1. Frozen 2 – £4,397,903   – £33,678,829

Down 49.5% in its third weekend

Had the 4^th biggest third weekend animated film in the UK after Toy Story 4 (£5,543,052). The Lion King (£5,158,310) (while Disney believe its live action everyone including the Golden Globes believe its animated) and Toy Story 3 (£4,666,021).

19^th biggest animated film in the UK after 17 days between Up and The Lego Movie (will overtake Shrek The Third, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo over the next week and 32^nd biggest inflation inflated between Madagascar and Ice Age: Continental Drift

Had 5^th biggest 3^rd weekend of 20129 after Toy Story 4, Joker, The Lion King and Avengers: Endgame and close to Aladdin (£3,929,625);

The 29^th biggest third weekend in the UK between Avengers: Endgame and The Dark Knight Rises close to Paddington 2 and Mary Poppins Returns

While 2013’s Frozen dropped only 6.9% in its third weekend Frozen 2 dropped 49% which was similar to The Lion King and Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2. Normally after the second weekend big drop-off the third weekend will stabilise especially a children’s film during term time as the weekend is when the film will take the majority of its box office. With Jumanji: The Next Level previewing over the weekend taking away IMAX and major screens must have impacted on Frozen 2 despite the target audience being younger and targetting girls.

After 17 days Frozen 2 is already the 8^th biggest film of 2019 between Spider-Man Far From Home and Downtown Abbey and Disney’s 6^th biggest film in the UK in 2019.

100^th biggest film at the UK box office between Fantastic Beasts 2 and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and 119^thbiggest inflation inflated between Deadpool 2 and Suicide Squad.

Became the 124^th film to take over £30m at the UK BO since Jurassic Park in 1993 and Disney’s 35^th since Toy Story 2 in 2000 and their 27^th this decade with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker being Disney’s 28^th in a few weeks’ time; 5 are original animated films (Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up and Inside Out) none are original live-action films which has been Disney’s weakness since this century.

It was surprising to see that despite taking £8.71m last weekend exhibitors out Jumanji: The Next level in all IMAX and major screens for previews over the weekend, but saying that as the audience for Frozen 2 is younger they only care is seeing the film not how big the screen is.

Frozen 2 might be an animated film but it has much more in common with Harry Potter films as the original film became a cultural phenomenon when it was released in 2013 which saw children watch it multiple timed in cinemas and then again multiple times at home and then listened to Let It Go non stop dressed as Elsa or Anna.

This was repeated again two years later with the two Frozen shorts Frozen Fever with 2015’s Cinderella and 2017’s Olaf’s Frozen Adventure Disney released the short with re-release of Frozen in November 2017 with tickets only £1 opening with £1,115,689.

3^rd weekend similar to

2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them dropped 50% taking £4,494,727 and £37,886,538 69.4% of £54,593,487

2010’s Harry Potter and the  Deathly Hallows Part 1 dropped 55.2% taking £3,739,781 and £39,145,114 74.6% of £52,478,788

2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 dropped 48% taking £4,567,581 and £55,520,549 76% of £73,090,591

2001’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone dropped 42% taking £3,345,310 and £43,335,133 67.7% of £63,957,673

But Disney animated films have longer legged especially those that open in November (and July playing through till September) as they will play through till January.

Comparable to The Lion King dropping 52% taking £5,158,311 and £50,701,449 66.7% of £75,926,643 and Toy Story 4  dropped 33% taking £5,543,052 and £36,039,107 54.6% of £66,030,065

2017’s Beauty and the Beast dropped 45% taking £6,750,000 and £51,385,248 71% of £72,430,579

2013’s Frozen dropped only 7% taking £3,919,280 (week before Christmas and start of the school Christmas holidays) and £16,153,236 37.6% of £42,976,318; dropped down to #3

Up #2 in 4^th weekend down 10% taking £3,518,099 and £23,583,531

Down #3 in 5^th weekend down 17% taking £2,922,721 and £30,807,697 (end of school holidays)

Took £1m+ for 8 weeks; top 5 for 9 weeks and top 10 for 10 weeks until the arrival of The Lego Movie in February 2014 (opened with £8,051,140).

While Frozen opened two weeks before Christmas holidays, Frozen 2 was 5 weeks ahead as its release was dated ahead of Thanksgiving in the US, so won’t hold as strongly but will hold #1 for three weeks before Jumanji: The Next level and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens.

2013’s Frozen (£4,704,940) is 50^th biggest animated opening in the UK in 2013 Frozen had the 29th biggest animated opening between How to Train Your Dragon and Shrek.

2013’s Frozen was beloved by young girls who saw the film countless times in cinemas

Let It Go video has been seen on YouTube over 1bn times on YouTube and the singalong over 1.8bn times since December 2013

Frozen took £42,976,318 was the 10th biggest animated film; in 2013 Frozen was the 5th biggest animated film after Toy Story 3, Shrek 2, Despicable Me 2 and Toy Story 2.

Frozen became a cultural phenomenon when it was released in 2013 as The Greatest Showman become two years ago, the difference between the two was Frozen had the Disney brand attached and mostly positive reviews while The Greatest Showman was purely audience-driven. Six months after Frozen was released the name Elsa climbed into 88th place up 243 slots on the UK baby name list.

Frozen captured the heart of pre-teen girls in 2013 with many watching it countless times in cinema and then on video to known almost every word, if a film, TV show, musical connects with preteens they will watch it again and again as adults we will often get bored watching on repeat but they seem to enjoy them even more as they sing along to the songs.

Frozen took $1.2bn worldwide, at the time was 5th highest-grossing film of all time and the highest-grossing animation. Won two Oscars, a BATFA and a Golden Globe The soundtrack sold more than 10m worldwide in 2014 (1m+ in the UK), 7m Spotify streams and official YouTube videos of trailers and Let It Go in the hundreds of millions. Many of the music records were beaten by The Greatest Showman two years ago, after almost two years on the UK album chart it is still in the top 20 Despite its huge success Idina Menzel’s Let It Go only got to #11 in the UK singles chart.

After opening with 221% more than Frozen last weekend its unlikely that Frozen 2 will keep that pace and take 221% more than Frozen (£42,976,318) as that would be £95.9m; Frozen opened with 9.13x opening (opening weekend was only 10.95%) compared to 20.1% for Toy Story 4 and 21.9% for The Lion King, while Paddington was 13.5% and Paddington 19.3%.

Into the Unknown is #36; Show Yourself #66 and Some Things Never Change #100 in the UK singles chart but while the soundtrack album for Frozen is #10 in its 205^th week on release Frozen 2 soundtrack isn’t in the soundtrack chart but instead the compilation charts. Think you can chart a film’s popularity with its soundtrack sales as while people will rush out to see the film over opening weekend soundtrack sales are more steady

Disney released 9 films in 2019 have taken almost £400m with Frozen 2 expected to take upwards of £50m+ and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker taking upwards of £100m and adding £70m+ from 20^th Century Fox, Disney will take close to £600m in 2019 over 45% of 2019 UK box office.

2. Knives Out   – £1,637,525    – £6,042,446

Down 44.2% in its second weekend

Had 488^th biggest second weekend in the UK between Dark Shadows and Cars 3 (close to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, American Beauty, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Lady in the Van) and 684^th biggest inflation inflated between Clueless and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (close to Fight Club, Good Will Hunting, The Post and Three Kings).

Had Lionsgate’s 8^th biggest second weekend between Bend It Like Beckham and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (second biggest 2019 second weekend after John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum) and 13^th inflation inflated between Drag Me to Hell and The Expendables.

Knives out is Lionsgate’s 21^st biggest film in the UK between Saw V and The Expendables 2 and 25^th biggest inflation inflated between Cabin in the Woods and Fighting With My Family.

With Frozen 2 and Blue Story crowding cinemas over the weekend older audiences probably prefer to see Knives Out during the weekend this was seen by Knives Out climbing the chart during weekdays. as many grey=pound films do. With no competition for a few weeks until Little Women Knives Out should hold well over the coming weeks receiving strong word of mouth.

Took £4.41m in its opening week (inflated with previews) similar to Stan & Ollie, Judy and Mary Queen of Scots also films targetting the grey-pound.

Knives Out generated strong buzz since premiering at Toronto and London Film Festivals the film was inspired by Agatha Christie all-star adaptations like Murder on the Orient Express have similar star ensemble cast.

2017’s Murder on the Orient Express dropped 12% in its second weekend taking £4,376,429 and £12,989,387 53.8% of £24,140,635 but can’t be compared directly as Agatha Christie is one of the biggest selling novelist in the UK and while it might be inspired by her Knives Out is a new story and has been compared to Clue, Gosford Park (opened £833,119 taking £12.3m), Gone Girl, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Get Out and dare I saw it Netflix’s Murder Mystery with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.

For original film the trailers were surprisingly absent of any spoilers, but as it was targetting an older audience they want to see films with the surprises in the film rather than the trailers.

Away from James Bond Daniel Craig has had limited success at the box office apart from 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Knives Out is his first film since 2017’s Lucky Logan opened with £705,087 taking £3,207,543; Daniel Craig announced last week that No Time to Die will be his final James Bond film but he also said that SPECTRE would be his final Bond film. The first teaser trailer is being released last week.

Knives Out is Rhian Johnson’s first film since the polarised Star Wars: The Last Jedi which saw him being dropped from further Star Wars films; previously directed 2012’s Looper taking £9,706,738; 2010’s The Brothers Bloom (taking £114,981), and 2006’s Brick (taking £708,468).

Lionsgate released 17 films in 2019 taking over £50m Lionsgate has taken more than double 2018’s box office; Knives Out is their third biggest 2019 release between Angel Has Fallen and Fighting With My Family.

3. Last Christmas – £1,318,062   – £12,474,204

Down 20.3% in its fourth weekend

22^nd biggest film of 2019 between Shazam and Glass and Universal Pictured 6^th biggest film of 2019 between Yesterday and Us

52^nd biggest Universal Pictures film in the UK between Fast & Furious and Atonement (close to Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang, Pitch Perfect 3, Mrs. Brown’s Boys d’Movie and Yesterday) and 59^th biggest Universal Pictures film between Inglourious Basterds and The Bourne Legacy.

While we might speak the same language in the UK as the US Last Christmas is another example that our taste in comedy is very different, while Last Christmas quickly dropped down the chart in the US it has held strong over the last four weeks on release in the UK,

Last Christmas by Wham is #13 on the singles charts and the soundtrack album is #9

It is strange that while UK audiences are often more grownup than US with dramas and thrillers their taste in comedy is as it was over 20 years ago why shows like Mrs Browns Boys are still so popular as was the film a few years ago,  While audience keep failing for the twee Richard Curtis awkward predictable humour that hasn’t changed since Four Weddings and a Funeral 25 years ago.

Fourth weekends

2003’s Love Actually dropped 29% £2,273,706 taking £25,166,894 69.9% of £36,026,147 (£58,583,059 inflation inflated)

2006’s The Holiday dropped 16% £888,578 taking £10,226,830 84.5% of £12,097,597

2008’s Four Christmases dropped 6% £1,064,615 taking £8,517,758 83.3% of £10,222,998

2011’s Bridesmaid dropped 30% taking £1,576,780 and £15,858,973 71.1% of £22,318,130

2019’s Yesterday dropped 29% taking £774,895 and £9,918,435 72.3% of  £13,714,876

1989 is the 30th anniversary of the classic rom com When Harry Met Sally and the 25th anniversary of Miracle on 34th Street remake.

Emilia Clarke was upset that spoilers were being revealed on social media about the film, but the title Last Christmas is the films biggest spoiler once you know the film features George Michael songs, as the next line is “I gave you my heart”… as the twist is Tom gave Kate her heart.

Universal Pictures had 24 released in 2019 taking over £170m with Cats and Black Christmas still to be released.

Cats is the big unknown as while trailers have had a mixed reaction musicals are normally very successful in the UK and with the cast and the popularity of the stage show and Christmas Cats could take anything between £20-30m. Many think Universal is mad to release it against Star Wars but it’s targetting a very different demographic and after polarised reaction to Star Wars films there is room in the market for both.

While Universal Pictures will end 2019 second to Disney this year with No Time To Die, Trolls World Tour, Fast & Furious 9, Minions 2, The Croods 2, Emma, Late Night in Soho and News of the World it will be a much closer battle in 2020.

4. Les Misérables: The Staged Concert – £946,785  – £3,246,166

After taking £2,281,150 on Monday becoming the highest-grossing one-night live event performance of all time. It had encore screenings over the weekend taking £942,107 from 379 screens.

Universal Pictures Billy Elliot The Musical Live opened #1 in September 2014 taking £1,904,098 (ahead of The Equalizer opening #2 with £1,890,1460) and Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary performance in October2016 took £2,033,031.

While Billy Elliot and Miss Saigon were on weekends majority of Event Cinema events are during the week with Monday now becoming common, which exhibitors like as its normally the slowest day of the week.

Next October Universal Pictures will surely screen Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in cinemas when it closes its limited run next summer at the London Palladium.

2019 has been a huge year for Event Cinema taking over £47m at the UK box office (up to the end of November) more than many film distributors.  Nine titles have taken over £1m and September was Event Cinema’s biggest month of all time, taking over £7m with NT’s Live Fleabag taking over £4m;  Event Cinema took £41.3m in 2018; £25m in 2017 and £32.8m in 2016.

Event Cinema is a great addition to regular cinema as is Secret Cinema but as both have surcharges on regular ticket prices shouldn’t be included within regular cinema, as including Event Cinema helps to artificially inflate UK box office and admissions as Event Cinema is often up to 100% more than regular prices while Secret Cinema is up to ten times. This means it will add over 6.5m admissions to 2019 but only 5% (500k) were real admissions.

The other issue with Event Cinema is it has eaten into independent and foreign language market as exhibitors are more willing to book Event Cinema as its one show rather than book out a week for an independent/foreign language film.

While Les Misérables: The Staged Concert performed strongly Friends 25th: The One with the Anniversary only took £126,302 391 screens from screenings on Sunday. It was always likely that Friends would fail to find an audience in cinemas due to exhibitors adding the regular surcharges for Event Cinema.

While cinemagoers might be willing to pay more to see Les Misérables they won’t for a 25-year-old TV show which has its episodes shown daily on terrestrial TV. As with other anniversary screenings of films this year including The Matrix and Batman and Gremlins over the weekend also the higher prices will limit the audience to see Friends in cinemas. In September Friends 25th: The One With The Anniversary took $1,177,873 from over 1,500 screens.

As with 2018 box office, it will be Event Cinema and Secret Cinema that will be the reason if the UK box office grows slightly this year rather than the big megamovies.

5. Blue Story – £378,589  – £3,676,952

Down 55.4% in its third weekend

Some will highlight the film being banned from Vue as the catalyst for Blue Story success but before the cinema violence it was packing out the small cinema auditoriums it was booked in as exhibitors underestimate its demand and BBFC underestimated the age of its audience.

Blue Story was included on BAFTA the 10 films shortlisted for the category of an outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer; nominations are announced on January 7^th.

Has overtaken 2008’s Adulthood (£3.3m) and will overtake 2016’s Brotherhood (£3.7m) this week.

56^th biggest film of 2019 between The Good Liar and The Hustle and 5^th biggest Paramount Pictures 2019 film between Pet Sematary and Good Boys.

Sadiq Khan said on LBC last week cinemas were far to quick to pull the film but was a hypocrite as the Mayor’s office didn’t allow the film to be shot in London.

Paramount Pictures surprisingly won Screen’s Distributor of the year award last week, while the studio has improved a lot over the last year they are still the fifth biggest studio currently in the UK after Disney, Universal, Warner and Sony, while Rocket Man did strongly at the box office it took less than half of Bohemian Rhapsody despite being a better-made film.

2020 will be a massive year for Paramount Pictures as after joining the studio in 2017 it will be the first complete slate of films made under Jim Gianopulos and is their strongest slate for almost a decade. Films including Sonic the Hedgehog, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, A Quiet Place 2, Top Gun: Maverick, Without Remorse, G.I Joe 3, The Tomorrow War and at the moment Coming to America 2 (but having recently dated The Tomorrow War for Christmas 2020 and Paramount selling Beverly Hills Cop 4 to Netflix it’s unlikely to be released in 2020,

While cinemas prepared for the arrival of Joker they were probably too busy thinking about Frozen 2 to possibly think Blue Story might find an audience, but as some compared the film to Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society when both were released in US violence broke out in cinemas, there should have been similar concerns that Blue Story could do too.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £9,470,969 down 40.7% from last weekend £15,983,967

The weekend admissions 1,198,163 43.7% down from last weekend 2,128,358

23 films opened at weekend taking (£1,885,315; Les Misérables: The Staged Concert 50.2% (£946,785); Gremlins 8.6% (£162,528); Motherless Brooklyn (£153,821) 8.1%; Elf (£148,489) 7.8%; remaining 19 films shared 25.1% (6£473,692);

Top three took 77.6% (£7,353,490) of the top 10; Frozen 2 46.4% (£4,397,903); Knives Out 17.3% (£1,637,525); Last Christmas 13.7% (£1,318,062);

Down 3.8% from 2018: (£9,850,638); The Old Man & the Gun (£317,831); Sorry to Bother You (£250,453); The Nutcracker – ROH, London 2018/19 (£191,828); Die Hard (30th Anniversary) (£86,628); Tulip Fever (£49,539); The Snowman and the Snowdog (£18,135); White Boy Rick (£30,090); Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Re: 2018) (£1,375); #1 Ralph Breaks the Internet £2,446,583 2nd week 39% drop 619 screens (24.8% of top 10)

Up 71.7% from 2017: (£5,515,127); The Nutcracker – ROH, London 2017/18 (£137,862); Stronger (£102,379); Better Watch Out (£44,305); Brigsby Bear (£36,778); The Muppet Christmas Carol (Re: 2017) (£36,287); A Matter of Life and Death (4K Restoration) (£10,594); #1 Paddington 2 £2,883,617 5^th week 4^th #1 42% drop 661 screens (30.6% of top 10)

Up 11.8% from 2016: (£8,465,385); Office Christmas Party (£1,198,176); Snowden (£209,352); The Birth of a Nation (£135,162); Life, Animated (£25,612); The Pass (£18,673); #1 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them £2,734,960 4^th week 620 screens 40% drop (32.3% of the top 10)

Up 4.2% from 2015; (£9,087,311); Christmas with the Coopers (£683,217); Victor Frankenstein (£431,125); Krampus (£412,713); The Night Before (£272,930); The Lady of the Camellias – Bolshoi 2015 (£105,300); #1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 £2,240,723 3^rd week 539 screens 51% drop (24.6% of top 10)

Down 17.3% from 2014: (£11,455,843); Penguins of Madagascar (£1,575,949); Get Santa (£576,722); St. Vincent (£389,136); Black Sea (£246,309); The Pyramid (£190,049); Men, Women and Children (£73,393); #1 Paddington £3,837,885 2^nd week 540 screens 25% drop (33.5% of top 10)

Down 11.1% from 2013: (£10,647,204); Frozen (£4,704,940); Homefront (£440,306); Nebraska (£151,332); Old Boy (£94,818); Black Nativity (£61,324); Kill Your Darlings (£38,984); Getaway (£26,467); #1 Frozen £4,704,940 1^st week 505 screens (44.2% of top 10)

Up 28.2% from 2012 (£7,384,684); Seven Psychopaths (£1,121,679); So Undercover (£99,340); The Man with the Iron Fists (£49,072); The Oranges (£18,513); Celeste and Jesse Forever (£6,915); Gremlins (Re: 2012) (£1,147); #1 Rise of the Guardians £1,602,689 2^nd week 1^st #1 495 screens 19% drop (21.7% of top 10)

Up 13.5% from 2011 (£8,340,633); Happy Feet 2 (£1,686,197); Hugo (£1,225,987); The Thing (£485,534); The Big Year (£122,591); Margaret (£4,595); #1 Arthur Christmas £1,896,595 4^th week 1^st #1 502 screens 25% drop (22.7% of top 10)

Up 4.5% from 2010: (£9,062,260); Megamind (£2,827,502); Monsters (£348,577); The Warrior’s Way (£105,389); Secretariat (£40,941); #1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 £3,739,781 3^rd week 570 screens 55% drop 41.2% of top 10)

Down 7.14% from 2009; (£10,195,907); Planet 51 (£1,513,003); The Box (£474,938); The Descent: Part 2 (£313,739); Me and Orson Welles (£166,389); #1 Paranormal Activity £1,839,273 2^nd week 398 screens 49% drop (18.1% of top 10)

Down 14.4% from 2008; (£11,060,816); Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (£6,342,997); Transporter 3 (£958,615); Lakeview Terrace (£224,493); The Secret Life of Bees (£74,626); #1 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa £6,342,997 1^st week 520 screens (57.3% of top 10)

Down 11.2% from 2007: (£10,663,935); The Golden Compass (£7,243,984); Code Name: The Cleaner (£61,734); Southland Tales (£18,241); #1 The Golden Compass £7,243,984 1^st week 507 screens (68% of top 10)

Down 24.6% from 2006; (£12,568,238); Happy Feet (£3,689,166); The Holiday (£2,826,520); The Covenant (£181,365); The Nativity Story (£78,553); Bugsy Malone (re) (£231); #1 Happy Feet £3,689,166 1^st week 445 screens (29.3% of top 10)

Down 1.2% from 2005 (£9,591,419); Keeping Mum (£645,886); Doom (£612,087); Where the Truth Lies (£67,446); #1 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire £4,829,804 3^rd week 536 screens 48% drop (50.3% of top 10)

Up 16.5% from 2004 (£8,128,185); Christmas with the Kranks (£777,77 ); Churchill: The Hollywood Years (£148,326); The Merchant of Venice (£147,709); The Polar Express (platform) (£104,632); School for Seduction (£39,213); #1 The Incredibles £4,187,280 3^rd week 2^nd #1 57% drop 495 screens (51.5% of top 10)

Down 10.2% from 2003 (£10,553,520); S.W.A.T. (£1,960,281); Brother Bear (£887,321); Timeline (£279,505); Thirteen (£53,553); #1 Love Actually £3,202,417 3^rd week 478 screens 31% drop (30.3% of top 10)

Up 10.9% from 2002 (£8,535,252); Deathwatch (£334,657); The Dancer Upstairs (£61,622); 8 Crazy Nights (£48,440); #1 Die Another Day £3,426,623 3^rd week 443 screens 36% drop (40.1% of top 10)

Up 48.8% from 2001 (£6,363,002); The 51st State (£913,239); Riding In Cars With Boys (£237,279); Christmas Carol: The Movie (£171,576); #1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone £3,345,310 4^th week 501 screens 42% drop (52.6% of top 10);

Next weekend in 2018: (£14,579,804); Aquaman (£5,230,285); Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (£2,279,995); Mortal Engines (£1,269,441); Free Solo (£387,402); La Traviata – Met Opera 2018 (£274,847); CBeebies Christmas Show: Thumbelina (£195,580); It’s a Wonderful Life (4K Restoration) (£114,865); #1 Aquaman £5,230,285 1^st week 604 screens (35.8% of top 10)

Other Box Office News

November’s biggest films took £78,742,342; Frozen 2 £29,261,738; Last Christmas £11,155,246; Joker £8,581,327; Le Mans ’66 £5,435,221; Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil £4,838,103; The Addams Family £4,780,092; Knives Out £4,399,020; The Good Liar £3,700,363; Blue Story £3,298,032

Still saw box office 16% lower than last year and its still 4% down o the year but with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Jumanji: The Next Level and Cats the year should match 2018 box office and probably see a slight increase in admissions as industry is still claiming average price is dropping.

With the slate of films this year including Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Captain Marvel, Aladdin, Spider-Man Far From Home, Frozen 2, Downtown Abbey, Rocketman, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Hobbs & Shaw, How to Train Your Dragon 3, The Secret Life of Pets 2, It 2, The Lego Movie 2, Jumanji: The Next Level and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, 2019 box office should have cantered past 2018 levels weeks ago.

Much is said about how stale UK box office is, but I always look back at the real growth between 1986 and 2002 which saw admissions more than double, with huge growth in the early 90s which saw industry experts predict admissions would top 200m by 2000. This is the reason why I might seem to be overly negative over the current state of the industry as surely the films have improved since 20 years ago so why did admissions stop growing in 2002?

I know they grew slightly last year but that’s only because the average ticket price dropped. While Vue has dropped tier prices below industry average most cinemas are still closer to a third more than average, as seen with Odeon Cinemas opening Luxe & Dine cinema in Islington 5 minutes’ walk from Vue cinema with tickets half the price.

Also Opened

 

• Motherless Brooklyn – Warner Bros

Opened with £153,821 from 387 screens

After under-performing in the US a few weeks ago Warner Bros still brought Edward Norton over to the UK to promote the film and gave Motherless Brooklyn a surprisingly wide release but despite this failed to find an audience over a quiet weekend.

Motherless Brooklyn is Edward Norton’s second film he has directed 2000’s Keeping The Faith opened with £261,887 taking £803,167.

He received an Oscar nomination for Gregory Hoblit’s 1996 Primal Fear opened £534,515 taking £1.8m and his two most famous roles both released in 1999 American History X opened £120,629, taking £513,447 and Fight Club opened with £1.2m taking £5.6m and most recently receiving third Oscar nomination for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 2015 Birdman opened £1.5m taking £6.1m.

• Gremlins (Warner) 4K re-release

Took £162,528 from 359 screens

Back in cinemas for its 35^th anniversary and to promote its 4K video release as Warner previously did earlier in the year with Batman (30^th anniversary) and The Matric (20^th anniversary).

While it’s great to see these films back I cinemas again and always enjoyed going to 70mm film seasons at the Odeon Marble Arch and seeing 70mm restorations of Spartacus and Lawrence of Arabia at the cinema, along with many others at the National Film Theatre.

My issue is that cinemas are charging regular prices to see these films which are widely available on video and steaming so sure if they want people to experience these films for the first time on the big screen they should be lower than regular prices.

In July

The Matrix: 20th Anniversary (4K Restoration) took £163,812 from 286 screens

The Matrix Reloaded (4K Restoration) took £876 from 12 screens

The Matrix Revolutions (4K Restoration) £583 from 10 screens

In May

Batman (4K Restoration) took £38,112 from 221 screens

Batman Forever (4K Restoration) took £293 from 2 screens

Batman & Robin (4K Restoration) took £154 from 2 screens

Distributors would regular; re-release films in cinemas over the decades wit Disney most famous for re-releasing a classic animated film to the next generation every decade, but most of the re-releases over the last 20 years have been handled either by Park Circus or BFI as Elf was also re-released over the weekend taking £148,589 from 274 screens.

Was a strange week at the box office with Event Cinema’s Les Misérables: The Staged Concert the biggest new release with encore screenings and Gremlins and Elf in the top 10 as reissues with all new film releases underperforming over the weekend which is normally a dump week by distributors as they clear their vault before the new year.

• Ordinary Love – Universal Pictures

Opened with £66,688 from 238 screens

Had world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival receiving positive reviews ad praise for the acting performances of the two leads.

Barros D’Sa and Leyburn previously directed 2010’s Cherrybomb opened with £6,860 taking £16,546 and 2013’s Good Vibrations opened £56,320 taking £309,446.

Lesley Manville recently starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2018 Phantom Thread opened with 727,077 taking closed: £2.8m.

While Liam Neeson’s recent films have been action films 2019’s Men In Black: International and Cold Pursuit opened £633,475 taking £2m) and 2018’s Widows opened £2.4m taking £6.4m. Before becoming an action star after starring in 2008’s Taken he was more often starring in dramas over action films.

Focus Features acquired international rights in June with US rights acquired by Bleecker Street who release it next February.

Despite positive reviews films like Ordinary Love rarely find an audience in cinemas and opening this weekend feels like Universal Pictures are dumping it with all the other films that will also not find an audience. Being the middle weekend between Frozen 2 and Jumanji: The Next Level it’s a dumping week for distributors as they clear their shelves before the new year.

• Lucy in the Sky – 20th Century Fox

Opened with £4,546 from 21 screens

The film opened on limited release in October taking $54,058 from 37 screens expanding to 198 screens in its second weekend taking $78,451 and $314,999; the film had a very limited theatrical release in the UK.

The cinema chosen to show Lucy in the Sky seemed to be very random Odeon has it at Camden, Holloway, Kingston, Covent Garden, Manchester and Southampton.

• Honey Boy – Sony Pictures

Opened with £33,463 from 82 screens

Opened similar to Peanut Butter Falcon opened in October shortly after its London Film Festival premiere taking £40,306 from 65 screens despite critical acclaim.

Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where Sony Pictures and Amazon acquired rights receiving positive reviews 97% Rotten Tomatoes.

2019 has been Shia LaBeouf’s comeback year with Honey Boy following the critical acclaim The Peanut Butter Falcon.

Away from Transformer franchise Shia LaBeouf starred in Lars von Trier’s 2013 Nymphomaniac Vol. I (opened £36,536 taking £104,403) and Vol. II (opened £15,354 taking £61,094); Andrea Arnold’s 2016 American Honey (opened £176,072 taking £477,661); .

Shia LaBeouf’s career had many twists and turns since starring in Holes in 2003, starring in the Transformers franchise and prestigious films and then some controversies (wearing a paper bag on his head on the red carpet at the 2014’s Cannes Film Festival for the Nymphomaniac premiere saying “I am not famous anymore”) and legal snags and political protest and two years ago his thriller Man Down opened in the UK with only £7 playing in one screen.

UK Box Office Top 10

US Box office

• Frozen 2 – Disney

Dropped 59% in its third weekend taking $35.16m and $338.09m

Ahead of the weekend Frozen 2 was expected to take upwards of $40m and dropping less than 55% instead only took 16% more than 2013’s Frozen despite opening with almost 60% more and with over 14% ticket inflation. This shows even Disney sequels aren’t immune, they might open bigger but they still dropping big when audiences realise they are all hype no sustenance.

2013’s Frozen dropped 28.6% taking $22.56m and $164.77m 41.1% of $400.73m; stayed in the top 10 for 17 weeks taking $1m+ for 17 weeks

Disney drops week after Thanksgiving

2013’s Frozen dropped 53% taking $31.6m; 2014’s Big Hero 6 dropped 57.3% taking $8.04m; 2015’s The Good Dinosaur dropped 60.9% taking $15.32m; 2016’s Moana dropped 50.1% taking $28.27m; 2017’s Coco dropped 33% taking $18.45m; 2018’s Ralph Breaks the Internet dropped 54% taking $25.5m;

Comparisons could be made with

3^rd weekends

2016’s Finding Dory dropped 42.7% taking $41.81m and $372.16m 76.5% of $486.29m; stayed in the top 10 for 7 weeks taking $1n+ for 9 weeks.

2018’s Incredibles 2 dropped 42.2% taking $46.41m and $440.6m 72.4% of $608.58; stayed in top 10 for 8 weeks taking $1n+ for 13 weeks

2019’s Toy Story 4 dropped 43.3% taking $33.86m and $306.11m 70.5% of $434.03m; stayed in the top 10 for 8 weeks taking $1m+ for 11 weeks

2019’s The Lion King dropped 49.7% taking $38.52m and $431.16m 79.3% of $543.63m; stayed in the top 10 for 11 weeks taking $1m+ for 11 weeks

Frozen took $1.274bn worldwide and in 2013 Frozen overtook Toy Story 3 to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time but was surpassed this year by The Lion King reimagination.

For the third time Disney has taken over $3bn at the US box office (last year Disney took $3.09bn). With a slate of films including Avengers: Endgame ($858.3m), The Lion King ($543.6m), Toy Story 4 ($434m), Captain Marvel ($426.8m and Aladdin ($355.6m) and on Monday became the first studio to take over $10bn worldwide in a year $3.2bn in the US and $6.71bn internationally, (Disney’s previous biggest was $7.6bn in 2016). Adding 20^th Century Fox BO they have taken $11.94bn.

With the slate of films Disney had in 2019, this was expected Avengers: Endgame ($2.798bn), The Lion King ($1.656bn), Captain Marvel ($1.130bn), Toy Story 4 ($1.074bn) and Aladdin ($1.051bnB) and Frozen 2 will take $1bn+ worldwide by next weekend and then Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will do too before the end of the year.  This will see Disney top $15bn worldwide which would be about 40% of the global box office for the year.

While it was always expected with the slate of films Disney would break box office records and cannibalize their rivals there are big questions over 2020- box office as Disney’s slate is probably the weakness for over 5 years while many of their rivals have strongest slates for many years.  While the 9 $1bn+ 20190 films were very easy to see this year it’s much harder to see next years with a much more closely fought battle next year with Universal and Warner Bros having much stronger slates.

7^th biggest 2019 film in the US between Aladdin and Joker

13^th biggest animated film between Zootopia and Minions

57^th biggest film in the US between Zootopia and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and 27^th biggest Disney film between Zootopia and Alice in Wonderland; 168^th biggest inflation inflated between Nine to Five and Inception.

Frozen 2 is unlikely to have the legs of the first film and faces much tougher competition with Jumanji: The Next Level, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Spies In Disguise opening over the next few weeks. Frozen 2 will open up to 50% bigger than Frozen but will drop off much heavier.

Took $190.2m from 48 territories and $582.1m international and $919.7m worldwide; China $104.4m; Korea $75.5m; Japan $55m; UK $43.1m; Germany $34.4m; France $31.5m; Russia $23m; Mexico $21.1m; Italy $14.8m; Spain $14.4m; Philippines $14.3m; Indonesia $13.1m; Australia $11.8m

7^th biggest 2019 film worldwide Aladdin and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and 11^th biggest 2019 fil, internationally between Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and 65^th biggest film internationally between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

13^th biggest animated film worldwide between Finding Nemo and The Secret Life of Pets; 59^th biggest film worldwide between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Bohemian Rhapsody and 28^th biggest Disney film worldwide between Finding Nemo and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.

• Knives Out – Lionsgate

Dropped 47% in its second weekend taking $14.21m and $63.55m

The second weekend was similar to 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express taking $13.8m and $51.3m 50.3% of $102.82m in the US and $252.78m worldwide.

The first film Rian Johnson has directed since the polarised Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Prior to directing The Last Jedi Rian Johnson was best known for directing indie films including Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper (opened $20.8m taking $66.48m and $176.5m.

Took $18.7m from 68 territories and $60.6m total and $124.1m worldwide; China $23.6m; UK $8.1m; Australia $3.9m;  Russia  $3.8m; France $3.1m.

• Queen & Slim – Universal Pictures

Dropped 44% in its second weekend taking $6.42m and $25.06m; received positive reviews 84% Rotten Tomatoes) and A- CinemaScore

 

• Ford v Ferrari – 20th Century Fox

Dropped 49% in its fourth weekend taking $6.55m and $91.22m

Ford Vs Ferrari has overtaken Alita: Battle Angel to become 20^th Century Fox’s biggest film of the year and will shortly also become their first $100m+ film since Bohemian Rhapsody.

28^th biggest 2019 film between Rocketman and Alita: Battle Angel; 103^rd biggest 20^th Century Fox film in the US between The Poseidon Adventure and Me, Myself & Irene.

Ford v Ferrari was always the diamond in a rough of 20^th Century Fox 2019 slate and the one likely to be their biggest film of the year as it is a genre of films the studio has had much success this century targetting older demographics including

4^th weekends

2005’s Walk the Line dropped 39.8% taking $5.78m and $76.99m 64.4% of $119.51m total and $186.43m worldwide

2013’s Rush dropped 46.7% taking $2.38m and $22.59m 83.8% of $26.94m and $90.24m worldwide

2015’s Bridge of Spies dropped 30.4% taking $5.83m and $54.72m 75.6% of $72.31m and $165.47m worldwide

2016’s Sully dropped 38.9% taking $8.27m and $105.26m 84.2% of $125.07m and $240.79m worldwide

2012’s Argo dropped 15.5% taking $10.2m and $75.86m 55.8% of $136.02m and $232.32m worldwide

Ford v Ferrari is James Mangold’s first film since 2017’s Logan and 5th film he has directed for 20th Century Fox (Walk the Line, Knight and Day, The Wolverine and Logan) and Matt Damon’s 9th (1996’s Courage Under Fire was one of his first major roles) and is his first major role since Downsizing, Suburbicon and The Great Wall).

Took $8.3m from 52 territories $76.5m and $167.6m worldwide; Russia $9.5m; France $8.2m; UK $7.3m; Australia $5.8m; Mexico $4.6m; Germany $3.3m; Korea $3.3m; Italy $3.1m; Spain $2.4m;

57^th biggest 2019 international film between Yesterday and Ad Astra and 41^st biggest 2019 film worldwide between Abominable and Gemini Man; 147^th biggest 20^th Century Fox film international between Broken Arrow and The Siege and 136^th biggest 20^th Century Fox film worldwide between Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and Unstoppable.

• A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood – Sony Pictures

Dropped 56% in its third weekend taking $5.2m and $43.12m

Holding similar to Tom Hanks 2015’s Bridge of Spies taking $8.38m in its third weekend dropping 26% and $45.53m taking $72.31m and $165.47m worldwide.

Sony Pictures will need award nominations to help the film find an international audience as Fred Rogers isn’t well known outside the US it would be like selling a biopic about Phillip Schofield to US audiences.

Documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbour? about Fred Rogers performed strongly taking $22.84m last year. 

• Dark Waters – Focus Features

Up 544% in its third weekend expanding into 2,011 screens taking $3.99m and $5.18m; received positive reviews (92% Rotten Tomatoes) and A- CinemaScore

The legal thriller about the true story of a chemical company poisoning a small town being exposed by an environmental activist and the $671m class-action lawsuit in 2017. The film has similarities with Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning Erin Brockovich starring Julia Roberts and Mike Nichols’ Silkwood starring Meryl Streep.

2000’s Erin Brockovich opened with $28.13m taking $125.59m in the US and $256.27m worldwide

1983’s Silkwood opened with $1.21m taking $35.61m;

Having the widest release for a film directed by Todd Haynes; 2015’s Carol was his previous widest in 790 screens

Comparisons have also been made with 2018’s On the Basis of Sex which opened on a platform with $477,946 expanding into 1,923 screens in its third weekend taking $6.07m taking $24.62m and $38.67m the film missed out on award recognition which saw it fail to find a wide audience.

Todd Haynes biggest film was 2002’s Far From Heaven taking $15.9m and 2015’s Carol taking $12.71m

The 8 films he has directed have taken $36.92m in the US and $93.73m worldwide

• Last Christmas – Universal Pictures

Dropped 49.7% in its fifth weekend taking $1.01m and $33.45m

66^th biggest 2019 film between Overcomer and Cold Pursuit; 2,542^th biggest film in the US between Fireproof and The Long Kiss Goodnight and 3,492^nd biggest inflation inflated between The Mechanic and Hotel Rwanda.

Fifth weekends

2003’s Love Actually took $3.56m down 56.7% taking $48.74m of $59.69m and $244.93m worldwide

2006’s The Holiday took $3.84m up 42.8% taking $52.14m of $63.22m and $205.13m worldwide

2008’s Four Christmases took $4.84m down 37.2% taking $111.58m of $120.14m and $163.73m  worldwide

2001’s Serendipity took $2.39m down 37.2% taking $43.46m of $50.29m and $77.51m worldwide

2000’s The Family Man took $3.31m 42% drop taking $69.53m of $75.79m and $124.74m worldwide

1989 is the 30th anniversary of the classic rom-com When Harry Met Sally took $7.85m in its third weekend down 11.2% taking $24.15m of $92.82m and the 25th anniversary of Miracle on 34th Street remake took $2.01m down 46.9% and $10.73m taking $17,320,136).

Director Paul Feig fourth weekends

2018’s A Simple Favour took $1.32m 61.2% drop and $51.98m of $53.54m and $97.62m worldwide

2015’s Spy took $5.13m 35.1% drop and $97.53m of $110.82m and $232.58m worldwide

2013’s The Heat took $6.91m 33.1% drop and $141.3m of $159.58m and $229.72m worldwide

2011’s Bridesmaids took $10.06m 16.4% drop and $123.81m $169.21m and $289.63m worldwide

Took $8m from 40 territories internationally and $36.2m total and $67.9m worldwide; 234^th biggest Universal Pictures film worldwide between Mortal Engines and Savages; 74^th biggest film worldwide of 2019 between Rambo: Last Blood and A Dog’s Way Home and 183^rd biggest Universal Pictures internationally between State of Play and Pitch Perfect.

• Playmobile: The Movie – STX

Opened with $656,530 received poor reviews (23% Rotten Tomatoes)  and B+ CinemaScore

Having one of the lowest openings for a film opening in over 2,000 screens; ahead of release was tracking to open with about $2.5m which would have been its opening had it opened with regular ticket prices but STX decided to open the film with tickets at $5. Over recent years exhibitors have brought in variable ticket pricing but they have always gone up from standard price.

Was originally due to be released in January 2019 in the US by Open Road Films and was delayed to April 2019 but then delayed to August after the studio went bankrupt and STX acquired it. In August 4 weeks before Playmobil was due to be released STX delayed the film to December after also having money troubles.

It was surprising STX gave Playmobile: The Movie a theatrical release but maybe they were forced to do so after acquiring the film as often terms of a distribution deal demands a film to open on a certain number of screens. ST did cut back on publicity while tried a different approach with having tickets dropped to $5 but still children weren’t interested.

Playmobil: The Movie received negative reviews describing it as a poor version of The Lego Movie as Uglydolls was also to Trolls; has taken only $12.3m from 52 international territories so surprising  STX are even giving it a theatrical release unless they were forced to do so when they acquired the film.

STX has released 37 films since 2015 taking over $800m in the US and $1.87bn worldwide

• Joker – Warner Bros

Dropped 49% in its tenth weekend taking $1.01m and $332.11m;

After the success of Joker Warner Bros plan to make more R-rated comic-book films with next year’s Birds of Prey and James Gunn’s 2021 Suicide Squad both expected to be R-rated. This allows DC comic-book movies to be different to the MCU which is unlikely to go R -rated with any of their films as they don’t fit into the current universe and Disney+.

65th biggest film in the US between Guardians of the Galaxy and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and 178^th biggest inflation inflated between It Chapter One and True Lies; 7^th biggest Warner Bros film in the US between Aquaman and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

8^th biggest 2019 film between Frozen II and It: Chapter Two

4^th biggest Warner Bros film worldwide between The Dark Knight Rises and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; 4^th biggest Warner Bros film internationally between Aquaman and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

3^rd biggest DC film worldwide after Aquaman and The Dark Knight Rises and 12^th biggest comic-book film worldwide between The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight.

Took $2.4m internationally from 72 territories and $722.89m internationally and $1.055bn worldwide; UK: $72.2m; France: $47.2m; Japan: $45.9m; Mexico: $43.8m; Germany: $40.5m; Korea: $37.92m; Brazil $37.87m; Italy: $32.7m; Spain: $32.6m; Russia: $30.2m; Australia: $27m; Indonesia: $13.5m

6th biggest 2019 film worldwide between Toy Story 4 and Aladdin and 34th biggest film worldwide between Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Aladdin; 12th biggest comic-book film worldwide between The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight.

In the UK Joker is the 21^st biggest film between Lord The Rings:  LOTR: The Return of the King and The Two Towers and Warner Bros biggest film in the UK since 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and their third biggest film in the UK.

• Jojo Rabbit – Fox Searchlight

Dropped 151 screens down to 579 screens in its eighth weekend 53% drop taking $563,553 and $19.29m

JoJo Rabbit is holding similar to last years The Favourite but after four strong weekends dropped for the fourth weekend, there was always the concern that JoJo Rabbit would repeat similar mistakes of expanding for too wide too quickly and then lose those screens as it has done.

Fox Searchlight would have surely expected to get more than two Golden Globe nominations for Jojo Rabbit Best Picture Comedy and Best Actor Comedy but they did slightly better than 20th Century Fox Ford Vs Ferrari with Christian Bale Best Actor its only nomination. Both films were seen as major award contenders but have been overshadowed by 1917 and The Irishman.

So many award contenders open ion platform strongly but then studio will expand the film far too quickly as was the case with JoJo Rabbit as the film was too quirky for mainstream audiences to open wide, it needed award recognition and in January boosted by Golden Globes and Oscar nominations it will expand again as many other Fox Searchlight films have done previously.

8^th weekend Fox Searchlight comparison films

2018’s The Favourite dropped 41.8% and 259 screens to 512 taking $1,108,173 #18 and $21,481,355 62.5% of the total; took 11 weeks to expand into its widest 1,554 screens going on to take $34,366,783 and played in cinemas for over 16 weeks.

2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri dropped 41 screens to 266 screens taking $675,545 #13 up 26.8% and $24,164,629 44.3% of total; 5 weeks to expand into widest 1,620 screens expanding again in 10th weekend (Golden Globe’s weekend) to 1,022 screens going on to take $54,513,740 and played in cinemas for over 20 weeks.

2017’s The Shape of Water added 130 screens to 853 taking $2,186,311 down 22.9% and $30,195,358 47.3% of the total; took 10 weeks to expand into widest 2,341 screens going on to take $63,859,435 and played in cinemas for over 18 weeks.

2015’s Brooklyn added dropped 314 screens to 300 taking $1,070,674 #18 9% drop and $18,407,589 48.1% of the total; took 6 weeks to expand into 947 screens expanding again in January going on to take $38,322,743 and played in cinemas for over 20 weeks.

2014’s Birdman added 28 screens to 738 screens taking $1,150,315 #10 down 38.6% and $ $18,919,810 44.7% of total; took 8 weeks to expand into 738 screens (expanded into 1,213 screens after Oscar win) going on to take $42,340,598 and played in cinemas for over 20 weeks.

2013’s 12 Years A Slave dropped 83 screens to 1,082 taking $1,146,959 #13 50.2% drop and $35,019,079 61.8% of total ; took 6 weeks to expand into widest 1,474 screens going on to take $56,671,993 and played in cinemas for over 25 weeks.

Fox Searchlight has had much successful Oscar winners that also started on platform, but they had a much wider target demographic before opening (Juno, Slumdog Millionaire, Black Swan, The Descendants, Sideways and The Full Monty) JoJo Rabbit’s not yet that must-see Oscar contender receiving a polarised critical reaction.

UK Box Office Predictions

After taking £2.5m+ from previews last weekend and receiving positive reviews Jumanji; The Next Level will have a similar 7 days opening weekend to 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle had (£8,154,548) as this time opens the weekend before Star Wars than the week after. Opening the weekend before does mean that its Thurs/Fri previews aren’t during school holidays as Welcome to the Jungle was.

Jumanji; The Next Level had its UK premiere last Thursday with Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart in London promoting the film they also appeared on Thursdays I’m A Celebrity Get Me out of Here as part of a challenge and did all the normal TV and radio interviews including Graham Norton.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was helped by the polarised reception of The Last Jedi two years ago, and while adults said it wasn’t their Jumanji as they felt the same about this year’s reimagination of Aladdin younger audiences enjoyed them both. Reviews have said The Next Level is very similar to the first film so teen boys will surely return to see it, but opening ahead of Star Wars this time and doing what sequels often do remake the previous film won’t likely be as successful or have as long legs.

Teen horror Black Christmas opening Friday the 13^th us likely to suffer similar fate as other recent teen horrors Krampus, Happy Death Day, Truth or Dare, Happy Death Day 2U and Ouija being PG-13 horrors getting 15 certificates the horrors are too mild for 15+ audiences.

This is why they do far better in the US than the UK, but for me, as someone that doesn’t do horror they are fun and enjoyable as the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer films were. As with the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer films Blumhouse teen horrors feature actors from popular TV shows.

Frozen 2 and Last Christmas will continue to hold well as they will do next weekend against Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as the lucrative Christmas holidays begin, saying that Cats would share their same demographic.

Opening in UK Next Week

• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Disney

The third part of the Star Wars sequel trilogy after 2015’s The Force Awakens and 2017’s The Last Jedi and the final part of the nine-part Skywalker saga that started with A New Hope in 1977.

Features an ensemble cast Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Keri Russell, Ian McDiarmid,  Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. The film is directed by J. J. Abrams, after he directed The Force Awakens said he wouldn’t direct another Star Wars film but after Colin Trevorrow was dropped and the polarised reaction to The Last Jedi Lucasfilm turned to J. J. Abrams as a safe pair of hands.

The new trilogy was announced shortly after Disney acquired Lucasfilm announcing plans for a year Star Wars film infinitely but after five films over five years audience reaction waned after many of the films weren’t as good as their hype and even Bob Iger admitted earlier this year they made far too many Star Wars films and will be a bigger gap before the next Star Wars film in 2022.

The first trailer was released during Star Wars Celebration in April; the trailer was viewed 111 million times in the first 24 hours; 20 million more than the teaser for The Last Jedi. The second trailer was released in October.

While the Star Wars prequels deservingly received mixed reviews Disney Star Wars films were surrounded by huge hype and were received very positively at first before people released The Force Awakens was just a fan remake of A New Hope and as with so many Disney sequels and reimaginations, it was all hype no sustenance (they were just memberries).

Of the four Disney Star Wars films, Rogue One is the most enjoyable if as with Han Solo completely unnecessary as is the MCU Black Widow spinoff film released next year, after spoiler… she died in Avengers; Endgame, after appearing in Iron Man 2 in 2010 Black Widow should have surely happened many years ago instead it feels like Lucy meets Red Sparrow.

The film has its world premiere in Los Angeles on December 16^th and  UK premiere on December 18^th. While the premiere for The Force Awakens was at the Royal Albert Hall and The Last Jedi was in all three Leicester Square cinemas it looks like The Rise of Skywalker is only at the Cineworld Leicester Square half the cinema it used to be.

Advance tickets went on sale on October 21^st media immediately reported website delays ad crashes as occurred with The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi but after few hours the demand dropped off. While many rushed to book cinemas like BFI IMAX with many sold-out performances over opening weekend it took over a month for Odeon Leicester Square to sell-out one screening over its opening weekend. Since its refurbishment the cinema has barely sold out many performances but before its refurbishment and before the £25+ tickets the cinema would regularly sell out with double its capacity for a major release across the weekend.

Embargo ends at 12am December 18^th PST with the UK media screening at 9pm on December 17^th the immediately after Cats media screening.

2015’s Star Wars; The Force Awakens has the third biggest opening taking £34,011,849 including £9,679,746 from previews and took £24,332,103 Fri-Sun

Took £2.4m from midnight screenings and £9.6m from Thursday (previous high as HPDH2 £9.48m); Friday £6.9m; Saturday £8.7m (biggest ever Saturday beating previous record high of Skyfall); Sunday £8.5m

Over 1 million tickets were booked in advance for The Force Awakens; including 700,000+ at Odeon (sold more than double Spectre and four times 50 Shades of Grey)and 332,000+ at Vue Cinemas (more than 284,850 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 sold in 2010); fans have been waiting for the film for over 32 years since Return of the Jedi opened and also 912 days since Disney announced plans to make another trilogy).

When tickets went on sale on 19th October it crashed websites Vue Cinemas said they had sold 10,000 tickets in the first 90 minutes of sales selling 45,000 tickets in first 24 hours. The BFI IMAX has sold out almost every show Thurs-Sunday at £22 per ticket taking over £225,000 while Empire and Odeon Leicester Square also sold out several screenings.

Did compare similarly to July 1st, 1999 when The Phantom Menace crashed phone lines UCI selling 11,500 tickets in 35 minutes. With lines across Leicester Square of fans booking to at Odeon cinema.

The Force Awakens took 7 days to take £50m compared to 11 for Spectre; took £87.05m in its opening 2 weeks 70% of its final box office of £123m its opening weekend took 27.5% of its box office.

2017’s Star Wars; The Last Jedi has the fifth-biggest opening taking £28,010,841 including £7,684,217 from previews and took £20,326,624 Fri-Sun

There were no announcements of how advance sales were before The Last Jedi opened

The Last Jedi took £7.68m on Thursday and had the third biggest Saturday after The Force Awakens and Skyfall.

The Last Jedi had the widest ever release in the UK playing in 723 cinemas more than 2016’s Rogue One opened in 698 cinemas and The Force Awakens 670 cinemas while Revenge of the Sith opened in 490 cinemas, Attack of the Clones in 2002 opened in 467 cinemas. Of course, with many multiplexes showing it on the majority of their screens with many showing it every 15 mins at peak times over the weekend was probably showing in more than 3,000 screens. With 40+ shows a day in multiplexes will be about 24,000 each day over 100,000 over 4 days. If had an average of 200 seats at an average of £11.61 it’s opening w/e will be about 15% capacity £28m;

My local multiplexes had over 30 screenings each day was probably repeated in cinemas across the UK so must have been about 25,000 screens each day of its four-day opening so almost 100,000 screenings. If each screen had 100 seats would have been over 10m seats available with an average ticket price according to my survey of over 230 screens for a standard adult 2D £11.57 2.4m sold 24%.

For the prequels physical prints were distributed and to show the film on multiple screens several prints were needed, or they would link them across the projection room but with the recent films to add an extra screen is a click of a button.

Having no access to advance booking data have no idea how advance sales compare with the previous two films as no box office data has been publicly released for the UK.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened with $528m worldwide (4^th biggest WW) 25.6% of its $2.068bn total

Star Wars; The Last Jedi opened with $450.8m worldwide (8^th biggest WW) 33.8% of its $1.332bn total.

• Cats – Universal Pictures

A musical fantasy based on the stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. The film stars James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, and Francesca Hayward and directed by Tom Hooper (previously directed 2012’s Les Misérables).

Like the rom-com musicals used to be the mainstay of cinema up to the 70s but then 80s and 90s the failed to have much success until Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge in 2001 quickly followed by Rob Marshall’s Chicago both were critical and box office successes and sparked a rebirth of the musical in cinemas.

While they didn’t all hit the box office heights of those two School of Rock, Across the Universe, Once, Burlesque, Rock of Ages, Footloose, Fame and The Producers, there were many more that did including Dreamgirls, Happy Feet, High School Musical, Enchanted, Hairspray, Mamma Mai!, The Muppets, Les Misérables, Frozen, Into the Woods, Pitch Perfect, LaLa Land, Moana, Trolls, The Greatest Showman, Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Mary Poppins Returns.

Many weren’t your old-fashioned musical of songs telling the story they were a modern hybrid as Disney’s animated films have always been mixing story with song which pushed the story forward.

Many of these films performed much stronger in the UK than the US and Cats is likely to do similarly, opening against Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might seem strange, but Cats will play to a much different demographic probably many who saw Frozen 2. 

Four years ago Universal Pictures opened Sisters against The Force Awakens which copied 1999’s marketing campaign for Austin Powers the Spy Who Shagged Me opening two weeks after Star Wars The Phantom Menace “if you see one film this summer see Star Wars, if you see two see Austin Powers.” For Sisters it was you can see them both; Sisters managed to open with only £1,214,635 over its 9-day opening weekend.

The world premiere is reportedly in London on December 16^th the same night The Rise of Skywalker has its world premiere in Los Angeles, and they will probably switch on Wednesday with Cats having its premiere in Los Angeles as Star Wars premieres in London.

Premieres don’t generate the media coverage they used to, 25 years ago Elizabeth Hurley’s black Versace safety pin dress generated huge media coverage for weeks after Four Weddings and a Funeral helping the film become the biggest British film in the UK, but if it’s not Bond or Harry Potter premieres don’t get the media coverage.

With the exception of The Greatest Showman to years ago when a previous musical opened it was normally the major release but as this time Cats is the alternative release to The Rise of Skywalker its much harder to predict more so after the reaction to the trailer, as like The Greatest Showman audience reaction will be key to its success.

Musicals have performed much stronger in the UK to the US

2018’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again had the biggest musical opening with £9,735,930 taking £65,591,730

But comparisons to Cats are closer to 2012’s Les Miserables opening with £8,127,991 taking £40,818,299

But opening against Star Wars an opening similar to The Greatest Showman (£4,754,049); 2008’s Sweeney Todd (£4,525,246) and 2018’s A Star Is Born (A Star Is Born) is more likely.

Opening in US Next Week

• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Disney

Tickets went on sale on October 21^st and it sold more advance tickets than Avengers Endgame selling twice as many tickets as The Last Jedi and Fandango reported it outsold all previous Star Wars films. Despite this Rise of Skywalker was tracking a few weeks ago to open between $175-$210m which would be lower than both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened with $247.96m taking 26.4% of its $936.66m; there was a lot of goodwill towards The Force Awakens as it was the first Star Wars film for over 30 years with the original cast

Two years later The Last Jedi received a far more mixed reception opened with a similar $220m taking 35.4% of its $620.18m.

The Rise of Skywalker is expected to come in between the two films

With Cats opening against The Rise of Skywalker and Jumanji: The Next Level opening the week before it’s the first Star Wars film since Attack of the Clones in 2002 when rival studios haven’t avoided opening films against it. Maybe after the polarised reaction to The Last Jedi and mixed reception to Han Solo rivals think that there is room in the market to open another film.

There were 5,888 days between Star Wars Return of the Jedi released in June 1983 and the first Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace released in July 1999 with the two sequels Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Was then 3,650 days between Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens but then only 365 days between The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Last Jedi but has been only 161 days between The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story. Are 5 films in 1,465 days too much of Star Wars especially after the polarized reaction to The Last Jedi and people admitting The Force Awakens was just A New Hope remake and Rogue One told an unnecessary story which many have said similar about Solo.  

After being criticised on social media for not revealing strobe and flashing lights in Pixar’s Incredibles 2 last year could potentially trigger seizures or migraines, Disney notified Epilepsy Foundation certain visuals and sustained flashing lights sequences in The Rise of Skywalker could affect those with photosensitive epilepsy.

Since it was announced Palpatine was returning in The Rise of Skywalker despite (spoiler) being killed by Darth Vader 30 years earlier in Return of the Jedi cats a shadow over The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi to know that he was still pulling the strings. It does ask many questions over events of Return of the Jed as he said “everything is proceeding as i have foreseen” so he would have then known Darth Vader would save his son and in so kill him which has left many believing Palpatine is a clone, but which one died in Return of the Jedi?

In Revenge of the Sith Palpatine tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis, a powerful Sith Lord who was able to manipulate life and death but was killed by his own apprentice, who was Palpatine and uses this as a way to turn Anakin to the dark side as it could save Padmé’s life.

In 2012 Disney acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05bn three years after acquiring Marvel Entertainment for a similar price they immediately announced plans to release a new trilogy of films with the first to be released in 2015.

I might be seen to be overly critical about Disney’s Star Wars and Disney that’s only because pre-comic-book movies and Star Wars they had strong success mixing the genres and original films with sequels and were still among the top four biggest studios for most of the 00s.

2008 was the year Disney believed they had to change as went from third biggest studio to sixth and saw Warner Bros and Paramount the top two studios having comic-book films The Dark Knight and Iron Man their biggest films of the year. While Disney’s Their 2008 films were very much family-based Wall-e, Bolt, Beverly Hills Chihuahua and High School Musical 3 but the audience dynamical was shifting to more franchise properties which Disney didn’t own. 2009 was similar for Disney with family films Up, A Christmas Carol G-Force and The Proposal (Disney’s last original film to take over $100m at the US box office, did release The Help in 2011 but was developed by Dreamworks Pictures distributed by Disney).

Disney must have seen Paramount being forced to reject their attempt to by Marvel because Viacom rejected the purchase and Disney pounced and brought Marvel Entertainment the next three years Disney’s biggest success was Disney family and aminated films but then released The Avengers in 2012 and apart from 2006 a Marvel or Star Wars film has been their biggest film of the year.

The problem is only making properties is the expectation for these films start off at a much higher level but these expectations are unlikely to be matched with audience expectations especially with a Star Wars film as the original trilogy are still seen as manna from heaven over 40 years later. George Lucas tried to do something completely different for Star Wars prequels and fans disliked them JJ Abram’s The Force Awakens was heralded as a return but then people realised the reason they liked it so much as they were seeing A New Hope remade. While then Gareth Edwards was replaced by Tony Gilroy for Rogue One remaking the film in the editing room and then Rian Johnson decided to change the Star Wars rules with The Last Jedi which polarized reaction.

The problem with these films is expectations are so high after years of hype these films could never live up to the audience’s expectations. While the prequels have their issues, I would still happily watch hem bar the pod race but The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi first time was enough. I think the reason why I dislike them more is the critical reaction to them was so positive as they were caught up in the hype when they reviewed them.

The next Star Wars film is expected in December 2022 and Disney will probably be releasing them in alternate years with Avatar sequels, being a new trilogy of films it won’t have the nostalgic element or the cast from the original trilogy so won’t have the baggage that has surrounded all Star Wars films since Return of the Jedi in 1983.

• Cats – Universal Pictures

Amblin started developing an animated film of the musical in the 90s, but the film never got made. In December 2013 after the success of Les Misérables Andrew Lloyd Webber said the film was back in development at Universal Pictures, In 2016 director Tom Hooper signed to direct who had also directed Oscar-winning Les Misérables. The cast was announced in 2018 and the film started shooting in December.

The footage was first screened at CinemaCon in April with the first trailer released in July receiving negative response uncomfortable with the mix of CGI and live-action of the cats a second trailer was released a few months later which still had issues, but the reaction was much better.

Director Tom Hooper spoke about the reaction to the Cats trailer being similar to Sonic the Hedgehog trailer as the digital fur technology wasn’t what people were expecting. The visuals were at an early stage when the first trailer was released, and the reactions helped change things for the better and allowed them to make improvements. In the completed film some of the designs have changed, this was noticeable in the second trailer as was also the case with the second trailer of Sonic. I had had to say I had similar issues with Paddington and Winnie the Pooh in Christopher Robin neither were what I was expecting, but audiences didn’t seem to care.

The film features a new song Beautiful Ghosts written by Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber which was released in November.

Universal Pictures will be hoping for better success opening Cats against The Rise of Skywalker than they did opening Sisters against The Force Awakens in 2015 opening third with $13.92m behind Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip. Since The Force Awakens opened in 2015 reaction to it and Stat Wars films since has been they are more hype than sustenance so there could be room in the market for other films. As seen with The Greatest Showman two years ago which opened fourth to Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Pitch Perfect 3 and outlasted all of them in the top 10 having very long legs. Despite snobby critical reviews.

The Greatest Showman was an original musical that didn’t get the media coverage Cats has received and doesn’t have the inbuilt fanbase of the hugely popular musical and Taylor Swift.

Cats was tracking to open with up to $20m against The Rise of Skywalker opening with $200m+ which has seen many say it was a poor decision by Universal Pictures but both films have 12 very lucrative days of Christmas, while The Rise of Skywalker will open big and likely drop also big Universal Pictures will be hoping for more steady business from Cats as was the case with The Greatest Showman two years ago. Audiences rushed out to see The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle on opening weekend but it was The Greatest Showman that held much stronger.

Cats will have female competition from Little Women and Bombshell.