openers include Deadpool; Jurassic Park; Deadpool 2; Thor: The Dark World; Thor: Ragnarok; X-Men: Days of Future Past; Venom; Mad Max: Fury Road; Spider-Man 2; Looney Tunes: Back in Action
While Black Widow had the biggest opening weekend post-pandemic Fri-Sun took £197,678 less than F9 (£4,639,095 Vs £4,836,773) similar to Wonder Woman; Pokemon Detective Pikachu; Hobbs & Shaw; Solo: A Star Wars Story; X-Men; Batman Forever; Pirates of the Caribbean 5; World War Z; The Hunger Games and Batman and Robin
The problem many had with Black Widow was it felt old, the film is of course older than it should have been as it was originally due for release in May 2020, but old because of films like Lucy and Red Sparrow (both were rated 15) and Wonder Woman.
2014’s Lucy opened with £3,076,997 taking £14,129,734
2018’s Red Sparrow – £1,843,124 (including £167,013 previews taking £6,395,074
2017’s Wonder Woman – £6,179,616 (including £1,219,884 one day previews) taking £22,086,045
2017’s Atomic Blonde – £1,686,430 (£555,569 previews) taking £3,063,918
Black Widow also has similarities with the Bourne film series.
2002’s The Bourne Identity – £2,150,511 (£171,062 previews) taking £7,717,876 (£13,459,677 inflation inflated)
2004’s The Bourne Supremacy – £2,720,016 (£360,288 previews) taking £11,396,052
2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum – £6,553,704 taking £23,586,781
2012’s The Bourne Legacy -£4,620,289 (£2,524,042 previews) taking £10,869,199
2016’s Jason Bourne – £7,600,420 taking £22,938,616
Also having similarities with 2010’s Salt; 1990’s Nikita; 2018’s Peppermint; 2015’s The Assassin and 2011’s Hanna and Haywire.
As with F9 opening three weeks ago Black Widow might have opened in 622 cinemas but was playing in over 2,500 screens with most multiplexes showing it in four or more screens and was also screened in IMAX, PLF, 4DX, ScreenX and Dolby Cinema.
Analysts and exhibitors keep using the excuse of the 50% capacity as the reason why films down open similar to previous films but as with F9 (opening in 595 cinemas) Black Widow opening in 644 cinemas didn’t tell the whole story as was probably playing in over 2,500 screens, (including all IMAX, PLF, 4DX and Dolby Cinema screens) so had more than enough capacity as had a screen average of £10,697 screen average 1,505 per screen 75.23 per show and 968,943 admissions; in comparison F9 over 4 days had had £10,108 screen average 1,422 per screen 118.47 per show and 845,869 admissions.
Black Widow played in 2,500+ screens over 5 days having about 16 shows over those days and average screen having 100 capacities would have been over 15m seats available, but sold less than 10% of its capacity, at the average ticket price rate of 50% capacity would be a potential £90m+ opening, so 100% capacity would be £175m+ does show that even Avengers: Endgame 2019 opening of £43,400,000 had about 40% capacity.
This also shows UK box office should be vastly bigger than it is in normal circumstances. Instead, film’s opening between £1-2m they should be opening with £5m+ and those should be opening with £10m+ due to the ticket inflation over the last 20 years, but this is something the industry has failed to deal with as box office should be closer to £2bn yearly by now not hovering just over £1bn over the last decade.
Initial thought it was the worst possible news that England was playing Denmark on Wednesday (July 7th) Black Widow’s opening day and then the final on Sunday, July 12th against Italy but then realised that as with Captain Marvel and Black Panther the film could play beyond regular comic-book audience attracting more women.
Wonder Woman did this in the US when it is opening in June 2017 in the US non-film-related issues the One Love Manchester concert organised by singer Ariana Grande to raise money for the victims and the survivors of the terrorist attack at the end of her Manchester concert a few days earlier. The concert was shown live on BBC1 and watched by over 20m many would be young women who would be the audience who could have otherwise seen Wonder Woman.
Despite featuring in the second MCU film (Iron Man 2 in 2010) she has featured in nine films before she got her solo film after Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. This is despite while promoting the home media release of Iron Man 2 in 2010 Kevin Feige talked about plans to make a solo Black Widow film, and Scarlett Johansson has had discussions to start in the film, but then they focused on 2012’s The Avengers.
Black Widow was originally set to be released in May 2020 but was delayed three times due to COVID before moving to July 9th and will be released also on Disney+ with Premier Access. As Black Widow is a film many will want to see in cinemas releasing it also on Disney+ will have little impact on its box office as if it’s a film people want to see in the cinema they will see it in cinemas as seen by Godzilla Vs Kong taking £2.5m at the box office since May 17 despite being available on VOD since April.
In September 2005 Marvel Entertainment announced plans to make 10 films with budgets up to $165m, they were to be Captain America, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Cloak & Dagger, Dr Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack, Shang-Chi and Avengers.
Iron Man wasn’t included as didn’t revert to Marvel until 2006 after Universal Pictures acquired them in 1990, then sold to 20th Century Fox before being acquired by New Line in 1999 (New Line made Blade in 1998 and Blade Trinity in 2002 rights returned to Marvel in 2011) rights reverted to Marvel in 2006. Lionsgate was developing a Black Widow film in 2004 but after female action flops Ultraviolet, Aeon Flux and Elektra they put the film into turnaround and rights reverted to Marvel.
This was similar to the case with Black Widow as before this Marvel sold rights to their comic-book characters in the 80s as there was little interest in comic-book movies until Warner made Batman in 1989, by then many of Marvel’s most high-profile superhero rights were split across many studios.
The MCU could have been very different had these other films been made by rival studios, also wonder had Dick Tracy and The Rocketeer been successful for Disney 30 years ago would they have moved into the comic-book business sooner as they acquired Marvel in 2009 after Paramount had huge success with Iron Man and the biggest film of the year was The Dark Knight, while Disney’s biggest film was The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian #13 taking $141.62m and $419.66m worldwide.
Much has been made about the diversity by Marvel but despite Black Panther being in the initial slate announced in 2005 along with Shang-Chi why did it take until their 18th in 2018 to make Black Panther, likewise Captain Marvel was their 21st in 2019 released two years after Wonder Woman was a huge box office hit.
The problem with Marvel films is the female characters have always been poorly written.
Scarlett Johansson said in a recent interview “While [Iron Man 2] was really fun and had a lot of great moments in it, the character is so sexualised, you know? [She is] really talked about like she’s a piece of something, like a possession or a thing or whatever – like a piece of ass, really. And Tony even refers to her as something like that at one point … ‘I want some.” … “Maybe at that time that actually felt like a compliment. You know what I mean? Because my thinking was different … My own self-worth was probably measured against that type of comment [but], like a lot of young women, you come into your own and you understand your own self-worth.” … “young girls are getting a much more positive message” and that “it’s been incredible to be a part of that shift and be able to come out the other side”.
There were similar issues with Captain Marvel made almost 10 years after Iron Man 2, there’s a one-size-fits-all approach to the writing of the characters Gamora, The Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow and Captain Marvel all started out as villains before realising they were fighting for the bad guys, moving over to the good side. There has also been a one size fits all approach to male comic-book characters being rich arrogant males that find themselves and become good guys.
In Avengers: Endgame Carol Danvers joins Scarlet Witch, Valkyrie, Okoye, Mantis, Shuri, Hope van Dyne, Gamora, Nebula, and Pepper Potts for a girl power moment but the male superheroes have lengthy scenes together. Carol has 15 minutes of screen time, Valkyrie eight and Okoye six while Iron Man 1hr 2mins, Ant-Man 38 mins, War Machine 35mins and Black Widow 33 mins.
Scarlett Johansson starred in the action film Lucy in 2014 taking $126.67m in the US and $457.5m worldwide which was released a few months after Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is surely when Black Widow should have happened, but Marvel was more interested in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.
Black Widow will of course be a big box office hit, but it feels like while Marvel is quick to launch Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor they feel they need to softly open other characters which are strong enough to support their film as the fanbase for Marvel films will see all the films and TV shows they create, but the Black Widow was similar to Black Panther Marvel felt they needed to have both features in other films before having their solo films. While Warner was already filming Wonder Woman when Batman Vs Superman was released.
The first teaser was released in December 2019 (ahead then May 2020 opening) comparisons were made with other female spy films including Atomic Blonde, Red Sparrow, and Anna but of course had a massive advantage on their films being part of the MCU.
The second trailer was released on March 9th, 2020, the week later Disney removed it from the May date, in April they moved it to November shifting all their other MCU films back. In September Disney delayed the release of Black Widow to May 7th after the soft box office of Mulan in China and Tenet in the US.
In January 2021 it was still expected to open in cinemas, but there were rumours that it could be released straight to Disney+. In early February Disney said the plan was to open it in cinemas only but then in March it was moved to July 9th and announced would be released on Disney+ with Premier Access.
Black Widow opens almost exactly two years to the day the last MCU film opened Spider-Man: Far From Home, then WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki have all been on Disney+
Early reviews for Black Widow have been mixed, it’s an enjoyable MCU film but feels all too late as this should have happened many years ago. While Black Widow is having the role, she deserves but it should have come after Captain America Civil War 5 years ago.
Disney must have been nervously watching the Euro’s last week seeing England were to beat Ukraine playing in the Semi-Final on Wednesday the day Black Widow opens, if they were to win that will be in the final on Sunday night. Euro 2016 final was watched by 13.6m but if England were to get to the final it’s likely to top 23.78m who watched England v Argentina in the World Cup 1998 and 24.46m who watched the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.
Black Widow was watched by about 900k households internationally on Disney+ Premier (£19.99 UK $29.99 in the US) if a household.
It Will be interesting to see how Black Widow holds this weekend as would expect a 60% second-weekend drop (including previews) £2.7m-£3m, but normally the weekend after a major MCU film is a quiet weekend for new releases but this weekend is anything but with four wide releases, The Forever Purge, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions and The Croods 2: A New Age. None target directly Black Widows demographic so could see the best cinema weekend since January 2020.
The 24 MCU films have taken over £765m at the UK box office since 2008 and over £801m inflation inflated; Disney’s 18 MCU films since 2012 have taken over £6252m (removing the two Spider-Man films taking £68m+ and pre-Disney MCU films taking £70m.
After two years without any MCU films, there are four within 6 months with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home all due for release between September and December.
With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Marvels all set for 2022 MCU films could take over £1bn at the UK box office by the end of next year.
2. F9 – £1,096,046 – £13,064,613
Dropped 61.9% in its third weekend; took £110,580k more than estimates (£1,206,626)
7th biggest Fast and Furious third weekend in the UK between Fast & Furious and The Fast and the Furious
460th biggest film in the UK between What Lies Beneath and Wedding Crashers (close to Mr and Mrs Smith, Pearl Harbour, Shazam and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider; 690th biggest inflation inflated between A Beautiful Mind and Valiant (close to Collateral, Wanted, Alien Resurrection and Rush Hour).
53rd biggest Universal Pictures film in the UK (and their 118th film to take over £10m) between Fast & Furious and Atonement (close to Lucy, Robin Hood, Kick-Ass and Split) and 59th biggest inflation inflated between Wanted and Inglourious Basterds.
Ahead of the release of F9 it was expected that both F9 and Black Widow would speed past Peter Rabbit 2 box office within weeks of opening, but instead, F9 will fall short and Black Widow will likely only slip past, so those who have been singing along Cinema is coming home, we’re too quick to believe this as those that have sung footballs coming home for the past month. As both films opened lower than they would have done in normal circumstances made worst opening during Euro’s, it’s almost like COVID has made the industry forgetful as this was sadly as predictable as England losing in penalties.
After three weeks Fast & Furious 7 had taken 83.4% £32,018,450 of its £38,385,021
The Fate of the Furious taken 88.4% £26,195,070 of £29,630,188 while Hobbs & Shaw took 79.51%; The Fast and the Furious 76.56% the leggiest.
If F9 holds similar to The Fate of the Furious it will take between £15.5m-£16.2m which will be the lowest-grossing film of the series since 2009’s Fast & Furious, F9 must have expected to take similar to Fast & Furious 6 and Hobbs & Shaw. Originally F9 was due to open this weekend against Black Widow so Universal dodged a bullet opening it this weekend, but with the Euro’s neither date was best for it, probably would have been better to open in May alongside the Asian release.
As the central theme of Fast & Furious, Mission Impossible and James Bond films are similar producers feel the need to outdo the previous films locations and stunts the problem you get with F9 is it feels like it’s jumped the shark. In series 5 of Happy Days, Fonzie jumps a shark and was seen as the moment the TV show felt they needed gimmicks to keep views interest, rather than just be reliant on the show itself, (the same could be said for cinema with the likes of 3D, 4DX and ScreenX). It wasn’t until a year after Happy Days finished after 11 series that the phrase was invented as at the time of its broadcast in 1977 Happy Days was still hugely popular getting over 30m viewers a week.
Had the biggest third-weekend drop (59.1% due to Black Widow and Euro’s Final) all other films dropped between 42%-51% with the first film have the least drop 34.3%
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).
The 10 films have taken almost £180m in the UK to date and almost £200m inflation inflated since 2001 with at least two more Furious films and Hobbs & Shaw sequel there is still a lot of mileage in this franchise but it’s unlikely to ever match its Furious 7 peak and there is also the question of China and if they are losing interest in the franchise and their taste in US movies.
3. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway – £546,981 – £18,302,928
Down 34.1% in its eighth weekend; took £33,712 more than estimates.
296th biggest film in the UK between Jurassic Park 3 and X-Men: Apocalypse (close to The Secret Life of Pets 2, The Lego Movie: The Second Part, Coco and Stuart Little) and 493rd biggest inflation inflated film in the UK between The Muppets and Charlie’s Angels (2000) (close to 102 Dalmatians, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, Matilda and Pokemon: The First Movie).
Peter Rabbit 2 has now overtaken last year’s saviour of cinema Tenet (£17,467,059). A few weeks ago, it was a certainty that Black Widow and F9 would be the first films in the UK since 1917 to take £20m+ but after both films opened lower than expected and close together, while Peter Rabbit 2 continues to hold well in its eighth weekend could top £20m in two weeks, it all depends how it holds against with The Croods: A New Age and Space Jam: A New Legacy opening on Friday.
Sony Pictures 30th biggest film in the UK between 22 Jump Street and Stuart Little (close to Hotel Transylvania 2, Hotel Transylvania 3, The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists and The Smurfs; the 50th biggest inflation inflated between Erin Brockovich and Charlie’s Angels (close to Hotel Transylvania 3, Stuart Little 2, Matilda2 and The Emoji Movie).
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 down 80% in its eighth weekend taking £120,181 #9 from 521 screen £39,850,737 97.2% of £40,999,583; dropped 7% in its ninth weekend taking £115,336 from 480 screens #12 (May 11th-13th) and £40,064,194.
Peter Rabbit took more than 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 eighth weekend drops
2017’s Paddington 2 up 15 #5 taking £1,884,062 (Christmas holidays) 620 screens and £37,567,705 (88.1%) of total £42,614,170
2016’s The BFG down 53% #9 taking £332,704 from 468 screens and £29,197,858 (95.7%) of total £30,514,629
2014’s Paddington down 26% #5 taking £943,320 561 screens and £34,067,531 (90.6%) 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. This is why Matilda musical will be released in December 2022 in the UK but Netflix elsewhere.
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 7 weeks on release.
Upcoming Sony Pictures releases for 2021 includes Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Spider-Man: No Way Home
4. A Quiet Place Part 2 – £261,410 – £10,922,529
Down 38.6% in its seventh weekend; took £11,788 more than estimates (£249,622)
Took 107% more than A Quiet Place (£261,410 Vs £126,334) and taken 6.5% less (£10,922,529 Vs £11,634,986) sequel had two extra days play.
555th biggest film in the UK (620th film to take £10m+) between Smallfoot and Bend It Like Beckham (close to Paranormal Activity 2, Split, The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case and Terminator: Genisys and 829th biggest inflation inflated between Smallfoot and Crocodile Dundee II (close to Jeepers Creepers, Blade, 28 Days Later and Saw).
37th biggest Paramount Pictures film in the UK between Paranormal Activity 2 and Terminator: Genisys (close to A Quiet Place, World War Z, Paranormal Activity 3 and Paranormal Activity).
2018’s A Quiet Place dropped 65% in its 7th weekend taking £126,334 and £11,634,986; (Deadpool 2 opened #1 with £12,974,669); dropped 44% in its eighth weekend #13 from 162 screens taking £70,675; (Solo: A Star Wars Story opened #1 with £6,061,231)
Upcoming Paramount releases for 2021 includes The Paw Patrol Movie, Snake Eyes and Top Gun Maverick. There is a huge expectation on the Top Gun sequel that was originally due for release July 12th, 2019, but was delayed to June 26th, 2020, to give more time to work on the complex flight sequences and then delayed several times due to COVID finally taking Mission: Impossible 7 November 19th, 2021, date (Mission: Impossible 7 moved to May 27th, 2022).
The big question with Top Gun: Maverick is being 35 years after the original film was released who its target demographic those who saw the original in cinemas in 1986 who will now be in their 50s or their children who are more interesting in comic-book movies.
While Tom Cruise has had massive success at the box office since the 80s and is a global superstar, (his films have taken $1.53bn in the US and $4.66bn worldwide) attended both the Women’s and Men’s Wimbledon Finals over the weekend before running around the North Circular to see the Euro Final also having time to video call Harry Kane last Friday to wish the England team good luck for the final. Tom Cruise also invited the England team to see a preview of Top Gun: Maverick last week.
I have grown up watching most of his films from Top Gun to Mission Impossible in cinemas, while in July 2002 spent several days watching Italian show prints of Minority Report at Pinewood Studios and a few years earlier was thanked by him and his then-wife Nicole Kidman in May 1995 for doing a screening of To Die For at Rank Film Distributors Preview Theatre. Top Gun Maverick opens in the UK a week after another long gap sequel Ghostbusters Afterlife, (1984 original is another film that has been updated from a PG to 12A recently by the BBFC).
Would be interesting to see the weekly box office for both of these films in the UK, but it was a completely different time, Black Widow opened in 644 cinemas and over 2,500 screens Ghostbusters and Top Gun probably opened in less than half, but both films played in cinemas for more than 6 months, with regularly sold-out performances and that was when their multiplexes were single screened, Empire Leicester Square was 1,330 seater, Warner West End main screen 900, Odeon Leicester Square 1,800 and West End 1,400 now all have half the seats but rarely sell out.
5. In the Heights – £232,045 – £3,849,103
Down 31.4% in its fourth weekend; took £14,895 more than estimates.
After dropping heavily in the US after its soft opening many expected In the Height to do similar in the UK, but musicals are extremely popular in the UK including Mamma Mia!, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Greatest Showman, Les Miserables, La La Land, Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Evita and Hairspray.
Had a similar fourth weekend to 2019’s Cats (£434,743 #9 taking £11,212,492)
28th biggest musical in the UK between Dreamgirls and The Producers
4th weekends
2001’s Moulin Rouge took £1,337,411 #2 down 12% from 365 screens taking £10,636,791 (58.2% of total box office) taking £18,166,288 (£31,681,304 inflation inflated) was in the top 15 for almost 12 weeks.
2007’s Hairspray took £610,356 #6 down 30% from 358 screens and £9,544,673 (78.4% of total box office of £12,162,153)
2017’s The Greatest Showman took £2,103,605 #4 down only 2% taking £16,865,309 (34% 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.
Musicals often have very long legs in the UK, the top ten leggiest musicals in the UK.
The Commitments 10.92x opening; Mamma Mia! 10.44x; The Greatest Showman 10.42x; Walk the Line 8.76x; Chicago 8.29x; Moulin Rouge 7.56x; Phantom of the Opera 7.36x; A Star Is Born 7.15x; Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again 6.74x; Hairspray 5.94x; Bohemian Rhapsody 5.91x and Les Miserables 5.02x.
Upcoming musicals include Dear Evan Hansen, West Side Story, Cyrano, The Little Mermaid, Matilda (the UK release in cinemas, Netflix rest of the world opening December 2022) and The Colour Purple. Tick, Tick… Boom and 13 for Netflix and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and Cinderella were due to have cinema releases but were sold to Amazon due to studios concerns over opening riskier films during COVID.
Despite being sold to Amazon globally Everybody’s Talking About Jamie should be given a cinema release in the UK ahead of its release on Amazon as the stage show is still hugely popular in the UK and it’s surely going to be the feel-good film people will want to watch with an audience rather than at home, the musical was broadcast live in cinemas in July 2018 for one night taking £543,629.
Upcoming Warner Bros releases for 2021 includes Space Jam: A New Legacy (opening Friday), The Suicide Squad, Dune and The Matrix 4.
Other Film News
On Monday Boris Johnson announced that reduced capacity and social distancing will end across England, but after rising cases of COVID over the last few weeks, with over 30k daily cases there have been murmurings of COVID passports being needed for hospitality and sporting events. This was predictably immediately rejected by the UKCA and other organisations in February and again this week, with UKCA saying in The Times today “UK cinemas have throughout the pandemic repeatedly shown their ability to offer a safe and enjoyable environment, as evidenced by the fact that not a single case of Covid has been traced back to a cinema site.” This is more likely due to the poor track and trace and people switching off their phones or Bluetooth rather than a clean bill of health as cinemas have long had hygiene issues.
But according to polls by YouGov and Ipsos Mori, the public are in favour of them as they see them as the best bad idea we have to get back to normal.
Over the last 8 weeks cinema industry has heralded Cinema Is Back but despite the biggest post-pandemic openings for F9 and Black Widow both opened over 30% less than should and will take 30%+ less and this was predictable as despite the industry’s claims many still won’t return.
Exhibitors need to think beyond the 16-34 audience as predictably The Father, Supernova and Another Round struggled to find an audience as older audiences still aren’t comfortable going back and this will be more so after social distancing and reduced capacity ends.
This goes back to the age-old issue exhibitors need to be proactive, but they have always been reactive with COVID ever since March 2020. It was a nothing to see attitude and COVID was completely ignored at the UKCA conference in early March 2020.
After China shutdown in January 2020, the UKCA conference should have been where they planned their worst-case scenarios. Always remember Phil Clapp comments in early March 2020 saying its business as normal after Onward had the lowest opening of a Pixar film ever, and they were waiting on government advice. At that time government were completely clueless and were until ITV2 showed Contagion in mid-March and Matt Hancock finally saw the 9-year-old film. Contagion was the historical documents to prepare for COVID as all-natural disasters there’s a Hollywood movie as cases notes to prepare for it.
It’s just short-sighted behaviour by exhibitors to reject COVID passports as it’s biting off the nose to smite the face as while F9 and Black Widow had good openings they were still at least a third down on what they should have been before opening F9 was a certainty to take £20m+ now it’s likely to take £16m likewise Black Widow £30m+ will struggle to take £20m+
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £9,713,818 up 62.3% from last weekend £5,982,414 and up 7,347% from 2020 (£130,433) the first weekend UK cinemas reopened after being closed for 16 weeks after the end of the first lockdown, but only a small number of cinemas reopened mostly showing films that were playing in cinemas 4 months earlier.
The weekend admissions xx up xx% 841,408 from last week; admissions in 2020 this week was 22,423 (up xx%)
Top 3 took £8,532,214 87.8% of the top 10; Black Widow 70.9% (£6,889,187); F9 11.3% (£1,096,046); Peter Rabbit 2 5.6% (£546,981);
Up 7,347% from 2020 (£130,433); top three took 41.9% (£54,637); Onward 16.6% (£21,626); Trolls World Tour 13% (£16,941); Bad Boys For Life 12.3% (£16,070); #1 Onward £21,626 47 screens 3rd week #1 with 16 week gap (March 13th-15th took £1,272,748 in its 2nd weekend from 636 screens with UK cinemas closing days later for 4 months until July 4th the longest time UK cinemas have ever been closed, they were previously closed when World War 2 started in September 1939 but reopened with a few weeks to keep morale up.
Down 54.4% from 2019 top three took (£21,320,144) of the top 10; Spider-Man: Far from Home (57.3%) (£14,148,624); Toy Story 4 (22.4%) (£5,543,052); Yesterday 6.6% (£1,628,468);
Up 74.4% from 2018: (£5,570,742); The First Purge (£1,778,157); The Beatles Yellow Submarine (50th Anniversary) (£163,155); Uncle Drew (£151,337); Whitney (£142,936); The More You Ignore Me (£8,420); #1 The First Purge £1,778,157 1st week 481 screens (31.9% of top 10)
Down 44.8% from 2017: (£17,613,700); Spider-Man: Homecoming (£9,369,846); It Comes at Night (£226,688); Paw Patrol: Mission Big Screen (£42,460); #1 Spider-Man: Homecoming £9,369,846 1st week 616 screens (53.2% of top 10)
Down 40.4% from 2016: (£16,304,545); The Legend of Tarzan (£3,570,350); Now You See Me 2 (£2,964,641); The Neon Demon (£126,996); Maggie’s Plan (£102,534); #1 The Secret Life Of Pets £3,624,751 3rd week 612 screens 24% drop (22.2% of the top 10)
Down 37.9% from 2015; (£15,633,889); Terminator: Genisys (£3,793,617); Magic Mike XXL (£1,575,092); Amy (£523,192); Guillaume Tell – Royal Opera, London 2015 (£114,673); #1 Minions £6,238,498 2nd week 586 screens (39.9% of top 10)
Up 67.6% from 2014: (£5,795,536); Tammy (£471,429); The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared (£102,570); Don Giovanni – Glyndebourne 2010 (£32,205); A Hard Day’s Night (Re: 2014) (£9,935); Vampire Academy (£111); #1 Mrs Brown’s Boys d’Movie £2,188,761 2nd week 529 screens 49% drop (37.7% of top 10)
Down 8.5% from 2013: (£10,613,251); Now You See Me (£2,898,997); The Internship (£1,248,431); The Bling Ring (£141,425); A Field in England (£21,399); Chasing Mavericks (£21,985); #1 Despicable Me 2 £3,996,837 2nd week 539 screens 73% drop (37.6% of top 10)
Down 31.7% from 2012 (£14,221,408); The Amazing Spider-Man (£11,091,972); Katy Perry: Part of Me (£449,491); #1 The Amazing Spider-Man £11,091,972 1st week 552 screens (78% of top 10)
Down 5.9% from 2011 (£10,318,687); The Guard (£473,878); The Tree of Life (£406,062); Trust (£2,069); #1 Transformers: Dark of the Moon £4,750,519 2nd week 522 screens 56% drop (46.1% of top 10)
Down 12.4% from 2010: (£11,090,024); Shrek Forever After (£8,955,554); Heartbreaker (£119,742); ); #1 Shrek Forever After £8,955,554 1st week 539 screens (80.7% of top 10)
Down 37.4% from 2009; (£15,513,026); Ice Age III (£7,639,884); Public Enemies (£2,228,291); #1 Ice Age III £7,639,884 1st week 526 screens (49.2% of top 10)
Down 51.8% from 2008; (£20,154,893); Hancock (£9,589,095); Kung Fu Panda (£6,069,679); The Mist (£157,394); #1 Hancock £9,589,095 1st week 450 screens (47.6% of top 10)
Down 20.4% from 2007:( £12,207,040); Die Hard 4.0 (£5,004,916); Dead Silence (£22,580); #1 Shrek the Third £5,084,641 2nd week 538 screens 70% drop (41.6% of top 10)
Down 44.6% from 2006; (£17,550,776); Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest (£13,740,784); District 13 (£98,747); #1 Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest £13,740,784 1st week 514 screens (78.3% of top 10)
Up 46.4% from 2005 (£6,632,112); The Descent (£570,850); #1 War of the Worlds £4,219,120 2nd week 506 screens 51% drop (63.6% of top 10)
Down 51.2% from 2004 (£19,891,077); Shrek 2 (£16,220,752); Godsend (£491,506); Highwaymen (£44,388); Club Dread (£32,265); #1 Shrek 2 £16,220,752 1st week 512 screens (81.5% of top 10)
Up 15.5% from 2003 (£8,411,961); Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (£3,273,078); Dark Blue (£70,049); #1 Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle £3,273,078 1st week 473 screens (38.9% of top 10)
Up 20.9% from 2002 (£8,034,538); The Minority Report (£4,506,315); Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron (£719,681); #1 The Minority Report £4,506,315 1st week 426 screens (56.1% of top 10)
Next weekend in 2019 (£13,229,066) Top three took 78.8% (£10,421,245) of the top 10; Spider-Man: Far from Home (33.2%) (£4,396,516) Toy Story 4 (28.3%) (£3,801,247); Annabelle Comes Home 16.8% (£2,223,482); #1 Spider-Man: Far from Home (£4,396,516) 2nd week (33.2% of the top 10)
US Box Office
- Black Widow
Opened with $80.36m; received positive reviews (92% Rotten Tomatoes) and A- CinemaScore.
Took $13.2m from Thursday previews more than the previous records set by F9 ($7.1m) and A Quiet Place 2 ($4.8m) having bigger previews than both Ant-Man and the Wasp ($11.5m) and Guardians of the Galaxy ($11.2m) while Captain Marvel opened with $20.7m showing the market is still softer than normal and in normal conditions, Black Widow would have expected $100m+ opening (similar to 2017’s Wonder Woman $103.25m), as F9 three weeks ago (The Fate of the Furious $98.78m).
Had the 18th biggest MCU film in the US between Doctor Strange and Ant-Man and the Wasp (Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Ant-Man and The incredible Hulk opened lower, only one Ant-Man released by Disney).
A month ago, Black Widow was tracking to open between $70m and $90m, normally with Disney films will open with about $20m more than their tracking, after opening with $39.5m including previews from Friday it was expected to open with upwards of $90m but instead opened lower to expected, that said Disney’s estimates will be much lower than their final figures while other studios estimates are much closer to finals.
It’s the highest opening for an MCU original film after Black Panther and Captain Marvel but can’t be compared in the same way as before Black Widow opened Natasha Romanoff had starred in 8 MCU films with her first Iron Man 2 in 2010.
Had the largest opening in the US since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in December 2019
In addition to Black Widow’s cinema box office, it took $60m+ worldwide from Disney+ Premier Access with SambaTV reporting that 1.1m households watched it in the US.
By next year the 30 MCU films will have taken over $10bn at the US box office since 2008.
Opened with $78.8m from 46 territories and $158.8m worldwide; Korea $12.7m; UK $9.7m; France $6.9m; Australia $5.3m; Mexico $4.8m; Russia $3.9m; Japan $3.3m; Hong Kong $3.2m; Germany $2.5m; Brazil $2.4m; Italy $2.4m; Spain $2.2m
Took $12m worldwide from IMAX including $7.2m from 380 screens in the US and $4.8m internationally from 315 screens in 59 countries.
Black Widow includes 22mins of scenes in expanded aspect ratio exclusively in IMAX and several scenes specially formatted for IMAX with 26% more of the onscreen image (depending on the size of the IMAX screen).
- F9 – Universal Pictures
Dropped 50% in its third weekend taking $11.43m and $141.88m.
414th biggest film in the US between xXx and The Jungle Book; 851st biggest film in the US between Lucy and A Fish Called Wanda; 56th biggest Universal Pictures film in the US between Mamma Mia! and National Lampoon’s Animal House.
$100m US box office for decades used to be a sign of a film’s success at the box office, A Quiet Place Part 2 was the 769th film to do so since Mary Poppins in 1964 took $102,272,727 ($888,106,669 today).
It was always expected F9 would have the biggest post-pandemic opening to date, but as seen elsewhere in the world word of mouth has been mixed and it had big second weekend drops as the film series feels like it has jumped the shark, (saying that many thought the same many films ago) with the film having a space sequence.
As with the Mission Impossible films, producers feel they need to go further each time with the outlandish events and stunts, but even Chinese audiences have found these scenes a bit too much. If F9 went into space where can the next two go where the other films haven’t been?
Third weekends
2001’s The Fast and the Furious dropped 38.8% taking $12.28m and $101.38m taking $144.51m in the US; $206.45m WW
2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious dropped 40.6% taking $11.09m and $102.88m taking $127.12m in the US; $236.41m WW
2006’s FF: Tokyo Drift dropped 54.2% taking $4.84m and $51.71m taking $62.61m; $157.79m WW
2009’s Fast & Furious dropped 56.8% taking $11.77m and $136.2m taking $155.06m in the US; $359.34m WW
2011’s Fast Five dropped 37% taking $20.44m and $169.69m taking $210,03m in the US; $630.16m WW
2013’s Fast and Furious 6 dropped 44.2% taking $19.62m and $202.81m taking $238.67m in the US; $789.3m WW
2015’s Furious 7 dropped 51.5% taking $29.15m and $294.51m taking $353.1m in the US; $1.516bn WW
2017’s The Fate of the Furious dropped 48.1% taking $19.93m and $193.26m taking $225.76m in the US; $1.236bn WW
2019’s Hobbs & Shaw dropped 43.9% taking $14.17m and $133.78m taking $173.95m in the US; $760.37m WW
The 10 Fast and the Furious films have taken over $1.83bn in the US and over $6.436bn worldwide.
Hype brings out the 16-34 audiences for films like F9 opening $70m Black Widow $85m+ in two weeks, both opening was predictable what is far more important now than opening weekends is their second weekend.
Took $13.6m from 51 territories $400.78m total international and $541.85m worldwide; 37.6% of worldwide box office from China ($203.88m) showing how important it is to the franchise, and how concerning F9 took a third less than The Fate of the Furious as it’s been reported Chinese audiences are getting bored with the repetitive natural of US films.
191st biggest film worldwide between Despicable Me and X-Men: Apocalypse; 3rd biggest film worldwide in 2021 between Tang Ren Jie Tan An 3 (Detective Chinatown 3) and Godzilla vs. Kong; 21st biggest Universal Pictures film worldwide between Despicable Me and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.
In 2017 The Fate of the Furious had taken $1.06bn with $192.7m (+26.4%) in the US and $867.6m international (+116%) and 85.6% more $1.06bn worldwide, while F9 is in its third weekend in the US it’s in its 8th in Asia.
F9 is likely to be the lowest-grossing film of the series since 2011’s Fast Five taking $630.16m worldwide. Many will use COVID as an excuse, but it took a third less than The Fate of the Furious in China which after a record-breaking Chinese New Year is close to normal. 18 months ago,.
F9 was expected to take $1bn+ worldwide. The budget for F9 was over $200m and the year-long delay and relaunching the films marketing campaign added more costs to the film, so if F9 was to take $600m+ worldwide must remember that while it took $203.88m in China rentals are less than 25% for non-Chinese films about $50m which shows F9 won’t be as profitable as the previous films.
Vin Diesel has already announced will be two final films released with F10 starting filming early next year for April 2023 release.
- The Forever Purge – Universal Pictures
Dropped 43% in its second weekend taking $7.14m and $27.87m.
Despite getting similar poor reviews and B- CinemaScore as all the other films in the series it had the lowest drop of all of the films, that said also had the lowest second-weekend box office and has taken half as much as all the other films took after two 10 days on release. What it does show is success breeds success with genres with horrors performing very well over the last few months.
The Forever Purge will be available on PVOD next week as will A Quiet Place Part 2 (after 45 days)
Second weekends
2013’s The Purge dropped 75.6% taking $8.21m and $51.96m taking $64.47m
2014’s The Purge: Anarchy dropped 64.8% taking $10.48m and $51.85m taking $71.96m
2016’s The Purge: Election Year dropped 60.7% taking $12.38m and $58.79m taking $79.21m.
2018’s The First Purge dropped 46.4% taking $9.31m and $49.69m taking $67.56m
The five films have taken $300m in the US and almost $475m worldwide; the budgets for all five films were under $20m and the film series has been very profitable for Universal Pictures.
Took $1.78m from 28 territories $7.4m total and $34.84m worldwide; opens in South Korea, UK and Spain this weekend with further expansion internationally in August; apart from 2018’s The First Purge the film series hasn’t been as successful internationally with the US taking over 65% of the box office.
- The Boss Baby: Family Business – Universal Pictures
Dropped 45% in its second weekend taking $8.78m and $34.92m.
2017’s The Boss Baby dropped 47.5% in its second weekend taking $26.36m and $89.43m taking $175m in the US and $527.96m worldwide.
The Boss Baby: Family Business was due to open September 17th, in May Universal Pictures brought forward its release date to July 2nd opening it in cinemas and on Peacock streaming service. (has 42m subscribers).
SambaTV reported it was watched by 783k households on Peacock over its opening four days, this was more than the 686k who watched Cruella on Disney+ over Memorial Day weekend.
Over the same weekend SambaTV also reported The Tomorrow War was watched by 2.4m on Amazon, the Chris Pratt sci-fi was originally based at Paramount and was had a July 23rd release date.
- A Quiet Place Part 2 – Paramount Pictures
Dropped 23% in its seventh weekend taking $3.15m and $150.84m.
Sunday was its 45th day on release and was released on PVOD on 12th July 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 the box office was predictably wrong.
Surely this is exactly how a cinema release should be that the film is still playing in cinemas when it’s released on VOD, as it used to often be 20 years ago when films would play in cinemas for more than twice as long and films would be released on video and DVD while they were still playing in theatres. It will be interesting to see Monday’s box office for A Quiet Place Part 2.
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.
2018’s A Quiet Place dropped 38.9% in its seventh weekend taking $3.94m and $176.08m 93.6% of $188.02m (3.7x opening) and $341m worldwide.
371st biggest film between Divergent and Rambo: First Blood Part II; 783rd biggest inflation inflated film between Cats & Dogs and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and 50th biggest Paramount Pictures film between Runaway Bride and Daddy’s Home; (106th $100m+ film since Love Story (1970).
Took $3m from 47 territories taking $128.3m and $248.98m worldwide; 627th biggest film worldwide between Eragon and The Blair Witch Project; 5th biggest film 2021 film worldwide between F9 and Song Ni Yi Duo Xiao Hong Hua (A Little Red Flower); 76th biggest Paramount Pictures film worldwide between Terminator: Dark Fate and Rango.
- Zola – A24
Dropped 48% in its second weekend taking $620k and $3.53m
Zola is a black comedy film based on a viral Twitter thread by Aziah “Zola” King and Rolling Stone article Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted by David Kushner.
Will the UK get a similar film in a few years’ time Wagatha Christie scandal current in UK courts about Coleen Rooney’s Instagram scandal with Rebekah Vardy.
Sony Pictures release it in the UK in August.
UK Box Office Top 10
UK Box Office Preview
Over the last 8 weeks, films have been evenly split up with at least a week gap between them for the likes of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and A Quiet Place Part II but this is the first week when a similar genre of films opens against each other with four wide sequels releases.
The Forever Purge Vs Escape Room: Tournament of Champions
2018’s The First Purge opened with £1,778,157 (including £618,396 from 2 days of previews; (dropped 55% in its second weekend taking £798,455 and £3,367,946) £6,085,402 total.
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
While Escape Room opened in February 2019 #4 behind How to Train Your Dragon 3, Green Book and Glass taking £820,218 from 363 screens: dropping 46% in the second weekend taking £441,358 and £1,636,555 only lasting two weeks in the top 15.
Would think on paper The Forever Purge would open far stronger than Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, but Sony are pushing the sequel very strongly, but the end result from the two films will cannibalise each other.
The Croods 2: A New Age Vs Space Jam: A New Legacy
2013’s The Croods opening in the UK with £5,372,290 (including £1,850,943 34% in previews) taking £26,328,511
Don’t have an opening weekend box office for 1997’s Space Jam but it took £11,648,511 (£20,663,943 inflation inflated) was the 11th biggest film of 1997; it opened five months after the US the same weekend as Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition (opened with £3.8m)
While 2003’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action opened with £926,447 (including £300,059 previews 32%) £1,489,743 inflation inflated taking £5,153,828 and £8,287,447 inflation inflated.
Warner is promoting Space Jam: A New Legacy heavily in the UK, but The Croods was a much more recent hit, but the end result from the two films will cannibalise each other.
This will see Black Widow hold on to #1 taking £2.5-£3m.
Over the weeks and months ahead the film release schedule gets even more crowded, October 22nd is especially so after the news Dune has been moved there and will join, Dear Evan Hansen, Ron’s Gone Wrong, The Many Saints Of Newark, The French Dispatch, The Boss Baby 2 and Jackass Forever all opening ahead of the half-term holidays, so not forgetting both Hotel Transylvania 4 and The Adams Family 2 opening a few weeks earlier also for half-term.
What’s the point in releasing so many films at the same time, the problem is with film scheduling by AI rather than by humans are selecting the same perfect release date for their films as their rivals, but these dates are only perfect dates if they don’t have any direct competition.
This weekend is historically the first weekend of summer in the 90s saw huge launches for Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, both opening more than a month after the US, and in 2019 The Lion King opened this weekend, but it only works if there is one big film opening it won’t work with four competing against each other as most will only choose to see one of them.
Opening in two weeks
- Old – Universal Pictures
A supernatural mystery thriller with an ensemble cast Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Alex Wolff, Abbey Lee, Aaron Pierre, Rufus Sewell, Ken Leung, Embeth Davidtz, Emun Elliott, and Kathleen Chalfant and written, directed, and co-produced by M. Night Shyamalan, inspired by the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters.
M. Night Shyamalan films are famous for having their twists, while they were a surprise with The Sixth Sense in 2002 the novelty has worn off over the years since.
Selective other M. Night Shyamalan openings
Unbreakable opened December 2000 with £2,004,890 (£3,412,870 inflation inflated) taking £11,222,712 (inflation inflated £19,563,228)
The Sixth Sense opened November 1999 with £4,792,296 (£8,730,858 inflation inflated) taking £25,407,279 (£46,288,321 inflation inflated).
Signs opened September 2002 with £3,767,713 (£6,578,128 inflation inflated) taking £16,084,656 (£28,082,535 inflation inflated)
The Village opened August 2004 with £2,945,763 (£4,913,979 inflation inflated) taking £9,980,280 (£16,648,619 inflation inflated)
The Happening opened June 2008 with £1,632,055 (£2,350,787 inflation inflated) taking £3,895,001 (£5,610,300 inflation inflated)
After Earth opened June 2013 with £2,249,532 taking £6,137,273
The Visit opened September 2015 with £1,031,292 taking £2,805,591.
Split opened January 2017 with £2,548,516 taking £11,018,069.
Glass opened January 2019 with £3,423,380 taking £9,646,964.
- The World To Come – Sony Pictures
Drama starring Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Christopher Abbott and Casey Affleck and directed by Mona Fastvold, based upon Jim Shepard’s novel; had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2020 winning the Queer Lion award for best LGBTQ-themed film at the festival.
Had a limited release in the US in February (opening in 276 screens taking $51,245 and $116,143: receiving positive reviews praising the performances of the leads (73% Rotten Tomatoes).
Will have a very limited release in the UK and will struggle to find an audience.
