- Jurassic World Dominion – £12,121,728 – NE
2D £9,928,271 (81.9%) from 706 cinemas; 3D £1,322,248 (19.9%) from 282 cinemas; IMAX with £597,682 (4.9%) from 50 cinemas and IMAX/3D took £254,363 (2.1%) from 41 cinemas
68th biggest opening in the UK between The Matrix Reloaded and Spider-Man 3 (close to Joker, Fantastic Beasts 2, Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones) and 110th biggest inflation-inflated opening between High School Musical 3 and Minions (close to Bruce Almighty, The Day After Tomorrow, Avatar and Jurassic Park).
Took £700,846 more (6.1%+) than Jurassic Park inflation inflated the opening by £11,420,882 (£4,875,137) the opening included one preview screening on Thursday but of course, didn’t have any surcharges despite exhibitors’ needing to install DTS in cinemas to be able to book the film in 1993.
38th biggest Fri-Sun between fantastic Beasts 2 and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; 25th biggest Fri-Sun opening without previews between Fantastic Beasts 2 and Spider-Man 3.
In comparison, Jurassic World had the 6th biggest opening in the UK while Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom had the 31st biggest opening in 2018 and the 64th biggest inflation inflated which does show how ticket prices have affected the BO and inflated BO.
8th biggest Universal Pictures opening between Fast 7 and Minions
While Jurassic World had the biggest Universal Pictures opening as did Jurassic Park in 1993
Open in 708 cinemas Universal Pictures 4th widest UK opening after No Time To Die (772), Downton Abbey: A New Era (746) and Downton Abbey (730) but like all other major openings, the number of screens is probably playing in about three times as many cinemas and took all 50 IMAX cinemas and PLF screens from Top Gun Maverick. It will share those IMAX screens with Lightyear this weekend
Opened with £3.3m from Friday; taking £4.5m Saturday and £4.7m Sunday; while it came in over late estimates in the US opened lower than Saturdays UK estimates of £13.5m; took £1m on Monday
But Jurassic World Dominion opened with less hype than previous films (apart from Jurassic Park 3) all of the others were events while Dominion marketing highlighted it was the concluding part of the film series (but of course, these films series never really end). Part of the problem is the excitement has gone as audiences were in awe of the original film as they had never seen anything like it before but while critics were bored as to quote Jurassic World “’No one’s impressed by dinosaurs anymore”.
In the trailers for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Clare says do you remember the first time you saw a dinosaur you don’t believe it, it’s a miracle which was the truth when audiences saw dinosaurs for the first time in Jurassic Park 29 years ago and in the sequel 4 years later. But in the sixth film 29 years later they don’t feel as exciting, could be a metaphor for Hollywood and the tentpoles being released today having no sustenance anymore are all hype and no substance why they opened big and then drop big as audiences want more and different.
The first two Jurassic Park films had their biggest openings in 1993 and 1997 and Jurassic Park films have a much bigger appeal and wider audience than comic-book movies as they play to all generations those children who saw the original with their parents in 1993 and now their children.
Despite the film opening in several countries on June 1st, it had an embargo for another week this didn’t stop many people from posting reviews online including a reaction from the Mexico premiere a week earlier. So critics were sitting on their reviews for over a week which often makes bad reviews even worst as critics have a chance to think about the film compared with films that embargo ends immediately after screening and there’s a rush to be seen to be the first review.
Jurassic Park took 9.82x opening compared with 3.29x for Jurassic World; 2.9x for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom; 4.53x for The Lost World: Jurassic Park and 3.84x for Jurassic Park 3: depending on how it holds Dominion will take between £35m-£40m.
The 6 Jurassic Park films have taken over £210m to date and almost £320m inflation inflated
2015’s Jurassic World opened with £19,350,727 from 605 screens (including £2,514,284 13% previews) £16,836,443 Fri-Sun taking £64,322,933
Spy #2 £1,549,756 2nd w/e; San Andreas #3 £844,397 3rd w/e
2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opened 26% less with £14,334,894 from 663 screens (including £3.65m 25.4% previews) £10,684,894 Fri-Sun taking £41,573,492
Solo: A Star Wars Story #2 £1,192,220 3rd w/e; Deadpool 2 #3 £1,182,010 4th w/e
Dr Alan Grant said in “Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?”
When a new tentpole opens the previous film will often drop heavily as the marketplace can maintain two films and instead the films cannibalize each other taking box office away from each other. Some of the biggest weekends with multiple big box office films include.
In May 2012 the second weekend of Marvel Avengers Assemble it took £8,121,916 from 523 screens down 49% from £15,778,074 opening with American Pie: Reunion opening with a strong £6,334,539 #2 and The Lucky One (£1,159,435); Beauty and the Beast 3D (£685,024); Safe (£679,716) also had decent openings.
While in 2007 The Simpsons opened #1 at £13,626,853 from 499 screens and Transformers opened #2 at £8,718,561 from 456 screens with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at #3 at £2,879,635 and Hairspray #4 at £1,390,389 both holding strongly.
But then in 2014 previous Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow struggled opening #3 with £1,886,096 from 439 screens to Maleficent opening #1 with £6,590,071 from 486 screens and X-Men: Days of Future Past #2 second weekend £3,518,389 554 screens.
29 years ago, the first Jurassic Park film opened 6 weeks after the US was when distributors dated films to give them the best date for their country rather than now with most opening days and dates with the US, so the release date isn’t always the optimal date for the film. Jurassic Park opened on July 16th at the start of the summer holidays as the two sequels, but the Jurassic World trilogy opened in June. (Fallen Kingdom opened two weeks earlier in Europe due to the World Cup).
Back in 1993, Thursday previews were limited to one main evening preview on Thursday night Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in comparison has two full days of previews extended its opening weekend boosting its opening with £3.66m.
Jurassic Park opened on 16th July 1993 with £4.9m having small drops in its following weeks as it played in cinemas for almost a year taking £47,790,337. In 1993 average ticket price was £4.12; the inflation-inflated box office today would be £112m.
In 1997 The Lost World: Jurassic Park opened with £5.7m (£10.74m 2018 BO) taking £25.79m (£48.62m 2018 BO).
In 2001 Jurassic Park 3 opened with £4.76m (£8.82m 2018 BO) taking £18.1m (£33.54m 2018 BO) as probably with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Disney’s upcoming Indiana Jones 5 it is ignored in Jurassic World as the events feature after The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
What is interesting to see from these films is these films are now opening in about third more cinemas, distributors used to be far more selective in the number of cinemas films opened with film but now with digital it go as wide as possible, it would be interesting to see how that box office compares in different cinemas when a film opens in 500 screens or 750.
18.1% of Jurassic Dominion BO came from IMAX and 3D with 7% from IMAX and 3D IMAX compared to 46% of Jurassic World in 2015 from IMAX and 3D with 8.5% from IMAX and 38% from 3D. there was much talk that 3D could make a return to the cinema this year with the release of Avatar The Way of Water with the first trailer released in May with Doctor Strange 2 released in 3D. But going by the low percentage of Doctor Strange 2 and Jurassic World Dominion from 3D much needs to be done over the next few months to get the majority interested in seeing 3D films again.
While films including Avatar, Gravity and Hugo were very popular with cinemagoers they quickly realised with the many retro-fitted 3D films that it rarely adds anything to the cinema experience. It will be interesting to see the 3D box office of Jaws and Avatar both being re-released in September (Jaws for the first time in 3D).
Wat Ian Malcolm says in Jurassic Park “the problem with the scientific power that you’re using here, it didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox.” Could be compared to what Hollywood has done over the last decade and more, the one positive being if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.
- 2. Top Gun Maverick – £5,562,637 – £50,085,905
Down 46.1% in the third weekend; and took 29.3% of the top 10 in its third weekend compared to 72.66% second weekend and 82.6% in its opening weekend.
Had the third biggest second week since the first lockdown taking £16.3m (taking £10.32m Fri-Sun and £6m Mon-Thurs (Monday £1.4m (down 44%) and Tuesday £1.68m (down 42%); Spider-Man No Way Home #2 (£17.2m); No Time To Die #1 (£22.8m).
£1.5m on the third Friday (down 54.5%); £2.3m on Saturday (down 39.5%); £1.76m Sunday (down 45%) and £750k on Monday (first day since opening taken less than £1m)
17th biggest third weekend between Avenger Infinity War and Toy Story 4 (close to Jurassic World, The Jungle Book, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace).
43rd biggest film in the UK (43rd film to take over £50m since The Full Monty in 1997) between Black Panther and Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix (close to Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, Quantum of Solace, The Greatest Showman and The Dark Knight) and 98th biggest inflation inflated between Chicken Run and Spider-Man (close to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Fatal Attraction, For Your Eyes Only and Ghostbusters).
Biggest Paramount Pictures film in the UK ahead of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Shrek The Third and 4th biggest Paramount Pictures film between Shrek Forever After and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
Top Gun Maverick is very similar to Star Wars The Force Awakens as it is a remake of the original film the opening credit scene is the same but on a different aircraft carrier and repeats scenes straight from the first film as The Force Awakens does, so do wonder as with The Force Awakens when the bubble will burst and audiences realise this. With The Force Awakens, it was after it had taken $2bn worldwide but with other legacy sequels, audiences realise this far sooner.
You can give the same reasons why audiences are attracted to films like Top Gun Maverick, Star Wars The Force Awakens and Jurassic World to the speech in Field of Dreams to these films “Ray, people will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won’t mind if you look around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person. They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along with one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters.”
Of all the legacy sequels Top Gun Maverick has probably the most in comparison with 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opening 19 years after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. As surely having Shia LaBeouf as Indiana Jones’s son the plan was to have further films with a younger Indiana Jones but that’s more likely to happen with Disney’s Indiana Jones 5 opening next year. As with films like Top Gun and Indiana Jones while they might have strong casts the draw is Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford which was one of the reasons why Solo: A Star Wars Anthology disappointed as it was someone else playing trying to be Han Solo but there is only one.
Much has been written about why Top Gun Maverick opened strongly but the answer was simple it was the reason why Jerry Bruckheimer was so interested in making a film after reading an article about Top Gun pilots and seeing it as Star Wars on Earth. If Disney can remake Star Wars A New Hope as The Force Awakens then with surely can do the same with Top Gun when you have Tom Cruise front and centre.. it was all about timing the audience was primed in a similar way to how they were for No Time To Die and Spider-Man.
Top Gun Maverick is as critics have said non-stop action and it starts exactly like the original film with the same music starting full of nostalgia to the original film and that continues throughout the film, so its understand that when exhibitors and critics saw the film in crowded cinemas full of fans of the original the reactions would be as they were. The film gets a bit silly when Maverick steals an aeroplane from the airfield they bombed and was immediately able to fly it making it feel like the Clint Eastwood film Firefox.
Paramount Pictures would surely like the year to end now after having their best year probably since 2011 with Scream, Jackass Forever, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, The Lost City and now Top Gun Maverick taking over £90m. This will likely see the studio have its first £100m+ year since 2011 when they took £160m and were the UK #1. But Paramount only have two small releases for the rest of the year Tadeo Jones 3 and Smile while their rivals have far strongest slates.
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Down 65.4% in its sixth weekend
16th biggest MCU 6th weekend between Iron Man 3 (£429,102) and Captain America: Winter Soldier (£357,448) close to Iron Man 2 (£511,895); Avengers: Endgame (£480,372); Ant-Man and the Wasp (£355,342) and Iron Man (£285,109).
Took £181,682+ than Doctor Strange’s 6th weekend (£216,719) was the 3rd weekend of Fantastic Beasts #1 (£4,494,727).
81st biggest 6th weekend between Dune and Yesterday (close to The Martian, Lost in Translation, Rocketman and Parasite); took £213,156+ than Shang-Chi (£185,245); £171,919+ Black Widow (£226,482) but £801,985 less than The Batman (£1,200,386).
74th biggest film in the UK between Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Peter Rabbit (close to Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Alice In Wonderland, Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and The Batman) and 150th biggest inflation inflated between The World Is Not Enough and 101 Dalmatians (close to The Day After Tomorrow, Cats and Dogs, The Batman and The Hangover Part II).
10th biggest comic-book movie between Avengers Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (close to Black Panther, The Dark Knight, Captain Marvel and Deadpool) and 16th biggest inflation inflated between iron Man 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (close to Spider-Man 2, Batman Forever, The Mask and Men In Black 2).
4th biggest film since cinemas reopened between The Batman and Top Gun Maverick.
The 28 MCU films have taken over £950m and £1bn inflation inflated; Thor: Love and Thunder opening in July will see the 29 MCU films taking over £1bn at the UK BO since 2008.
Thor: Love and Thunder open in a month and will likely perform similar to Doctor Strange 2 and then Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in November
Down 49% in its fifth weekend after dropping down to #7 last week due to half-term holidays and the box office boosts for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and The Bad Guys it returns to the top 5
19th biggest film of 2022 between Operation Mincemeat and The Northman and 48th biggest since cinemas reopened between Ron’s Gone Wrong and The Northman
Has become the 5th biggest foreign-language film in the UK after Parasite £12.03m; 2004’s The Passion of Christ £11.1m; 2001’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon £9.4m; 2001’s Amelie £5m and ahead of 2007’s Apocalypto £4.1m; 2004’s Hero and House of Flying Daggers £3.8m.
Of course, most of these opened over a decade ago so can’t make any direct comparisons
In 2020 Parasite took £529,550 #5 in the fifth weekend down 50% (two weeks before the first lockdown) from 425 screens taking £11,460,342 of £12.03m.
Similar to Everything Everywhere Parasite expanded over several weeks opening on 137 screens and expanding to 428 screens in the second and then to 565 screens in the third weekend. While Parasite was able to maintain full daily shows over those weeks due to Top Gun Maverick opening two weeks after Everything Everywhere has fewer shows over the last two weeks.
What this also does show is that films don’t need to play on so many screens and have so many screenings to be successful as Everything Everywhere has held its own over the last three weeks despite having about one daily show in many cinemas. There is no need for films to play so wide in 700+ cinemas and on 3,000+ screens as they must only be selling less than 25% of available seats on opening weekends.
Everything Everywhere is the biggest A24 film in the UK ahead of Moonlight £4.3m and Hereditary £5.6m, the other two were released by Attitude and Entertainment Films; was surprising that A24 went for self-releasing in the UK as they normally release their films through Entertainment Films as they recently distributing A24’s Men and X in the UK.
Despite the success of both Parasite and Everything Everywhere foreign-language films have struggled to find an audience in the UK over the last 20 years.
In 2002 131 foreign language films were released in the UK 38% of the films released took 2.2% of the yearly box office with Y Tu Mama Tambien taking £1.74m was the biggest foreign language film of the year.
Over the following years, the number of foreign language films released has more than doubled but its box office share and its box office haven’t grown, so similarly to the growth of Event Cinema much of this is due to the number of titles released with box office shared more rather than audience growth.
The question is after Parasite and Everything Everywhere will mainstream audiences embrace more foreign-language films in the future and more importantly will major exhibitors book them so they can be seen by a wider audience.
Always remember when Digital Cinema first arrived in the UK Arts Council installed Digital Cinema in 250 cinemas across the UK which were going to be used to show films that wouldn’t normally play in multiplexes. But saying that the original plan for multiplex cinemas was to give a wider choice of films but now you have Jurassic World Dominion opening on 4 screens Top Gun playing on another 4 which leaves all the other films squeezed into a couple of smaller screens.
- 5. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – £181,694 – £26,491,158
Down 60.2% in its tenth weekend its VOD release on June 15th and then onto Paramount+ launching in the UK on June 22nd; taken 5.31x opening
5th biggest film of 2022 between Sing 2 and Uncharted; 7th biggest film since cinemas reopened between Sing 2 and Uncharted.
Both Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and The Bad Guys have hand very long legs due to not being any other films for children opening over the last 10 weeks, of course, this changes on Friday with the opening of Lightyear and then two weeks later with Minions The Rise of Gru. Had other family films opened ahead of half-term then both films wouldn’t have lasted as long.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is performing similar to Uncharted and has probably attracted a similar audience. The marketplace was far more crowded when Uncharted opened while also it was an original film-based om computer game while Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was a sequel and played to a younger audience; Uncharted dropped 57% in its tenth weekend taking £46,470 #13 from 238 screens and £24,091,881.
+In 2020’s Sonic The Hedgehog was pulled from cinemas at its sixth weekend after the first lockdown taking £19,280,822 but had cinemas not closed as often with half-term films Sonic The Hedgehog would have played through to Easter and taken £25m+.
164th biggest film in the UK between Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Spider-Man 2 (close to X-Men: Days of Future Past, The LEGO Batman Movie, The Croods and The Lost World: Jurassic Park) and 329th biggest inflation inflated between Arthur Christmas and Cast Away (close to Batman Begins, 2012, Iron Man 2 and Dances with Wolves).
7th biggest Paramount Pictures film between Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Star Trek: Into Darkness) (close to Shrek Forever After, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Mission Impossible: Fallout and Rocketman) and 12th biggest inflation inflated between Monsters vs. Aliens and Iron Man 2.
Other Cinema News
Next week the industry will come together at CineEurope self-congratulating themselves for the box office performance of films like Doctor Strange 2, Top Gun Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion despite moaning about the same studio’s decisions to delay the films. Find it embarrassing ComScore has an award for Courage at CineEurope recognizing the courage and resilience of European exhibitors and it’s being accepted by Phil Clapp? What courageous things did the UK cinema industry do? As of March 6th, 2020, UKCA said COVID had ‘No discernible impact’ on cinema despite Pixar having their worst opening in the UK that weekend with Onward.
They were waiting on government guidance before doing anything, at that time UK government was even more incompetent than they are now as at least a few weeks later Matt Hancock watched 9-year-old Contagion and changed his vaccine plans. Surely after seeing China had closed their cinemas in January days before the most lucrative week of the year international exhibitors must have realised what was coming especially having surely seen films like Contagion and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes which showed how viruses spread globally and also having lived through Spanish Flu a century ago.
Instead, it was denial and then moaning about studios wanting to delay films when they believed people would return to the cinema and these studios have been proved right delaying these films as had they listened to exhibitors as Christopher Nolan had done then many of these films would have performed similarly to Tenet. UK exhibitors reopened cinemas far too soon in July 2020 without having any plans or strategy, they were given a library of 450+ films but most cinemas reopening on July 4th had schedules that look like they were frozen in time since March.
In April 2020 was an in-depth article in Deadline suggesting what was needed to be done to get people to feel comfortable returning to the cinema it said that older audiences would be the slowest to return and that was the case up to the release of No Time To Die in September 2021 and then the 45% of them didn’t return to the cinema until May 2022.
Rather than accepting awards, they should be apologising for failing the industry as I did joke back in March 2020 as soon as cinemas closed that exhibitors and studios should have been locked in a room together and not allowed out until they had a reopening plan and strategy that was focussed on getting the many returning not the few, but the problem was predicably industry only focussed the few which made the majority not return for over a year.
While exhibitors believed Christopher Nolan’s delusions of grandeur Tenet was never going to be the saviour of cinema and when Mulan was also delayed weeks before cinemas were due to reopen in July 2020 that should have made exhibitors delay reopening. What was always needed was a slate of films opening close together as was the case with the Chinese New Year in February 2021 taking $1.bn in a week. This was finally done in the UK in May 2021 when the saviour of the cinema became Peter Rabbit 2 for several months until No Time To Die and Spider-Man No Way Home.
2022 UK BO January-May was £397.1m which is about 78% of 2019 levels Industry expects BO for the year will be about £1.05bn similar to 2009; 2021 was £597m and 2020 £323m. With BO returning to pre-COVID levels in 2023 which was expected when cinemas shut after the first lockdown.
UK Distributor share estimates
Paramount £90m 22.7%; Universal £88m 22.2%; Warner £70m 17.6%; Sony £58m 14.6%; Disney £50m 12.6%; Entertainment £7m 1.7%; Pathe £6.6m 1.6%; A24 £4m 1%; eOne £2.5m 0.6%; Lionsgate £1.5m 0.4%.
Future releases
Disney – Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther 2, Strange World and Avatar will add £150m+ (£200m+)
Sony – Lyle Lyle Crocodile, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Bullet Train and Matilda will add £70m+ (£130m+)
Universal – Jurassic World 3, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Nope, Ticket To Paradise, Halloween Ends and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish will add £150m+ (£223m+)
Warner – Elvis, DC Super-Pets, Don’t Worry Darling, Shazam 2, Salem’s Lot and Black Adam will add £90m+ (£160m+)
Paramount Pictures are currently the #1 biggest studio in the UK but their lack of future releases will see them drop to fifth for the year despite having their first £100m+ year since 2011. The huge positive for the year is that the box office will be shared out over the five big studios rather than over previous years Disney running away with it, but it will be Universal Pictures who will likely be leading the pack from mid-June to early December as so much depends on if Avatar The Way of Water can match the success of the original released in 2009.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £18,965,681 up 33.5% from last weekend’s £14,210,578
87th biggest top 10 of the last 20 years between 04 January 2013 #1 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey £4,075,781 (21.42% of top 10) and 25 July 2008 #1 The Dark Knight £11,191,824 (59.20% of top 10) and 193rd the biggest inflation inflated between 07 February 2003 #1 Two Weeks’ Notice £2,636,050 (23.52% of top 10) and 02 May 2003 #1 X-Men 2 £7,037,861 (62.92% of top 10).
The weekend admissions were 2,522,032 up 33.5% from last week 1,889,705
Top 3 took £18,082,766 95.4% of the top 10; Jurassic World Dominion 63.9% (£12,121,728); Top Gun: Maverick 29.3% (£5,562,637 ); Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness 2.1% (£398,401);
Up 297.5% from 2021 (£4,771,829); Nobody (£574,399); The Father (£397,418); Fargo (25th Anniversary) (£8,585); #1 A Quiet Place Part II £1,314,938 53% drop 2nd weekend 620 screens (27.56% of top 10)
2020 n/a cinemas closed
Up 13.5% from 2019 (£16,708,373) X-Men: Dark Phoenix (£3,771,153); Take That – Greatest Hits Live (Concert) (£1,834,379); Casino Royale (Secret Cinema 2019) (£493,243); #1 Aladdin £3,929,625 654 screens 20% drop 3rd week (23.5% of top 10)
Up 1.7% from 2018: (£18,642,162); Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (£14,334,894); McQueen (£131,278); Coppelia – Bolshoi 2018 (£96,840); The Boy Downstairs (£12,823); #1 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom £14,334,894 663 screens 1st week (76.9% of top 10)
Up 55.1% from 2017: (£12,227,826); The Mummy (£3,343,650); Take That: Wonderland Live from the O2 2017 (£1,004,918); My Cousin Rachel (£637,704); Peter Pan – NT Live 2017 (£119,127); The Shack (£96,580); Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (£18,017); Wilson (£5,347); From the Land of the Moon (£4,547); #1 Wonder Woman £3,480,956 2nd week 613 screens (28.4% of top 10)
Up 163.2% from 2016: (£7,206,704); The Boss (£594,672); Mother’s Day (£419,532); When Marnie Was There (£99,352); Miracles from Heaven (£20,420); #1 Me Before You £1,453,859 529 screens 1st week (2nd week on release) 19% drop.
Down 21% from 2015; (£24,008,316); Jurassic World (£19,350,727); London Road (£216,248); Gascoigne (£47,455); Queen And Country (£31,966); #1 Jurassic World £19,350,727 605 screens 1st week (80.6% of top 10)
Up 175.2% from 2014: (£6,889,969); Oculus (£413,578); Belle (£407,120); Devil’s Knot (£122,892); The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (£44,777); The Hooligan Factory (£6,518); The Food Guide to Love (£1,293); #1 22 Jump Street £2,255,100 477 screens 2nd week (32.7% of top 10)
Up 143% from 2013: (£7,805,920); After Earth (£2,249,532); Behind the Candelabra (£513,288); The Stone Roses: Made of Stone (£367,319); The Iceman (£201,789); The Last Exorcism: Part II (£115,811); #1 After Earth £2,249,532 470 screens 1st week (28.8% of top 10)
Up 66.1% from 2012 (£11,422,558); The Pact (£932,325); Ill Manors (£256,288); Red Tails (£193,420); A Fantastic Fear of Everything (£35,400); #1 Prometheus £3,135,504 2nd week 536 screens 50% drop (27.4% of top 10)
Up 30% from 2011 (£14,590,776); Kung Fu Panda 2 (£6,188,897); Honey 2 (£520,654); Mother’s Day (£94,385); #1 Kung Fu Panda 2 £6,188,897 1st week 514 screens (42.4% of top 10)
Up 249.4% from 2010: (£5,427,181); Letters to Juliet (£793,425); Brooklyn’s Finest (£468,279); Greenberg (£118,804); #1 Sex and the City 2 £1,489,833 3rd week 542 screens 40% drop (27.3% of top 10)
Up 113.9% from 2009; (£8,867,112); The Hangover (£3,193,806); The Last House on the Left (£392,163); Looking for Eric (£366,242); Red Cliff (£153,288); #1 The Hangover £3,193,806 1st week 422 screens (36.1% of top 10)
Up 92.9% from 2008; (£9,828,672); The Incredible Hulk (£3,253,723); The Happening (£1,632,055); Priceless (£125,433); #1 The Incredible Hulk £3,253,723 1st weeks 484 screens (33.1% of top 10)
Up 175.2% from 2007:(£6,890,280); Ocean’s Thirteen (£3,021,302); Are We Done Yet? (£419,247); Taking Liberties (£21,350); #1 Ocean’s Thirteen £3,021,302 1st week 475 screens (43.8% of top 10)
Up 254.4% from 2006; (£5,352,087); The Omen (£2,096,002); RV (£273,850); Secuestro Express (£18,784); #1 The Omen £2,096,002 1st week 347 screens (39.1% of top 10)
Up 137.6% from 2005 (£7,979,378); Mr and Mrs Smith (£3,943,422); #1 Mr and Mrs Smith £3,943,422 1st week 450 screens (49.4% of top 10)
Up 150.3% from 2004 (£7,575,851); Connie and Carla (£155,374); I’m Not Scared (£41,407); #1 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban £4,391,262 2nd week 536 screens (57.9% of top 10)
Up 330.4% from 2003 (£4,406,684); Identity (£719,468); Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry (£673,202); A Guy Thing (£134,956); Iggy Goes Down (£86,581); #1 The Matrix Reloaded £1,071,551 4th week 457 screens 57% drop (24.3% of top 10
Up 228.5% from 2002 (£5,773,078); Unfaithful (£779,335); Monster’s Ball (£486,017); Dragonfly (£80,209); #1 Star Wars Ep II – Attack of the Clones £2,058,716 464 screens 4th week 16% drop (35.6% of top 10)
Next weekend 2020 Cinemas Closed First Lockdown
Next weekend 2021 (£6,842,018) The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (£1,636,128); In the Heights (£1,073,68); Monster Hunter (£150,078); In The Earth (£58,538); #1 The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard £1,636,128 p1st week 522 screens (23.91% of top 10)
US Box Office
- Jurassic World Dominion
Opened with $145.07m; received poor reviews (33% Rotten Tomatoes) and A- CinemaScore
29th biggest opening between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2; #26 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($148.02m); #6 Jurassic World ($208.8m);
Received the worst reviews of the film series Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 47%; Jurassic Park 92%, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park 53%. Jurassic Park 3 49% and Jurassic World 71%; #123 The Lost World: Jurassic Park ($72.13m/$150m inflation inflated)); #289 Jurassic Park ($47.02m/$110m inflation inflated); #252 Jurassic Park 3 ($50.77m).
CinemaScore The Lost World: Jurassic Park received B+; Jurassic Park III B- while Jurassic Park and Jurassic World both received A+;
Took $18m from Thursday midnights #33 biggest similar to Jurassic World ($18m) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 ($17m)
Jurassic World Dominion had the second-best Friday for the Jurassic Park franchise with $59.55m after 2015’s Jurassic World ($81.9m) and ahead of Fallen Kingdom‘s $58.5m.
EnTelligence reported 4.4m watched the film on Friday with a $13.21 average (Top Gun 2 at $12.96 and The Batman‘s $12.88); interestingly 58% brought tickets on the day compared with 14% a week ago and 11% more than a week ago.
As with other tentpoles, 36% came from IMAX/PLF screens
Early tracking In May was looking at $165m-$205m (seemed a bit high for the third part of the trilogy and sixth part of the film series). Normally as marketing moves through the gears and expectations grows tracking days before opening would be much higher but was about $125m. But was that done on purpose as often happens with Disney films they lowball tracking so films look like they have opened bigger than expected.
Likewise, always find it a strange coincidence that the box office is just slightly more than a previous instalment. But as AMC revealed the open secret in March with The Batman (known for years) that exhibitors increase prices for these films by about $1.50 and the percentage of BO from IMAX/PLF/4DX/ScreenX continues to increase for these films then, of course, they should be taking far more than the previous instalment as Jurassic World Dominion opening is probably similar to inflation inflated opening of Jurassic Park in 1993.
2015’s Jurassic World opened $208.8m taking $653.4m; $1.018bn internationally $1.671bn WW
2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opened $148.02m taking $417.71m; $892.74m internationally and $1.31bn WW.
Jurassic World had the biggest ever US opening in 2015 at $208.8m (6 months later was overtaken by Star Wars: The Force Awakens at $247.96m)
Jurassic Park in 1993 had the biggest opening of the year at $47.02m (almost double The Firm in second at $25.4m) taking $357.06m
The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997 had the biggest opening of the year at $72.13m (almost 25% more than Men in Black in second at $51.06m) taking $229.08m (third biggest film of 1997 behind Titanic $600.78m and Men in Black $250.69m)
Jurassic Park 3 in 2001 had the eighth biggest opening of the year $50.77m (behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Planet of the Apes, The Mummy Returns, Rush Hour 2, Monsters, Inc, Pearl Harbor and Hannibal) taking $181.71m (ninth biggest film of 2001 behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Shrek, The Mummy Returns, Rush Hour 2, Monsters, Inc, Pearl Harbor and Ocean’s Eleven).
Jurassic World Dominion is expected to drop 60% in its second weekend, having the biggest second-weekend drop of the franchise; Jurassic World 49%; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 58.8%; Jurassic Park 18.2%; The Lost World: Jurassic Park 52.7%; Jurassic Park 3 55.6% taking about $60m as the fickle audience will move onto Lightyear as will most IMAX/PLF screens.
Took $176.6m from 72 territories (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opened with $151.1m from 48 territories and compared to $158.6m for Jurassic World in 2015) taking $245.8m and $389.1m worldwide; $52.5m from China having the biggest opening in China for a US film since F9 in May 2021 ($136m) this was half of the opening of 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($111.6m) and 2015’s Jurassic World ($99.15m ).
Chinese BO has been soft since their New Year in February due to COVID. Several US films have opened since but due to a large number of cinema closures have performed softly…
Over the last decade China gave US films an artificial bump at the BO and turned $800m+ films into $1bn+ but global ticket price increases post–pandemic + increase in BO from IMAX/PLF (adding $250m+ to The Batman, Doctor Strange and Top Gun 2) has made studios not miss China BO and China BO will return to being the cherry on top, that is if COVID hasn’t changed China’s movie tastes as they were reports they were getting bored on US movies in the months leading up to first COVID lockdown?
US studios get about 25% of BO from China compared with closer to 60% in the US so most films that open in China don’t boost their profits as much as they seem.
- Top Gun: Maverick – Paramount Pictures
Dropped 44% in third taking $51.85m and $395.19m
10th biggest 3rd weekend between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
42nd biggest film between Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: Far From Home; 108th biggest inflation inflated between Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Armageddon; on Monday overtook Doctor Strange 2 to become #1 biggest film of 2022 and will also become 2nd biggest Paramount Pictures film in the US after Titanic
After Top Gun Maverick became the biggest film in the US on Tuesday the big question is what film could beat it this year, with Black Panther 2 and Avatar The Way of Water is the only two that could do so. Both have big question marks on them as the first Black Panther film become a must-see film for many non-comic-book fans, while 12 years is a long time for a sequel, over the years since it becomes more Dances With Smurfs than Avatar whilst 80% of its BO came from 3D and the sequel will need to attract 3D audiences, recently Doctor Strange 2 and Jurassic World Dominion were released in 3D but failed to make much impact
As in the UK Top Gun Maverick overtook the lifetime BO of Tom Cruise’s previous biggest film in the US 2005’s War of the Worlds $243.3m having overtaken 1986’s Top Gun BO $180.3m within 6 days, but of course, inflation inflated would be $600m+ and War of the Worlds $500m+.
Currently, Paramount have a 26.45% share of the US BO but this will likely drop to about 10% by the end of the year as only have only Paws of Fury and Smile before Babylon opens on limited release on Christmas Day neither are likely to set the BO a lite. Paramount’s 2023 slate is probably their strongest for more than a decade with Transformers: Rise of the Beats, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1, Scream 6 and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie.
Paramount’s previous high was in 2011 with 19.33% and was the biggest studio in the US and globally but in the years since mostly due to poor management, decisions have failed to match the success of their rivals with their annual share under 10% between 2012 and 2019.
Tom Cruise’s 42 films have taken $4.35bn in the US and $10.8bn worldwide; had huge success in the 80s and 90s and is the last action hero outlasting Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. As his biggest hits were in the 80s and 90s Top Gun, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, the Firm, and Interview With the Vampire hasn’t had a $1bn film globally yet, but inflation inflated both Top Gun and Rain Man would have taken over $1bn.
Took $52.7m (down 39%) taking $353.7m and $747m worldwide from 64 territories; the UK $63m; Japan $33.9m; Australia $32.6m; France $28.7m; Germany $18m; Brazil $13m; Taiwan $10.9m; 112th biggest Paramount Pictures film between Shrek Forever After and X-Men: Days of Future Past; 3rd biggest film worldwide between The Batman and Fantastic Beasts 3 (will overtake The Batman #2 $769.68m within days); 9th biggest Paramount Pictures film between Shrek Forever After and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.
Top Gun Maverick could be Paramount’s first $1bn+ film globally since 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction (inflated with China BO) but they will still likely end being the fifth biggest studio of the year as all their rivals have far stronger slates for the rest of the year.
- Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness – Disney
Dropped 43% in its sixth weekend taking $5.21m and $398.13m
41st biggest film between Frozen and Top Gun: Maverick; 107th biggest inflation inflated between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and Top Gun: Maverick; 23rd biggest Disney film between Frozen and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2; 14th biggest comic-book movie between Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.
While Doctor Strange 2 will be released on Disney+ on June 22nd 47 days after opening in cinemas
MCU films have taken $10.32bn in the US and $26.59bn worldwide
Took $5.4m from 48 territories $532.4m and $930.53m worldwide; UK $51.4m; Korea $49.2m; Mexico $40.6m; Brazil $33.1m; France $27.7m;
60th biggest film worldwide between Shrek 2 and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; 14th biggest comic-book movie between The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3; 30th biggest Disney film between Finding Nemo and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.
UK Box Office Top 10
UK Box Office Previews
Nostalgia drops into another gear with the release of Pixar’s Lightyear which is a prequel to Toy Story and is the film Andy watches in the first Toy Story film so as with Toy Story 3 and 4 it’s filled with nostalgia from the original two Toy Story films. As with most Pixar films, it will play to children along with their parents who were children when the first two Toy Story films opened.
It’s the 26th Pixar film and the first Pixar film to be given a theatrical release since 2020’s Onward which had a limited cinema release opening in March two weeks before the first lockdown, but still performed well when it returned to cinemas in July despite being released on Disney+.
The last three Pixar films Soul, Luca and Turning Red were all originally meant to have theatrical releases but were moved to Disney+.
After releasing Toy Story 4 in 2019 Pixar said it would be their last sequel for a while as over the previous decade, Pixar made 7 films all original and Pixar were seen as the most creative studio in Hollywood. Pixar was acquired by Disney in 2006, at the time Ratatouille, Wall-e and Up were in various stages of production so Toy Story 3 was probably the first wholly made by Disney.
The 23 Pixar films that had theatrical release have taken almost £700m since 1996 and almost £930m inflation inflated; $6.07bn in the US and $14.7bn worldwide.
Disney dates their Pixar films for the middle weekend of June in the US due to Father’s Day but they used to be held back n the UK until the start of the summer holidays but with Universal Pictures over recent years dating their Illumination Entertainment film early in July, they have had to go day and date in the UK. This year Minions: The Rise of Gru opens only two weeks after Lightyear. The two animated studios have opened films near each other before but this is the first time they are both parts of existing franchises.
It‘s unlikely Lightyear will play as strongly as either Toy Story 3 or Toy Story 4 as both had huge nostalgia factor to the original two films so played as strongly to adults and children. While the issue for many is the poor script and being too long but of course, many will just watch it for the nostalgic elements, but would be far simpler to just watch the original two Toy Story films as they already have enough of the backstory for Buzz Lightyear for most.
1996’s Toy Story opened £3,387,000 (£6,883,849 inflation inflated) taking £22,297,733 (£45,318,636 inflation inflated)
2000’s Toy Story 2 opened £7,758,936 (£13,260,727 inflation inflated) taking £44,306,070 (£75,723,101 inflation inflated)
2010’s Toy Story 3 opened £21,187,264 including £9,693,440 previews Fri-Sun £11,493,824; inflation inflated £26,777,853 taking £73,405,113 (£92,774,193 inflation inflated)
2019’s Toy Story 4 opened £13,300,000 taking £66,030,065
Other Pixar sequels 2013’s Monsters University opened £3,463,917 (suffered from a hot sunny opening weekend) taking £29,768,407
2016’s Finding Dory opened £8,122,075 taking £42,604,905
2018’s The Incredibles 2 opened £9,650,000 taking £55,764,462
Lightyear will likely open similar to Finding Dory and The Incredibles 2; it will take most IMAX and PLF screens from Jurassic World Dominion.
Lightyear along with Jurassic World Dominion and Yop Gun Maverick on Friday face their biggest enemy hot sunny weather with the UK expected to have the hottest temperatures of the year. Hot weather is often used as an excuse when films underperform as was the case in July 2013 when Monsters University had a lower-than-expected opening, but this is just an excuse as if it’s a film people want t see they will see it no matter the weather. Cooler rainy weather is expected on Sat/Sun which often happens when a Disney film opens. It’s a strange coincidence that weather week before and after a major Disney film is hot but temperatures cool when the Disney film opens.
Jurassic World: Dominion will likely drop higher than the last two Jurassic World films in its second weekend despite not having previews inflating its opening; Jurassic World dropped 43% and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom by 50% due to having major competition opening the week after in Lightyear.
In 2015 Jurassic World had openers Take That Live 2015 #2; Mr Holmes #4 and Entourage #5 with Minions opening its third weekend. While Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had Hereditary opening #2 in the second weekend dropping #2 in its third weekend due to Ocean’s Eight having a 7-day opening. Fallen Kingdom returned #1 in the third weekend due to Sicario 2: Soldado, Tag, Adrift and Patrick being no competition for it. With the World Cup Finals, it didn’t face any direct competition until Incredibles 2 and Skyscraper opened in its 6th weekend taking £824,705 #3.
Jurassic World Dominion will drop between 55%-65% taking between £4m-£5m
Top Gun Maverick will drop 45%-55% in its third weekend taking £2.5m-£3.5m
With Good Luck To You, Leo Grande will spark some interest in being something different for older female audiences. A decade or more ago it would open with £1m but now these kinds of films struggle to find an audience in cinemas and then get pulled within a week before they get a chance to be found by their target audience.
Opening next week
- Elvis – Warner Bros
Biographical musical drama starring Austin Butler, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Olivia DeJonge, Luke Bracey, Natasha Bassett, David Wenham, Kelvin Harrison and directed by Baz Luhrmann
Elvis is Baz Luhrmann’s 6th film and its 30 years since he made his directorial debut with Strictly Ballroom, he followed that up with three films at 20th Century Fox 1996’s Romeo & Juliet, 2001’s Moulin Rouge and 2008’s Australia and Elvis is his second film for Warner Bros after 2013’s The Great Gatsby.
Development started on Elvis in 2014 with many actors considered for the role of Elvis before Austin Butler impressed Luhrmann with his audition tape singing Unchained Melody
It had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival receiving a 12-minute standing ovation far better than the muted response The Great Gatsby received and Moulin Rouge (6 minutes) but not as strong as Strictly Ballroom 15 minutes)
Critical response was positive (81% on Rotten Tomatoes) with widespread acclaim for Austin Butler’s performance
These kinds of films targetting older demographic that opened in June in the US would a decade ago be held back to open in September/October including Moulin Rouge, Apollo 13, Dead Poet’s Society and The Truman Show.
Baz Luhrmann’s films all performed far stronger internationally
1992’s Strictly Ballroom took £1.23m
1997’s Romeo and Juliet took £7,438,055
2001’s Moulin Rouge opened £2,403,378 including £204,848 previews (£4,365,556 inflation inflated) taking 7.56x opening and £18,166,288 (£32,997,702 inflation inflated)
2008’s Australia opened £1,294,414 (£1,606,270 inflation inflated) taking £6,984,243 (£8,666,915 inflation inflated)
2013’s The Great Gatsby opened £4,095,325 taking £15,446,265
Recent openings of similar musicals include
A Star Is Born £4,100,196; Dreamgirls £1,329,817; West Side Story £1,297,786 and Walk the Line £1,111,142
Elvis can’t be compared to more recent music biopics Rocket Man and Bohemian Rhapsody or more modern biopics
2003’s 8 Mile opened £4,440,334 (£7,520,566 inflation inflated) taking £13,254,812 (£22,449,591 inflation inflated) and 2015’s Straight Outta Compton opened £2,498,231 taking £8,043,283.
- The Black Phone – Universal Pictures
Supernatural horror starring Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and James Ransone, directed by Scott Derrickson and produced by Blumhouse Productions based on a 2004 short story by Joe Hill.
Scott Derrickson directed The Black Phone after dropping out of directing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness due to creative differences.
Had world premiere at Fantastic Fest in September received positive reviews, and was originally due for release in February before moving to June.
The trailer was released in September receiving a positive reaction and is likely to play similar to The Purge films, 2021’s The Forever Purge opened for £720,032 taking £3,206,547 Blumhouse Production horrors aren’t as successful in the UK as they are in the US.
The film has previews on Saturday night before opening on Wednesday/Thursday with more previews