Top 5 Breakdown
- Beauty and the Beast – £19,700,000
Beauty and the Beast became the third biggest Fri-Sun opening film in UK behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 £23.75m, Skyfall £20.18m and fifth biggest opening Fri-Sun weekend in the UK Star Wars: The Force Awakens £24.2m Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 £23.75m, Skyfall £20.18m and Spectre £19.89m; TFA and Spectre had extended opening w/e’s.
Beauty and the Beast three-day opening again shows that extended weekends only stretch box office over more days rather than increase a film’s box office.
While Star Wars: The Last Jedi will likely have the biggest opening weekend of the year (boosted by previews) Beauty and the Beast will have the biggest opening weekend of the year Fri-Sun.
Beauty and the Beast took £4.9m from Friday 13.95% (£4.3m) more than Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opening Friday last November but 29.9% down from Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice opening last March; but BvS was very front-loaded Beauty and the Beast bigger days were always going to be Sat/Sun went children and families would see it. Saturday and Sunday were the second biggest of all time behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens taking £7.9m and £6.7m Vs £8.71m and £8.58m.
At Odeon Cinemas Beauty and the Beast was the fourth biggest advance booking film behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Fifty Shades of Grey selling a ticket every 28 seconds. (those three films opened with £24.2m, £13.21m and £13.27m).
The original 1991 animated film took £10.4m doesn’t sound much in 2017 when 29 films in 2016 took over £10m but in 1992 and the early 90’s it was a rarity with only about five films a year taking over £10m (a year later in 1993 was only 6 films took over £10m) Jurassic Park £46.43m (2017 equivalent box office £110.1m), The Bodyguard £17m (£40.3m), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York £13.92m (£33m) , The Fugitive £13.61m (£32.27m), Indecent Proposal £11.88m (£28.16m) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula £11.54m (£27.36m).
In 1992 average ticket price was £3.21 (was no extra surcharges 2017’s Beauty and the Beast will have 3D, IMAX, 4DX, premium) had 3.246m admissions which would be the equivalent of £79.28m today with average ticket price of £7.61 up over 137% but of course most tickets for Beauty and the Beast will be more than a third more.
Comparing Beauty and the Beast with other Disney re-imaginations and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Harry Potter would be better comparison but 5 years on impossible to compare its box office). Beauty and the Beast will likely take about £27.1m for its opening week the biggest since Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Second weekend likely to drop about 45% taking £10.89m going on to take £58m+ the biggest film in the UK since 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens will likely be the second biggest film of the year behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
| OWE | 2WE | 2/D | 2WE T | Final BO | |||
| Beauty and the Beast | 17 Mar 2017 | £19.8m | 2.93x | £10.89m | -45%* | £27.1m* | £58.1m* |
| Though the Looking Glass | 27 May 2016 | £2.22m | 4.01x | £1.35m | -41% | £7.01m | £9.91m |
| The Jungle Book | 15 Apr 2016 | £9.86m | 4.68x | £8.09m | -18% | £21.66m | £46.19m |
| Cinderella | 27 Mar 2015 | £3.79m | 5.54x | £2.96m | -22% | £10.38m | £21.02m |
| Into the Woods | 9 Jan 2015 | £2.48m | 3.96x | £1.99m | -19% | £5.36m | £9.83m |
| Maleficent | 28 May 2014 | £6.59m | 2.81x | £2.60m | -60% | £11.05m | £18.52m |
| Oz the Great and Powerful | 8 Mar 2013 | £3.71m | 4.03x | £2.60m | -30% | £7.68m | £14.98m |
| Alice in Wonderland | 5 Mar 2010 | £10.56m | 3.99x | £7.34m | -30% | £22.74m | £42.16m |
As with Kong: Skull Island apart from the films massive marketing campaign there were several stories that went viral generating huge media coverage. The film had already generated huge media coverage as is a live-action remake of one of Disney’s most beloved animated film that stars Emma Watson who always generates huge media coverage but even she wasn’t expected some of what she experienced for Beauty and the Beast.
- Disney’s first ever “gay scene” which saw Russia threaten to ban the film before giving it a 16+ certificate, cinema in Alabama banning the film and Malaysian originally said they wouldn’t allow the film to be shown in the country unless four minutes was cut. Then announced on Tuesday that it would be released uncut with a PG13 rating in the country on March 30th but it has been pulled from Kuwait cinemas but an edited version might be released later in the week.
- Emma Watson was accused of being a hypocrite but feminism is about giving women choices. In an interview for BBC news Emma Watson was confused what her tits should have to do with it was same as the “outrage” generated when Brie Larson wore a dress on The One Show revealing her cleavage.
Despite Emma Watson previously starring in open of the biggest film franchise in recent years she was surprisingly only paid $3m upfront to play Belle but could make more than $15m if the film takes over $700m which expected. The reason why Disney paid Emma Watson only $3m compared with far bigger salaries for other female actresses for other films is they believe the story is the star of the film. But what Emma Watson brought to the film was her 23.8m Instagram followers 413k (the film has 439k followers) of which followed her dedicated Instagram account “The Press Tour” she created at the start of its global press tour in Paris on February lowers while the film has 439k and she has 23.8m followers).
Disney paid Lily James a similar low salary for 2015’s Cinderella which took £500m worldwide. Disney are paying similar low salaries for upcoming Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep, and Lin-Manuel Miranda in Mary Poppins Returns and Emma Stone despite winning Best Actress Oscar for La La Land to star in Cruella.
Emma Watson chose to not to wear a corset or heels which the animated Belle wore in the film instead choose to wear boots and a loose dress as she felt Belle was a feminist character which was one of the reasons she turned down an offer to play Cinderella in the live action 2015 re-imaging. Lily James who instead played Cinderella was criticised wearing a corset that made her waist so thin was rumours that images were digitally altered which was denied by her.
Ariana Grande and John Legend remade the theme song which was originally sung by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson for the 1991 animated film. Ariana Grande dwarfs Emma Watson’s 23.8 Instagram followers having over 100 million. Both Ariana and Emma regular post on Instagram and many posts over recent weeks have been about Beauty and the Beast creating massive anticipation for the film amongst their followers who are Beauty and the Beast’s key demographic but of course just because you follow or Tweet doesn’t mean that they will watch but if only 15% of their followers do go to see Beauty and the Beast will be over $160m.
Google Home seemed to be advertising Beauty and the Beast saying ‘Okay, Google, what’s my day like?” it talks about the weather and traffic, then says: “By the way, Disney’s live-action ‘Beauty and the Beast’ opens today,” followed by music and additional commentary on the movie. Google has denied the placements were adverts calling it instead “timely content”.
Disney launched a VR experience for Oculus Rift with Touch and Gear VR giving users a front-row seat to Beauty and the Beast’s most iconic scenes. Lumiere’s Dress Rehearsal puts you at the master’s table and invites you to witness the titular candelabra’s full culinary performance.
Fans of Beauty and the Beast have gone crazy for merchandise of the film on both sides of the Atlantic. Enchanted Rose Souvenir cup sold at Red Rose Taverne Disneyland for $15 is being sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars. In the UK was a Beauty and the Beast Chip purse selling at Primark for £4 sold out within hours is now being sold for almost 13x more on eBay. A £5 Chip tea cup went on sale at the weekend also at Primark also expected to be a sell-out. One of the more expensive items of merchandise is the Swarovski’s Belle of the Ball bag, designed by Judith Leiber, shaped like a book and is made with a whopping 10,560 Swarovski crystals for $5,300 with Swarovski rose choker, $549, matching clip-on rose earrings $499 and spiral ring with red and green Swarovski crystals $299.
Upcoming live action reimagining’s of Disney animated classics included The Lion King directed by Jon Favreau, Aladdin directed by Guy Ritchie, Dumbo directed by Tim Burton, Cruella starring Emma Stone, Mulan directed by Niki Caro, Winnie the Pooh directed by Marc Forster, Pinocchio, The Little Mermaid with additional songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Peter Pan directed by David Lowery, Tinkerbell starring Reese Witherspoon and Jungle Book and Maleficent sequels. Not yet announced are live action versions of Bambi, Song of the South, Lady and the Tramp, The Sword and the Stone, The AristoCats, Robin Hood, The Rescuers, The Fox and the Hound, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules. Disney has no plans for live action Frozen, The Emperor’s New Groove, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Big Hero or any animated films released after 2000.
Over the next three weeks several family films open ahead of Easter holidays (starting April 10th) Power Rangers, Smurfs: The Lost Village (previews this weekend), The Boss Baby (previews April 1st/2nd) and Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience. But they will find it hard to compete with Beauty and the Beast.
- Kong: Skull Island – £2,705,634 – £11,066,584
Despite the massive opening of Beauty and the Beast and the opening of Get Out, Kong: Skull Island second weekend drop was less than Logan last weekend 56.8% Vs 59.1%. Kong: Skull Island second weekend box office was also close to Godzilla’s second weekend which took £2.7m but had taken slightly less than Godzilla total box office of £11.6m.
Kong: Skull Island will fall short of both 2014 and 1998’s Godzilla films.
Beauty and the Beast wasn’t direct competition for Kong: Skull Island as X-Men: Days of Future Past was for Godzilla opening against its second weekend.
- Get Out – £2,160,099 – NE
After receiving very positive reviews the social horror had a strong opening but unlike the US where it had no direct competition which allowed it to hold strongly for the last four weeks in the UK Get Out faces immediate competition with the sci-fi horror Life opening on Friday.
In January M. Night Shyamalan’s Split opened with £2.54m holding strongly in its second weekend down only 21.9% despite the arrival of T2: Trainspotting opening with £5.1m so there could be room for both films. Split went on to take £11.1m at the box office and depending on how Get Out holds against Life it could do similar.
After taking over $100m at the US box office the director Jordan Peele will receive CinemaCon Director of the year award on March 30th.
- Logan – £1,758,060 – £20,274,335
Down 54.3% in its third weekend has overtaking 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse £18.27m and 2006’s X- Men Last Stand £19.06m and will shortly overtake 2003’s X2 £20.66m which will see it become 20th Century Fox’s third biggest Marvel film in the UK behind 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past £27.01m and 2016’s Deadpool £37.9m.
Are rumours director James Mangold has plans to release the film in a black and white version as Mad Max Fury Road which was certificated by the BBFC last week and expected to get a limited theatrical release shortly.
James Mangold was very critical of big budget superhero films saying “Tentpole movies in general, they are not movies, generally — they are bloated exercises in two-hour trailers for another movie they are going to sell you in two years,” Mangold said. “There are so many characters that each character gets an arch of about 6 1/2 minutes at best, and I’m not exaggerating. You take 120 minutes, you take 45 of it for action, what are you left with, divide it by six characters, you have the character arc of Elmer Fudd in a Warner Brothers cartoon. That formula is empty for me.”
But he did say Guardians of the Galaxy and the first Iron Man were examples of examples of good filmmaking, but he said the collective world of superhero movies was repetitive (most would agree as the background to the Marvel characters are all very similar as are the plots which make them feel exhausting to watch.
| OWE | 2nd w/e | Total | |||||||
| X-Men | 18 Aug 2000 | £4.74 | 3.14x | £2.02 | -57% | £1.19 | -41% | £12.04 | £14.89m |
| X2 | 1 May 2003 | £7.03 | 2.91x | £3.07 | -56% | £2.11 | -31% | £16.74 | £20.50m |
| X- Men Last Stand | 25 May 2006 | £7.09 | 2.68x | £2.31 | -67% | £0.87 | -62% | £16.09 | £19.06m |
| X-Men: Origins Wolverine | 29 Apr 2009 | £6.66 | 2.43x | £2.20 | -66% | £1.21 | -46% | £14.25 | £16.16m |
| X-Men First Class | 1 June 2011 | £4.75 | 3.13x | £2.40 | -49% | £1.21 | -49% | £12.40 | £14.87m |
| The Wolverine | 25 July 2013 | £4.69 | 2.86x | £1.80 | -61% | £0.93 | -48% | £11.95 | £13.45m |
| X-Men: Days of Future Past | 22 May 2014 | £9.14 | 2.95x | £3.51 | -62% | £1.76 | -50% | £23.08 | £27.01m |
| Deadpool | 10 Feb 2016 | £13.73 | 2.76x | £5.69 | -59% | £2.98 | -48% | £31.15 | £37.9m |
| X-Men: Apocalypse | 18 May 2016 | £7.33 | 2.49x | £2.54 | -65% | £1.24 | -51% | £15.85 | £18.27m |
| Logan | 1 Mar 2017 | £9.43 | 2.76* | £3.86 | -60%* | £1.76 | -54% | £20.27 | £26.1m* |
- The Lego Batman Movie – £515,771 – £26,602,135
Down 37.5% in its sixth weekend; despite receiving very positive reviews The Lego Batman Movie is 14.5% down from The Lego Movie’s £31.12m after six weeks which must be a little disappointing. But Lego Batman had much tougher competition in Sing and opened the weekend after.
In 2014 The Lego Movie despite opening weekend after Mr Peabody and Sherman took 2.4x more (£12.6m) and Tinker Bell and The Pirate Fairy taking £5,459,408.
Also, released
Personal Shopper -Icon Films – £116,265 from 65 screens
Other box office news
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £27,866,587 up 102.3% from last weekend £13,776,935;
Beauty and the Beast took 70.7% of the top 10
Weekend admissions 3,766,697 up 92.3% from last week 1,958,817
Weekend was up 260% from last year (£7,732,052) 10 Cloverfield Lane £1.6m, The Boy £726,176, High Rise £534,339, Risen £58,000 and Rock the Kasbah £3,800 opened.
February admissions up 7.3% – 16.48m the highest February since 2011 Tangled, Gnomeo & Juliet and The King’s Speech; January and February admissions are 7.1% up on the first two months of 201; but of course how admissions are calculated is questionable as use average ticket price of £7.41 but real average ticket price is more than a third more with some much more; Moulin Rouge Secret Cinema has taken £1,597,817 with tickets over £75 each.
2015: Cinderella £3,791,276, The SpongeBob Movie £2,251,009, Get Hard £1,433,967 and The Seventh Son £410,608 opened
2014: Fast and Furious 7 £12,734,255, While We’re Young £411,961 and Blade Runner: The Final Cut £203,923 opened.
Next weekend in 2016: Batman Vs Superman Dawn of Justice £14.63m, Zootropolis £5.3m, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 £983,534 opened.
—
Cinema Exhibitors Association average ticket price of £7.41 for 2016 up only 2.77% from 2015 despite a 7.3% increase from 2014. If same percentage was used 2017 average ticket price is £7.61
UK Box Office Top 10
US Box office
For the third week in a row tracking has underestimated films opening weekend going into the weekend Beauty and the Beast was expected to open with $120m but an opening of $150m+ was always expected given the massive media coverage the film has received, the original animated film was beloved and for many it is their movie event of the year; receiving an A CinemaScore opening weekend audience was 60% female and 52% under 25.
Beauty and the Beast became the biggest March opening ever taking $174.75m beating last year’s Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice $166m but one record it didn’t take was opening day BvS took $81.5m compared with $63.78m but then Beauty and the Beast took $63.77m and $62.70m on Saturday and $48.26m Sunday 25.8% more than BvS on Saturday and 28.6% more on Sunday. BvS also dropped 69.1% in its second weekend taking 1.99x opening Beauty and the Beast will likely be closer to 50% drop taking 3.2x taking upwards of $550m probably will be the second biggest film of 2017 behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Beauty and the Beast had the sixth biggest opening ever topping Iron Man 3 $174.14m and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 $169.2m; Disney now has six of the 10 biggest openings in US. Sunday estimates had Beauty and the Beast opening with $170m with Disney estimating Sundays box office with Alice in Wonderland 30.7% but when final figures were released drop was 23% close to The Jungle Book and Finding Dory.
Audiences for Beauty and the Beast got a surprising new trailer for Dreamworks Animation Boss Baby telling the audience “Look, you’ve all made an excellent decision to come see this movie today,” Boss Baby says to the audience. “You’re clearly shrewd, so let me lay this out for you. On March 31, my movie, DreamWorks’ The Boss Baby will be coming out.”
Paramount Pictures also created a trailer for Beauty and the Beast titled “Fight like a girl”.for Transformers: The Last Knight.
Michael Bay has used women in the previous Transformers films more sexual objects than people.
TV spot was a play on Always 2015 Superbowl advert has been seen over 63.5 million titles.
In 1999 to promote Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me New Line created a Star Wars spoof trailer. “if you only see one film see Star Wars, but if you see two movies see Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me”. Universal Pictures repeating this with a trailer for Sisters The Farce Awakens with hashtag #YouCanSeeThemBoth and 20th Century Fox created TV spot titled Beauty Or Beast.
Internationally took $357.1m the 14th biggest opening weekend was +35% ahead of The Jungle Book, +96% ahead of Alice In Wonderland, +100% ahead of Maleficent and +148% ahead of Cinderella.
Despite the massive opening of Beauty and the Beast male audiences helped Kong: Skull Island drop only 53% in its second weekend taking $28.85m and $110.12m compared to 66.8% for Godzilla taking $30.94m and total of $148.29m in 2014;
Logan dropped 54.1% taking $17.5m and $184.1m has become the biggest solo Wolverine film in the US overtaking X-Men Origins: Wolverine and should in the coming weeks overtake X2 $214.9m but was released 14 years ago, Logan has now taken $523m worldwide with $184m in US and $339m internationally.
Get Out continued to hold strongly having the lowest drop of the top 10 36.1% taking $13.24m and $133.1m to date. Get Out and Split two films with budgets of less than combined $15m have now taken over $270m at the US box office.
Hidden Figures has now been in the top 10 for 11 weeks has taken $165.55m overtaking Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as Kevin Costner’s third biggest film at the US box office.
Hidden Figures is only the fifth film in the last 5 years to be in the top 10 for 11 weeks; Silver Linings Playbook 12; La La Land and Zootopia and Frozen 16. In the last 17 years, only a couple films a year have stayed in the top 10 for more than 10 weeks but prior to 2001 they were regular showing how front-loaded films have become since Titanic in 1997/98 stayed in the top 10 for 26 weeks which was the longest since Top Gun in 1986.
Despite great trailers, The Belko Experiment had a disappointing opening with $4.05m after receiving poor reviews.
T2 Trainspotting opened strongly with $180,000 from 5 screens with a $36,000 screen average which was close to original, opening 21 years ago, opening with $262,673 from 8 screens but failed to expand beyond 350 screens which will be similar to the sequel.
US Box Office Top 10
Opened March 24th
Opening UK
- Life – Sony Pictures
Science fiction horror starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds and directed by Daniel Espinosa described as Gravity meets Aliens; received world premiere on March 18th at SXSW on March 18th receiving mixed reviews.
Developed by Skydance Media with Paramount Pictures expected to distribute but passed on it having similar themed Bad Robot produced God Particle (has become Cloverfield 3). Another of the many strange decisions made by Paramount over the years as why give a rival studio the film even if you have similar themed film as just open them months apart as audiences don’t seem to came to watch the same comic-book movie plot again and again Batman Vs Superman, Captain America: Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse?
Sony Pictures acquired the film in March 2016 setting February 24th release date before moving it to May 26th but brought forward to March 24th to avoid Alien: Covenant and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Over the last 18 years, Jake Gyllenhaal has made a wide range of films while many have been received positively by critics most recently Nocturnal Animals, 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow and 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time are his biggest commercial successes.
Life is Ryan Reynolds first film since Deadpool last year while Rebecca Ferguson starred in 2015’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and The Girl on the Train last year and next stars with Michael Fassbender in thriller, The Snowman released in October.
Was a rumour Life could be a prequel to Venom the Spider-Man spinoff Sony Pictures recently dated for October 2018 after Life trailers featured footage of Spiderman 3 the one film Venom appeared in and the screenwriters are the same as those who wrote Venom screenplay.
During junket interview with Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal Ryan Reynolds lost it when he said he loved big oners on set.
While Jake Gyllenhaal saw red during an interview with The Guardian after being asked about dating Taylor Swift in 2010 was a surprising question to be asked to him was it said as so often journalists try to do with junket interviews to get it to go viral.
Opening the week after Get Out which is likely to hold similar to Split in January could hurt Life box office as targeting similar horror audience.
- Power Rangers – Lionsgate
Based on the 90s US Mighty Morphin Power Rangers live action superhero TV series which was based on a Japanese TV series.
In May 2016 Lionsgate released the first photo of the Rangers in their costumes which were criticised as being more Tony Stark than the lycra and the female costumes as so often were feminised with enlarged breastplates and high heels. You would have hoped the outfits would be gender neutral as they were in the TV series but always seems to be the case with women superhero costumes.
The last film version was 1995’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers opened July 21st 1995 taking £4.12m was very much aimed for children Power Rangers is aimed at the comic-book audience with a much grittier version with the trailers looking close to Fantastic Four or Chronicle which opened with £2.19m in February 2012 £6.87m, Project Almanac which was director Dean Israelite last film opened February with £0.86m taking £1.21m and Fantastic Four opening with £2.68m in August 2015 taking £5.65m.
Opening the weekend after Beauty and the Beast was always a strange release date for Power Rangers as Lionsgate must have expected it to open bigger than last years The Jungle Book and would hold similarly strongly in its second weekend. But Lionsgate had limited options to release Power Rangers with Boss Baby and The Smurfs: The Last Village, Furious 8 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 all released in the next month.
Lionsgate expects the film to launch another franchise for the studio with plans to make six or seven of them.
As part of the films marketing in Australia Roadshow Films launched #RangerTraining augmented reality experience.
- Chips – Warner Bros
Action cop comedy starring Dax Shepard, Michael Peña, Vincent D’Onofrio, Adam Brody, Rosa Salazar, Vida Guerra, and Kristen Bell and directed by Dax Shepard based on the 1977-1983 TV series.
Was originally set for August 11th brought forward to March 24th after Sony moved Life to March 24th made Warner Bros move Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur to May with Annabelle 2 moved from May to August.
Chips will try to repeat the self- awareness comedy of 21 Jump Street and its sequel as Baywatch starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron will try to repeat in June. TV to film as film to TV adaptions have had mixed success over the years the bad The Avengers, The A-Team, Bewitched and the good The Brady Bunch, Charlie Angels and Starsky & Hutch
Chips originally broadcast by ITV in January 1979 shown on Saturday and Sunday afternoons but never as popular as other 80s TV shows The A-Team, Knight Rider and Magnum, P.I. also broadcast at the same time in the UK.
Mismatched buddy cop films have been a mainstay at the UK box office over the years with 80s classic Lethal Weapon film is now a hit TV series.
Chips is likely to have a similar opening to 2014’s Let’s Be Cops opened with £1.14m Fri-Sun taking £505,612 from two days of previews. Let’s Be Cops went on to take £5.15m.
Been many TV to film adaptions over the years some of the lesser known in recent years have been.
| The Brady Bunch Movie | 9th Jun 1995 | £904,340 | £1,53m |
| I Spy | 24th Jan 2003 | £878,229 | £2.01m |
| S.W.A.T. | 5th Dec 2003 | £1.96m | £5.27m |
| Starsky & Hutch | 12th March 2004 | £4.14m* 2nd w/e wide | £12.47m |
| The Dukes of Hazzard | 26th Aug 2005 | £1.72m | £4.33m |
| Miami Vice | 4th Aug 2006 | £2.31m | £6.87m |
| Reno 911 Miami | 27th April 2007 | £137,648 | n/a |
| Get Smart | 22nd Aug 2008 | £1.54m | £4.62m |
| The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | 14th Aug 2015 | £1.44m | £6.21m |
- The Lost City of Z- Studiocanal
Action adventure starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller and directed by James Gray, based on the 2009 book of the same name by David Grann; had world premiere in October at the New York Film Festival and screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and UK premiere in February.
Was original based at Paramount Pictures developed by Plan B Productions to star Brad Pitt producers brought project after it was being delayed at Paramount; Studiocanal acquired UK rights in March 2016 and Amazon Studios US rights in September who will release the film in the US with Bleecker Street in the US April 14th.
Opening in US
- Life – Sony Pictures
Sandwiched between last year’s Sci-Fi’s Arrival and Passengers and ahead of Alien Covenant and Blade Runner 2049 many critics have described Life as Alien rip-off probably why Sony brought forward the release from May to opened before Alien Covenant.
Life is Ryan Reynolds first major film since Deadpool opened with $132.43m last February but his last big opening was Safe House also directed by Daniel Espinosa in February 2012 with $40.17m taking $126.16m he was starring with Denzel Washington. His biggest leading role was 2011’s Green Lantern opening with $53.17m which was a disappointment taking $116.6m.
Likely to open less than last year’s 10 Cloverfield Lane $24.7m probably closer to Resident Evil: The Final Chapter that opened with $13.6m in January which would be a disappointing opening for the $58m budget film.
- Power Rangers – Lionsgate
The first trailer released in October receiving more than 150 million views in its first 48 hours (receiving mixed reaction) Max Landis who was fired from writing the script claimed it looking like Chronicle (it did). The second trailer released in January (same day as Logan final trailer which had 18.8m views over same period) receiving 28.3 million global views in its first couple of days. A third trailer aa released on February 17th.
Will Power Rangers build on recent success of 90s nostalgia as the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reboots opening is more likely of last year’s sequel $35.3m rather than 2014’s $65.5m as Beauty and the Beast is likely to hold on to the family audience after opening with $170m+ could have second weekend of up to $90m which would squeeze Power Rangers opening far more than the other releases. Lionsgate had plans to make many Power Rangers films so a $35m opening will be seen as disappointing .
Originally due for release July 22nd 2016 then moved to 13th January 2017 before moving to March 24th 2017 swapping its date with Divergent: Ascendant which moved to June 9th 2017 but was then removed off its schedule after Divergent: Allegiant disappointed at the box office in March 2016.
After Beauty and the Beast generated a lot of media coverage over the “gay scene” it was revealed Power Rangers would be the first major comic-book film to have a lead character coming to terms to her sexuality in a pivotal moment of the film. Was praised by actor David Yost, who played the Blue Ranger in the 1995’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers who was openly gay on the set and often harassed by the crew. Comic-book TV shows Supergirl, Arrow, and Jessica Jones have prominently featured gay characters.
- Chips – Warner Bros
TV comedy adaption targeting fans of 21 Jump Street but they will probably wait to see Baywatch in May with Chips having a much more modest opening compared 2014’s Let’s Be Cops opened with $17.8m.
Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada have been critical of the film described it as “low-brow humour. Dumb and Dumber on motorcycles.” But have not seen the film and weren’t invited to the US premiere.
- Wilson – Fox Searchlight
Comedy-drama starring Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern, Isabella Amara, Judy Greer and Cheryl Hines and directed by Craig Johnson based on the graphic novel of the same name; had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January receiving mixed reviews. Opens on a limited wide release of 250 screens so Fox Searchlight has very low expectations as opened Table 19 on almost four times the amount of screens opening with $1.59m earlier this month.
Will be their third disappointing opening of 2017 but have several films still to be released un 2017 that have potential to find a wide audience, Marc Webb returns to his indie roots (500 Days of Summer) after making The Amazing Spider-Man films with Gifted.
My Cousin Rachel directed by Roger Michell starring Rachel Weisz, Sam Claflin and Holliday Grainger.
Battle of the Sexes, Emma Watson’s first role since winning Best Actress for La La Land with an ensemble cast Steve Carell, Elisabeth Shue, Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming, Andrea Riseborough, Eric Christian Olsen, Natalie Morales and Bill Pullman with a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy. Has recently been dated for September 22nd release in the US which will likely premiere at Toronto Film Festival and London Film Festival.
Also have Three Billboards Outside starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell from In Bruges director Martin McDonagh, The Aftermath starring Keira Knightley & Alexander Skarsgard based on Rhidian Brook novel from Testament of Youth director James Kent, Patti Cake$ (recently acquired at Sundance) and also have an untitled film about Untitled A.A Milne Film previously known as Goodbye Christopher Robin starring Margot Robbie and Domhnall Gleeson from Woman in Gold director Simon Curtis.