Top 5 Breakdown

1. Kung Fu Panda 3 – £1,740,695 – total £7,084,403

Dropping 44.9% in its second weekend (not including previews) Hard to compare against the first two films as both opened during the summer whilst Kung Fu Panda 3 until schools break up for Easter on Thursday has been limited to weekend matinees.

After two weeks Kung Fu Panda 2 had taken £9.24m but likely to perform strongly from Thursday 24^th– April 10^th over Easter Holidays even with the competition of Disney’s Zootropolis which had previews of £1.3m over the weekend.

Last Easter Cinderella and Home both performed strongly over holidays both taking £15m at box office if Kung Fu panda was to perform similarly it could get close to the box office of first two films.

2. 10 Cloverfield Lane – £1,601,161 – NE

Have been some very strange release decisions being by distributors in recent weeks Grimsby opening in the UK three weeks before its US opening, Divergent: Allegiant opening internationally a week before US and now 10 Cloverfield Lane opening a week after US opening. All three decision having major impact on their box office performances.

Day and date releasing has become the norm for majority of major films for many reasons but for films like Star Wars The Force Awakens and Batman Vs Superman Dawn of Justice one reason is to stop spoilers ruining films for audiences.

When you have films like 10 Cloverfield Lane you don’t want cinemagoers reading plot spoilers on Twitter you want them to find out the twists in cinemas. What make it even stranger is Valencia was revealed as 10 Cloverfield Lane Paramount UK dated it to open day and date with US but then was strangely pushed back a week.

I know many will say Cloverfield opened two weeks after its US opening but still managed to open strongly with £3.48m in 2008 but in recent years some cinemagoers seem to purposely troll others revealing spoilers from films that previously people wouldn’t reveal. Cloverfield dropped heavily in weeks after opening lasting only four weeks in the top 10; 10 Cloverfield Lane is likely to do similarly.

Paramount said its opening was 189% bigger than 2007’s Disturbia (opening with £728,145) and 26% more than 2011’s Contagion (opening with £1,463,638) but the only film it can really be compared with is Cloverfield and 8 years on opening 54% less can’t possibly be seen as a successful opening. With Batman Vs Superman Dawn of Justice out this weekend will likely drop heavily (60%)

3. London Has Fallen £1,056,383 – £8,335,664

Still holding surprisingly well in its third week with the lowest drop of all films in the top 10 41.1%.

Most expected 10 Cloverfield Lane to open far stronger which would of caused London Has Fallen to drop much heavier. But Lionsgate have done it again with a film slated by critics Dirty Grandpa but performing strongly likely to take close to £10m.

But as Olympus Has Fallen suffered a big drop with Iron Man 3 London Has Fallen will do also this weekend against Batman Vs Superman Dawn of Justice

4. Divergent: Allegiant £712,091 – total £3,193,553

Dropping an unexpected 58.2% in its second weekend after receiving poor reviews it has also received poor word of mouth. Making absolutely no sense for Allegiant film to open internationally ahead of its US opening which was one reason why it to open with 44% less than the first two films.

After the success of splitting the final Harry Potter Deathly Hallows into two studios have looked to splitting the final parts to extend the franchises while it worked well for both Deathly Hallow and Twilight Breaking Dawn even though many liked The Hunger Games Mockingjay final book split they underperformed compared with the earlier films.

Unlike first two films Allegiant had little competition but performed far worse than previous films.  

Divergent took £1.01m in its second weekend £4.1m total dropping 43%

Insurgent took £1.3m in its second weekend £5.1m total dropping 56%

It does question the logic of Lionsgate switching release date of final film with their reboot of Power Rangers and Ascendant to June 9^th 2017 as it now opens against World War Z 2 and The Mummy reboot starring Tom Cruise which will be far tougher competition. Lionsgate announced today they will reduce the budget for the final film.

5. The Boy £726,003 – NE

After average performances for recent horrors The Forest, The Other Side of the Door and The Witch The Boy had a decent debut but like most horrors unlikely to be around for long.

Was also far from director William Brent Bell biggest opening in the UK 2012’s The Devil Inside £1,988,461.

Also opened

Risen – Sony Pictures – £69,909 from 162 screens

Was seen as a “spirtual” sequel to Mel Gibson’s 2004 The Passion of the Christ. Spiritual sequel is the latest Hollywood buzz word for a film that has no obvious connection to the other film but is called that anyway films including 10 Cloverfield Lane, Everybody Wants Some and The Nice Guys sorta sequels to Cloverfield, Dazed and Confused and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The later two were box office flops but have become cult favourites over the years.

25 years ago Kevin Reynolds directed the box office smash Robin Hood Prince of Thieves then went on to direct Rapa Nui and Waterworld which wasn’t the massive flop many thought it was in 1995.

But since then made smaller films including underrated One Eight Seven and The Count of Monte Cristo then not so good Tristan + Isolde his last film made 10 years ago.  (gives a chance to see some of those trailers)

Rock The Kasbah – £3,804 from 68 screens

Director Barry Levinson has made some classic films over the years Diner, The Natural, Good Morning Vietnam, Sleepers, Bugsy, Rainman and Wag the Dog but recently his films have been poorly received both critically and at the box office.

Toys in 1992 was his vanity project a film he developed at 20th  Century Fox in 1978 and after Good Morning Vietnam and Rainman 20th Century Fox allowed him to make it but was a massive flop.

Studios do still rarely allow directors to make their vanity projects recently with Angelina Jolie and By the Sea (which flopped) and Warren Beatty who started directing his untitled Howard Hughes film in February 2014 with an ensemble cast for New Regency which has get to get a release date.

Sing Street -Lionsgate £166,226 from 93 screens from Ireland only. It is the latest film from director John Carney who made the wonderful 2007 musical Once (opened with £65,256) and 2013’s Begin Again (opened with £456,438) opens in the UK May 20th.

Other box office news:

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £7,732,052 down 35.6% from last weekend £12,014,397 and down 34.2% from same weekend last year. (£11,753,791) when Home £6,017,210. Divergent: Insurgent – £2,931,204, The Gunman – £405,432, Wild Card £152,034 and The Voices £118,170 opened.

This weekend last year Cinderella opened with £3,791,276, The SpongeBob Movie £2,251,009, Get Hard £1,433,967 and The Seventh Son £410,608

Complete UK Box office top 10 – March 18^th – 20^th 2016

US Box Office 

1. Disney’s Zootopia – drops 25.9% – $38.1m – total $201.8m; just overtaken Tangled will overtake Big Hero 6, WALL-E by next weekend with Brave, Cars, Toy Story 2 and The Incredibles within its sights.

2. Lionsgate – Divergent: Allegiant opens $29.1m opening 44$ less than the first two films received B CinemaScore will drop heavily this weekend. Opening likely suffered from negative buzz from international opening a week ahead.

3. Paramount Pictures – 10 Cloverfield Lane – drops 49.4% – $12.5m – $45.1m total. Holding better than Cloverfield which dropped 68.3% similar weekend BO $12.7m but lower total $65.3m.

4. 20^th Century Fox – Deadpool – drops 26.9% – $8m – total $340.9m. Has overtaken Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man 3 to be the eighth biggest comic-book adaption but will likely fall short of beating Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.

5. Focus Features – London Has Fallen – drops 36.4% – $6.8m – total $50.1m. After three weeks Olympus Has Fallen had taken $71.2m.

6. Paramount Pictures – Whiskey Tango Foxtrot drops 39.9% – $2.8m – total $19.2m

7. Lionsgate – The Perfect Match – drops 55.8% – $1.9m – $7.3m total

8. Sony Pictures – The Grimsby Brothers – drops 57% – $1.4m – $5.9m total. Only positive holding better than Bruno but had taken $49.5m after two weeks in comparison.

9. 20^th Century Fox – The Revenant -drops 40.4% -$1.2m – $181.1m total; back in the top 10 for a final encore.

Opening on limited release

Warner Bros – Midnight Special – $184,000 from 5 screens having the best limited release opening since The Revenant. The big question will be how quickly Warner will expand its release as previously films like Steve Jobs were expanded far too quickly after they performed strongly on limited release.