- Five Nights at Freddy’s – £5,379,587 – NE
Took £1.26m (23.4%) Friday; £1.1m (20.4%) Saturday; £779k (14.4%) Sunday.
Includes £2,165,447 (40.25%) from previews (£1.37m (25.4%) Wednesday/£774k (14.3%) Thursday)
Took £3,039,587 Fri-Sun; Friday 41.5%; Saturday 36.2% and Sunday 25.6%
261st biggest opening between Rocketman and Interstellar (close to Iron Man, Planet of the Apes, Assassin’s Creed and The Revenant) and 411th inflated between Basic Instinct and Saving Private Ryan (close to Seven, Ghostbusters, E.T and True Lies).
4th biggest horror opening between The Blair Witch Project and The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case (close to It Chapter 2, The Nun, Paranormal Activity 2 and The Final Destination) and 6th biggest inflated between Red Dragon and Interview with the Vampire (close to Bram Stokers Dracula, Paranormal Activity, Sleepy Hollow and Scream 2).
9th biggest horror Fri-Sun between Paranormal Activity 3 and The Woman in Black
11th biggest 2023 opening between Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and John Wick: Chapter Four; 30th biggest opening since cinemas reopened between Eternals and Tenet.
160th widest opening in 607 cinemas similar to Men In Black International and Paddington 2; 181st 600+ opening since 2015’s Jurassic World.
Had an unusual box office split with a strong fan-led opening day on Wednesday, dropping 43.5% on Thursday, then increased 62.8% on Friday but then surprisingly dropped 12.7% Saturday and then dropped 29.6% on Sunday showing that it will be front-loaded with up to 70% second weekend drop (including previews) and about 50% without previews.
Even having two days of previews Five Nights at Freddy’s opening was only 6.72% of US opening; industry 10% of US opening as a guide to UK, it was similar to Cocaine Bear 6.8% The Exorcist: Believer 6.3% both without previews, so surely should have opened with about £7.36m similar to It Chapter Two.
Five Nights at Freddy’s video game is 104th with 35% having heard of and 14% liked (Super Mario Bros #4 94% and 59%) on the YouGov popularity tracker between Mojang Studios and Gears of War, with the fanbase of 54% Millennials, 31% GenX and 12% Baby Boomers: 41% male and 43% Labour voters, 36% Liberal Democrats and 21% Conservative. On their popularity, it’s been flat 36% since the second quarter.
As with many other Blumhouse films, it had a PG-13 previously this meant that films like Happy Death Day, Ouija and Truth and Dare opened far stronger in the US than the UK receiving 15 certificates so its target audience can’t legally see them.
While cinemas say they may be asked to supply proof of age, many under 15s look much older. I was seeing 15’s when I was 12 and 18’s when I was 15. Opening a film like Five Nights at Freddy’s surely meant there were many underaged in cinemas. Belfast Council has rated the film 15A allowing under-age children to see it with an adult and did the same with The Batman.
Not being a gamer hadn’t heard of Five Nights at Freddy’s until I saw the first trailer in June, and it felt like it was a horror film for those who don’t like horror in the same way the original Scream films were 25+ years ago. It’s always much harder to predict how a film might perform in the UK compared with the US as there’s no pre-release data available.
For weeks before opening was talk of $90m+ opening due to strong presales in the US, impossible to know for the UK. Why compared it to other 15rated teen horrors 2017’s Happy Death Day £998,388 taking £2,678,427; 2018’s Truth Or Dare £931,250 taking £2,400,490 and 2014’s Ouija £1,373,907 taking £3,207,638.
It was originally developed at Warner Bros with Christoper Columbus attached to direct, Blumhouse bought rights in 2017 and Emma Tammi signed to direct.
Can see how front-loaded the film is likely to be from the drop of BO from Fri-Sun, with Sunday’s share of weekend BO almost half of the other top 5. While its almost hard to make direct comparisons with other Blumhouse Films as they rarely have previews and when they are they are limited to the night before.
Five Nights at Freddy’s was a one-off opening over one of the most lucrative weekends of cinema over the last 11 years including huge openings for 2012’s Skyfall, 2016’s Doctor Strange, 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok; and 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody over half-term week.
This does ask why Studiocanal dated Paddington in Peru for November 8th, 2024, last week rather than two weeks earlier as October has few films currently dated. This is unlikely to stay that way for long as many films currently dated for first 6 months will move to the last six months as productions return over the next few weeks if SAG strike ends.
There are rumours Deadpool 3 could move to July which could see Captain America: Brave New World dela moved to late Oct/early Nov which could see CaptPaddington. With Paddington 3 not opening in the US until January 2025 the sequel is likely to open up against a major US studio film likely to be bigger than Penguins of Madagascar in 2014 and Justice League in 2017.
- 2. Trolls Band Together £2,539,720 – £9,004,554
Dropped 16.8% in the second weekend.
Took £869k 34.2% (up 15.7% £869k) Friday; £877k 34.5% (down 33.1% £1.31m) Saturday; £793k 31.2% (down 20% £991k) Sunday.
305th biggest second weekend between Big Hero 6 and American Sniper (close to Babe, Goldeneye, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical and Scooby-Doo) and 581st biggest inflated between Due Date and Collateral (close to Good Morning Vietnam, The Greatest Showman, Stuart Little and My Girl).
58th biggest animated second weekend between Big Hero 6 and A Christmas Carol (close to Despicable Me, The Lion King (1994), Elemental and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa) and 88th biggest animated inflated between Coco and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (close to The Jungle Book (1993 re-issue), Hercules, The Lion King 3D and Cars 2).
2016’s Trolls dropped 40% (8% without previews) £3,256,912 #2 611 screens and £14,001,328 of £24,228,850; Trolls took £5.2m Mon-Thurs compared to £3.6m Mon-Thurs for Trolls Band Together.
As it featured Justin Timberlake’s song Can’t Stop The Feeling the video has been viewed over 1.7bn times since May 2016. Just Sing was the theme song for Troll World Tour but was far less popular video was viewed 394m times, Trolls Band Together features the first song from NSYNC over 20 years ago, video numbers are hard to judge at the moment as the film doesn’t open in the until Thanksgiving.
Despite being released on VOD when cinemas reopened in July 2020, Trolls World Tour had a limited cinema release taking £948,876.
790th biggest between A Fish Called Wanda and Music and Lyrics (close to Wayne’s World, The Legend of Tarzan, Pan and Prince of Persia) and 1,303rd inflated between Dad’s Army and You’ve Got Mail (close to Father of the Bride 2, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Last Action Hero).
- 3. Killers Of The Flower Moon £1,507,697 – £5,599,165
Down 40.4% in the second weekend
Took £431k 28.6% (down 40.6% £726k) Friday; £561k 37.2% (33% drop £837k) Saturday; £515k 34.1% (down 46.8% £968k) Sunday.
633rd biggest second weekend between RoboCop (2014) and The Princess And The Frog (close to The Social Network, House of Gucci, The Iron Lady and Red Dragon) and 1,087th biggest inflated between Jack the Giant Slayer and Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger! (close to The Grand Budapest Hotel, Public Enemies, Suffragette and Far and Away)
The film has a 3hr 26min running time and some cinemas had selective shows with an interval, this was received positively by cinemagoers but not by the film’s editor Thelma Schoonmaker who called it “a violation”. It saw Paramount and Apple crackdown on the cinemas saying it broke their agreement by saying the film needs to be screened “without alteration or intermission, on the Screen Auditorium identified in the Booking Confirmation.”
Films regularly had intervals up to the 80s as they for long epic films like Lawrence of Arabia and Spartacus, 1982’s Gandi was the last US film to have an interval. Martin Scorsese recently said “People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours. Also, many people watch the theatre for 3.5 hours. There are real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect. Give cinema some respect.” But watching a film in the cinema is a vastly unique experience than watching at home where you can control the environment while in a cinema you are with hundreds of strangers who have their gallon tubs of syrup and popcorn.
To some filmmakers, cinema is an art form but studios spending $200m+ on these films need to find a wide audience to be profitable and anything that makes the experience more enjoyable for cinemagoers will surely boost admissions, or else they will wait to see the next ling film at home.
Martin Scorsese’s second weekend
2014’s The Wolf of Wall Street dropped 22% £3,608,968 #1 506 screens and £10,903,399 of £22,267,066
2003’s Gangs Of New York dropped 35% £1,701,779 #4 385 screens and £5,867,591 of £10,438,674
2006’s The Departed dropped 14% £1,957,646 #1 364 screens and £5,639,711 of £12,576,260
2010’s Shutter Island dropped 19% £1,813,282 #3 419 screens and £5,483,018 of £10,599,763
1992’s Cape Fear dropped 23.5% £1,273,242 (£3,161,289 inflated) and £4,495,759 of £10,396,215 (£25,812,409 inflated)
2004’s The Aviator dropped 25% £985,643 #4 324 screens and £3,107,546 of £7,885,636
2011’s Hugo dropped 40% £732,902 #4 447 screens and £2,453,609 of £5,580,092
1996’s Casino dropped £756,120 (£1,480,658 inflated) and £2,445,943 of £4,721,460 (£9,245,709 inflated)
1987’s The Color of Money dropped 15% £360,384 (£1,335,935 inflated) and £1,173,132 of £2,333,875 (£8,651,620 inflated)
1993’s The Age of Innocence dropped 39.8% £124,138 (£1,328,370 inflated) of £2,359,098 (£5,785,234 inflated)
- 4. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour £1,226,343 – £10,422,784
Took £432k 35.2% (35.9% drop £674k) Friday; £429k 35% (53.7% drop £927k) Saturday; £365k (52.1% drop £761k) 29.7% Sunday (£534k Thursday not included).
Down 48.1% in the third weekend
472nd biggest third weekend between Mulan (1998) and The Pursuit Of Happyness (close to Bend It Like Beckham, School Of Rock, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 and Liar Liar) and 759th inflated between Philomena and The Polar Express (close to Labyrinth, Turner & Hooch, The Wedding Singer and Police Academy 4: Citizens On Patrol).
Rather than comparing BO to other films due to the standard average price £19.89, need to compare admissions to regular prices in brackets; Friday 21k (57k) (56k); Saturday 21k; Sunday 18k (48k).
Taylor will add about 1.4m admissions (similar to 2013’s One Direction This Is Us) to October but real admissions were less than half due to £19.89/£13.13 prices. The majority of Taylor Swift fans in the UK weren’t able to get tickets for her concerts next year after 3.5m+ registered for 750,076 tickets and with those prices should have taken more than three times as much. Ahead of opening Swift was being compared to Barbie in size of popularity.
It would have performed stronger had it been released after her London concerts in August next year as those fans who got tickets for her concerts next year would have had mixed emotions of going to see it in cinemas 9 months earlier, after their parents had spent £100+ on each ticket.
This was why no studio tried to get the film as they didn’t think it would be available to release internationally until after her international concerts ended in August.
After the first rush over opening weekend, it was always likely to drop heavily over the following weekends as it should have never had a fixed four weekend run, wat made Event Cinema screenings successful before was they were for a limited time. To get a wider audience to see it after its opening weekend prices should have dropped to £13.13, AMC Theatres dropped their prices in the US for Halloween shows to $13.13.
The other issue with Era Tour is as the film is released 9 months before her live concerts start in the UK it could ruin the experience of watching the concert live as fans have spent hundreds of pounds on what they thought was going to be a once in a lifetime experience,
There are about 104m Swifties worldwide with 20% in the US, while Taylor Swift has over 230m Instagram followers and 100m+ a month listening to her on Spotify, which adds up to over 520m+ fans worldwide. Ahead of the Eras Tour opening it was being compared to Barbie so surely should have opened far bigger. According to a YouGov survey, Taylor Swift is the 10th most popular contemporary singer in the UK; 96% UK have heard of her and 55% are fans. She had her 10th #1 album this year and has 6 albums in the top 20.
Its impossible to compare with other music concert films as Eras Tour might have overtaken the BO of Michael Jackson’s This Is It impossible to compare with a film that opened 14 years ago.
2013’s One Direction: This Is Us dropped 41% £653,029 #6 #3 from 433 screens and £6,796,192 of £8,005,391 (£9,770,745 inflated)
2009’s Michael Jackson’s This Is It dropped 64% £475,437 #7 418 screens and £9,301,428 of £9,732,593 (£14,258,964 inflated)
2011’s Justin Bieber: Never Say Never took £1,993,888
One Direction: This Is Us had a huge premiere in Leicester Square within 24 hours of the premiere 3.6 million tweets were sent about One Direction and the hashtag #1DMoviePremiere received 1.9 million tweets.
Other music concert films include.
2012’s Katy Perry: Part of Me took £1,029,451; 2009’s Jonas Brothers 3D Concert £223,027
2011’s Glee: The 3D Concert Movie took £356,271; 2008’s Hannah Montana 3D £443,308
They all have one thing in common they did not attract the fans of their music as was also the case with older films like 1991’s Madonna: Truth or Dare, 1987’s Sign O’ the Times and 1988’s U2 Rattle and Hum.
They all receive huge media coverage but that doesn’t turn into a huge BO despite the huge popularity of their music and over the last decade receiving huge social media coverage. It’s similar to hugely successful video games they rarely become hugely popular films.
After the first rush for tickets to keep up the momentum, exhibitors should have offered a 2for1 deal as exhibitors will make much more from promotional collectable popcorn tubs and drinks.
Presales for Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé have been open in the US since the start of the month, no figures have been made public, but reports are they are less than a quarter of Era Tour, It is set to open in the UK on November 30th, but advance bookings have yet to open. It will be interesting to see if exhibitors will be willing to accept the same terms, Trafalgar demanded 4 weeks run for Era Tour, but Cineworld refused and went on social media saying they wouldn’t play it after a week or so and accepted a three-week booking. In the process missed out on a large number of sales (would be interesting to see exhibitor market share as in the US with AMC Odeon in the UK had the largest share of BO, which said they will have the most to lose in its third and fourth weeks.
Putting Era Tour BO in perspective taking £8.66m after 11 days it’s the 658th biggest film between Step Up 2 and Angry Birds (close to Ghostbusters (2016), Pocahontas, School of Rock and Matilda (1996) but with admissions (524,021) it’s 2,097th biggest between Outrageous Fortune and Nell (close to The Good Liar, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Jack and Jill and The Avengers (1998)..
- 5. Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie £709,348 – £6,106,012
Down 11.5% in the third weekend
Took £216k 30.4% (up 68.7% £128k) Friday; £249k 35.1% (35% drop £384k) Saturday; £244k 34.4% (15.5% drop £289k) Sunday.
Had a significant increase Fri-Fri behind half-term but next weekend will drop taking the majority of BO Sat/Sun.
854th biggest third weekend between Disclosure and Cloverfield (close to The Princess Diaries, The Commitments, Good Will Hunting and Lady Bird) and 1,094th inflated between The Iron Lady and Annabelle: Creation (close to Scary Movie 2, Coyote Ugly, Scent of a Woman and The Untouchables).
129th biggest animation third weekend between Abominable and Sherlock Gnomes (close to Hotel Transylvania, The Cat In The Hat, Pixels and Garfield) and 143rd inflated between The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water and Coraline (close to Corpse Bride, Megamind, Storks and The Boss Baby 2).
Holding similar to 2021’s The Paw Patrol Movie dropped 45% £563,145 #3 from 649 screens and £5,685,558 of £8,478,200.
1,167th biggest between 12 Monkeys and Hollow Man (close to Demolition Man, Pitch Perfect, Three Kings and Parenthood) and 1,725th inflated between The Railway Man and The Muppets Christmas Carol (close to Driving Miss Daisy, Creed, Plane’s Trains and Automobiles and Finding Neverland).
165th biggest animated film between The Little Mermaid (1990) and Isle of Dogs (close to The Jungle Book (1993 re-issue), Treasure Planet, The Tigger Movie and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) and 189th inflated between Planet 51 and Smurfs: The Lost Village (close to The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Aristocats (1994 RE), The Rescuers Down Under and The Land Before Time).
Also opened.
Studiocanal released Cat People in 177 cinemas, taking £79,723.
Studiocanal also released Liam Neeson’s Retribution in 44 cinemas taking £25,691 day and date with Sky Cinema release.
Park Circus re-released 1988’s Beetlejuice in 350 screens tsking £93,042 #14; originally opened with £524,740 (£1,818,338 inflated) taking £3,604,282 (£12,489,621 inflated). The film was originally released as a 15 and was reclassified as 12A in 2018.
Warner Bros have Beetlejuice 2 set for release in September 2025
Trafalgar Releasing screened Crossroads: Global Fan Event taking £64,892 from screenings on Monday and Tuesday, the film starred Britney Spears who published her autobiography last week which generated huge media coverage.
Crossroads opened with £1,126,053 #4 from 373 screens in March 2002 taking £5,270,243.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £12,520,974 up 6.5% from last weekend’s £11,761,134: Als1,478,799 admissions up 13.9% from 1,298,014.
12th biggest weekend of the year out of 43 weeks between 30 June 2023 #1 Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (£7,144,441) and 13 January 2023 #1 Avatar: The Way of Water (£4,172,161)
33rd biggest since cinemas reopened out of 154 weeks between 28 January 2022 #1 Sing 2 (£6,867,533) and 13 January 2023 #1 Avatar: The Way of Water (£4,172,161)
386th biggest top 10 of the last 21 years (out of 1,126) between 14 January 2011 #1 The King’s Speech £4,401,926 (35.15% of top 10) and 18 January 2013 #1 Les Miserables £4,406,828 (35.21% of top 10) and 688th biggest inflated between 24 August 2007 #1 The Bourne Ultimatum £2,864,80 (36.07% of top 10) and 30 January 2009 #1 Slumdog Millionaire £2,359,854 (25.26% of top 10)
The top 3 took (£9,427,004) 75.3% of the top 10; Five Nights at Freddy’s 42.96% (£5,379,587); Trolls Band Together 20.28% (£2,539,720); Killers of the Flower Moon 12.04% (£1,507,697).
369th highest percentage (42.96%) between 28 October 2011 #1 The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (42.97%) and 21 August 2009 #1 Inglourious Basterds (42.89%)
472nd biggest admissions #1 (674,980) between 10 August 2001 #1 Cats and Dogs (679,486) and 18 January 2013 #1 Les Miserables (674,859)
Up 25.4% from 2022 ((£9,985,348); Prey for The Devil (£859,717); Coldplay Music of the Spheres Live Broadcast from Buenos Aires (£859,717); Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets (20th Anniversary) (£454,250); Barbarian (£380,812); Triangle of Sadness (£308,950); Bros (£215,612); ParaNorman (10th Anniversary) (£39,184); Trick ‘R Treat (Re: 2022) (£24,116) #1 Black Adam £3,488,800 2nd week 38% drop (34.94% of top 10)
Down 15.1% from 2021; (£14,743,119); Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (20th Anniversary) (£965,008); Last Night In Soho (£731,950); Antlers (£251,100); My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission (£218,956); Cliff Richard – The Great 80 Tour (£157,345); Blade (4K Restoration) (£20,342); #1 No Time to Die £3,514,308 5th week 4th split #1 (23.8% of top 10)
Up 970,8% from 2020: (£1,169,275); Blumhouse’s The Craft: Legacy (£119,680); Halloween (Re: 2020) (£71,264); The Nightmare Before Christmas (Re) (£43,172); Burnt Orange Heresy (£14,546); V For Vendetta (Re: 2020) (£5,346); #1 Two By Two: Overboard! £190,761 2nd week down 42% 332 screens
Down 11.7% from 2019; (£14,176,042); Terminator: Dark Fate 19.5% (£2,864,941); The Addams Family (£2,117,740); Countdown (£390,873); Black And Blue (£25,840); #1 Joker £3,464,682 37% drop 4th weekend 657 screens
Down 38.7% from 2018: (£20,418,070); Bohemian Rhapsody (£9,530,463); The Hate U Give (£911,309); La Fanciulla Del West – Met Opera 2018 (£186,621); Die Walkure – ROH, London 2018/19 (£185,066); Beetlejuice (30th Anniversary) (£33,825); #1 Bohemian Rhapsody £9,530,463 1st week 659 screens (46.6% of top 10)
Down 34.9% from 2017: (£19,248,577); Thor: Ragnarok (£12,375,804); Jigsaw (£1,851,249); Breathe (£535,675); Call Me by Your Name (£235,760); The Shining (Re: 2017) (£1,448); #1 Thor: Ragnarok £12,375,804 1st week 611 screens (64.3% of the top 10)
Down 32.9% from 2016: (£18,662,678); Doctor Strange (£9,288,898); Ethel & Ernest (£19,202); #1 Doctor Strange £9,288,898 1st week 602 screens (49.7% of the top 10)
Down 73.5% from 2015; (£47,258,977); Spectre (£41,299,090); Tannhauser – Met Opera 2015 (£162,876); #1 Spectre £41,299,090 1st week 651 screens (87.4% of top 10)
Up 28.8% from 2014: (£9,722,282); Ouija (£1,373,907); Nightcrawler (£1,003,822); Mr Turner (£904,947); Horns (£396,042); Carmen – Met Opera 2014 (£326,430); Aliens (Re: 2014) (£27,134); The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman (£12,180); The Woman in Black (Re: 2014) (£4,743); #1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3rd-week 2nd #1 over 3 weeks 514 screens 26% drop (14.7% of top 10)
Down 0.6% from 2013: (£12,528,593); Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (£3,658,618); Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (£1,940,476); Ender’s Game (£1,158,548); One Chance (£717,857); The Selfish Giant (£81,737); Reef 2: High Tide (£26,910); Closed Circuit (£19,998); #1 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 £3,658,618 1st week 510 screens (29.2% of top 10)
Down 52.9% from 2012 (£26,591,268); Skyfall (£20,180,369); #1 Skyfall £20,180,369 1st week 587 screens (75.9% of top 10)
Down 20.4% from 2011 (£15,727,396); The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (£6,758,724); The Help (£896,597); The Ides Of March (£665,387); Anonymous (£183,194); Ghostbusters (Re: 2011) (£55,934); #1 The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn £6,758,724 1st week 512 screens (42.9% of top 10)
Down 3.1% from 2010: (£12,911,776); Saw 3D (£3,600,083); Burke and Hare (£942,894); The Kids Are All Right (£411,960); #1 Saw 3D £3,600,083 1st week 382 screens (27.8% of top 10)
Down 5.4% from 2009; (£13,240,462); Michael Jackson’s This Is It (£4,877,255); 9 (£468,455); An Education (£399,122); Dead Man Running (£198,442); An American Werewolf in London (re) (£35,151); #1 Up Michael Jackson’s This Is It £4,877,255 1st week 498 screens (36.8% of top 10)
Down 45.1% from 2008; (£21,398,860); Quantum of Solace (£15,384,217); Hunger (£136,413); Midnight Meat Train (£20,444); #1 Quantum of Solace £15,384,217 1st week 540 screens (71.9% of top 10)
Up 16.8% from 2007: (£10,717,468); Saw IV (£2,482,889); Eastern Promises (£623,491); Sicko (£156,173); #1 Ratatouille £3,589,762 3rd week up 19% 525 screens (33.5% of top 10)
Up 39.6% from 2006; (£8,965,508); Saw III (£2,522,521); Step Up (£1,212,725); A Good Year (£376,962); #1 Saw III £2,522,521 1st week 373 screens (28.1% of top 10)
Down 4.7% from 2005 (£13,142,985); Saw II (£2,189,212); The Legend of Zorro (£1,899,689); #1 Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit £3,593,266 3rd week 495 screens 23% drop (27.3% of top 10)
Up 65.8% from 2004 (£7,550,271); Finding Neverland (£776,124); Exorcist: The Beginning (577,128); House of the Dead (£107,045); Saved! (£80,772); #1 Shark Tale £2,435,188 3rd week 503 screens 24% drop (32.2% of top 10)
Up 35.7% from 2003 (£9,161,054); The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (£1,357,534); In America (£284,259); In the Cut (£279,068); Alien – Director’s Cut (£208,081); #1 Finding Nemo £3,393,575 5th week 4th #1 501 screens 13% drop (37.1% of top 10)
Up 72.1% from 2002 (£7,277,320): Halloween Resurrection (£520,171); K-19 (£352,163); High Crimes (£208,727); Donnie Darko (£191,348); Simone (£147,372); Possession (£85,004); The Magdalene Sisters (£78,151); #1 XXX £2,044,850 2nd week 40% drop 435 screens (28.1% of top 10)
Up 58% from 2001 (£7,926,562); Legally Blonde (£1,453,148); The Man Who Wasn’t There (£419,609); #1 American Pie 2 £1,626,438 3rd week 417 screens 42% drop (20.5% of top 10).
Next week: (£6,497,741); Living (£670,206); One Piece Film: Red (£559,623); Watcher (£140,396); The Bodyguard (30th Anniversary) (£24,074); #1 Black Adam £2,006,821 3rd week dropped 43% 650 screens (30.9% of top 10)
Film News
UK September admission 7,444,987; to put September admissions into perspective the first week of Barbenheimer had 7,332,592 admissions.
Up 15.1% From 2022 but down 32.1% from 2019; Year to date admission – 95,590,564 up 5.4% from 2022
Top 10 Films of September – September (Total in Brackets)
Equalizer 3 – £6,983,328 (£8,523,227)
Haunting in Venice – £6,415,078 (£8,820,640)
The Nun2 – £5,761,360 (£6,432,182)
Barbie – £4,311,037 (£95,535,932)
Oppenheimer – £3,367,345 (£58,128,000)
Jawan – £2,925,066 (£3,082,665)
Past Lives – £1,944,382 (£2,532,719)
Sound of Freedom – £1,920,298 (£2,179,157)
The Creator – £1,642,828 (£5,747,455)
Saw X – £1,413,251 (£5,124,865)
If Oct-Dec admissions are similar to last year they will add about 25m, that said Marvels is expected to open similar to The Flash, while Wish will do much better than Strange World and Wonka will take more than Matilda, Aquaman 2 will take about a quarter of Avatar 2. Would see admissions at about 124m similar to 1996, about 5% increase from 2022 and BO of £1bn+ up 11% from £902m.
With several films already delayed due to SAG strike that should have never happened will see a soft first 6 months of 2024, pushing back recovery even further.
While box office will return to pre-pandemic levels over the next few years due to ticket inflation and the growth of Event Cinema, but the big question is when admissions return to levels, they were in 2019 as they are currently similar to how they were in the mid-90s.
After Paramount Pictures delayed Mission Impossible 8 to May 2025 last week due to the SAG strike Disney delayed Elio and Snow White also to 2025, they haven’t yet confirmed Deadpool 3 will also be delayed but most expect it to be delayed to July. This would mean Disney won’t have a major release after Wish next month for 6 months until Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes 24th May. Due to the failure of studios to make a deal with SAG before July it will have a major impact on the first 6 months of 2024 with many films delayed as many currently dated have yet to finish production.
US Box Office
- Five Nights at Freddy’s – Universal Pictures
Opened $80m; received poor reviews (25% Rotten Tomatoes) and A- CinemaScore
117th biggest opening between Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Oz the Great and Powerful (close to Black Widow, Venom, I Am Legend and Halloween).
Ahead of the opening, was tracking to open anything between $40m and $90m as analysts were unsure if the film would play beyond its fanbase and if the PG-13 would alienate some fans as they would expect a scarier film with more gore. PG-13 did initially spark disappointment in fans as they might have been tweens when they started playing the game but now are older teens.
Took $25m from presales; 81% 13-24 with 94% under 35.
Took $10.3m from Thursday midnights.
Similar to IT Chapter Two $10.5m ($91m); Venom $10m ($80.2m); ahead of Paranormal Activity 2 $6.3m ($40.7m opening); Nope $6.4m ($44.4m); Us $7.4m ($71.1m); Halloween $7.7m ($76.2m); Paranormal Activity 3 $8 ($52.6m)
Entelligence reported it had 6m admissions; average ticket price of $12.93; 10% before 1 pm; 33% between 1 pm and 5 pm; 34% between 5 pm and 8 pm and 23% after 8 pm; 19% from PLF screens.
Much was made about it being released on the day and date of the Peacock but with 28m subscribers it unlikely affected it, what it might do is affect audiences seeing it multiple times in cinemas.
Blumhouse Production films have taken $3bn in the US and $5.7bn worldwide.
Had the biggest Blumhouse opening ever; the biggest 2023 opening for horror ahead of Scream VI ($44.4m); 2nd biggest opening based on a video game after Super Mario Bros ($146.3m) ahead of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ($72m).
Recent opening
2023’s The Exorcist: Believer $26.49m taking $57.26m and $109.5m worldwide
2023’s Insidious: The Red Door $33.01m taking $82.15m and $186.25m worldwide
2023’s M3gan $30.42m taking $95.04m and $181.01m
2022’s Halloween Ends $40.05m and $64.08m and $105.4m worldwide
Biggest openings
2019’s Halloween $76.22m taking $159.36m and $255.41m worldwide
2011’s Paranormal Activity 3 $52.56m taking $104.02m and $207.03m worldwide
2021’s Halloween Kills $49.4m taking $92m and $130.85m worldwide
2010’s Paranormal Activity 2 $40.67m taking $84.75m and $177.51m
2019’s Glass $40.32m taking $111.04m and $246.9m worldwide
Opened with $52.6m from 64 territories and $130.6m worldwide; Mexico $10.8m; UK $6.3m; Brazil $3.9m; Australia $3.8m; Germany $2.6m; Argentina $2.3m; Poland $2m; Chile $1.9m; Peru $1.7m and Saudi Arabia $1.5m.
Opened similar internationally to Conjuring 2, Annabelle Comes Home and Insidious: The Red Door
- Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour – AMC
Dropped 54% in the third weekend taking $15.43.7m #2 and $150.09m.
294th biggest third weekend between Thor and The Twilight Saga: New Moon (close to 22 Jump Street, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Batman Forever and 21 Jump Street)
413th biggest between American Hustle and Neighbors; 976th biggest inflated between The Natural and The China Syndrome; 15th biggest 2023 between Elemental and Fast X.
As with One Direction’s This Is Us 10 years ago only a small percentage of Taylor Swift fans came out to see Eras Tour over opening weekend ($90m opening about 4.5m admissions this compares to 4.8m+ who saw her live concerts generating $2.2bn in ticket sales). There are 180m+ Taylor Swift fans in the US and 54m+ Swifties (20%) 523m fans worldwide and 104m+ Swifties. Era should be opening with more than three times as much having one of the biggest ever openings in the US.
It’s impossible to compare it with any other concert film due to the standard price of $19.89, but that hasn’t stopped the industry from doing so.
2009’s Michael Jackson: This Is It dropped 61.4% $5.08m #5 and $67.19m of $72.09m and $261.18m worldwide
2011’s Justin Bieber: Never Say Never dropped 29.5% $9.38m #6 and $62.96m of $73.01m and $99.03m worldwide
2012’s Katy Perry’s Part of Me dropped 69.8% $1.14m #13 and $22.61m of $25.32m and $32.72m worldwide
2013’s One Direction: This Is Us dropped 39% $2.47m #6 and $26.95m of $28.87m and $68.56m worldwide
It never made any sense for analysts to compare Eras Tour with Never Say Never as it is impossible to compare the two as it was released 12 years ago with an average price of $7.93 while Eras Tour according to Entelligence had an average of $20.84.
As a 2023 Morning Consult survey said 53% of US adults are Swift fans, 44% identified as Swifties and 16% as her “avid” fans, the film should attract Swifties about 104m+ of the 520m Swift fans worldwide. As 20% of Swifties are from the US and these adult Swifties will pay at least $19.89 should be looking at a $300m+ opening, $1bn+ US BO and $3bn+ worldwide.
Took $6.7m from 94 territories $53.7m total and $203m worldwide. Given the popularity of Taylor Swift internationally is as strong as the US Era Tour should have surely taken similar to the US, but as the concerts haven’t started internationally fans are holding back from seeing it.
- Killers of the Flower Moon – Paramount Pictures
Dropped 60% in the second weekend $9.31m and $40.99m.
The biggest drop was due to losing many PLF screens and Killers playing to a younger audience than expected, but it still kept most IMAX screens.
As with all films opening since Oppenheimer in July due to the SAG strike the film promotion was centered on Martin Scorsese as the actors weren’t able to do any promotion, that said the cast attended Cannes Film Festival premiere in May. For most films opening since July, the strike has affected their BO.
Martin Scorsese has directed 26 films, received 13 Oscar nominations, winning only 1 Best Director for 2006’s The Departed. His films have taken $1.034bn in the US and $2.153bn worldwide,
Killers of the Flower Moon is Martin Scorsese’s first theatrical release since 2016’s Silence which flopped at the BO taking $7.1m in the US and $23.7m worldwide, this saw Paramount Pictures drop out from releasing 2019’s The Irishman with Netflix buying it instead.
Earlier films include.
2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street dropped 27.9% $13.23m #4 and $63.12 of $1116.94m and $389.81m worldwide
2011’s Hugo dropped 33.5% $7.55m and $25.12m of $73.86m and $180.04m worldwide
2010’s Shutter Island dropped 44.8% $22.66m and $75.54m of $128.01m and $299.46m worldwide
2006’s The Departed dropped 29.2% $19.03m and $56.98m of $132.38m and $289.66m worldwide
2004’s The Aviator expanded $9.4m wide (after platform) taking $102.61m and $213.71m worldwide
2002’s Gangs of New York up 23.1% (added 686 screens) $11.2m and $30.1m of $77.73m and $183.12m worldwide
1995’s Casino dropped 38.5% $6.12m and $23.66m of $42.43m and $110.4m worldwide
1991’s Cape Fear dropped 2.2% (added 778 screens) $10.03m and $24.25m of $79.09m and $182.29m worldwide
1990’s Goodfellas dropped 7.7$ $5.88m and $14.85m of $46.74m worldwide n/a
Ridley Scott’s Napoleon opens in three weeks is currently expected to open similar to Killers of the Flower Moon between $16m-$20m taking similar BO of $60m, the problem is audiences aren’t coming out to see these epic films as they did 20+ years ago as that will be about half of the opening of 2000’s Gladiator $34.81m taking $187.7m and $503.16m worldwide with a budget of $103m compared with $130m+ for Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon $200m+. Both are financed by Apple having previously both being developed at studios as they won’t make these kinds of films anymore.
Gladiator 2 received a tax break of $50m to film in Malta of its $103m budget, this has been similarly the case for US films shooting in the UK with films receiving 25% tax break, The Marvels received tax break of $55m from $274.8m budget.
Took $15m from 63 territories and $88m worldwide.
UK Box Office Top 10
UK Box Office Preview
With no new major releases, the end of half-term and Halloween most films will see a 50% drop,
Five Nights at Freddy’s opening was front-loaded due to taking £2.24m from previews and half-term, but then surprisingly drop on Saturday from Friday, will drop up to 70% in its second weekend, about 50% without previews. It will still hold #1 as all other films will also drop off. Taking £1.6m-£1.9m.
Trolls Band Together will drop heavily on Friday but will remain steady on Sat/Sun as normally happens the weekend after half-term ends, Trolls dropped 39% in the same weekend in 2016. Taking about £1.2m-£1.6m
Killers Of The Flower Moon will drop another 40%+ in its third weekend taking £0.7m-£1m with Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour dropping 40%-50% taking £0.6m-£0.8m in its final weekend not including another £400k from Thursday.
The new release teen comedy Bottoms could squeeze out into the top five if it can find an audience as it received positive reviews and took $12m on a limited release in late summer in the US. Likewise, The Royal Hotel could open at the lower end of top 10 as its also received positive reviews and is having a widish opening and as horrors like The Exorcist: Believer and Saw X will drop heavily now Halloween is over.
Yash Raj’s Tiger 3 sequel to 2017’s Tiger Zinda Hai opened #7 £495,660 from 110 cinemas, after the opening of films like Leo and Jawan it could also open in the lower end of the top 10.
This weekend is normally the calm before the storm with the opening of the next Marvel film, but expectations are very low for The Marvels with presales very soft in the US and is expected to open similar to The Flash.
Opening in three weeks
- Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce (Thursday) – Trafalgar Releasing
Tickets go on presale in the UK on November 9, tickets have been on presale since October 2nd and sales are about a quarter of the Eras Tour, but no box office data has been officially released unlike Eras Tour when 24-hour presale data was announced and also after two weeks.
The film will have its US premiere on November 25th and world premiere on November 30th; this of course makes no sense as surely the US premiere is the world premiere, but so often US premiere has been called the world premiere after having an international premiere earlier.
As with Eras Tour the film will be in cinemas Thurs-Sun no price point has been announced yet for the UK but as the US is $22 plus tax, they are likely to be £22 which will be more than Eras Tour £19.89/£13.13.
It is not known how many weeks Renaissance will play in cinemas but as Beyonce’s fan base is older than Taylor Swift and UK fans have seen her Renaissance tour in the summer this will allow fans to experience the concert again. As with Era Tour, many Beyonce fans missed out on buying tickets in February for her UK concerts as within 20 minutes of them going on sale there were 400,000 queuing online.
Beyonce’s US concerts generated over $bn from ticket sales with 2.24 million tickets sold, Taylor Swift’s US tour generated a similar amount which puts the cinema BO performance into perspective.
- Eileen – Universal Pictures
Psychological thriller starring Thomasin McKenzie, Shea Whigham, Marin Ireland, Owen Teague and Anne Hathaway and directed by William Oldroyd, based on the 2015 novel Ottessa Moshfegh.
The film was originally developed at Fox Searchlight in 2016 receiving positive reviews (89% Rotten Tomatoes) and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Neon bought US rights in March 2023 for $15m and Focus Features bought international rights in July.
- Andre Rieu’s White Christmas (Saturday) – Piece Of Magic Entertainment
André Rieu’s concerts have grown in popularity since the first one released in 2014’s Maastricht Concert £830,586, but since cinemas reopened after COVID haven’t found similar success despite last year’s Maastricht Summer Concert opened #1 £798,706 (opening the same weekend) while earlier this year Dublin 2023 opened in January with £715,986 #5.
Andre Rieu’s 2015 Maastricht Concert £1,107,000.
Andre Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert £1,414,075.
Andre Rieu: Christmas with Andre 2016 £1,180,208 #4 470 screens.
Andre Rieu’s 2017 Maastricht Concert £1,439,604.
2018’s André Rieu’s Maastricht Concert, ’Amore £1,783,222.
Andre Rieu’s 2019 New Year Concert from Sydney £1,745,941 #4 570 screens.
Andre Rieu 2019 Maastricht Concert – Shall We Dance? (July) £1,492,154 #4 587 screens.
2020’s Andre Rieu’s Magical Maastricht: Together In Music (September) £124,101 #4 403 screens.
2020’s Andre Rieu: 70 Years Young (January) £1,717,074 #6 579 screens.
Andre Rieu’s 2023 Maastricht Concert: Love Is All Around opened for £710,326.
The first one after cinemas opened after COVID Andre Rieu’s 2021 Summer Concert: Together Again (August) £420,056 #4 551 screens.