- Spider-Man No Way Home – £4,477,415 – £79,321,181
Down 25% in its fourth weekend; 5th biggest fourth weekend between No Time To Die (£4,672,560) and LOTR: The Fellowship of the Rings (£4,371,354); only Star Wars: The Force Awakens (£6,001,948); Skyfall (£5,566,537); Avatar (£4,770,980) took more (7th film to take £4m+ in its fourth weekend); biggest MCU fourth weekend taking a third more than Black Panther (£2,931,682); Avengers Assemble (£2,814,216); Avengers: Endgame (£2,232,115); Avenger Infinity War (£2,047,469).
With no major must-see Oscar contender this year and Scream unlikely to overpower it this weekend Spider-Man No Way Home is likely to remain #1 until Sing 2 in three weeks. This will see Spider-Man No Way Home #1 for 6 weeks two weeks less than Tenet did in October 2020 but did it due to having no similar-sized competition for 8 weeks. Tenet took £628,247 in its 6th weekend which was the first film since 2019’s Joker (£1,668,466) last year to stay at #1 for 6 weeks which was the first film to do so since Avatar in 2010 to remain #1 for 6 weeks taking £2,260,319; Avatar was #1 for 11 weeks and the longest ever #1 1998’s Titanic with 13 consecutive weekends.
Spider-Man No Way Home can’t be compared with other MCU fourth weekends due to the lucrative Christmas release date which often sees films have longer legs and as early January normally sees Oscar contenders opening has very limited competition. This has seen Spider-Man No Way Home move ahead of No Time To Die after 4 weeks by £1,293,363 (£79,321,181 Vs £78,027,818) as it holding similar to Avengers Endgame taking £4,672,214 more (£83,993,395 94.7% of £88,692,771).
The same could be said for Spider-Man No Way Home as while The Matrix Resurrections and The King’s Man opened immediately after and Scream in its 5th weekend none of these films were ever going to be big enough to defeat an Avenger. This is especially true in this current marketplace where few films can maintain momentum for more than a few weeks unless it’s a comic-book movie.
Many over the last 4 weeks have said the same thing about Spider-Man No Way Home its BO performance shows that audiences have returned to the cinema but this is the same audience that returned many months ago, comic-book fans are watching it multiple times, while as with No Time To Die BO it all depends on when these cinemagoers return to cinemas again, will it only be for the next comic-book movie (The Batman in March) or will they return in similar numbers for something else before that.
9th biggest film in the UK (14th film taking over £70m since Titanic in 1998) between Titanic and The Lion King; 3rd biggest Sony Pictures film in the UK between Spectre and Skyfall and 20th biggest film in the UK inflation inflated between Casino Royale and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (close to Avengers: Endgame, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Shrek 2).
55th biggest historical in the UK by admissions between The Godfather (£79,420,000) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (£77,090,312) close to The Towering Inferno, The Gun of Navarone, Doctor Zhivago and The Sting.
The 27 MCU films have taken almost £900m in the UK since 2008 (over £920m inflation inflated) with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever the film series will top £1bn at the UK BO next year.
Interestingly, the two studios exhibitors criticised the most last year for “killing cinema” Universal Pictures for releasing Trolls World Tour on VOD in April 2020 rather than delaying it which saw AMC and Regal ban their upcoming films from their cinemas (in July 2020 AMC announced a deal to shorten theatrical window).
While Sony Pictures delayed many of their 2020 releases and sold others to streaming services (The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Fatherhood, Vivo, Cinderella, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania and Greyhound) waited until May 2021 to release Peter Rabbit 2 and then waited to autumn to open their big guns Venom 2, Ghostbuster Afterlife and Spider-Man No Way Home. These two studios had the two biggest films of 2021 with No Time To Die and Spider-Man No Way Home taking 30% of the 2021 UK box office.
Sony Pictures were castigated for delaying films but they waited until they felt audiences were more comfortable to return to cinemas and maybe had the rest of the industry done similar there wouldn’t have been the rush to reopen far too soon that predicably saw soft box office for many months, that said the performance of No Time To Die and Spider-Man No Way Home is likely to be short term blip until March with box office not returning to normal till the summer 2 years after they first reopened.
Many expect Spider-Man No Way Home could receive a Best Picture nomination for “saving cinema” but it’s not eligible for BAFTAs after missing the deadline, BAFTA require all their contenders to be accessible for members to watch on their portal but Sony didn’t put it on there due to piracy. Often films wouldn’t qualify for BAFTAs in the same year as Oscars as the film releases were many months apart so they would get nominated the following year.
The reason Spider-Man opened so big and taken so much is simple if it looks like an Avengers film, swims like an Avengers film, and quacks like an Avengers film, then it probably is an Avengers film. As the previous comic-book movies released this year Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Venom Let There Be Carnage and Eternals were always going to be aperitifs for Spider-Man No Way Home, all playing to comic-book fans, not the extended fanbase Avengers films attract.
The MCU films have become similar to the problem with Star Wars Anthology with lots of in-jokes only the fans who have watched and dissected all previous films will understand but won’t play wider, why ‘record presales’ doesn’t mean Avengers sized opening for Spider-Man No Way Home.
This is why Jumanji and The Greatest Showman performed so strongly against The Last Jedi, Spider-Man, Matrix and The King’s Man are all similar fan service films why Sing 2 will likely be the big winner this Christmas being the Ronseal movie doing exactly what it says on the can.
While Scream is likely to push Spider-Man No Way Home into second place in the US it’s unlikely to do the same in the UK as the previous Scream films didn’t open as strongly in the UK.
2. The King’s Man – £905,092 – £5,380,412
Down 74% in its second weekend (down 19% without previews)
Had the 1,003rd biggest second weekend between The Queen and 12 Monkeys (close to Olympus Has Fallen, Rocknrolla, Predators and Skyscraper) and 1,188th biggest inflation inflated between V for Vendetta and The Shape of Water (close to The Great Wall, Assassin’s Creed, Ride Along and The Taking of Pelham 123).
Having the 36th biggest second-weekend drop (due to extended previews) between Hellboy and Fantastic Four (2015) close to Kick-Ass 2, Baywatch, King Arthur, Monster Trucks (most of these films had extended openings why they dropped similarly as heavily)
It’s interesting how so many films weekend box office have performed similar to Fantastic Four which was seen at the time as a flop but over the last 18 months its seen far more positive, but this is the problem with BO since cinemas reopened films aren’t being compared like for like and films are being seen as successful now which they wouldn’t have done pre-pandemic and that’s not healthy.
1,131st biggest film in the UK between I Feel Pretty and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (close to State of Play, Fight Club, Daredevil and Contagion) and 1,347th biggest inflation inflated between Smurfs: The Lost Village and Ride Along 2 (close to The Siege, Rising Sun, Real Steel and Ghost in the Shell).
In 2018 Matthew Vaughn announced a Kingsman film was in development at that time The Kingsman film series was a valuable film series for 20th Century Fox and there were plans for Kingsman shared universe with prequels, sequels and spinoffs. The King’s Man started production in January 2019 but two months later was acquired by Disney and they had no interest in the film series as it didn’t fit in Disney’s plans. So as with X-Men: Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants which 20th Century Fox had planned to be the start of a new series of X-Men films, it’s unlikely there will be any more theatrically made King’s Man films, but Matthew Vaughn did say during interviews ahead of release that the next film would start production in September.
After directing Daniel Craig in Layer Cake Matthew Vaughn was briefly attached to direct Casino Royale before Martin Campbell was signed and Matthew Vaughn instead moved on to develop Kingsman: The Secret Service.
2015’s Kingsman: The Secret Service #2 dropped 48% (39% not including previews) £2,190,090 and £8,245,752 taking £16,418,247
2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle #1 dropped 51% (32% not including previews) £4,187,105 taking £15,623,613 of £24,883,225
While critics responses to the films have decreased with Kingsman: The Secret Service 75% Rotten Tomatoes; Kingsman: The Golden Circle 51% Rotten Tomatoes; The King’s Man 42% audience score for The King’s Man was similar to the first 79% Vs 84% with the second film both disliked by critics and audiences 64%.
3, Licorice Pizza – £879,363 – NE
Taking £443,368 from 6 days of previews and £436,005 Fri-Sun
Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous films receive widespread critical acclaim (92% Rotten Tomatoes), award recognition (named one of the best films of 2021 by the American Film Institute and received four Golden Globe nominations not winning any), but struggled to play beyond cinephiles. Opened on January 1st the extended opening had a similar opening as 2017’s Phantom Thread £727,104 had his highest opening #3
2007’s There Will Be Blood is Paul Thomas Anderson’s biggest film in the UK taking £4.93m but 1998’s Boogie Nights taking £4.45m (£8m inflation inflated was probably his most commercial and most accessible film also having a stunning 70s soundtrack.
2000’s Magnolia opened #5 £428,435 taking £1,021,833
2002’s Punch-Drunk Love opened #13 £151,494 from 82 screens taking £322,921
2007’s There Will Be Blood opened #11 £215,490 from 24 screens; expanded into 181 screens 2nd-weekend #7 £540,472 and £888,968 taking £4,392,471
2012’s The Master opened #14 £65,701 from 1 screen; expanded in 3rd weekend into 153 screens taking £372,360 #6 and £553,521 taking £1,213,977
2014’s Inherent Vice opened #9 £363,133 from 187 screens; dropped 61% in 2nd weekend £147,087 #13 from 175 screens taking £739,232
2017’s Phantom Thread opened #10 £727,104 from 196 screens; down 40% in 2nd weekend £434,351 #11 from 192 screens £1,658,992 taking £2,611,458
Normally Paul Thomas Anderson’s that don’t open on limited release despite receiving critical acclaim don’t hold strongly and as 50% of Licorice Pizza opening came from previews it will likely drop 70% next weekend. It was surprising last week The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain also opened on January 1st but it only reported box two days of box office #11 taking £85,763 from 232 screens.
What Licorice Pizza opening does show again is that extended openings rarely work and all they do is split box office over several more days and as seen with The Matrix Resurrections and The King’s Man see the films drop heavily in their second weekend.
Licorice Pizza is the fourth film Paul Thomas Anderson shot in 70mm (The Master, Inherent Vice and Phantom Thread) and it was shown in 70mm in several cinemas including Picturehouse Central; in 2012 The Master opened at the Odeon West End exclusively in 70mm for two weeks.
4, Clifford The Big Red Dog – £623,074 – £7,367,194
Down 33.2% in its fifth weekend has performed steadily over the last five weeks helped by Disney’s Encanto underwhelming, until Sing 2 opens in three weeks’ time Clifford, The Big Red Dog is the only children’s film on release and they have been the one genre that had performed steadily since cinemas reopened.
Clifford the Big Red Dog has now overtaken Disney’s Encanto (dropped to #9 taking £213,516 and £6,600,146) ahead of release would have surely expected Encanto to be holding far stronger but Jack Whitehall was likely key also for the film’s success in the UK
will drop down the chart but has performed very strongly helped by Encanto underperforming and will overtake its box office (£6,168,091) as normally family films at Christmas perform very strongly as they open in November and play till January. Universal held back the release of Sing 2 to January as they did with the first Disney released Moana in December 2016 taking £20,041,031 while Sing took £28,840,000 in January 2017.
884th biggest film in the UK between Fisherman’s Friends and First Man (close to Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Open Season, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days and Onward) and 1,170th biggest inflation inflated between Sinister and First Man (close to Sausage Party, Emma, Corpse Bride and The Boss Baby 2).
68th biggest family film between Annie and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (close to The House with A Clock in Its Walls, Mr Popper’s Penguins, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween and Freaky Friday); 26th biggest eOne film between The House with A Clock in Its Walls and Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey? (close to Limitless, Arrival, Prisoners and RED).
Films about pets have been popular over the years in cinemas with films including in 2009’s Marley And Me £15.4m; 1992’s Beethoven £6.8m; 1993’s Beethoven’s 2nd £5.8m; 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose £3.2m also the two The Secret Life of Pets films, the first took £35,825,195 and the second £18,638,365.
2001’s Cats and Dog took £23,013,391 (£40,134,464 inflation inflated); despite poor reviews, the film performed strongly and played for 14 weeks in the top 15 and was one of the biggest films of 200; 2010’s Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore took £3,972,149 (£4,819,986 inflation inflated) and even in October 2020 Cats & Dogs: Paws Unite! Took £1.36m.
5. The Matrix Resurrections – £513,474 – £6,449,812
Down 32.5% in its third weekend
993rd biggest film in the UK between The Mask Of Zorro and Monster House (close to Constantine, Terminator: Dark Fate, Red Sparrow and Starship Troopers) and 1,248th biggest inflation inflated between The Green Hornet and Ghost Rider (close to Men In Black International, Scream 4, Cowboys & Aliens and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem).
As with other long-gap sequels, The Matrix Resurrections wasn’t going to perform like the previous films did as audience tastes have changed over the 22 years since the original film and the question is always who its target audience is. As The Matrix Resurrections features most of the cast from the original film it’s more likely to attract the teenagers who saw it 22 years ago rather than their children who are more interested in comic-book movies or long gap sequels that mix old with young as the case with Jurassic World and Star Wars The Force Awakens.
The only problem with these films is they are basically remakes of the original film with an addition of a younger cast as was the case most recently with Ghostbusters Afterlife opened with £4,314,263 similar to the 2016 reboot taking £11,289,808.
Of course, the reason studios make many of these is in the hope its success will allow further films by introducing new characters as was the case with the Matrix Resurrections with rumours ahead of its release of a spin-off based on the character Bugs played by Jessica Henwick. As 20+ years on from making the last film, the aim is to make them accessible to old and young and allow them to pass the baton on to the next generation, as was the case with Jurassic World, Star Wars The Force Awakens and Ghostbusters Afterlife.
While fans who grew up with the originals hate that they kill off the original characters these films aren’t really for them they are for their children to introduce these films to them and then further films. As probably the original plan with Disney’s Star Wars trilogy was to bring back Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker only to kill them off in the films, but these plans changed when Carrie Fisher sadly died during making the second film.
Similar is likely in Indiana Jones 5 as with Harrison Ford being 81 when the film opens he make another film but Disney aren’t interested in making just one film they must have plans to relaunch Indiana Jones with a new trilogy so the film will likely see him pair up with his son and his son following in on his footsteps after again falling from a great height in a building without safety railings.
Studios have announced sequels and streaming-based sequels for many films that have been released during the pandemic many of which BO performance wouldn’t warrant making them in normal circumstances. This could be in desperation of not having anything else or hoping when the next is released audiences could return, as despite its soft BO The Matrix Resurrections has strongly performed on HBO Max and any film opening immediately after Spider-Man No Way Home would have suffered the same fate.
It will be interesting to see if Warner holds their ground and keep Aquaman 2 opening against Avatar 2 in December, As most would see it as madness that Aquaman 2 would open anywhere near the sequel to the biggest film ever, but a lot has happened since it was released and 12 years a long time between films. While Avatar sequels were very important to 20th Century Fox they are now more important for Disney for Pandora The World of Avatar and merchandise.
The question you do have to ask about these long gap sequels is why they took so long to be made as like vanity projects many of these sequels had been in planning ever since the last film was released so why did it take the studios 20+ years to make them as if the ideas were so good and talent was eager to return to the characters then they would have surely be made far sooner, there is desperation by studios to making these films now as they struggle to make sure things that can compete against comic-book movies. Remakes, sequels reimaginations have been commonplace for decades in Hollywood but now it feels like cinema has become Groundhog Day and we have seen it all before.
Keanu Reeves is now best known for playing John Wick sequels (the first film struggled to find an audience in the UK opening 6 months after the US);
2017’s John Wick: Chapter Two #9 dropped 62% taking £437,704 and £5,370,534 of £5,766,633
2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum dropped 55% taking £641,642 and £8,002,938 of £9,587,828;
John Wick 4 has recently been delayed from May 2022 due to opening against Top Gun Maverick to March 2023. While Wachowski’s previous film was 2015’s Jupiter Ascending #9 dropped 47% taking £436,526 and £3,925,912 of £4,241,234.
The problem is studios are now desperately looking to make sequels to films that were successful 20+ years ago as they try to find films that can compete with comic-book movies but these films aren’t as popular with younger audiences as they were with their parents and the only way to get younger audiences interested is rebooting them with a younger generation as was the case with Star Wars The Force Awakens and Jurassic World. The films themselves were remakes of previous films they had new characters alongside the actors from the original films so they played cross-generational as surely will be the plan with Indiana Jones 5.
The first film opened in UK cinemas in June 1999 (two months after the US) receiving rave reviews dropped 32.2% in its third taking £1,543,185 #2 and £10,248,926 taking £17,279,897 (£29,634,408 inflation inflated)
Two sequels opened back-to-back in 2003 6 months apart with receiving mixed reviews;
The Matrix Reloaded #1 dropped 34% taking £2,485,938 and £26,660,495 taking £33,423,117 (£54,350,204 inflation inflated)
The Matrix Revolutions #2 dropped 55% taking £1,158,971 and £15,581,005 taking £17,754,338 (£28,870,793 inflation inflated) it was the first live-action film to be released in regular and IMAX cinemas at the same time;
Over the years since there have been many film series that have taken up the mantle of The Matrix from John Wick to MCU and The Matrix Resurrections opens the week after Spider-Man No Way Home with both films targetting similar demographic males under 40. As will The King’s Man opening on Boxing Day.
Ahead of the release of The Matrix Resurrections on December 22nd, the first film was re-released in cinemas on December 4th for the first time in IMAX. The Matrix was last re-released in July 2019 (4K Restoration) for its 20th anniversary with £163,812 #11 from 286 screens with The Matrix Reloaded (4K Restoration) #61 £876 12 screens; The Matrix Revolutions (4K Restoration) #66 £583 10 screens.
It was always going to be a massive gamble for Warner Bros opening The Matrix: Resurrections so soon after Spider-Man No Way Home even if Spider-Man only opened similar to Homecoming and Far From Home so it was a surprise that Warner didn’t bring the release forward to Thanksgiving after Paramount delayed Top Gun Maverick or switch the release with King Richard.
Also opening
- The 355 – Universal Pictures – £366,546 from 494 screens
Female spy action thriller based on an idea from Jessica Chastain who wanted to make a female Bourne Identity, the problem was the film was sold on this concept without a script in place what it did have instead was a strong female cast, including Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing.
Simon Kinberg has had strong success as a producer for 20th Century Fox making several X-Men films, he made his directorial debut with 2019’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix which was both a critical and box office disappointment. Many of Dark Phoenix issues were due to having a similar ending to Captain Marvel the film was delayed to open afterwards by Disney who had no interest in the film. The 355 was the second film he has directed.
The 355 would have surely gone straight to Peacock had it not been the acquisition and Universal only having US and UK must have been contractually bound to give it wide release, while they can swallow losses some indies acquired it elsewhere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 won’t.
Every year at film markets production companies announce these big often star-driven or high concept films to be sold often before a script had been written to global distributors but a few years later the films don’t end up as planned. Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall is next to be released next month. So many independent distributors have gambled big on acquiring high-profile films at a massive risk which has seen many go by the wayside over the last 30 years, the only one left standing in the UK and still independent is Entertainment Film Distributors who are also releasing Moonfall.
As soon as The 355 was brought forward from January 14 to 7th in May 2021 the writing was on the wall for the film as the first week of January is dump week, you know the studio has no faith in the film and it’s being dumped, as Labor Day (before Shang-Chi) and the first week of December.
It was originally due for release in January 2021 but was delayed a year due to COVID holding that early January release date which has been lucrative for action films over recent years including 2016’s Ride Along 2 (opened £2,141,341 taking £5,512,631) 2017’s xXx: The Return of Xander Cage (opened £1,620,811 taking £3,339,562) 2018’s The Commuter (opened £1,602,680 taking £3,643,253) and 2020’s Bad Boys For Life (opened £3,781,233 taking £15,953,076).
In early January time the pre-Christmas releases are normally slowing down, audiences are ready for something new, and they are an alternative to the Oscar contenders.
Other female action films include
2018’s Red Sparrow – £1,843,124 (including £167,013 previews taking £6,395,074
2017’s Atomic Blonde – £1,686,430 (£555,569 previews) taking £3,063,918
2014’s Lucy opened £3,076,997 taking £14,129,734
2010’s Salt opened £2,166,715 taking £6,737,499
2002’s The Bourne Identity – opened £2,150,511 (£171,062 previews) taking £7,717,876 (£13,459,677 inflation inflated)
2004’s The Bourne Supremacy – opened £2,720,016 (£360,288 previews) taking £11,396,052
2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum – opened £6,553,704 taking £23,586,781
2012’s The Bourne Legacy -opened £4,620,289 (£2,524,042 previews) taking £10,869,199
2016’s Jason Bourne – opened £7,600,420 taking £22,938,616
Also having similarities with 1990’s Nikita; 2018’s Peppermint; 2015’s The Assassin and 2011’s Hanna and Haywire.
The film will have a 45-day theatrical window as most Universal Pictures 2022 releases and will be available on VOD 21st February.
2021 UK Box Office
UK BO £556.9m up 86.6% from £298.3m from 2020 (£596.92m including Ireland up 85% from 2020s £323.27m); 76.3% less than 2019 (£1,251bn) the lowest since 1992 (but due to ticket inflation was the lowest for 40+ years). By ticket inflation the lowest since 1986, of course, the industry still claims the average ticket price is only £6.75, while Vue has reduced some cinemas to £5.99 and some independent cinemas are cheaper, the vast majority are more than the double industry average.
There were three different totals for last years UK BO first last Friday ComScore UK reported the UK and Ireland BO till January 6th, then on the UKCA website, a lower total for just the UK and the on Tuesday Charles Gant published his analysis on Screendaily including BO only up to December 30th. I have read like so many other Charles Gant’s excellent weekly box office reports for many years in the Guardian, Telegraph and Screendaily, I try to show there is a different side to the data. I have tried to combine the data alongside the data I’ve built up but don’t have access to most of the data those who write this analysis have access to.
The biggest films of the year No Time To Die (£96.5m) and Spider-Man No Way Home (£74.8m) took £171.36m between the 30% of the total BO; do find it very interesting the two biggest films in the UK were released by the two studios exhibitors castigated the most about moving films to VOD and delaying them. In April 2020 AMC took the crazy decision to ban all upcoming Universal Pictures films and exhibitors moaned about Sony Pictures selling many films to streaming services and delaying others.
The Top 10 biggest films took £319.7m 60% of total BO; Dune £21.8m; Shang-Chi £21.2m; Peter Rabbit £20.4m; Black Widow £18.8m; Venom: Let There Be Carnage £18m; Free Guy £16.8m; Fast & Furious 9 £16.4m; Eternals £14.8m. The five comic-book movies (Spider-Man No Way Home; Shang Chi; Black Widow; Venom: Let There Be Carnage; Eternals) took £146.7m 46% of the top 10 BO. This highlights the big problem with comic-book movies as it used to be a success breed success over a wide range of genres now over the last decade the audience for one comic-book movie will go to see the next.
It’s not healthy for such a significant percentage of the annual box office shared between so few films as it used to be successfully brought success over multiple genres, now success for one comic-book movie gives success to the next. While all those millions who came to the cinema for the first time since January 2020 to see No Time To Die haven’t returned since and probably won’t for some time. The industry should have done far more to get people back into the cinemagoing habit as David Hancock from Omdia “Streaming can’t kill cinema,”…. “Only cinema can kill cinema by not continually investing in its environment to stay ahead of other leisure and film-watching options.”
UK cinemas reopened on May 17th after 19 weeks of being closed but unlike the reopening in July 2020 when they reopened without any new films with most cinema schedules looking like they were frozen in time since March, were several new releases from the start including Peter Rabbit 2. Peter Rabbit 2 was one of several films that had been delayed from 2020 and had been due to open only a few weeks before cinemas closed in March with the films marketing campaign in its final stages and a multi-million-pound promotional campaign with Cadbury’s as Sony had done previously for the first film in 2018.
Having seen Universal Pictures move Trolls World Tour to VOD had been due to open against it (receiving much anger from exhibitors) there must have been discussions at Sony if they would do similar for Peter Rabbit 2 as delaying the film would damage their lucrative Cadbury’s promotion. What probably stopped Sony from releasing Peter Rabbit 2 on VOD was the original film was much more successful internationally taking £41.1m in the UK alone and they knew the sequel was a far better film.
Peter Rabbit 2 opened with £4,605,673 including £795,673 previews taking £20.4m about half of what the original film took (2018’s Peter Rabbit opened £7,273,207 taking £41.1m). Peter Rabbit 2 as all films that opened since apart from No Time To Die and Spider-Man No Way Home it took more than a third less than it would have done in normal circumstances.
Peter Rabbit 2 was followed by F9 opening June 24th and Black Widow July 7th, it was surprising both films were released during Euro 2020 as normally studios will avoid opening films targetting the young male demographic during either European Championships or the World Cup. (will be interesting to see what studios do with the Qatar World Cup between November and December as 1.1bn watched the last final in 2018 and currently Avatar 2 and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Many called Free Guy a surprise opening with £2.47m in August taking £16.8m but the film was brand Ryan Reynolds and was cross-between Lego Movie/Truman Show and 20th Century Fox had tremendous success with A Night at the Museum. While being released by Disney might be seen as a surprise as they have struggled with any films that weren’t based on existing property for more than a decade.
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune was the third biggest film of the year opening with £5,876,892 including £1,111,262 from previews taking £21.8m. Adult sci-fi films have performed strongly opening Oct/Nov over recent years including Gravity, The Martian, Interstellar and Blade Runner 2049 so expectations were very high for Dune.
The problem with Dune which was similar to Blade Runner 2049 was that while it was stunning to look at it was also pretentious and while £21.7m might sound big it took $396.1m worldwide as it had a $165m+ budget Warner must have been looking for the similar global box office of Gravity, The Martian, Interstellar taking a third more but despite this Warner still announced the release date for the second film in 2023 was surely more a sign of intent cinema still being vital for the studio as other studios also announced sequels to films that would not normally justify having a sequel.
James Bond films are a unique phenomenon in the UK and exhibitors had been waiting for No Time To Die since April 2020 and after Daniel Craig’s previous James Bond films had taken £250m+ between them (Skyfall £102,816,893; Spectre £95,183,468; Casino Royale £55,495,547; Quantum of Solace £51,089,938) not even COVID could stop No Time To Die becoming one of the biggest films since the last James Bond film in 2015.
While No Time To Die was never going to open as big as Spectre (£41,299,090) due to having a four-day opening instead 6.5 did have the biggest since Avengers Endgame (£25,916,476) and James Bond films always have long legs, the difference for No Time To Die opening a month earlier than Spectre and Skyfall it had more competition to deal with, Venom 2 opened two weeks after and Dune three weeks later but neither were likely to have much impact on Bond.
Millions of people came back to the cinema for the first time since January 2020 to see No Time To Die, the problem was they haven’t come back since and what the industry fails to realise Spider-Man BO does more damage than good as comic-book movies cannibalise BO squeezing everything that follows unlike other genres where success leads to wider success, but with comic-book movies success for one only leads to success to the next.
The problem of course over the last decade industry has become so short-term focused never looking at the bigger picture this, course, was highlighted by the poor way they managed the pandemic While rushing to reopen cinemas months too soon not realising the predictable long-term damage. As of course, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet was expected by the industry to be the saviour of cinema which was never going to be opening on its own as his films perform the best when they have similar sized films opening either side.
What many forget is cinemas have benefited from VAT reduced from 20% to 5% from July 2020 to September 30th, 2021, and from October 1st to March 31st, 2022, at 12.5% but while most of the hospitality sector passed on the reduction to its customer’s exhibitors haven’t done so as their excuse was it was only a few pennies. While that would be the case if ticket prices were the average price industry claims but for many, this would be over £1 a ticket. The VAT overpayment probably adds about £100m to the 2021 box office.
497 films were released into cinemas in 2021 up 12% from 2020 (444); in 2019 938 films were released and 2022 will likely have a similar number.
With many cinemas in the South East and London about three times as much and with the growth of IMAX (taking about 10% of films like No Time To Die and Spider-Man No Way Home BO from 50 screens) and PLF, Dolby Cinema, 4DX and Premium also adding surcharges to ticket price this has artificially inflated BO admissions for the past decade. Then need to add Event Cinema when most are £15+ and Secret Cinema which will likely return for the first time since 2019 with tickets £75+ so each ticket sold add 11 admissions and these events normally take £1.5m+ so the 200,000 attendees add 2.2m+ admissions to the cinema.
This was the real reason admissions were the highest for over 40 years in 2018 despite only increasing 0.83% since 2002 as “growth” since has been made by ticket inflation, as using industry’s data average ticket price increased 68.3% (from £4.29 to £7.22) between 2002 and 2018 but the only grown over the years between was box office. The films released between 2003 and 2017 were no different than those released between 1984 and 2002 and included many far biggest box office hits but despite this fewer people were going to the cinema,
Why after a few years of no growth didn’t the industry ask the question and do something to change it, the reason was as Guy Hands famously said after buying Odeon Cinema in 2004, “the management team believed they were part of the film business. I had the difficult job of explaining to them that they were in the popcorn-selling business.” As for the new owners it was all about selling 92% profit popcorn and boosting ticket prices to turn a quick profit on the £650m spent.
Exhibitors are quick to say that there haven’t been any cases of COVID traced back to cinemas but what the industry fails to realise is that it’s more about confidence. The visual safety measures having seat separation policies as many people would still be uncomfortable going into a crowded auditorium with strangers sitting either side of you and in front and behind, with many major releases playing in multiple screens it would have been good for exhibitors to still offer a seat separation screen. As the issue is more about the selfish behaviour of other cinemagoers that has held back many from returning.
Always believed lockdown gave the industry a massive chance to relaunch itself in the streaming era but cinemas reopened and nothing had changed but audience habits have, Millennials and GenZ predictable rushed back older audiences will be much slower to return as industry’s research 20+ months ago. While analysts say BO won’t get back to pre-pandemic levels before 2023.
I always thought cinema should have reopened with a National Cinema Month similar to the very successful National Cinema Days between 1996-98 and British Film Year in 1985 that boosted admissions, or at least make Meerkat Movies 7 days a week. While Orange Wednesday was hugely popular there has been very little data released on the popularity of Meerkat Movies, with Spider-Man No Way Home opening with £7.6m how much of its box office came from Meerkat Movies 2for1?
US BO for 2021 was $4.5bn with over a third ($1.5bn) coming from five comic-book movies (Spider-Man No Way Home, Shang-Chi, Venom Let There Be Carnage, Black Widow and Eternals) up from 19% $2.15bn in 2019 (Avengers Endgame, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man Far From Home, Joker and Shazam). The top 10 films of 2021 will take over 50% of the year’s BO compared to 38% ($4.4bn). In 2019 the top 10 films that took $4.4bn will be about the same as the 2021 total US BO with a third ($1.5bn) from the top 5 comic-book movies compared to 19% ($2.25bn) in 2019.
While China remained the world’s biggest cinemagoing country taking almost 40% more than the US $7.3bn, over the last year China has lost interest in most US movies which has had a massive impact on the global box office.
A brief look to 2022
After the 6 comic-book movies last year took about 30% of the year’s box office 2022 will be much of the same with 10 films based on comic books opening this year, Doctor Strange 2, Thor 2 and Black Panther 2 from Disney, The Batman, DC Super-Pets, Black Adam, The Flash and Aquaman 2 from Warner Bros and Morbius and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Sequel from Sony.
Comic-book movies won’t have it all their own way as there are many high-profile sequels including several that were delayed from last year, Downtown Abbey 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Mission Impossible 7, Avatar 2 and Top Gun Maverick.
There are big questions over Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore after the last film underperformed and the backlash JK Rowling has received while it 36 years since Top Gun opened and 2 years since it was originally due to open the question has always been while there is huge excitement from 40+ who grew up with the film original will younger audiences as like Keanu Reeves is now best known for John Wick rather than The Matrix, Tom Cruise is now best known for Ethan Hunt than Pete Maverick.
While the major original films are Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Jordan Peele’s Nope (latest film after Get Out and Us) and Disney’s latest original animated film Strange World (but as Encanto, it will likely have a 30-day theatrical window and released on Disney+ on Christmas Day.
While the industry has to deal with the Qatar World Cup that starts 21st November (just before Thanksgiving) ending 18th December the same weekend Avatar 2 and Aquaman 2 currently open, with 1.2bn people mostly men watching the World Cup Final this could have a massive impact on those two films. With previous World Cup finals studios would opt to open films earlier as Edge of Tomorrow or Jurassic World 2 or afterwards, but last year for the Euro’s Universal Pictures still opened F9 on 24th and Disney opened Black Widow July 7 the weekend of the Euro Final.
Until The Batman and Downton Abbey 2 opens in March UK box office are likely to be soft with only Sing 2 a sure thing for half-term holidays with Easter having Morbius, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore before the first of the three Marvel film Doctor Strange 2 following up with events that featured in Spider-Man No Way Home.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £8,715,464 down 28.1% from last weekend £12,120,376
The weekend admissions 1,225,804 down 28.6% 1,716,777 from last week;
Top 3 took £6,261,880 71.8% of the top 10; Spider-Man No Way Home 51.4% (£4,477,415); The King’s Man 10.4% (£905,092); Licorice Pizza 10.1% (£879,373);
Down 51.4% from 2020 (£17,942,442); 1917 90.8% (£7,446,302); Wozzeck – Met Opera 2020 (££112,187); Seberg (£47,992); #1 1917 £7,446,302 1st week 683 screens (41.5% of top 10)
Up 34% from 2019; (£13,204,230); Stan and Ollie (£2,578,838); Colette (£788,432); The Upside (£681,422); Adriana Lecouvreur Met Opera 2019 (£184,460); The Front Runner (£87,699); #1 Stan and Ollie £2,578,838 1st week 654 screens (19.5% of top 10)
Down 48.3% from 2018: (£16,859,941); Darkest Hour (£4,058,356); Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (£2,361,782); Insidious: The Last Key (£1,840,992); Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars (£183,051); #1 Darkest Hour £4,058,356 1st week 605 screens (24.1% of the top 10)
Down 38% from 2017: (£14,046,174); La La Land (£6,596,256); Manchester by the Sea (£729,478); Live by Night (£698,218); The Bye Bye Man (£535,492); Underworld: Blood Wars (£349,301); Sherlock: The Final Problem (£322,253); #1 La La Land £6,596,256 1st week 606 screens (47% of top 10)
Down 42.4% from 2016: (£15,145,367); The Hateful Eight (£2,778,633); A War (£17,356); #1 Star Wars: The Force Awakens £6,001,948 4th week 634 screens 42% drop (39.6% of top 10)
Down 51.6% from 2015; (£18,016,196); Taken 3 (£6,714,530); Into the Woods (£2,476,409); Foxcatcher (£877,408); #1 Taken 3 £6,714,530 1st week 483 screens (37.2% of top 10)
Up 32.6% from 2014: (£12,936,654); 12 Years a Slave (£2,511,349); The Railway Man (£1,230,483); Delivery Man (£1,102,433); #1 12 Years a Slave £2,511,349 1st week 207 screens (19.4% of top 10)
Down 56.3% from 2013 (£19,963,299); Les Miserables (£8,127,991); Gangster Squad (£2,090,614); Texas Chainsaw 3D (£1,247,735); #1 Les Miserables £8,127,991 1st week 589 screens (40.7% of top 10)
Down 26.7% from 2012 (£11,885,910); The Iron Lady (£2,151,368); Goon (£728,286)l; #1 Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol £2,223,200 2nd week 73% drop 517 screens (18.7% of top 10)
Down 35.1% from 2011 (£13,432,653); The King’s Speech (£3,523,102); 127 Hours (£2,168,570); The Next Three Days (£1,046,333); Season of the Witch (£559,769); It’s Kind of a Funny Story (£82,056); #1 The King’s Speech £3,523,102 1st week 395 screens (26.2% of top 10)
Down 30% from 2010: (£12,452,981); Daybreakers (£1,344,588); It’s Complicated (£1,098,659); The Road (£627,147); Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (£173,831); #1 Avatar £4,770,980 4th week 493 screens 20% drop (38.3% of top 10)
Down 26.5% from 2009; (£11,864,462); Role Models (£2,330,145); Slumdog Millionaire (£1,827,457); Bride Wars (£1,717,894); Defiance (£1,198,425); Sex Drive (£506,573); #1 Role Models £2,330,145 1st week £2,223,950 353 screens (19.6% of top 10)
Down 31.7% from 2008; (£12,768,659); Lust, Caution (£240,665); #1 I Am Legend £3,740,369 2nd week 458 screens 66% drop (29.3% of top 10)
Down 20.8% from 2007: (£11,003,216); Miss Potter (£1,400,943); Apocalypto (£1,360,110); Employee of the Month (£1,075,883); White Noise: The Light (£698,461); #1 Night at the Museum £2,958,093 2nd week 487 screens 62% drop (26.8% of top 10)
Down 19.8% from 2006; (£10,866,142); Just Friends (£1,750,481); Brokeback Mountain (£987,261); Match Point (£751,992); Running Scared (£275,498); #1 King Kong £2,160,421 4th week 473 screens 19% drop (19.8% of top 10)
Down 2.4% from 2005 (£8,933,539); White Noise (£1,787,478); The Aviator (expansion) (£1,314,946); Alexander (£1,200,083); Vera Drake (£266,010); #1 White Noise £1,787,478 1st week 314 screens (201% of top 10)
Down 24.1% from 2004 (£11,474,178); The Last Samurai (£2,723,081); Lost in Translation (£797,071); #1 Lord of the Rings: Return of the King £3,713,999 4th week #1 502 screens 43% drop (32.3% of top 10)
Down 17.1% from 2003 (£10,505,144); Gangs of New York (£2,622,748); The Tuxedo (£1,080,504); The Good Girl (£114,235); City By The Sea (£77,936); #1 Lord of the Rings: Two Towers 4th week #1 £3,728,876 513 screens 35% drop (35.5% of top 10)
Down 2.7% from 2002 (£8,962,263); Rat Race (£1,004,783); Domestic Disturbance (£402,837); Rock Star (£294,973); Soul Survivors (£200,178); Last Orders (£100,560); #1 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring £4,371,354 4th week #1 482 screens 27% drop (48.7% of top 10)
Next weekend in 2020 (£16,951,901); Bad Boys For Life (£3,781,233); Bombshell (£742,085); Just Mercy (£529,435); A Hidden Life (£63,375); #1 1917 £6,190,049 2nd week 17% drop 714 screens (36.5% of the top 10)
US Box Office
- Spider-Man No Way Home – Sony Pictures
Dropped 42% in its fourth weekend taking $32.61m and $668.35m
Took $3.1m from IMAX in the US $57.1m total and $3.9m international and $94.4m worldwide becoming the highest-grossing IMAX release of 2021.
6th biggest film in the US between Avengers Infinity War and Titanic (11th film to take over $600m since Titanic in 1997) and the 4th biggest comic-book movie after Avenger Endgame, Black Panther and Avengers Infinity War; 20th biggest inflation inflated between The Dark Knight and Grease.
Fourth weekends
2017’s Spider-Man Homecoming #5 dropped 40.1% taking $13.26m and $278.16m 83.2% of $334.2m
2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home dropped 41.3% taking $12.45m and $344.7m 88.3% of $390.53m
2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron #5 dropped 44.2% taking $21.69m and $404.86m 88.2% of $459m
2018’s Avengers Infinity War #2 52.6% taking $29.45m and $595.81m 87.7% of $678.81m
2019’s Avengers Endgame #2 dropped 52.6% taking $29.97m and $771.36 89.7% of $858.37m
But Spider-Man No Way Home third weekend can only really be compared to Christmas releases as films between Christmas and the New Year perform differently than any other time of the year often increasing the weekend after Christmas.
2009’s Avatar #1 dropped 26.6% taking $50.3m and $430.84m 57.5% of $749.76m
2015’s Star Wars The Force Awakens #1 dropped 53.1% taking $43.35m and $812.73m 86.7% of $936.6m
2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story #2 dropped 55.5% taking $22.06m and $477.36m 89.7% of $532.17m
2017’s Star Wars The Last Jedi #3 dropped 54.8% taking $23.72m and $572.69m 92.3% of $620.18m
2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle #1 dropped 24.5% taking $28.1m and $285.23m 70.5% of $404.54m
2019’s Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker #2 dropped 56% taking $15.18m and $478.29m 92.8% of $515.2m
As with these Christmas releases (apart from Avatar) all had their first direct competition opening in their fifth weekend and Spider-Man No Way Home also does with Scream. That said was much expectation before the opening of Scream 4 in 2011 but only opened #2 (behind Rio $39.22m) with $18.69m taking $58.95m; it opened with about half Scream 3 did in 2000 ($34.71m taking $72.7m) and Scream 2 in 1997 ($32.92m taking $71m) while 1996’s Scream only opened with $6.35m fourth behind Beavis and Butt-Head America, Jerry Maguire and 101 Dalmatians but had a very strong word of mouth and held very strongly staying in the top 10 for 9 weeks. Some analysts have predicted Scream could open between $35-40m over the four-day holiday weekend but more likely to open with about $25m+ which should still be enough to knock Spider-Man No Way Home off #1 spot likely to take about $20m+ in its fifth weekend.
That said Scream opening is in normal conditions and despite the impressive performance of Spider-Man No Way Home box office is far from normal and won’t be for some time. As with all these legacyquels the question is will the audience be those who grew up with the original trilogy or will it attract a new younger audience. While of course the whole basis of Scream being the killer rings up its victim om their houseline would seem alien to many born over the last 20 years who have grown up always having a mobile. Scream is the first real test to see if audiences have really returned.
Has become Sony Pictures biggest film in the US overtaking 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2017 ($404.5m)
Spider-Man No Way Home is the 8th Spider-Man film made by Sony Pictures since 2002;
Original trilogy directed by Sam Raimi starring Tobey Maguire between 2002 and 2007
Spider-Man dropped #2 36.7% taking $28.5m and $326.33m 80.2% of $407.02m; $418m international and $825.02m);
Spider-Man 2 dropped #4 39.4% taking $15.01m and $328.46m 88% of $373.58m; $415.39m international and $788.97m WW);
Spider-Man 3 dropped #3 50.6% taking $14.33m and $303.97m 90.3% of $336.53m and $558.45m and $894.98m WW);
The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 with a sequel in 2014 directed by Marc Webb starring Andrew Garfield
The Amazing Spider-Man #6 dropped 38.4% taking $6.7m and $241.95m 92.3% of $262.02m and $495.9m and $757.93m WW;
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 #5 dropped 53.4% taking $7.82m and $184.92m 91.2% of $202.85m and $506.12m and $708.98m WW);
Spider-Man then became part of the MCU directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland between 2017 and 2021
2017’s Spider-Man Homecoming #5 dropped 40.1% taking $13.26m and $278.16m 83.2% of $334.2m and $545.96m internationally $880.16m WW);
2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home dropped 41.3% taking $12.45m and $344.7m 88.3% of $390.53m and $747.39m internationally $1.13bn WW)
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse #5 down 30.2% taking $13.12m and $133.97m 70.4% of $190.24m and $185.29m and $375.54m WW with Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Part 1 and Morbius set for April 2022 release.
Spider-Man also appeared in Captain America Civil War, Avengers Infinity War, Avengers Endgame MCU films and also in the end credit scene in Venom Let There Be Carnage with Spider-Man 4 currently in a development likely to be released in November 2023 with The Marvels in February, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 in May, Ant-Man 3 in July. (Ant-Man featured the first mention of Spider-Man in the MCU during the end credit scene).
Took $64.4m from 63 territories (23,200+ screens) $867.5m total and $1.53bn worldwide; the UK took $105.8m; Mexico $69.7m; South Korea $55.8m; Australia $47.5m; Brazil $46.9m; Russia $41.4m; Germany $36.7m; India $35.2m; 8th biggest film worldwide between The Lion King and The Avengers (46th film to take over $1bn worldwide since Jurassic Park in 1993).
- Sing 2 – Universal Pictures
Dropped 42% in its third weekend taking $11.59m and $108.66m
Sing 2 is the highest-grossing animated movie in the US since 2020, that said it has taken half of what the original had taken over similar time and Sing 2 didn’t have any competition.
Exhibitors are fickle 18 months ago AMC and Regal banned Universal Pictures films after they announced Trolls World Tour was going to VOD, but now they are celebrating then and castigating Disney’s decision last week to move their latest Pixar film Turning Red to Disney+ rather than having a theatrical release. Since Disney released Onward in March 2020 they have released Soul and Luca also direct to Disney+.
It’s interesting that while children’s films have been the one genre of films that has performed steadily since cinemas reopened in July 2017 in the UK they haven’t done as well in the US and after the soft BO of Encanto this was probably the reason behind Disney’s decision to move the film to Disney+, that and the need for content, one thing you can be sure of is Disney won’t be releasing Lightyear straight to Disney+ in June.
99th biggest animated film between Mr Peabody & Sherman and Epic; 659th biggest film in the US between A Time to Kill and Black Hawk Down; 1,234h biggest inflation inflated between Christmas with the Kranks and Dressed to Kill; 12th biggest 2021 film between Jungle Cruise and Dune; 96th biggest Universal Pictures film between Couples Retreat and Hop.
2016’s Sing third-weekend #3 down 51.7% taking $20.71m and $214.51m 79.3% taking $270.44m and $634.2m WW
Took $17.1m from 54 territories $82.12m total and $190.79m worldwide; 130th biggest animated film worldwide between Open Season and The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part; 893rd biggest inflation inflated between Ghostbusters: Afterlife and The Santa Clause; 23rd biggest 2021 film worldwide between Ghostbusters: Afterlife and The Suicide Squad; 117th biggest Universal Pictures film worldwide between For Your Eyes Only and Abominable; opens in the UK on 28th January ahead of half-term holidays as the first film was in January 2017 while Sing had competition from The LEGO Batman Movie opening two weeks later, the sequel has Uncharted opening two weeks later.
- The 355 – Universal Pictures
Opened with $4.62m; received poor reviews (24% Rotten Tomatoes) and B+ CinemaScore
Took $350k from Thursday previews which were between The Rhythm Section $235K/$2.7m opening; Underwater $500k/$7m.
After being delayed for a year and given the first weekend of January slot expectations were very low for the female spy thriller despite the strong cast including Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Bingbing Fan, Diane Kruger, and Lupita Nyong’o.
The industry will be using Omicron as the excuse for soft box office over the next two months and the delay of any films (Morbius two weeks ago was due to extensive reshoots and Disney moving Pixar’s Turning Red to Disney+ is more about boosting original content and Encanto soft box office rather than Omicron).
The 355 was originally due for release January 15th, 2021, but was delayed in November 2020 to January 14th but then in May 2021 brought it forward a week to avoid opening against Scream and The Man From Toronto (which was later moved to August). The problem is the first weekend of January is Labor Day (until last year with Shang-Chi) and the first weekend in December is normal dump weekends.
There were rumours The 355 could have been released on Peacock but as the film was an acquisition the studio was probably contractually bound to give the film a theatrical release in the US and UK as the film was sold to independents elsewhere around the world.
It will likely drop over 60% this weekend
- The King’s Man – 20th Century Studios
Dropped 29% in its third weekend taking $3.22m and $25.05m
3,223rd biggest film in the US between Wyatt Earp and Grindhouse; 4,119th biggest inflation inflated between Seed of Chucky and Gamer; 43rd biggest 2021 film between Escape Room: Tournament of Champions and Respect.
Third weekends
2015’s Kingsman: The Secret Service #2 dropped 35.2% taking $11.88m and $85.82m 66.9% of $128.26m and $414.35m WW
2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle dropped 48.8% taking $8.67m and $80.53m 80.3% of $100.23m and $410.9m WW
Took $28.3m from 22 territories $28.3m total and $47.81m worldwide; Korea $6.6m; Japan $4.8m; the UK $4.6m; Taiwan $2.8m; France $2.2m; Indonesia $1.3m; Hong Kong $0.9m; Mexico $0.8m; Spain $0.6m; Saudi Arabia $0.5m; 2,152nd biggest film worldwide between Trouble with the Curve and Arthur; 64th biggest 2021 film worldwide between To Rome with Love and The Kite Runner.
- The Matrix Resurrections – Warner Bros
Dropped 52% to $1.84m in its third weekend taking $34.3m #6
2,550th biggest film between Babel and Alexander; 3,499th biggest film inflation inflated between Chappie and Deliver Us from Evil; 35th biggest 2021 film between The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard and Don’t Breathe 2; 418th biggest Warner Bros film between Malibu’s Most Wanted and Alexander;
When a massive film opens like Spider-Man No Way Home which is playing like an Avengers film it often cannibalizes the box office for future releases targetting similar demographics for several weeks to come. It was always a massive gamble for Warner Bros to open The Matrix Resurrections only a week after targeting a similar demographic, so wasn’t a surprise the Matrix sequel and The king’s Man struggled to find an audience but Sing 2 open second.
Third weekends
1999’s The Matrix #2 dropped 20.5% taking $17.94m and $98.94m 57.7% of $171.47m and $466.62m WW
2003’s The Matric Reloaded #4 dropped 57.5% taking $15.68m and $232.7m 82.6% of $281.57m and $741.84m WW
2003’s The Matrix Revolutions #6 dropped 57.2% taking $7.03m and $125.38m 90% of $139.31m and $427.34m WW
Took $7.7m (dropped 44%) from 76 territories and $90.2m taking $124.5m worldwide; Japan $11.2m; UK $8.6m; Russia $7.8m; France $6.8m; Germany $5.2m; Australia $4.7m; Mexico $4.5m; Spain $3.2m; Brazil $3m
- West Side Story – 20th Century Studios
Down 37% in its fifth-weekend #7 taking $1.36m and $32.11m
2,698th biggest film between Stealth and The Lawnmower Man (#2,871st In The Heights); 3,640th inflation inflated between Drive Me Crazy and Mr. 3000i; 37th biggest 2021 film between Don’t Breathe 2 and In the Heights; 57th biggest musical between Hello, Dolly and Paint Your Wagon (1961’s West Side Story #45 $43.7m)
The film will be released on Disney+ on January 24th 45 days after opening
Never understand if a studio has had success opening a film over one date as 20th Century Fox and Disney both had with The Greatest Showman and Mary Poppins Returns that they didn’t open West Side Story on December 22as it was originally due to be released on December 18th, 2020. What is also interesting is that almost all of the films Disney announced months before opening would have a 45-day theatrical window have disappointed at the box office all except for Free Guy. This is why the theatrical window needs to be flexible depending on how a film opens.
Recent musicals fifth weekends
2021’s In The Heights #11 dropped 48.3% $612,520 taking $28.3m 94.7% of $29.87m and $43.87m worldwide
2019’s Rocketman #9 dropped 28.9% $3.93m taking $84.24m 87.4% of $96.36m and $195.32m worldwide
2018’s Mary Poppins Returns #8 down 31.9% $5.21m and $158.7m 92.3% of $171.95m and $349.54m worldwide
2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody #5 down 42.8% $8m and $164.33m 75.9% of $216.42m and $911.1m worldwide
2018’s A Star Is Born #4 dropped 21.6% $11m and $165.53m 76.9% of $215.28m and $436.18m worldwide
2017’s The Greatest Showman #5 down 14.6% $10.64m and $113.12m 64.8% of $174.34m and $436.94m worldwide
2014’s Into the Woods #10 dropped 42.7% $3.88m and $121.49m 94.9% of $128m and $212.9m worldwide
2001’s Moulin Rouge #8 dropped 36.5% $2.44m (after two weeks on platform) and $48.02m 83.7% of $57.38m and $179.21m worldwide
While 1996’s Romeo & Juliet #9 down 24.5% $2.41m and $39.81m 85.9% of $46.35m and $147.55m worldwide
Took $1.6m from 46 territories (dropped 16%) and $53.1 worldwide; the UK $7.9m; France $4m; Australia $1.8m; Spain $1.3m; Germany $1.2m; Italy $0.5m; Sweden $0.5m; Holland $0.4m; Israel $0.3m; Mexico $0.3m; 2,768th biggest film worldwide between Defiance and My Cousin Vinny; 61st biggest 2021 film between Nobody and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions; 50th biggest musical worldwide between The Aristocats and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (#54 West Side Story (1961).
- Licorice Pizza – MGM
Dropped 24% in its seventh-weekend #9 taking $981,886 and $8.15m
1996’s Hard Eight took $222,559
1997’s Boogie Nights opened with $50,168 in 2 screens taking 6 weeks to expand to its widest point 1,003 screens taking $2.57m but then dropped 50% of its screens over the following two weeks taking $26.4m
1999’s Magnolia opened with $193,604 from 7 screens taking 7 weeks to expand to its widest point 1,086 screens taking $1.58m but then dropped 50% of its screens over the following two weeks taking $22.45m
2002’s Punch-Drunk Love opened with $367,203 from 5 screens taking 5 weeks to expand to its widest point 1,293 screens taking $2.5m but then dropped 50% of its screens over the following two weeks taking $17.84m
2007’s There Will Be Blood opened with $190,739 from 2 screens taking 7 weeks to expand to its widest point 1,620 screens taking $3.97m but then dropped 50% of its screens over the following four taking $40.22m
2012’s The Master opened with $736,311 from 5 screens expanded into 788 screens in its 2nd weekend taking $4.39m losing screens from its 5th weekend taking $16.37m
2014’s Inherent Vice opened with $328,184 from 5 screens taking 6 weeks to expand into 653 screens its widest point taking $1.13m but then lost 50% of screens the following weekend taking $8.11m
2017’s Phantom Thread opened $127,272 from 4 screens taking 6 weeks to expand to 1,186 screens taking $2.12m but then lost 50% of screens the following weekend taking $21.19m
UK Box Office Top 10
UK Box Office Preview
While Scream is expected to be the clear #1 in the US ahead of Spider-Man No Way Home it’s likely to be a much closer fought battle in the UK having more to do with how much Spider-Man No Way Home will drop in its fifth weekend rather than Scream opening which will likely be similar to previous films.
2011’s Scream 4 opened £2.06m (£2.45m inflation inflated) taking £5,581,902 (£6.65m inflation inflated)
2000s Scream 3 opened £2.45m (£4.02m inflation inflated) taking £5,585,267 (£9.16m inflation inflated)
1998’s Scream 2 £2.49m including £713,000 from previews (£4.42m inflation inflated) taking £8,280,725 (£14.68m inflation inflated)
1997’s Scream £1.06m (£1.88m inflation inflated) taking £8,247,094 (£14.62m inflation inflated)
Scream has been described as a requel, a film that features events that featured in earlier films but is not a remake or a direct continuation of the plot, this allows the film to have fun with the concept of the film which was what the original trilogy was all about.
Scream was a horror film for people who watched horror films as Randy in Scream explains the rules of horrors, that you can never have sex, never drink and never say “I’ll be right back”, while the rules for the sequel are the body count is always higher, death scenes are more elaborate and never assume the killer is dead (that part is also the in the first film when Billy comes back from the dead for one last scare.
While the rules of the third film were the killer is superhuman, anyone can die (which is also the case with Scream 5 as the aim of the film is to start a new trilogy of films) and the past will come back to bite you. The original title for Scream was Scary Movie, the title that was used a few years after Scream to spoof Scream which was also spoofing horror films.
The question with Scream is will younger audiences go to see it, that said it is an 18 as the previous films so Spider-Man No Way Home could hold #1 by default with many underage people paying to see Spider-Man and sneaking in to see Scream.
Also, the opening is Sky Cinema’s Save The Cinema opens, a British film about a cinema manager who wrote a letter to Steven Spielberg asking to have the premiere of Jurassic Park at their cinema to save it from closure. Ironically, a film about saving cinema won’t be playing in many cinemas as major exhibitors refuse to book Sky Cinema’s films.
Despite these same exhibitors talking so much about needing to “save cinema” due to COVID closing cinemas twice over the last 18 months and a small British feel-good film about saving a cinema is surely a film major exhibitors should be supporting as these films used to be the lifeblood of British cinema for decades but now struggle to find an audience and stay in cinemas.
Never makes any sense that major exhibitors refuse to book Sky Cinema films as the channel is subscription-based so only available to about a quarter of the public, but exhibitors are happy to book Event Cinema screenings like Anything Goes The Musical in November in 436 screens taking £371,880 despite it being broadcast freely on the BBC a month later. While all Sky Cinema films get strong marketing and media coverage as A Boy Called Christmas also did opening the same weekend on only 172 screens taking £120,770.
Opening next week
- Belfast – Universal Pictures
Semi-biographical coming of age comedy-drama starring Caitríona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Morgan, and Jude Hill and written and directed by Kenneth Branagh.
Had world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, received UK premiere at the London Film Festival and received positive reviews (87% Rotten Tomatoes); was named one of the best films of 2021 by the National Board of Review and received 7 Golden Globe nominations including Best Motion Picture – Drama.
Opened in US cinemas on limited wide release 580 screens taking $1,779,410 expanded into 1,128 two weeks later but like all films targeting older demographics, it struggled to find an audience taking only $6.9m.
It will likely struggle to find a wide audience in the UK as all films targetting older audiences have bar No Time To Die since cinemas have reopened due to the industries failure to not do anything to make them feel more comfortable returning as they were focussed on Millennials and GenZ.
Kenneth Branagh has directed all sizes of films over the last decade it has been mostly big-budget studio releases since Thor in 2011 his last non-studio release was 2018’s All Is True opened £266,767 #10 from 252 screens taking £976,123
- Journal For Jordan – Sony Pictures
Drama starring Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams and directed by Denzel Washington based on the memoir A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor by Dana Canedy; it received mixed reviews but CinemaScore received an A- score.
Opened on limited release in the US on December 10th before going wide on Christmas Day but struggled to find an audience opening with $2.2m #8.
It’s the fourth film directed by Denzel Washington his other films struggled to find an audience in the UK despite receiving positive reviews
2003’s Antwone Fisher opened #14 £59,976 from 46 screens; 2007’s The Great Debaters didn’t get a UK cinema release and 2017’s Fences opened £102,688 #14 limited released 21 screens expanding into 148 and 359 screens over following weeks with £378,351/£350,071 #12/#13 taking £1,158,590.
Antwone Fisher was a powerful directorial debut based on the true story of Fisher’s childhood who was a security guard working at Sony Pictures Studios, interestingly the actor playing the young Fisher had worked at Sony Pictures gift shop. In the UK it was released as an Odeon Cinemas exclusive
As Tom Bernard said in an article in Variety, “The older audience they will come back when they feel safe”.. “but theatres have not done enough” despite exhibitors own research from 22 months ago saying older audiences would take much longer to return, as they focused on the under 35s who returned quickly.
- Nightmare Alley – Disney
Psychological thriller second film based on the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn and directed by Guillermo del Toro.
Having the highest budget for any Searchlight Pictures ($60m), 20th Century Fox started Fox Searchlight Pictures in 1994 releasing speciality films its first The Brothers McMullen had a budget of $28,000 taking $10m at the box office. Fox Searchlight won the Best Picture Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. 12 Years A Slave, Birdman, Nomadland and The Shape of Water also directed by Guillermo del Toro so expectations were very high for Nightmare Alley and received positive reviews (80% Rotten Tomatoes).
2018’s The Shape of Water opened with £2,466,217 including £918,894 previews taking £7,312,082
Guillermo del Toro previous directed a wide range of films from Hellboy to Pacific Rim but is still probably best known for directing Oscar-winning 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth opened #8 £298,432 from 75 screens taking £2,532,777
The problem was as the industry knew over 20 months ago but failed to do anything about it older audiences have been very slow to return to cinemas, so it was no surprise that Nightmare Alley as West Side Story struggled to find a wide audience in the US as it will also do in the UK, this is the case with all three films opening this weekend.
The longer-term problem is as with last year’s Oscars and BAFTA award ceremonies both receiving their lowest TV ratings for many years as mainstream audiences hadn’t seen most of the nominees the same thing will happen this year unless they add films like No Time To Die and Spider-Man No Way Home to the list of Best Picture.
There are far more deserving films that should be nominated and this would be seen as a cynical decision made by the Academies to try and boost interest in these award shows. The problem is the divide between cinemagoers and Oscars has widened over the last 20+ years as Titanic in 1998 was the last Best Picture that was also the biggest film in the US.
In 2018 the Academy announced plans to introduce Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film which received backlash from the Academy and the media trying to get mainstream audiences to return to the Oscars, its TV ratings have been in decline for more than a decade. Many believed it was a way for Black Panther to be guaranteed a major award, the film was instead nominated for Best Picture and many believe Spider-Man No Way Home will become the second whilst the vastly superior The Dark Knight was never nominated.
