- Moana – £2,875,065 – NE
£775k, 26.96% Friday: £1.05m (36.52%) Saturday: £792k (27.55%) Sunday: took £322k on Monday.
623rd biggest opening between Insidious 2 and Terminator. Dark Fate (close to The Good Dinosaur, Now You See Me, The Magic Faraway Tree and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile) and the 984th biggest inflated opening between Just Friends and RoboCop (2014) (close to The Ugly Truth, Goosebumps, The Muppets Christmas Carol and Father of the Bride)
28th biggest opening over the last 52 weeks, including The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants and The Magic Faraway Tree (close to Weapons, Supergirl, Masters Of The Universe and One Battle After Another).
14th biggest Disney reimagination between Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Christopher Robin (close to Snow White and Cinderella); incredibly, it’s close to 2016’s Alice Through the Looking Glass (£2,229,399) and 1996’s 101 Dalmatians (£2,360,762/£5,110,731).
It’s interesting how Masters Of The Universe, Supergirl and Moana all opened similarly to each other; the difference was with Moana going into its opening, which was still expected to open strongly, as seen by the massive number of screens it was booked into, and it also had all premium formats, including IMAX/PLF/3D. So, Moana is by far a more disappointing opening than either of those two other films.
Moana is a film that should not exist, arriving just ten years after the original and two years after a billion-dollar sequel. Yet its unique heroine and a generation of young fans might just make it work anyway.
The biggest problem with Moana reimagination, as with all of Disney’s reimaginations, is it’s impossible to improve on the original films, so what you get are completely pointless shot-by-shot remakes, with so much animation in them that they still look like animated films.
Despite much being written about it being far too soon for the live-action reimagination, there is much love for Moana, as it was a different kind of Disney animated film, redefining the stereotypical Disney princess that featured in almost all of their other films. As Moana says, she’s not a princess but the daughter of the chief; there’s no romantic interest, she’s a leader, and she looks different, moving away from the stereotypical, slender body type. This means that, despite being almost identical to the original film, young female audiences will still want to see it.
Disney’s current strategy is a digital-age twist on its old playbook. Between the 1940s and 2000s, they would re-release a classic animated film every seven years for the next generation. From the 1980s, a limited video release would follow the theatrical run. The live-action remakes are the modern equivalent of the straight-to-DVD sequels they churned out in the 1990s and 2000s, a way to repackage the same IP for a new audience, with minimal creative risk.
Disney made their first reimagination in 1996 with 101 Dalmatians and followed it with 102 Dalmatians in 2000, which underperformed, so it took until 2010 for Disney to make another reimagination, Alice in Wonderland (opened to £10,555,220/£14,209,632, taking £42,169,542/£56,769,417.
Cinderella and Maleficent followed, but then remade two of their most beloved animated films, The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast. They were huge successes, and they were followed in 2019 by two more remakes of their most popular animated films, The Lion King and Aladdin.
Since then, it had again predictable huge success with The Little Mermaid and Lilo & Stitch but not with Cruella, a spin-off of 101 Dalmatians and Snow White which was one of those animated films that other studios could remake, like 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman and 2017’s Sydney White, but was on the don’t remake list at Disney; Walt Disney and many other studio bosses saw it as untouchable and on the “do not remake” list.
Remaking Moana just ten years after the original and two years after the 2024 animated sequel Moana 2 was purely a cynical cash grab, and, like Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and Toy Story 5, its real purpose was to sell more merchandise. As Moana’s BO really doesn’t matter, as it’s going to sell billions of pieces of merchandise and the hugely popular original songs will be streamed again by far more people than see the film in the cinema.
Moana 2’s success proves the character’s appeal. In 2024, the sequel opened to £12,021,342 and took £42,357,963, much more than the original 2016 Moana, which opened to £2,214,898 and took £20,041,031.
The love for Moana is real. She was a different kind of Disney heroine, rejecting the princess label and the romantic interest, defined by leadership, strength, and a connection to her culture. The original animated film was hugely popular on Netflix before moving to Disney+ in 2019. With 37.7bn minutes between 2020 and 2025 on Disney+.
Critics who liked Moana (2026) liked the elements that they liked in the original animated film: the story, the songs and the strong message. Being a remake of the animated film, these are also in the reimagination, so aren’t they reasons for liking the reimagination?
The problem was that the live-action Moana was being developed at the same time as the TV series, and Disney opted to turn the TV series into a film; had it been a TV series and had the reimagining of Moana not been delayed, then the two wouldn’t have opened as they did and would have been a bigger gap between the two. Disney first announced the TV series in 2020 and announced the film in 2023, but then footage of the TV series was seen, and it was turned into a film.
Originally, the second movie was supposed to be a streaming series for Disney+. But after those huge streaming numbers, Disney cynically turned it into a sequel film and predictably received mixed reviews despite taking over $1bn worldwide. As with all of Disney’s sequels and reimagining’s, it’s built on nostalgia and love of the original; hype and FOMO get audiences to see them in the sequel, but audiences, after a few weeks, see them for what they really are. Disney doesn’t care, as by then they have taken $1bn.
As with all other Disney reimagining’s, the numbers surrounding Moana are massive the trailer was the second most watched Disney trailer in the first 24 hours 182m; the two Moana animated movies have sold 22m toys generating about $1bn in merchandise over the last decade, 26bn music streams; How Far I’ll Go 595m streams, and You’re Welcome 538m streams and the films have had 1.5bn hours watched on streaming services.
Disney had huge success from their most popular animated films, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Lilo & Stitch and Aladdin, but despite the huge popularity of Moana, the interest in the reimagination isn’t there, likely damaged by releasing the animated sequel first. Audiences are just not embracing another Moana film so soon.
Moana opened close to their middle-rung animated reimaginations similar to Snow White (£3,856,173) and Cinderella (£3,803,799).
Critics are finally realising that Disney live-action (photorealistic animation) reimagining’s are no different to Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake in 1998, which was hugely criticised for making a shot-by-shot remake, despite this being exactly what Disney have done over the last decade since 2016’s The Jungle Book. It’s just surprising the bubble only burst with critics last year with Snow White.
Always know that when Disney is concerned about a film is they push heavily with radio and TV advertising; the problem with the radio advertising for Moana is that it sounds the same as the original film, and after the sequel was released two years ago, it will surely confuse many, thinking the original animated film is being re-released.
The weekend is defined by a simple question: after a decade of shot-by-shot remakes, has the audience finally stopped caring, or will Moana prove that Disney’s nostalgia machine still works? And audiences again don’t care what critics or influencers think.
The most surprising thing about Disney’s reimagining’s is that it took until Snow White for the bubble to burst with critics, as up to that point they seemed to fall for the nostalgia and ignore that a lot of it is still animated and that they are almost shot-by-shot remakes. So, the reason why they liked the remake had very little to do with the remake, but it reminded them how much they loved the original. This was, of course, similar to the case with Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The other question is, despite the huge success of 2024’s Moana 2 in the UK, why did Moana (2026) open in the UK less than in Australia, France and South Korea? It surely follows the theory that Disney aren’t focussing on the UK as much, opting to launch their films in other territories, and the UK seems to be one they feel they don’t need to focus on anymore, holding the major premieres in France and Spain when they used to be in the UK. Or could it simply be planning now that the Odeon Leicester Square has only 800 seats have to hold premieres in three cinemas at the same time, while The Grand Rex in Paris has 2,700 seats.
- 2. Toy Story 5 £2,480,703 – £42,426,039
Down 56.7% in its fourth weekend
£532k 21.4% (-53% £1.13m) Fri; E1.01m 40.7% (-57.74% £2.4m) Sat; £737k 29.7% (-65.9% £2.16m) Sun; took £309k Monday.
74th biggest fourth weekend between A Minecraft Movie and Project Hail Mary (close to Despicable Me 4, Alice in Wonderland, Incredibles 2 and Mrs Doubtfire) and 151st biggest inflated fourth weekend between A Minecraft Movie and Avengers: Endgame (close to Hercules, Arthur Christmas, Ratatouille and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)
8th biggest Pixar fourth weekend between Toy Story 2 and Incredibles 2 (close to Monsters, Inc, A Bug’s Life, Inside Out and Toy Story) and 13th biggest inflated fourth weekend between Incredibles 2 and Ratatouille (close to Incredibles, Wall-E, Monsters University and Inside Out).
Fourth weekends
2019’s Toy Story 4 dropped 31.4% #2 £3,801,247/£4,217,173 and £36,039,107 of £66,030,065/£73,254,961 behind Spider-Man: Far From Home #1 £4,396,516
2010’s Toy Story 3 dropped 32.2% £3,162,944/£4,258,014 and £58,908,398 80.2% of £73,405,113/£98,819,320; Toy Story 3 was only the 15th film to take £50m+ now 54; Toy Story 5 will be the 55th; In 2010, Toy Story 3 was Disney’s biggest ever film in the UK (until Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015); the previous highest was 2006’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (£51,998,590)
Toy Story 3 was in the top 5 for 9 weeks (taking £1m+ for 6 weeks) and in the top 10 for 12 weeks (taking £261,359 in its 12th weekend).
2000’s Toy Story 2 dropped 56.3% £2,755,664/£5,193,616 and £35,399,482 81.4% of £43,491,021/£81,967,783
1996’s Toy Story dropped 9.1% £1,883,603/£3,707,042 and £16,370,812 73.4% of £22,297,733/£43,883,253
Other recent Pixar sequels’ fourth weekends
2024’s Inside Out 2 dropped 14.6% £5,127,182 £40,067,872 68.2% of £58,721,001
2018’s Incredibles 2 dropped 53.2% £2,391,917/£2,653,636 and £39,869,498 71% of 56,1m/£62.3m
2016’s Finding Dory dropped 47.3% £1,510,744/£1,633,071 and £35,832,165 84.1% of £42,604,905/£46,054,695
All the weeks after the opening have been far from impressive, as analysts believe. Especially factoring in no premium formats, no 3D, limited premium seating and much lower children’s ticket prices. Of course, much is down to dating it in June and not July, especially in the UK after how Toy Story 3 performed.
1999’s A Bug’s Life dropped 48.5% £2,220,635/£4,225,009 and £22,788,114 77.7% of £29,310,536/£55,766,602
2002’s Monsters, Inc. dropped 44.9% £2,330,855/£4,352,016 and £32,135,340 86.2% of £37,264,502/£69,577,776
2009’s Up dropped 12.7% £3,393,575/£6,122,193 and £30,989,852 83.3% of £37,178,973/£67,072,877
2003’s Finding Nemo dopped 12.7% £3,393,575/£6,122,193 and £30,989,852 83.3% of £37,178,973/£67,072,877
81st biggest between Paddington 2 and Moana 2 (close to Finding Dory, Frozen, Avatar: Fire and Ash and Alice in Wonderland) and 180th biggest inflated between The Batman and The Bodyguard (close to Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Mask, Shrek Forever After and The Golden Compass).
Ahead of opening, Toy Story 5 was surely expected to get close to Toy Story 4 (£66,030,065), but now it’s unlikely it will top £55m unless it finds some legs during the summer holidays. This follows The Super Mario Galaxy Movie after its huge openings, not to mention what most analysts surely expected at the start of the year.
- 3. Minions & Monsters £1,727,004 – £7,396,012
Dropped 60.5% in its second weekend. (51% without previews)
£320k 18.5% (-49.9% £639k) Fri; £753k 43.6% (-51% £1.54m) Sat; £512k 29.6% (-60.9% £1.31m) Sun; took £193k Monday.
598th biggest second weekend between Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Apollo 13 (close to Antz, Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Pursuit of Happyness and Bend It Like Beckham) and 999th biggest inflated second weekend between S.W.A.T. and Philomena (close to Hot Shots, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Sweet Home Alabama and Puss in Boots).
24th biggest second weekend of the last 52 weeks between Disclosure Day and Weapons (close to The Magic Faraway Tree, The Drama, Scary Movie and The Sheep Detectives).
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The third instalment of the Minions prequel series, the seventh instalment of the Despicable Me series, and the 17th Illumination film had the second-lowest second weekend in the UK of an Illumination film, only Hop below it. Up till now, Minions and Despicable Me have performed very strongly in the UK, and all the sequels and spin-offs have taken similar box office figures.
Minions & Monsters was due to be released in June 2027, but was brought forward a year in January after they delayed Shrek 5 to 2027. Universal Pictures had dated Shrek 5 for June 2026 in July 2024.
With school holidays starting and no competition for families until Paw Patrol, Universal Pictures will be hoping the film can have long legs through the summer holidays, but even if it does, it’s unlikely to take more than £20m. It will, of course, not be the end of either the Minions or Despicable Me, but Illumination’s next film will be an original, Not Alone, opening in April 2027. It will be followed by another Nintendo film in 2028, with The Secret Life of Pets 3 and Sing 3 in development.
Second weekends
2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru dropped 58.5% £4,327,537 and £18,491,693 of £45,764,546; £14.1m in opening week £10.42m 74% Fri-Sun and £3.67m Mon-Thurs 26%
2015’s Minions dropped 46.03%, taking £6,238,498 and £20,973,912
2024’s Despicable Me 4 dropped 44.4% £4,925,774 and £17,438,373 36.3% of £48,001,206
2017’s Despicable Me 3 dropped 52.7% £5,275,120 and £19,578,209 41.2% of £47,562,575
2013’s Despicable Me 2 dropped 49% £3,996,837/£4,902,705 and £22,914,407 48.4% of £46,815,412
2010’s Despicable Me dropped 29.3% £2,589,170/£3,485,589 and £7,585,348 38.4% of £19,750,505
The Bigger Picture
In 2022, the Minions Cult went viral on TikTok, receiving over 650m views within a week of its opening. TikTok has been much quieter for Minions and Monsters, with most of the content on TikTok generated by Universal Pictures, including their England World Cup Minions videos and very few fan-generated videos that have generated many views.
The social media campaign hasn’t been able to build on the Bohemian Rhapsody performance in Minionese at the premiere, receiving 420k views. The most controversial viral moment was a mishearing. In a World Cup promo video, people thought a Minion said the name of adult content creator Bonnie Blue.
The social media for Minions & Monsters ahead of opening was 793m more than Rise of Gru’s 668.4m. TikTok has been much quieter for Minions & Monsters because the content is now being generated by Universal Pictures. The “Minions Cult” of 2022 was a genuine cultural moment driven by fans. The 2026 campaign, despite having a larger social media footprint, feels like a corporate marketing exercise. The spontaneity and chaos that made the “Gentleminions” phenomenon so powerful are no longer there, replaced by studio-produced hype.
Bohemian Rhapsody in Minionese at the premiere, getting only 420k views, was the point in the campaign when someone should have said “Houston, we have a problem” The problem was the studio had already switched their focus to The Odyssey.
The low view count showed that the audience was not engaging with the film the way it did with the previous one. In 2022, a simple video from a teenager generated more views than a professionally produced performance at a Hollywood premiere. In 2026, Universal was trying to manufacture the magic, and the numbers showed it wasn’t working.
The KFC collaboration and World Cup trailer campaign were visible promotional tactics, but they couldn’t replicate the organic energy of the “Gentleminions” trend. That was a genuine, unexpected cultural event. The 2026 marketing felt like what it was: a highly produced campaign that failed to capture the same organic excitement.
With summer holidays now started and with no competition for family films until August 7th, when Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie opens, which will appeal to a younger audience, so you would hope Minions & Monsters could play through the summer holidays, and if it does, could get close to the first Despicable Me film.
- 4. Evil Dead Burn £912,234 NE
Included £215,584 from Thursday previews.
Took £267k 29.28% Friday; £215k 23.57% Saturday; £158k 17.32% Sunday; took £144k Monday.
1,942nd biggest opening between All Eyez on Me and Waking Ned Devine (close to The Pelican Brief, Speed 2: Cruise Control, The Hate U Give and The Dark Tower) and 2,583rd biggest inflated opening between Kubo and the Two Strings and Fever Pitch (close to Old, Black Bag, Escape Room and Their Finest).
62nd biggest opening over the last 52 weeks between Song Sung Blue and Jackass 5 (close to Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Bride! and Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come).
Opened as counterprogramming to the family films Evil Dead: Burn, sequel to 2013’s Evil Dead and 2023’s Evil Dead Rise. The fifth movie in the Evil Dead film series started in 1981 with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead starring Bruce Campbell; It’s the sixth film of the series, with the seventh film, Evil Dead Wrath, already dated for April 2028.
2013’s Evil Dead opened £1,375,842 taking £3,355,676 and 2023’s Evil Dead Rises opened £1,477,840; £504k Friday 34%; £574k Saturday 39%; £400k Sunday 27% taking £5,288,972
2013’s Evil Dead £1,375,842 #3 from 394 screens taking £3,355,676. While 1993’s Army of Darkness opened £161,150 from 93 screens, taking £430,146, and 1987’s Evil Dead II opened £142,757, taking £1,180,250 (£4,435,544 inflated).
It’s the first major horror to open since Obsession and Backrooms, so the trailers were widely seen, but it will be the normal front-loaded horror dropping 60% second weekend, despite that it will still likely remain in the top 5 for the next two weeks as The Odyssey is the only wide release until Spider-Man Brand New Day
- 5. The Invite £429,969 – £1,821,187
Down 46.2% in its second weekend (43% without previews)
£146k 33.9% (-36.8% £231k) Fri; £135k 31.4% (-54.2% £295k Sat; £135k 31.4% (-36.3% £212k) Sun; took £119k Monday.
2,206th biggest second weekend between Confetti and Resident Evil 3 (close to Down With Love, Dead Again, Serendipity and The Menu) and 2,751st biggest inflated second weekend between A Wrinkle In Time and The Quiet American (close to A Real Pain, A Lot Like Love, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates and Made of Honour).
51st biggest second weekend over the last 52 weeks between Bugonia and Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come (close to Mortal Kombat 2, Mothers Pride, The Bride! And Shelter).
Directed by Olivia Wilde, her third film after 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling dropped 33.8% to £1,835,165 and £6,194,764, 62% of £9,995,806, and 2019’s Booksmart took £632,363.
Olivia Wilde talked about having to rebuild her life after the negative reaction to her last film, reading books by Eve Babitz and Carrie Fisher “If you can push through the moment you have previously identified as the worst possible thing that could happen to you, whether that is divorce or the internet hating you or whatever, you are forged into something way better than you could have possibly imagined.”
Seth Rogen said something similar in a recent interview about how reviews have affected his mental health. “I worked my way up to not having to deal with that much personal conflict face to face, but I will have a cultural institution tell everyone that I suck.”
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2026 BO is currently up 11% from 2025.
The weekend’s top 10 box office took £9,405,942, down 30.7% from last weekend’s £13,571,700: 1,092,444 admissions, down 30.7% from 1,576,272 admissions.
38th biggest weekend of the last 52 weeks between 14 November 2025 #1 Now You See Me: Now You Don’t £2,384,018 (25.33%) and 03 October 2025 #1 Taylor Swift: Party Of A Showgirl £3,471,544 (38.14%)
155th biggest since cinemas reopened out of 295 weeks between 14 November 2025 #1 Now You See Me: Now You Don’t £2,384,018 (25.33%) and 25 November 2022 #1 Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical £4,135,418 (44.07%)
751st biggest top 10 of the last 25 years (out of 1,266) between 14 November 2025 #1 Now You See Me: Now You Don’t £2,384,018 (25.33%) and 21 August 2015 #1 Paper Towns £2,072,789 (22.08%) and 1,082nd biggest inflated between 14 November 2025 #1 Now You See Me: Now You Don’t £2,384,018 (25.33%) and 31 August 2018 #1 Disney’s Christopher Robin £1,173,235 (14.89%)
The top 3 took £7,082,772 (75.3%) of the top 10; Moana 30.57% (£2,875,065); Toy Story 5 26.37% (£2,480,703); Minions & Monsters 18.36% (£1,727,004).
760th biggest percentage share #1 (30.57%) between 18 September 2020 #1 Tenet £796,309 (30.58%) and 03 August 2018 #1 Ant-Man and The Wasp £4,988,747 (30.55%)
946th biggest admissions (358,934) between 19 August 2005 #1 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory £1,691,431 (359,115) and 12 April 2024 #1 Back To Black £2,772,698 (358,693)
Down 27.89% from 2025; (£13,044,565); Superman (£6,992,902); CBeebies Musical – The Great Ice Cream Hunt (£34,334); #1 Superman £6,992,902 1st week (53.61% of top 10)
Down 36.88% from 2024; (£14,900,553); Despicable Me 4 (£8,856,183); Longlegs (£1,371,352); Fly Me To The Moon (£862,358); Indian 2 (£213,245); In A Violent Nature (£101,730); The Commandant’s Shadow (£18,798); #1 Despicable Me 4 £8,856,183 1st week (59.44% of top 10)
Down 48.28% from 2023; (£18,187,968); Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (£10,391,016); Oklahoma! Starring Hugh Jackman (£124,103); #1 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One £10,391,016 1st week 718 screens (57.13%)
Down 53.3% from 2022 (£20,163,540); Thor: Love And Thunder (£12,283,719); Brian & Charles (£71,890); Dr. Who: Classic Movie Double Bill (£64,730); #1 Thor: Love And Thunder £12,283,719 1st week 692 screens (60.9% of top 10)
Down 3.2% in 2021 (£9,713,818); Black Widow (£6,889,187); The Truffle Hunters (£14,300); #1 Black Widow £6,889,187 1st week 644 screens (70.92% of the top 10).
Up 2724.59% 2020: (£264,643) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (40th Anniversary) (£50,406); Black Water: Abyss 10.6% (£28,053); #1 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (40th Anniversary) £50,406 1st week.
Down 28.9% from 2019; (£13,229,066); Annabelle Comes Home (£2,223,482); Stuber (£211,274); The Dead Don’t Die (£192,917) The Matrix: 20th Anniversary (4K Restoration) (£163,812); Jaws (Re: 2019) (£34,094); The Matrix Reloaded (4K Restoration) (£876); The Matrix Revolutions (4K Restoration) (£583); #1 Spider-Man: Far from Home £4,396,516 2nd week 647 screens (33.2% of top 10)
Down 33.8% from 2018: (£14,198,894); Incredibles 2 (£9,650,000); Skyscraper (£1,829,830); The Secret of Marrowbone (£171,161); First Reformed (£73,233); Vertigo (60th Anniversary) (£10,845); #1 Incredibles 2 £9,650,000 1st week 664 screens (67.9% of top 10)
Down 46.6% from 2017: (£17,613,020); 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 30.6% from 2016: (£16,278,631); 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 (22.3% of the top 10)
Down 30.63% from 2015; (£13,559,349); Ted 2 (£3,867,723); Love & Mercy (£105,718); Song Of The Sea (£72,172); The Human Centipede 3 (£938); #1 Minions £4,154,359 3rd week 605 screens 33% drop (30.6% of top 10)
Down 59.1% from 2014: (£22,934,264); Transformers: Age of Extinction (£11,751,427); How to Train Your Dragon 2 (£7,779,040); Begin Again (£456,438); Boyhood (£332,834); #1 Transformers: Age of Extinction £11,751,427 1st week 533 screens (51.2% of top 10)
Down 9.8% from 2013: (£10,431,833); Monsters University (£3,463,917); Pacific Rim (£2,193,500); We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (£19,309); Trap for Cinderella (£2,845); #1 Monsters University £3,463,917 1st week 525 screens (33.2% of top 10)
Down 48.5% from 2012 (£18,271,575); Ice Age: Continental Drift (£10,087,052); Magic Mike (£2,651,015); Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (£357,200); Chariots of Fire (Re: 2012) (£63,857); #1 Ice Age: Continental Drift £10,087,052 1st week 522 screens (55.21% of top 10)
Down 8.9% from 2011; (£10,318,687); The Guard (£473,878); The Tree of Life (£406,062); #1 Transformers: Dark of the Moon £4,750,519 2nd week, 56% drop, 522 screens (46.1% of top 10)
Down 56.6% from 2010: (£21,686,365); The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (£13,756,653); Predators (£2,203,193); Leaving (£35,532); #1 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse £13,756,653 1st week 523 screens (63.4% of top 10
Down 36% from 2009; (£14,688,163); Bruno (£5,000,229); Fired Up (£30,691); #1 Bruno £5,000,229 1st week 456 screens (34.1% of top 10)
Down 43.4% from 2008; (£16,622,538); Mamma Mia! (£6,594,058); Journey to the Centre of the Earth (£953,878); Forbidden Kingdom (£676,217); #1 Mamma Mia! £6,594,058 1st week 496 screens (39.6% of top 10)
Down 57.4% from 2007: (£22,106,427); Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (£16,493,305); Moliere (£76,061); Macbeth (£2,093); #1 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix £16,493,305 1st week 567 screens (74.6% of top 10)
Down 46.4% 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 204.86% 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 21.2% from 2005: (£11,195,244); Madagascar (£5,431,639); Wedding Crashers (£2,182,597); Festival (£34,010); #1 Madagascar £5,431,639 1st week 505 screens (48.5% of top 10)
Down 25..6% from 2004 (£12,636,832); Around the World in 80 Days (£1,631,963); Fahrenheit 9/11 (£1,304,115); Walking Tall (£356,193); Twisted (£108,235); #1 Shrek 2 £7,097,154 2nd week 512 screens 56% drop (56.1% of top 10)
Up 92.39% from 2003 (£4,889,023); Daddy Day Care (£796,259); Veronica Guerin (£271,996); Whale Rider (£121,610); The In-Laws (£108,031); #1 Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle £1,581,273 2nd week, 475 screens, 52% drop (32.3% of top 10)
Down 9.6% from 2002 (£10,406,087); Scooby-Doo (£5,129,109); Resident Evil (£801,628); Bad Company (£382,949); Nine Queens (£49,438); #1 Scooby-Doo £5,129,109 1st week 472 screens (49.2% of top 10)
2025 Next week: (£13,400,090); Smurfs (£1,212,110); I Know What You Did Last Summer (£941,968); Friendship (£191,666); Barry Lyndon (50th Anniversary 4K Restoration) (£60,823); #1 Superman £4,877,459 2nd weekend down 30% 706 screens (36.40% of top 10)
UK Box Office Analysis: First Half of 2026
UK and Ireland June 2026 box office was £99.4m, up 29% from June 2025 £76.8m. The first six months of the year took £604.9m, up 14% from 2025 and 34% more than 2024. BO has been up from last year for five of the last 6 months, but July, despite the massive hype surrounding The Odyssey, will see it drop off.
July has historically been, for over 35 years, one of the most lucrative months of the year, as the school holidays start two weeks before the end, and mid-July was when the biggest summer films opened, from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991 to Barbie and Oppenheimer in 2023. But because of The Odyssey opening on July 17th, it means Minions and Monsters will be three weeks before the start of school holidays.
UK-only figures (excluding Ireland) were £88.6m for June and £507.1m for the first six months. Estimated admissions are up 9% from 2025; June admissions are 16% higher than the same month last year.
What is the correct figure for the UK, as the figures the industry reports are from Rentrak and they are for the UK and Ireland, but the UK Cinema Association reports UK-only data, while the Film Distributors’ Association reports UK and Ireland?
June’s Top Films
| Rank | Film | June Gross | Total |
| 1 | Toy Story 5 | £32.2m | £43.2m |
| 2 | Disclosure Day | £11.3m | £12.2m |
| 3 | Scary Movie | £9.0m | £9m |
| 4 | Obsession | £8.5m | £17.6m |
| 5 | Backrooms | £6.0m | £12.4m |
| 6 | Masters of the Universe | £5.3m | £5.3m |
| 7 | Michael | £3.8m | £52.8m |
| 8 | Supergirl | £3.7m | £4.7m |
| 9 | The Mandalorian & Grogu | £3.6m | £15.6m |
| 10 | The Amazing Digital Circus | £3.0m | £3m |
June 2025 films were far weaker, so it’s impossible to make a direct comparison, including Ballerina, How To Train Your Dragon, 28 Years Later, Elio and F1; none of them were likely to get anywhere close to Toy Story 5.
July 2025 had Jurassic World: Rebirth, Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, while they all performed lower than expected; they will likely take more than Toy Story 5, Minions & Monsters, Moana and The Odyssey this year.
| Current Biggest Films of 2026 |
| Rank Film UK Total |
| 1 Michael £52.9m |
| 2 Super Mario Galaxy Movie £38.4m |
| 3 Project Hail Mary £34.6m |
| 4 The Devil Wears Prada 2 £34.3m |
| 5 Toy Story 5 £32.2m |
| 6 The Housemaid £32.2m |
| 7 Wuthering Heights £25.3m |
| 8 Hamnet £19.2m |
| 9 Obsession £18.2m |
| 10 The Mandalorian & Grogu £15.6m |
What the Numbers Tell Us
Michael: The Expected #1
At the start of the year, after the huge success of 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody and the massive fanbase of Michael Jackson in the UK, many would have expected Michael to be #1 for the first 6 months of the year. It held strongly and was expected to top Bohemian Rhapsody‘s £54.9m.
Super Mario Galaxy: Below Expectations
After 2023’s Super Mario Bros took £54.5m and 2025’s A Minecraft Movie took £56.4m, it was expected that Super Mario Galaxy Movie would have taken closer to £50m. It fell short.
Project Hail Mary: A Surprise
Seen as a surprise, Project Hail Mary was boosted by the huge global media coverage generated by NASA’s Artemis II in April. It performed similarly to 2015’s The Martian.
The Devil Wears Prada 2: The Sequel Problem
The Devil Wears Prada 2 was similar to last year’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy — it opened with massive media coverage and a huge opening but did not have the expected legs. It was an inferior remake of the beloved 2006 original.
When the first trailers were released, box office experts said it was going to be huge. While it opened three times as much as the original, by the fourth weekend, it was taking a similar box office.
Toy Story 5: The Legs Problem
It was a similar story with Toy Story 5: massive hype, FOMO, and nostalgia, but it has not had its expected legs and will come short of matching the box office of the last two films.
The Surprises: The Housemaid and Obsession
The two surprises were The Housemaid and Obsession. The key thing was that, along with Wuthering Heights and Hamnet, they were all very different films targeting the very lucrative female audience that is normally starved for films.
Obsession started as a typical male horror but became a social female horror about toxic masculinity.
The Disappointment: The Mandalorian & Grogu
The Mandalorian & Grogu was a massive disappointment, but everyone expected it as it was just a 2-hour advert to sell Grogu merchandise.
The Summer Outlook
After Minions & Monsters and Moana both had soft openings, and Toy Story 5 did not have its expected July legs, The Odyssey has massive feet to fill.
Without any new films for children until Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31st, The Odyssey has to take a Barbie-sized box office over the two weeks in July, as there are no other releases.
As seen with Barbenheimer in 2023, Christopher Nolan films perform best in a crowded marketplace. Minions or Moana should have opened the week after The Odyssey at the start of the summer school holidays, but Universal could not hold back Minions & Monsters due to Nolan’s demands.
In 2019, Disney had a 5-week gap between Toy Story 4 and The Lion King, which allowed them to both perform strongly. This year, Toy Story 5 and Moana had a 4-week gap between them, with Minions & Monsters opening in between, which was far too much.
Barbenheimer (2023) The Odyssey (2026)
Opening Barbie: £18.5m, Oppenheimer: £10.9m The Odyssey: £11m
Holdovers Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (£2.9m), Elemental (£1.4m) Moana, Toy Story 5, Minions & Monsters will be similar.
The Spider-Man Setup
All of this is setting up Spider-Man: Brand New Day to have a massive opening at the end of the month. That said, it is still likely to come short of 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home as that was the follow-up to Avengers: Endgame, came after two years of underwhelming MCU films, and was also the “greatest hits” of Spider-Man.
US Box Office
- Moana – Walt Disney
Opened $43.14m; received mixed reviews (35% Rotten Tomatoes) and an A- CinemaScore
It’s lower Rotten Tomatoes score than Snow White (39%), (57%) and Dumbo (46%).
Took $4.5m from Thursday previews; Snow White $3.5m; Dumbo $2.6m; Little Mermaid $10.3m; Aladdin $7m; while 2024’s Moana 2 took $13.8m and opened $139.7m
404th biggest opening between The Mummy (1999) and Hitch (close to Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Croods, Hotel Transylvania and Shrek)
Early tracking had Moana expecting to open with $70m–$80m, but that has dropped severely over the weeks since, down to $60m and on Thursday, it was $40m.
Presales going into the weekend were $4m.
Took 37% from IMAX/PLF; IMAX 9%; 28% PLF and 11% 3D.
Taking over a third of its opening from premium formats pushed Moana’s opening into a slightly more respectful $40m+ opening; without it would have opened much lower, showing again how they manipulate the box office. AMC’s Adam Anon is crowing about the second quarter of the year being the fifth biggest over the last 50 years, but it probably had the fifth-lowest admissions too. AMC fails to understand they are in the popcorn and syrup-selling business, not the movie business; it’s all about getting higher admissions, not about higher box office.
Interesting to see Moana opening very similarly to Supergirl and Minions & Monsters, both expected to open much bigger.
While many will make excuses for Moana opening so close to Toy Story 5 and Minions & Monsters, the issue was that it was made a decade too soon and was released after Moana 2. While audiences have loved Moana for the last decade. This was the predictable issue: they are targeting the same generation that saw the original film in cinemas; all of Disney’s other reimagining’s were targeting different demographics from those who saw the original in cinemas.
2025’s Snow White opened $42.2m, taking $87.2m and $205.67m worldwide
2023’s The Little Mermaid opened with $95.5, taking $298.17m and $569.64m worldwide
2019’s Aladdin opened $91.5m, taking $355.55m and $1.054bn worldwide
While
2024’s Moana 2 opened to $139.78m, taking $40.4m and $1.059bn worldwide. And the original 2016 Moana opened $56.63m/$81.88m, taking $248.75m/$359.2m and $643.3m/$929m worldwide.
Opened $52m internationally; Australia $5.3m; France $5.2m; South Korea $3.8m; UK $3.7m; Spain $3.1m
- Minions & Monsters – Universal Pictures
Dropped 43% in its second weekend, $21.15m and $108.92m
Social media reach before opening was 793m across TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook and Instagram, more than 2022’s Minions: Rise of Gru (surprising as it had huge TikTok coverage with Gentleminion) 668.4m and more than Toy Story 5’s 711.8m; Zoey Deutch at 3m fans (boosted recently due to Netflix’s Voicemails for Isabelle) and Jeff Bridges 2.4m.
The seven films of Despicable Me and Minions have taken over $6bn worldwide over the last 16 years. Another $6bn+ has been generated from merchandising since the first film was released in 2010, and $725m+ in DVD sales.
2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru dropped 57% 46.12m and $210.65m of $370.54m and $940.48m WW
2015’s Minions dropped 57.4% $49.27m #2 and $215.76m 64.2% of $336.04m and $1.15bn worldwide 71% $823.39m internationally; (55% Rotten Tomatoes) #1 Ant-Man $57.22m 1st w/e
2017’s Despicable Me 3 dropped 53.6% $33.58m #2 and $148.77m 56.2% of $264.62m and $1.03bn worldwide 74% $770.17m internationally; (75% Rotten Tomatoes); #1 Spider-Man Homecoming $117.02m
2013’s Despicable Me 2 dropped 47.4% $43.89m #1 and $228.37m 52.1% of $368.06m and $970.76m worldwide 62% internationally $602.7m; (59% Rotten Tomatoes) #2 Grown-Up 2 $41.5m
2010’s Despicable Me dropped 41.8% $32.8m #2 and $118.43m 47.1% of $251.55m and $543.15m worldwide 53% internationally $291.6m; (81% Rotten Tomatoes); #1 Inception $62.78m 1st w/e
2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru took $56.4m (down 41%) from 64 territories and $189.8m and $399.9m worldwide; UK $22.1m; Mexico $22.1m; Australia $20.2m; Germany $10.4m; Brazil $7.3m
Took $39.6m from 80 territories, $171.8m total, and $280m worldwide; China $32.4m; Mexico $10.6m; Australia $12m; France $13.4m; Germany $10.2m; UK $10m; Spain $7.8m.
- Toy Story 5 – Walt Disney
Dropped 37% in its fourth weekend, $19m and $404.24m
78th biggest fourth weekend between Frozen II and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (close to The Polar Express, Iron Man 3, The Secret Life of Pets and Toy Story 2); #54 Toy Story 4 $20.94m; #53 Toy Story 3 $21.01m; after Toy Story 5 opened bigger than those two films 16 years later than Toy Story 3 it should be taking more.
EntTelligence standard average price $15.25; $19.03 PLF, $13.12 child and $16.66 child PLF
Fourth weekends
2019’s Toy Story 4’s dropped 38.1% $20.94m/$28.5m and $346.65m/$471.7m of $434m/$640m and $1.073bn/$1.5bn WW
2010’s Toy Story 3’s dropped 30.6% $21.01m/$33.3m and $339.24m/$537.1m of $415m/$667m and $1.067bn/$1.7bn worldwide
1999’s Toy Story 2 dropped 33.5% $12.12m/$29.9m and $156.35m/$384.5m of $245.8m/$570m and $397.37m//$1.15bn WW
1995’s Toy Story dropped 20.9% $10.97m/$31.6m and $115.7m/$332.3m of $223.3m/$630.9m and $401.15m/$1.11bn WW
Fourth weekends of recent Pixar sequels
2024’s Inside Out dropped 47.3% $30.31m and $534.14m of $652.98m and $1.698bn worldwide
2018’s Incredibles 2 dropped 38.8% $28.4m and $503.78m of $608.58m and $1.242bn worldwide
2016’s Finding Dory dropped 50.2% $20.81m and $423.4m of $486.29m and $1.028bn worldwide
The six Toy Story films have taken over $1.8bn in the US and $4.1bn+ worldwide, selling over $16bn in merchandising and more since 1995. As with everything for Disney, the film is just the start of the journey. Disney’s economic impact study said the franchise has generated nearly $50bn in “overall economic impact” globally. It creates the cultural event that drives the real revenue streams: around $1bn a year in global retail sales for Toy Story products.
Took $45.3m internationally from 51 territories, $475.3m total, and $879.1m worldwide; UK $56.3m; China $40m; Japan $30.8m; Australia $26.1m; France $25.5m; Spain $17.4m; S Korea $17.3m; Argentina $16m.
Toy Story 5 will become the 63rd film to take $1bn worldwide, but to paraphrase Sean Parker ‘A billion dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Three billion dollars.” A tentpole taking $1bn worldwide was cool 20+ years ago, but now, billion-dollar films should be taking much more. $1bn film had about 150m admissions worldwide in 2006; now it’s less than half, but in reality it’s less than a third. EntTelligence average for Toy Story 5 was $15.25 and a third more for IMAX/PLF, $19.03, with tentpoles taking 30% from IMAX/PLF and making a huge dent in admissions.
- Evil Dead Burn – Warner Bros
Opened $13.7m; received mixed reviews (72% Rotten Tomatoes) and a B CinemaScore
Took $2.3m from Thursday previews, 2023’s Evil Dead Rises $2.5m; M3gan ($2.75m) ahead of Smile ($2.1m)
2023’s Evil Dead Rises opened $24.5m and $67.23m and $147.13m worldwide
The sixth movie in the Evil Dead film series started in 1981 with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead starring Bruce Campbell. 2013’s Evil Dead opened at $25.77m, took $54.23m and $97.54m worldwide, and had a budget of $17m.
Evil Dead Rises opened with $16.8m from 58 territories.
Opened with $13.3m internationally; UK $1.2m; France $850k.
- The Invite – A24
Expanded wide in its third weekend, up 712%, $5.71m and $7.38m
Received positive reviews (94% on Rotten Tomatoes). A24 have had an amazing start to 2026 with the huge success of Marty Supreme, The Drama and Backrooms, and audiences are seeing them as they are A24 films, as audiences did 30 years ago with Miramax, as they see A24 as a stamp of authority in stylish films marketed smartly. These films were never expected to be massive hits or connect so strongly with audiences, but it shows that audiences like to be inspired and see fresh new films.
Olivia Wilde’s last-directed film, Don’t Worry Darling, generated huge media coverage starring Harry Styles, opened with $19.35m but received poor reviews (36% on Rotten Tomatoes and a B- CinemaScore (similar to Booksmart B+) taking $45.3m and $87.6m worldwide.
Olivia Wilde’s 2019 Booksmart opened to $6.93m, taking $22.68m and $24.95m worldwide.
Took $2.3m internationally from 23 territories and $12.8m worldwide total.
UK Box Office Top 10
Box Office Preview
The Odyssey has been building hype for more than a year, beginning when IMAX tickets first went on sale and intensifying after Christopher Nolan officially announced the film in 2024.
The Barbenheimer Benchmark
In 2023, Oppenheimer opened strongly with £10,891,486, while Barbie opened even bigger with £18,509,236. Both films held remarkably well for weeks, creating the organic Barbenheimer phenomenon as audiences embraced two very different films at the same time.
That success showed that two major films can open close together and still expand the overall market. The hope was that distributors would learn from it and repeat the effect with The Odyssey, especially as it arrives at the start of the summer holidays.
The Scheduling Problem
The problem is that the surrounding release calendar has not set The Odyssey up as cleanly as Barbenheimer did. Universal opened Minions & Monsters two weeks earlier, while Disney placed Moana closer to Toy Story 5 than it did with The Lion King after Toy Story 4 in 2019.
The result was predictable cannibalisation. Minions & Monsters was squeezed, while Moana was no Lion King; audiences simply did not show the same level of interest.
In 2023, Barbie and Oppenheimer also benefited from strong holdovers, including Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (£2,891,093) and Elemental (£1,430,063). This year, it is unlikely that Moana, Minions & Monsters, and Toy Story 5 will hold as strongly against The Odyssey.
That places even more pressure on The Odyssey. It needs not only to fill the July box office shortfall, but also to replicate, on its own, some of the momentum that Barbie and Oppenheimer generated together in the final two weeks of July 2023.
Can Nolan Make The Odyssey Work?
For decades, The Odyssey was considered difficult, if not impossible, to film because of its sprawling episodic structure, vast timeline, mythical monsters, and divine intervention. It may have needed a filmmaker with Christopher Nolan’s scale and reputation to make a mainstream theatrical version feel possible.
There have been famous adaptations and reinterpretations before, including the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a satirical retelling of Homer’s epic, and 2004’s Troy, which drew from The Iliad. Troy opened with £6,017,523/£10,735,047 and went on to take £18,001,854/£32,114,666.
The challenge for Nolan is how to compress the full sweep of Homer’s story into one three-hour film while still making it coherent, accessible, and emotionally satisfying for a broad cinema audience.
IMAX Demand and Advance Sales
The $250m film was shot entirely in 70mm IMAX, and demand for premium-format screenings has been exceptional. IMAX tickets went on sale a year before the release, with Nolan fans rushing to secure seats.
- Only 41 cinemas worldwide will show the film in 70mm IMAX.
- The BFI IMAX sold out for four opening-weekend screenings when tickets first went on sale.
- When more tickets were released on June 16, the BFI IMAX sold 28,000 tickets in its first 24 hours, taking around £750k.
- That broke previous BFI IMAX first-day sales records, including Dune: Part Two (£366k) and Oppenheimer (£254k).
The BFI IMAX has been the unofficial home of Nolan films since The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, when it generated more than £1m in advance bookings five weeks before opening. That film sold 24,754 tickets on its first day and 38,658 in its first week, setting records at the time.
The speed of sales is not surprising. Nolan fans behave much like Swifties: they are highly engaged, highly organised, and eager to book immediately. However, the wider market will still matter. Outside premium venues, The Odyssey will play in hundreds of regular cinemas, where availability is likely to remain strong close to showtime.
Opening Weekend Expectations
Despite the strong advance sales, estimates for The Odyssey have varied. Nolan films often perform best when they are part of a crowded and active marketplace, as seen with Barbenheimer in 2023 and, earlier, with Inception and Toy Story 3 opening a week apart in July 2010.
Strong IMAX presales were always expected, and the format could account for around 20% of the UK opening across 55 IMAX cinemas. The bigger test is whether The Odyssey can reach regular cinemagoers beyond Nolan’s core fanbase.
The film opens on the weekend of the World Cup Final and at the start of the school summer holidays. Mid-July has been one of the most lucrative cinema periods for more than 30 years, dating back to Jurassic Park.
Oppenheimer opened with £10,891,486, split across £3.24m on Friday, £4m on Saturday, and £3.6m on Sunday. It also took £2.13m on Monday and £2.1m on Tuesday, eventually reaching £58.5m. Given the scale of anticipation, The Odyssey should be aiming for a £15m+ opening.
As with Oppenheimer, Tenet, and Dunkirk, The Odyssey will receive extensive media coverage. Its world premiere is scheduled for July 6, with the review embargo lifting on July 15. Social reactions are likely to be enthusiastic, with the usual Nolan hyperbole about it being a major cinematic event.
Christopher Nolan’s UK Opening Record
- Inception opened with £5,912,814 from 452 screens, finishing on £35,264,403. It dropped 29% in its second weekend and 22% in its third, staying in the top five for five weeks and the top ten for eight.
- Tenet opened with £5,335,654 from 611 screens, finishing on £17,479,421. It dropped 59% in its second weekend and 42% in its third, but held #1 for eight weeks during the disrupted 2020 market.
- Dunkirk opened with £10,023,720 from 638 screens, finishing on £56,797,955. It dropped just 17% in its second weekend, held #1 for four weeks, and remained in the top ten for ten weeks.
- Interstellar opened with £5,378,220 from 574 screens, finishing on £20,852,599. It dropped 29% in its second weekend and 49% in its third.
The Dark Knight trilogy is harder to compare directly with Oppenheimer or The Odyssey, but the films showed similarly strong holds and long runs near the top of the chart.
- Batman Begins opened with £4,427,802 from 514 screens and took £16,733,960.
- The Dark Knight opened with £11,191,824 from 502 screens and took £49,411,323.
- The Dark Knight Rises opened with £14,362,443 from 594 screens and took £56,446,768.
The Key Risk
Oppenheimer and Dunkirk were more accessible because they told stories many audiences already knew. The Odyssey is different: most people have heard of it, and many may even own a copy, but it is not necessarily a story they know in detail.
With The Odyssey opening in more than 720 cinemas and on over 2,000 screens, the holdovers are likely to drop by 50% or more. The film has the scale, format advantage, and fan intensity to dominate the weekend; the real test is whether it can turn premium-format urgency into broad mainstream demand.
The focus for The Odyssey has been on less than 7% of the screens it will open in; it will play in about 1,800 screens worldwide, and it will take 30-40% of its opening.
The question is more about how it will play on all of the other screens as Nolanites booked up a year ago to see it, while the regular audience will wait till Thursday or Friday to book.
Despite the outlandish social media reactions, The Odyssey will surely be less accessible than Oppenheimer and Dunkirk, but the lack of anything opening against it will be its biggest issue, as studios have kept their distance despite the huge success of Barbenheimer, causing Minions & Monsters, Moana and many other summer films to be released far too close together and underperform. So, The Odyssey needs to take much more to keep the summer momentum going before Spider-Man opens.
Coming Soon
- Spider-Man Brand New Day – Sony Pictures
The MCU’s Next Big Test
The 38th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the fourth film in the MCU Spider-Man series, following 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Mark Ruffalo, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton.
Sony Pictures began development of Spider-Man 4 in 2018, planning it as the first of a new trilogy of films starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man. The film now features The Hulk and The Punisher, and the plot has been reworked to lead directly into Avengers: Doomsday.
The film went through several directors before Destin Daniel Cretton was attached. Cretton previously directed 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
The Marketing Machine
The first trailer was released in March, receiving 718.6 million views in 24 hours, almost double the 365 million views of 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine. Within four days, the trailer had amassed over 1.1 billion views.
That number should surely guarantee a box office topping No Way Home, but it is worth noting that extreme fans probably watched it more than a dozen times.
The second trailer was released in June, receiving 590.8 million views. The first 18 minutes of the film were shown at CineEurope.
A promotional video was released at the start of the World Cup knockout stage, showing Lionel Messi meeting Peter Parker in a café while using the “Spidey Tracker” app to search for Spider-Man.
The IMAX Problem
The film will not be released in IMAX due to The Odyssey holding IMAX screens for three weeks. Instead, some scenes were shot in ScreenX.
The Pre-Sales
Tickets went on sale in June, recording the best first-day ticket pre-sales in the US since No Way Home in 2021, with $78 million.
This was expected, given the obsessive fanbase and the fact that there has not been a major MCU film released since the underwhelming The Fantastic Four: First Steps last summer.
2021’s Spider-Man No Way Home opened £31,899,232 (took £12,388,380 from previews on Wednesday and Thursday; £7.6m on Weds; £4.7m on Thurs; £6.23m Friday (£18.6m Weds- Fri) and £12.7m from Sat-Sun; taking £95,994,961/£102,249,952
There was massive pent-up energy ahead of Spider-Man: No Way Home as it was two years on from the last film and MCU films had underwhelmed since. Also, after COVID, it was the big return to cinemas film after No Time To Die opened in September, while it was also the greatest hits of Spider-Man featuring the three recent Spider-Men.
The reason why Spider-Man: No Way Home opened so big was simple, it looked like an Avengers film, it swims like an Avengers film, and quacks like an Avengers film, then it probably is an Avengers film. As the previous comic-book movies since Far From Home 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.
Spider-Man: No Way Home had stronger advance sales than No Time To Die and the highest since Avengers: Endgame, which sold 1.62m tickets in advance. Sold over 600k tickets (£6.2m) three weeks before opening, with Odeon Cinemas reporting they were selling 30 tickets every 10 seconds, while Vue sold 1m seats over its opening weekend, with 500,000 on the opening Saturday from 91 cinemas.
In 2015, Star Wars: The Force Awakens sold over 1 million tickets in advance, including 700,000+ at Odeon (sold more than double Spectre and four times 50 Shades of Grey) and 332,000+ at Vue Cinemas (more than 284,850 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 sold in 2010). When tickets went on sale on 19th October, the website crashed. Vue Cinemas said they had sold 10,000 tickets in the first 90 minutes of sales, selling 45,000 tickets in the first 24 hours.
Bookings for Spider-Man: No Way Home opened on December 6th, breaking post-pandemic presale records in its first 24 hours, selling three times the amount of No Time To Die, with Odeon selling over 400,000 tickets and Vue selling over 150,000 tickets, five times more. It also broke presale records at Cineworld. While they have announced record advance sales in the US, no such information has been released so far in the UK; that said, they do look very strong from the cinemas I’ve looked at.
2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home opened £14,148,624/£15,696,742 (including £5.75m from previews Tuesday- Thursday) taking £37,037,828/£41,090,444.
In 2019, Spider-Man: Far From Home was the film that followed Avengers: Endgame
2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming opened with £9,369,166, taking £30,380,216 a year after Spider-Man made his first appearance in the MCU in Captain America: Civil War
Spider-Man Brand New Day is the 10th Spider-Man film made by Sony Pictures since 2002; original trilogy directed by Sam Raimi starring Tobey Maguire between 2002 and 2007 (Spider-Man opened £9.4m; Spider-Man 2 £8.7m; Spider-Man 3 £11.8m); The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 with a sequel in 2014 directed by Marc Webb starring Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man opened £11m and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 £9m); then Spider-Man part of the MCU directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland since and then also Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, with the third film due for release in 2027.
Comic-book fans are desperate to avoid spoilers far more than older audiences, who will read reviews of films before seeing them and will rush out to see the films, as seen with No Time To Die; many older audiences still saw the film despite knowing the ending. As research has shown that older audiences do like having spoilers before seeing the films, while younger audiences prefer not knowing anything, which is hard to do with social media leaking every morsel of information about the films.
While many previous Spider-Man films have dropped heavily against similar-sized tentpoles, as with Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s the last major summer film. August has Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, The End of Oak Street and Insidious: Out Of The Further, but there is nothing until Practical Magic 2 in early September that is likely to open above £2m.
2021’s Spider-Man No Way Home opened $260.13m taking $814.86m and $1.921bn, after such strong advance sales Spider-Man Brand New Day could open close to it, but its unlike to take similar US and global total box office as No Way Home benefited from opening before the lucrative Christmas period and with very little competition and the audience had been waiting for it since Avengers: Endgame.
Opened with $340.8m from 60 territories (38,900+ screens) and $600.8m total, the third biggest opening ever; UK $41.4m; France $17.8m; Italy $13m; Germany $11.4m; Spain $10.4m; Mexico $32.4m; South Korea $23.7m; India $18.2m; Australia $18.7m; Russia $17.4m.
