- Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse – £4,062,817 – £16,240,016
Dropped 55.6% in the second weekend (51% not including previews)
Took £947k Friday (23.3%) 73.4% drop (£3.55m); £1.64m Saturday (40.4%) 38.3% drop (£2.66m); £1.47m Sunday (36.2%) 31.6% drop (£2.15m).
140th biggest second weekend between Thor: Love and Thunder and The Simpsons (close to Incredibles, Sonic the Hedgehog, Despicable Me 2 and Uncharted) and 271st biggest inflated between There’s Something About Mary and Unbreakable (close to Monsters vs. Aliens, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Forrest Gump and True Lies).
27th biggest comic-book second weekend between Thor: Love and Thunder and The Amazing Spider-Man (close to Spider-Man No Way Home, Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man Homecoming) and 42nd biggest inflated between Thor: Love and Thunder and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (close to Batman and Robin, The Mask, Men in Black 3 and X-Men).
Across The Spider-Verse is holding similar to non-MCU Spider-Man films
The audience was fan led seen by Friday being its strongest day and as it didn’t increase on Saturday it looks like its front-loaded is unlikely to play beyond the Spider-Man fanbase, as seen by its opening being close to four of the non-MCU Spider-Man films. How it holds in its second and third weekend will be key if it is to have similar success as previous Spider-Man films but as Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and The Flash target the same tween/teen male audience it is likely to drop upwards of 60% in its second weekend.
2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse dropped 56% (20% not including previews) £993,581 #5 from 524 screens and £4,113,008 of £10,040,340; #1 Mary Poppins Returns £8.18m; #2 Aquaman £2.38m; #3 The Grinch £1.89m; #4 Ralph Breaks the Internet £1.05m.
After audiences complained about audio issues with the film Sony Pictures released an updated version to all cinemas, the issue is likely caused by many cinemas playing films at a much lower level than they are meant to be played, as Phil Lord tweeted “If you get to the theatre early and you want a fun mission to ask someone to check that the theatre volume is set at reference (7)! If it sounds a bit quiet, invite them to turn it up a touch to 7.5! If they give you flack… tell them we said it was okay.”
- 2. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – £2,973,478 – NE
Took £505,567 (16.8%) from Thursday previews.
Took £717k Friday (24.1%); £942k Saturday (31.7%); £814k Sunday (27.4%)
520th biggest opening between Vanilla Sky and Inferno (close to Twister, The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Terminator: Dark Fate and Bullet Train) and 874th biggest inflated between Freddy’s Dead The Final Nightmare and Halloween (close to The Fifth Element, 12 Monkeys, Super 8 and Broken Arrow).
29th widest opening (690 cinemas with about 1,500 screens) similar to See How They Run and between Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4; 166th 600+ cinema opening since 2015’s Jurassic World
Third Transformers film to open in second after 2018’s Bumblebee £5,103,382 (behind Mary Poppins Returns #1 £7,441,687) and 2007’s Transformers opening #2 with £8,718,561 (from 456 screens) taking £22,863,864 (behind The Simpsons £13,626,853 (from 499 screens); neither had previews inflating openings.
2018’s Bumblebee opened £5,103,382 #2 (inflated with two days of previews taking £2,611,599) with Mary Poppins Returns #1 £7,441,687 and Aquaman #3 £2,445,108 and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse #6 £1,015,505 (3rd weekend).
2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight opened £4,635,570 (including £743,442 Thursday previews) (taking Friday £980k; Saturday £1.62m; Sunday £1.23m) taking £3,892,128 Fri-Sun and £9.51m total.
2009’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opened £8,349,739 (no previews) taking £26,539,878
2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon opened £10,728,503 (including £4,226,736 previews) (taking £6,501,767 Fri-Sun) taking £27,862,654
2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction opened £11,756,482 (including £8,044,230 previews) (taking £3,712,252 Fri-Sun) taking £19,074,771
The 7 Transformer films have taken over £120m in the UK (£160m inflated), $1.58bn in the US and $4.84bn worldwide.
The ending of Rise of The Beasts sets up the start of the Hasbro Cinematic Universe with a crossover with G.I Joe, but the big question is will this cinematic universe happen after the film is likely to come short of all of the Transformer films globally apart from Bumblebee.
With The Flash opening on Wednesday Rise of the Beasts will lose IMAX/PLF screens and will likely drop 60%+ in its second weekend taking £1.2m-£1.5m which will be similar to the second weekends of Bumblebee, Age of Extinction and The Last Knight.
Except for the first two films, they have been very front-loaded and with The Flash targeting the same tween/teen boy audience this weekend its final BO will likely come short of 2007’s Transformers £8.71m opening. The Transformers film series should have ended with 2014’s Age of Extinction but as with Fast & Furious Chinese BO artificially inflated the film’s global box office.
While studios like Paramount are lacking in properties so are making sequels to films, they wouldn’t normally make, of course, the studio does have the much-anticipated Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 with Part 2 opening next June but will be the final film of the 28-year-old film series. The problem for Paramount is over the last decade they haven’t had the films to compete against the other studios Top Gun: Maverick was a one-off success for the studio, their first film since 2014’s Age of Extinction and 2011’s Dark of the Moon to take $1bn+ worldwide but Universal have had 6 $1bn+ films over that period. Things of course would have been far different for the studio but poor management decisions in not acquiring Marvel before Disney and holding on to Indiana Jones’ rights have given their rivals massive success.
- 3. The Little Mermaid – £2,125,299 – £19,996,908
Down 49.7% in the third weekend
£485k Friday (22.8%) 67.9% drop (£1.51m); £843k Saturday (39.6%) 41.5% drop (£1.44m); £952k Sunday (44.8%) 23.9% drop (£1.25m).
After a strong half-term of 10 days, The Little Mermaid was always going to drop heavily from Sunday to Monday and then have a heavy drop in its third weekend due to a big drop from Friday (half-term) to Friday (school term). The lower drops on Saturday and Sunday show that the hottest temperatures of the year unlikely affected the film’s performance.
202nd biggest third weekend between The Greatest Showman and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (close to Rocketman, Enchanted, Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical and Toy Story) and 385th inflated between Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (close to Sleepless in Seattle, Twister, Wayne’s World and Pitch Perfect 2).
7th biggest Disney reimagination third weekend between Dumbo (£2,345,046) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (£1,883,568); took £1,804,326 less than Aladdin (£3,929,625) but £339,435 more than Cinderella (£1,883,568) and £554,862 more than Maleficent (£1,570,437) in third weekend.
For decades Disney would re-release their classic animation films to new generations (The Little Mermaid was re-released in the summer of 1998 opening £234,783 (£470,731 inflated) taking £1,768,481 (£3,545,739 inflated) always successful in cinemas and the 80s and 90s, (in the early 80s re-releases of animated classics including The Jungle Book and Snow White were the top 3 biggest films of the year). The cinema re-release would be followed by a home video release available for a limited time. In the 90s and 00s, Disney made direct-to-video sequels to their classic animated films.
These films are called live-action, but they are photo-realistic animation, while looking stunning feels emotionless unlike 2D animation which is a far more emotional experience; The Lion King when Mufasa dies, or when The Iron Giant sacrifices himself to protect everyone on Earth as his hero Superman would do. These moments bring tears to the audience young and old as seen in a recent Ted Lasso episode.
The Little Mermaid was first released in cinemas in October 1990 almost a year after its US opening in November 1989; was the 9th biggest film of 1990 between Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Parenthood taking (15.46x opening) £6,266,749 (£21,731,902 inflated).
These reimaginations are nostalgia-led due to the love of the original and attract audiences of all ages, but as with Disney’s Star Wars films they are all hype and no sustenance once the pixel dust fades away, but that often happens after they have taken $1bn+ worldwide. Critics have given The Little Mermaid mixed reviews with Halle Bailey being the best thing about it, but as with Rachel Zegler cast in the Snow White reimagination (opening next year) surely their talents are being wasted remaking a classic animated film rather than starring in a remake.
The biggest Disney re-imaginations on third weekends:
2017’s Beauty and the Beast dropped 45% £6,750,000 #1 647 screens £51,385,248 70.9% of £72,507,458
2019’s The Lion King dropped 51% £5,158,311 #2 710 screens £50,701,449 66.7% of £76,023,435
2010’s Alice in Wonderland dropped 33% £4,847,129 #1 525 screens £30,493,427 72.3% of £42,169,542
2016’s The Jungle Book dropped 28% £5,758,824 #2 617 screens £30,201,705 65.3% of £46,238,425
2019’s Aladdin dropped 19% £ 3,929,625 #1 654 screens £26,131,006 71.2% of £36,710,978
- 4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – £511,837 – £35,580,893
Down 48.5% in the sixth weekend
Sixth weekends
Thor: Love and Thunder dropped 42% taking £535,839 #5 from 581 screens and £34,562,340 92.5% of £37,369,361; #1 Nope £1,859,338 1st week.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness dropped 65% £398,401 #3 from 546 screens and £41,521,723 98.7% of £42,082,100; #1 Jurassic World: Dominion £12,121,728 1st week.
Black Panther Wakanda Forever dropped 52% £377,824 #3 from 478 screens and £31,580,194 92% of £34,345,903: #1 Avatar: The Way of Water £11,187,562 1st week.
2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 dropped 33% £678,943 #5 from 442 screens and £25,827,380 90.3% of £28,599,216: #1 Sex Tape £1,431,058 1st week.
2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 dropped 27% £642,224 #5 from 474 screens and £39,646,990 97.1% of £40,839,462; #1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge £2,737,320 2nd week.
247th biggest sixth weekend between The Lego Batman Movie and Green Book (close to Spider-Man Homecoming, How to Train Your Dragon, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Spider-Man: The Movie) and the 415th biggest inflated between G-Force and Dragonheart (close to Waterworld, Deep Impact, Transformers and Beverly Hills Cop II).
24th biggest comic-book sixth weekend between Spider-Man Homecoming and Spider-Man: The Movie (close to The Batman, Deadpool, Men In Black 2 and Deadpool 2) and the 33rd biggest inflated between Iron Man 3 and Deadpool 2 (close to X-Men 2, Batman Returns, X-Men and Dick Tracy).
14th biggest MCU sixth weekend between Iron Man 2 (£511,895) and Avengers: Endgame (£480,372) (close to Shang-Chi, Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever).
The 32 MCU films have taken £1.1bn since 2008 and almost £1.3bn inflation inflated.
12th biggest MCU film after 40 days between Iron Man 3 (£36,358,709) and Thor: Love and Thunder (£34,562,340) close to Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man 3, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Thor: Ragnarok).
21st biggest comic-book film between Men In Black and Black Panther Wakanda Forever (close to Captain America: Civil War, Batman Vs Superman, Spider-Man 3 and Deadpool 2) and 34th biggest inflated between Suicide Squad and Black Panther Wakanda Forever (close to Hancock, Man of Steel, Superman III and Batman and Robin).
110th biggest film between Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and Jurassic World Dominion (close to Men In Black, Jumanji: The Next Level, Up and Fantastic Beasts 2) and 255th biggest inflated between Mr Beans Holiday and Three Men and a Little Lady (close to Look Who’s Talking, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, True Lies and Rain Man).
Disney switched the release dates of several upcoming MCU films on Tuesday (blaming the writer’s strike, but surely the scripts of these films could be written by ChatGpt) Deadpool 3 May 3, 2024; Captain America: Brave New World July 26, 2024; Thunderbolts Dec. 20, 2024; Blade Feb. 14, 2025; Fantastic Four May 2, 2025; Avengers: The Kang Dynasty May 1, 2026; Avengers: Secret Wars May 7, 2027.
- 5. Fast X – £475,640 – £14,261,672
Dropped 55.7% in the fourth weekend.
641st biggest fourth weekend between Star Trek Beyond and Godzilla (2014) (close to Blade 2, The Fast and the Furious, Die Hard 4.0 and Gremlins 2: The New Batch) and 722nd biggest inflated between The Lost City and Knives Out (close to Transformers: Age Of Extinction, San Andreas, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and The Hunt for Red October).
7th biggest Fast & Furious fourth weekend between The Fast and the Furious (£480,224) and Fast & Furious (£455,558); 9th biggest inflation-inflated fourth weekend between The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (£543,480) and Fast & Furious 9 (£472,822); 6th biggest Fast & Furious film after 17 days between Fast Five (£14,393,127) and Fast & Furious 9 (£13,064,613).
Originally Fast X was meant to be the first part of a two-part finale. Vin Diesel recently said he plans to make it into a trilogy of films and spoke of spinoffs including an all-female spinoff; but after the lower-than-expected global BO performance of Fast X will Universal Pictures be willing to spend $700m+ on two more films, as the likelihood is the box office of the next two films will drop even more.
The 11 Fast & Furious films have taken £195m and £240m inflation inflated.
498th biggest film between Crocodile Dundee II and Chicken Little (close to Fast & Furious, Jumanji, Hook and Baby Driver) and 877th biggest inflated between Kingdom of Heaven and Spy Kids (close to Backdraft, Clear And Present Danger, Wild Wild West and The Expendables).
• Chevalier – Disney
Opened £124,432 #8 from 293 screens.
World premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September receiving positive reviews from critics (81% Rotten Tomatoes). Opened in the US in April with $.52m from 1,275 screens.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £10,750,760 down 35.1% from last weekend’s £16,560,628: 1,348,903 admissions down 35.1% from 2,077,871; 821st highest top 10 admissions over the last 21 years between 30 November 2007 #1 (1,348,983 ) Fred Claus and 10 December 2010 #1 (1,347,093) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
515th biggest top 10 of the last 21 years (out of 1,106) between 23 January 2015 #1 American Sniper £2,539,534 (23.6% of top 10) and 03 November 2006 #1 Borat £6,242,344 58.1% of top 10) and 832nd biggest inflation inflated between 09 March 2018 #1 Black Panther £2,931,682 (30.5% of top 10) and 15 April 2011 #1 Scream 4 £2,061,885 (25.7% of
The top 3 took £9,161,594 85.2% of the top 10; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 37.8% (£4,062,817); Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts 26.7% (£2,973,478); The Little Mermaid 19.8% (£2,125,299);
454th highest percentage (37.8%) #1 between 24 October 2003 #1 Finding Nemo (37.9%) and 04 July 2014 #1 Mrs Brown’s Boys d’Movie (37.8%).
633rd biggest admissions #1 (509,764) between 24 December 2010 Little Fockers (510,205) and 16 November 2007 American Gangster (507,892).
Down 43.3% from 2022 (£18,965,681); Jurassic World: Dominion (£12,121,728); #1 Jurassic World: Dominion £12,121,728 1st week 707 screens (63.9% of top 10)
Up 125.3% 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; Lockdown
Down 35.7% 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)
Down 42.3% 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 12.1% 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 49.2% 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 55.2% 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 56.1% 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 37.7% 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)
Down 5.9% 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)
Down 26.3% 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 98.1% 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 21.2% 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 9.4% 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 56.1% 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 100.9% 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 34.7% 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 41.9% 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 144% 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 86.2% 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 Week 2022 (£14,423,033); Lightyear (£3,718,002); Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (£238,640); The Spy Who Loved Me (Re: 2022) (£12,844); #1 Jurassic World: Dominion £5,717,882 2nd week 713 screens 53% drop (39.6% of top 10)
US Box Office
- Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – Paramount Pictures
Opened with $61.045m; received mixed reviews (53% Rotten Tomatoes) and A- CinemaScore. (Same as Bumblebee (Last Knight had B+)
191st biggest opening between Clash of the Titans and Kong: Skull Island (close to War of the Worlds, Bad Boys for Life, Hobbs & Shaw and Jumanji: The Next Level).
Took $8.8m from Thursday midnights (including fan screenings on Wednesday); Bumblebee took $2.85m previews and Transformers: The Last Knight took $8.1m
In mid-May, it was tracking to open between $68m, so surely, it’s opening of $61.04m wasn’t as impressive as the reaction from industry experts as often tracking lowballs the expected opening so the actual opening looks far more impressive as Disney often do and are likely doing with Pixar’s Elemental opening this week expecting it to open with $40m+ against The Flash $70m.
As with all blockbusters, took over a third from IMAX/PLF (37%) helping inflated openings as 3D used to do a decade ago.
It’s the first time since June 2022 17th with two films taking over $50m; #1 Jurassic World: Dominion $59.15m and #2 Lightyear $50.57m. The Flash and Elemental opening this weekend will also open with $50m+.
The box office of the Transformers film series highlights the impact China has had on the global box office over the last 16 years and how the Transformers series wouldn’t have survived as long had it not been for the huge growth of China as has also been the case with Fast & Furious franchise.
2007’s Transformers opened $70.5m taking $319.24m and $709.7m WW (55% international $37.2m China)
2009’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opened $108.96m taking $402.1m and $836.3m WW (51.9% international including $66m China)
2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon opened $97.85m taking $352.39m and $1.12bn WW (68.6% international including $165.1m China)
2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction opened $100.03m taking $245.43m and $1.1bn WW (77.8% international including $301m China)
2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight opened $44.68m taking $130.16m and $605.42m WW (78.5% international including $229m China)
2018’s Bumblebee opened $21.65m taking $127.19m and $467.98m WW (72.8% international including $171m China)
The 7 Transformer films have taken over $1.58bn in the US and $4.84bn worldwide.
While Bumblebee received far better reviews than all of the other Transformer films it was also the lowest-grossing film of the series, but also had the lowest budget of the franchise $102m compared with $217m for the last Transformers film and $200m for Rise of the Beasts.
Opened with $110m from 68 territories and $170.5m worldwide; The Last Knight’s 267.7m worldwide opening; China $38.8m; Mexico $7.3m; Indonesia $5.3m; Korea $4.4m; France $3.8m; UK $3.8m; Malaysia $3.4m; Thailand $3.3m.
Took $16m worldwide from IMAX including $9.6m internationally.
- Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse – Sony Pictures
Dropped 54% in the second weekend taking $55.51m and $225.53m
53rd biggest second weekend between Joker and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (close to Jurassic World: Dominion, The Hunger Games, The Incredibles and The Lego Movie).
Across The Spider-Verse has already overtaken the lifetime total of Into the Spider-Verse, the reason is that it plays like a Spider-Man film as the audience seeing it is likely the same that saw No Way Home and other recent MCU films, it wasn’t a regular sequel.
2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse dropped 53.4% in the second weekend $16.46m taking $64.56m of $190.24m and $384.25m WW, unlike live-action Marvel films the BO was almost 50/50 US and international.
Took $47m (dropped 46.7%) from 59 territories $164.5m total and $390m worldwide; China $33.9m; UK $20.3m; Mexico $19.9m; Australia $10.9m; Brazil $8m; France $6.9m; India $4.8m; Germany $4.5m; Italy $4.5m.
- The Little Mermaid – Disney
Dropped 44% in the third weekend taking $23.15m and $229.17m
110th biggest third weekend between Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (close to Aladdin #99 $42.84m; Shrek #101 $42.48m; Oz the Great and Powerful #109 $41.25m; The Lion King (1994) #113 $40.88m).
EntTelligence reported average price was $13.37 with $11.19 for children.
255th biggest between The Croods and John Wick: Chapter 4; 571st inflated between Space Jam and The Sum of All Fears; 4th 2023 film between Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and John Wick: Chapter 4; 74th biggest Disney between Wreck-It Ralph and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The biggest Disney re-imaginations on third weekends:
2017’s Beauty and the Beast dropped 49.8% $45.42m #2 $393.33m 78.1% of $504.01m
2019’s The Lion King dropped by 49.7% $38.52m #2 $431.16m by 79.3% of $543.63m
2010’s Alice in Wonderland dropped 45.5% $34.18m #1 $265.43m 79.4% of $334.19m
2016’s The Jungle Book dropped 29% $43.71m #1 $253.37m 69.6% of $364m
2019’s Aladdin dropped 42.4% $24.68m #3 $232.56m 65.4% of $355.55m
Rob Marshall previously directed 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns (took $171.95m and $349.54m WW), 2014’s Into the Woods ($128m and $212.9m WW); 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($241.07m and $1.046bn WW); 2005’s Memoirs of a Geisha (took $57.49m and $162.24m WW) and 2002’s Chicago (took $170.68m and $306.77m WW)
Took $29.9m (dropped 29.3%) from 52 territories $185.4m total and $414.2m worldwide; UK $24.8m; Mexico $18m; Brazil $13.1m; Italy $11m; Australia $10.1m; France $9.6m; Spain $9m; Germany $8.3m.
476th biggest worldwide between Taken 3 and John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum; 8th biggest 2023 between John Wick: Chapter 4 and Creed III; 97th biggest Disney film between Bolt and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
- Fast X – Universal Pictures
Dropped 45% in the fourth weekend taking $5.274m and $138.2m
963rd biggest fourth weekend between A Perfect Murder and Dante’s Peak (close to X-Men: Apocalypse, Waterworld, Daredevil and Sausage Party).
It had the second-lowest fourth weekend of the Fast & Furious series only 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift took less ($2.54m) but as ticket inflation since is over 60% it had the lowest.
Fourth weekends
2021’s Fast 9 dropped 32.9% $7.67m #4 and $154.89m 89.5% of $173m and $726.22m WW
2019’s Hobbs & Shaw dropped 43.1% $8.06m #4 and $147.62m 84.9% of $174m and $760.73m WW
2017’s Fate of the Furious dropped 57% $8.57m #2 and $207.18m 91.7% of $226m and $1.236bn WW
2015’s Fast 7 dropped 38.9% $17.82m #1 and $320.08m 90.7% of $353m and $1.515bn WW
2013’s Fast and Furious 6 dropped 51.2% $9.58m #4 and $219.72m 92.1% of $238.67m and $788.67m WW
2011’s Fast Five dropped 48.3% and $10.57m #4 and $186.15m 88.7% of $209.83m and $626.13m WW
2009’s Fast and Furious dropped 47.3% $6.2m #9 and $145.36m 93.7% of $155.06m and $360.36m WW
2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift dropped 43.2% $2.54m #8 and $57.43m 91.9% of $62.51m and $158.96m WW
2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious dropped 43.9% $6.22m #5 and $114m 89.7% of $127.15m and $236.35m WW
2001’s The Fast and the Furious dropped 34.2% $8.08m #6 and $115.61m 80% of $144.53m and $207.28m WW
466th biggest film between Good Will Hunting and Split; 917th biggest inflated between Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! And G.I. Joe: Retaliation; the 8th biggest 2023 film between Creed III and Scream VI; the 63rd biggest Universal Pictures between National Lampoon’s Animal House and Split.
The 11 Fast and Furious films have taken over $2bn in the US and over $7.25bn worldwide.
The box office of the Fast and the Furious franchises highlights the way global BO has changed over the last 20+ years and the impact China has had on the global box office.
Took $20.6m (dropped 52%) from 84 territories $510.15m total and $648.36m worldwide; China $132.2m; Mexico $35.7m; Brazil $24.5m; Japan $22.5m; France $17.9m.
157th biggest worldwide between Fantastic Beasts 2 and Interstellar; 3rd biggest 2023 between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; 17th biggest Universal Pictures between F9: The Fast Saga and Sing.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – Disney
Dropped 32% in the sixth weekend taking $7.22m and $335.6m
140th biggest sixth weekend between Aladdin (1992) and The Dark Knight Rises (close to Iron Man, Aquaman, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).
72nd biggest between Minions and Joker; 2nd biggest 2023 film between The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Little Mermaid; 192nd biggest inflated between Austin Powers in Goldmember and War of the Worlds; 23rd biggest comic-book film between Spider-Man 3 and Aquaman; 32nd biggest Disney film between Zootopia and Alice in Wonderland.
Sixth Weekends
2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 dropped by 39.4% $10.35m #1 and $294.76m 88.5% of $333.17m
2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 dropped by 35.8% $6.31m #5 and $366.43m 94% of $389.81m
2022’s Doctor Strange 2 dropped 43.1% $5.21m #2 and $398.13m 97.8% of $411.3m
2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder dropped 30.2% taking $5.37m #4 and $325.46m 94.8% of $343.25m
2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dropped 52.4% $5.34m #2 and $418.93m 92.4% of $453.8m
2014’s GOTG took $333.7m US, $439.6m internationally and $773.3m worldwide; GOTG2 took $389.8m US, $473.09m internationally and $863.8m worldwide, so GOTG3 should take $1bn+ worldwide.
Took $6.7m (44.6% drop) from 52 territories and $470.5m internationally and $805m worldwide; China $79.8m; UK $39.8m; Mexico $33.7m; Korea $30.2m; France $26.6m.
96th biggest worldwide between Shrek the Third and Jumanji: The Next Level; 24th biggest comic book worldwide between Wonder Woman and Spider-Man 2; 35th biggest Disney film between Thor: Ragnarok and Coco.
UK Box Office Top 10
UK Box Office Preview
Despite receiving positive reviews (72% Rotten Tomatoes) the arrival of The Flash has been muted likely due to several reasons; released 9 years after the TV series started in 2014, 6 years after The Flash first appeared on screen in Batman Vs Superman and then the misconduct allegations against Ezra Miller. This meant the premiere on Monday (June 12th) was subdued despite the very positive buzz that started with Tom Cruise saying how much he loved it in March, the positive reactions to CinemaCon and the embargo ended 8 days before opening, normally its less than 48 hours.
The Flash was tracking to open with about $70m in the US but the comic-book character is lesser-known internationally, The Flash TV series has been on Sky One/Max since its launch; the first episode got a 629k audience on Sky One in October 2014 (compared with 13m in the US on CW) compared with 1.3m for Gotham on Channel 5.
Except for 2022’s The Batman and 2019’s Joker DC films have struggled in the UK since Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad opened with £14.62m and £11.25m in 2016 as seen with Shazam! Fury Of the Gods opened with £2,397,953 and The Flash is likely to struggle in the UK not helped by opening so soon after Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts targeting the same tween/teen male demographic.
Opening Wednesday will help inflate The Flash opening similar to Black Adam (£5,655,003) as Shazam 2, Black Adam, Shazam! And Aquaman opened with about 8% of the US.
The arrival of The Flash will see both Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts drop 50%+ in their third/second weekends; Across the Spider-Verse taking £1.6m-£2m and Rise of the Beasts £1.2m-£1.6m.
The Little Mermaid in fourth will drop 40-50% taking £1.1m to £1.3m, much will determine if female audiences embrace the Take That musical The Greatest Day receiving very positive reviews. Recent British feel-good films have struggled Harold Fry and Allelujah opening with £784,698 and £715,783, but they were of course playing to an older audience.
While British audiences do like their musicals as seen by the recent performance of I Wanna Dance with Somebody opening with £3,325,458 and Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical £4,135,418.
While Take That Event Cinema concerts have been very popular 2019’s Take That – Greatest Hits Live (Concert) opened £1,834,379 #5 from 606 screens; 2017’s Take That: Wonderland Live from the O2 £1,004,918 #5 from 481 screens and 2015’s Take That Live £965,000 #2 from 421 screens, but of course they were live concert performances with inflated ticket prices.
A better comparison is 2019’s Fisherman’s Friends opening £1,154,865 #2 from 506 screens taking £7,435,950 and 2013’s Sunshine on Leith opening £770,239 #3 from 400 screens taking £4,621,475.
The Greatest Day has similarities with films including Mamma Mia!, 1995’s Muriel’s Wedding (opened £661,588 from 179 screens taking £7,914,502 and £18,126,029 inflated); 2014’s Walking on Sunshine opened £403,490 #7 from 360 screens taking £1,261,744.
And 2007’s underrated Across the Universe featuring Beatles songs only opened with £27,471 #25 from 75 screens.
The Greatest Day is the first film released by the new British film distributor Elysian Films founded in 2018 by Danny Perkins who also co-founded Optimum Releasing in 1999 acquired by Studiocanal in 2006.
Over the last few decades, there have been many attempts by British companies to set up UK operations and they have either overstretched themselves to try to make a name for themselves by acquiring high-profile films that fail to meet expectations (First Independent Films G.I Jane and White Squall) STX (The Irishman) Guild Pictures released many high-profile films made by Carolco Pictures in the 90s was acquired by Pathe in 1992. Get acquired like Redbus set up in 1999, acquired by Helkon in 2001 and acquired by Lionsgate in 2005, Electric Pictures acquired by Alliance in 1997 and then acquired by eOne in 2013. Or get sold like Rank Film Distributors in 1997 and Polygram Films sold in 1998 to Universal Pictures.
The problem is that while there has been huge success from films made in the UK over the last few decades most of them have been financed by US studios despite the hundreds of millions that have been invested into the UK film industry by the National Lottery over the last 25+ years.
In the late 90s, film franchises were created by several British production companies that were tied to distributors and exhibitors and they would each get a lump sum of money from the lottery, the problem was it was poorly handled and very few were profitable.
Opening in two weeks
With Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One opening on Tuesday 11th July and Barbie and Oppenheimer opening the week after no wide releases are opening on July 14. There is an Event Cinema screening in Oklahoma! starring Hugh Jackman in cinemas on Sunday, July 16th at Wyndham’s Theatre with encore screenings on July 19th.
Much has been made with the battle for IMAX screens with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Oppenheimer as the Christopher Nolan film gets all 54 IMAX cinemas the week after Dead Reckoning opens as both films were shot in IMAX and Mission Impossible starring Tom Cruise was seen as the “saviour of cinema” last year with Top Gun: Maverick while Christopher Nolan’s delusions of grandeur in 2020 forced Warner Bros to open Tenet in the middle of a pandemic as he believed he could save cinema.
Tenet predictably wasn’t the massive hit that he believed it would be and it also delayed the recovery, so Warner Bros likely dated Barbie to open against Oppenheimer to get their revenge on Nolan while cinephiles have booked up to see Oppenheimer in IMAX Barbie is likely to be a far bigger cinema draw for audiences this summer.