Category: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

UK Box Office May 12th-14th 2023

~ paul ferrer ~ Leave a comment

  1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – £5,349,346 – £23,988,608

Dropped 55.7% (42% without previews) in the second weekend.

Took £1.43m Friday (26.7%) down 41.6% (£2.45m); £2.1m Saturday (39.2%) down 45% (£3.65m); £1.82m Sunday (34%) down 43.1% (£3.2m); took £3.79m Bank Holiday Monday; £936k Tuesday; £976k Wednesday; £858k Thursday.

Second Weekends

Thor: Love and Thunder dropped 60% on its second Friday taking £1.24m (£3.1m) and 30.5% of its £4.06m 67% drop. As with most MCU films didn’t have any major release opening.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness dropped 68% on its second Friday taking £1.55m (£4.88m) 27.5% of its £5.69m 71.2% drop; took £24.8m over 8 days; £5m Mon-Thurs including £1.5m on Monday; Everything Everywhere and All-Around opened #3 £681,351 from 150 screens.

Black Panther Wakanda Forever dropped 63.3% on its second Friday taking £1.51m (£4.2m) 24.4% of its £6.19m 49.9% drop; The Menu opened with £932,029 and England Vs USA World Cup Friday.

76th biggest second weekend between Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (close to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Avatar: The Way of Water) and 156th biggest inflated between The Silence of the Lambs and Toy Story (close to Avatar, X-Men 2, Jumanji and Terminator 2: Judgement Day).

17th biggest comic-book second weekend between Spider-Man 3 and Captain America: Civil War (Deadpool, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man and Hancock) and the 25th biggest inflated between X-Men 2 and Captain America: Civil War (Men In Black 2, Batman Forever, Batman and Batman and Robin).

11th biggest MCU second weekend between Doctor Strange in the Multiverse and Captain America: Civil War (close to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Thor: Ragnarok).

Soon after Star Wars The Force Awakens opened South Park said adults were addicted to memberberries “Every great empire reaches a point were going backwards can seem more appealing than going forward. When the world is changing so fast, it makes us yearn for the old ways when life seemed simpler. But it doesn’t mean those old ideas are good for us now. We have to face one hard reality as a county … the new Star Wars was not as good as everyone thought it was.”… “It may be fun to go back and recycle the past that we love, but we end up with no substance.”

These films are aimed at tweens with short attention spans that get caught up in the hype and rush to the cinema to see the latest MCU over the opening weekend and then quickly move on to the next film that opens the week after.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 being the 32nd MCU makes them less accessible than earlier films to fully understand everything need to have done your homework before now over 100 hours of content that includes all the films and TV spinoff shows.

The 32 MCU films have taken almost £1.1bn since 2008 and almost £1.3bn inflation inflated.

After the disappointing Phase 4, Phase 5 started also disappointingly with Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania having the worst MCU opening since Eternals and despite opening with £8,834,435 more than double Ant-Man and almost double Ant-Man and the Wasp failed to take £20m+ at the UK BO. This was followed by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever taking a third less than the first film.

11th biggest MCU film after 12 days between Iron Man 3 (£24,568,956) and Captain Marvel (£23,657,527) close to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Thor: Love and Thunder).

34th biggest comic-book film between Hancock and Logan (close to X-Men: Days of Future Past, Spider-Man 2, Doctor Strange and Wonder Woman) and 56th biggest inflated between Aquaman and Wonder Woman (close to Batman Returns, X-Men, Fantastic Four (2005) and Dick Tracy).

202nd biggest film between Uncharted and Borat (close to The Sixth Sense, Mission Impossible: Fallout, The Hunger Games and Wreck-It Ralph) and 437th biggest inflated between The Theory of Everything and Gosford Park (close to Interview with the Vampire, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Die Hard with a Vengeance and Cool Runnings).

  • 2. Super Mario Bros – £858,444 – £51,077,190

Dropped 34.4% in the sixth weekend.

Took £132k Friday (15.4%) down 27.5% (£182k); £510k Saturday (59.4%); £216k Sunday (25.2%)

102nd biggest sixth weekend between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Ocean’s 11 (close to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Men In Black, Avengers Assemble and Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug) and 229th biggest inflated between The Matrix and Wallace The Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (close to Twister, The Nutty Professor, My Girl and Batman Forever).

43rd biggest film between Quantum of Solace and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (close to Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Full Monty, Black Panther and The Greatest Showman); (46th film to take £50m+ since 1997’s The Full Monty) and 122nd biggest inflated between The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Up (close to Mrs Doubtfire, Return of the Jedi (1983), The Flintstones and Toy Story).

Illumination’s 13th film since Despicable Me in 2010 taking over £400m at the UK BO and £425m inflated. Has overtaken Despicable Me 3 and Minions to become their biggest film in the UK. Next from Illumination Migration and Despicable Me 4 will be announced next year and will announce a Super Mario Bros sequel and spinoffs very soon.

5th biggest animated film between Frozen 2 and Shrek 2 (close to Incredibles 2, Minions, Despicable Me 3 and Despicable Me 2) and the 22nd biggest inflated between Despicable Me 3 and Up (close to The Lion King (1994), Chicken Run, Shark Tale and Aladdin (1993).

  • 3. Love Again – £340,785 – NE

Took £107,304k from previews Weds/Thurs; without previews Love Again would have opened #7

Took £75k Friday (22%)

Based on Sofie Cramer’s novel Text for You which was first adapted into 2016’s SMS für Dich, the English-language remake titled It’s All Coming Back to Me, after Celine Dion’s song It’s All Coming Back to Me Now in April 2022, but in November was announced that it would be called Love Again. Over the years many films have been retitled with classic songs including The Body (Stand By Me) and 3000 (Pretty Woman), but it never makes any sense when a film’s title changes from the book title. Surely the biggest thing going for the film was Celine Dion so makes no sense to use the song as the title instead of a generic one.

It’s Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s first leading role in a film best known for starring in the TV show Quantico and currently starring in Amazon’s Citadel, previously starred in Baywatch, Isn’t It Romantic and The Matrix Resurrections.

  • 4. Book Club: The Next Chapter – £299,370 – NE

Took £106k Friday (35.4%)

The 2018 Book Club opened £720,858 #5 from 518 screens taking £3,661,322 and 80 For Brady last month opening with £158,937 #9 from 427 screens.

Not much more can be said for this unnecessary sequel, it’s just a shame such a talented cast of Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen and Andy García are wasted in such a film, they deserve far more, as also fear will we get to see the likes of Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda again in the cinema as it would be very sad if this was their last cinema role.

  • 5.    Evil Dead – £258,417 – £5,024,234

Down 47.7% in the fourth weekend

2013’s Evil Dead dropped 69% in the fourth weekend £74,863 #12 from 153 screens and £3,141,364 of £3,355,676; while 1993’s Army of Darkness took £559,298 and 1987’s Evil Dead II took £1,180,250 (£4,435,544 inflated).

74th biggest horror between Insidious: The Last Key and The Wolfman (close to Final Destination 2, Candyman (2021), Jigsaw and Cabin in the Woods) and 116th biggest inflated between The Purge and Halloween Kills (close to From Dusk Till Dawn, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Candyman (1993) and Evil Dead II (1987).

Horrors have performed strongly since cinemas reopened with many of them having longer legs than they used to do normally horrors would drop 50%+ in their second weekend but word of mouth has been strong with many of them as with Evil Dead Rises dropped much less.

The Boogeyman is the next horror movie due for release in three weeks, based on Stephen King’s short story. Like Evil Dead Rises and Smile it was originally due to be released to streaming but after strong test scores Disney gave it a cinema release, earlier buzz on the film is very positive.

1,363th biggest film between Backdraft and Fight Club (close to Kick-Ass 2, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Alien vs Predator and In Bruges) and 1,914th biggest inflated between Hail Caesar! And Wonder Park (close to The Abyss, Sphere, Galaxy Quest and So I Married An Axe Murderer).

Also Opened

•             Eurovision – Grand Final Live – CinemaLive

Took £237,787 from 444 screens #7 on Saturday.

Disappointing BO for Eurovision but the problem was tickets were double normal prices (£20) as it was being shown live on BBC One for free (11m 63% share) while were many Eurovision parties and viewing screens across the UK most of them charging half as much. I always said the Event Cinema was a great addition to the cinema but tickets should be priced accordingly.

Last year Eurovision was watched by 10.6m on BBC1 but this year will be seen by a much bigger younger audience. (semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday were seen by 3.2m and 2.4m). As TV ratings are created by algorithms real audiences are much higher.

In 2017 the Manchester One Love Concert was seen by 14.5m with 69% of viewers between 16-24 probably why Wonder Woman opening the same weekend had a disappointing opening.

25 years after Eurovision was last in the UK May 9th, 1998, when the top 5 was #1 Scream 2 £1,233,274; #2 Sliding Doors £950,180; #3 Breakdown £366,084; #4 Martha Meets Frank, Daniel & Lawrence £341,018 and #5 Titanic £297,605 16th week.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £7,986,182 down 46.7% from last weekend’s £14,988,771: 984,084 admissions down 47.7% from 1,880,649.

798th biggest top 10 of the last 21 years (out of 1,102) between 05 April 2013 #1 The Croods £2,364,348 (29.5% of top 10) and 15 June 2012 #1 Prometheus £2,009,955 (25.2% of top 10) and 1,009th biggest inflation inflated between 13 June 2003 #1 The Matrix Reloaded       £1,071,551 (24.3% of top 10) and 16 March 2007 #1 Norbit £1,069,030 (21.5% of top 10).

The top 3 took £6,548,575 82% of the top 10; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 67% (£5,349,346); Super Mario Bro 10.7% (£858,444); Love Again 4.3% (£340,785).

The 87th highest percentage #1 between 14 June 2013 Man of Steel (67.35%) and 05 May 2006 Mission: Impossible III (67%).

465th biggest admissions #1 (671,185) between 18 January 2013 Les Miserables (674,859) and 06 October 2006 The Devil Wears Prada (670,961).  

Down 16.8% from 2022 (£9,597,322); Everything Everywhere All at Once (£681,351); Little Mix Live – The Final Show (£361,909); Firestarter (£250,006); Father Stu (£60,844); Friday The 13th (1980) (Re: 2022) (£26,333); #1 Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness £5,690,351 2nd week 71% drop 701 screens (59.3% of top 10)

2021; Lockdown

2020; Lockdown

Down 33.8% from 2019; (£12,057,386); Pokemon Detective Pikachu (£4,951,838); The Hustle (£1,037,478); Amazing Grace (£166,593); Dialogues Des Carmelites – Met Opera 2019 (£141,630); The Corrupted (£52,988); #1 Pokemon Detective Pikachu £4,951,838 1st week 579 screens (41.1% of top 10)

Down 30.2% from 2018: (£11,439,663); Sherlock Gnomes (£2,522,342); Life of the Party (£618,311); Breaking In (£424,675); Entebbe (£138,390); How to Talk to Girls at Parties (£23,311); Anon (£19,108); #1 Avengers: Infinity War £5,706,170 44% drop 3rd week 636 screens  (49.8% of top 10)

Down 28.3% from 2017: (£11,133,770); Alien: Covenant (£5,178,531); Der Rosenkavalier – Met Opera 2017 (£313,653); Miss Sloane (£190,295); The Last Face (£46,414); #1 Alien: Covenant £5,178,531 626 screens 1st week (46.5% of top 10)

Down 12.3% from 2016: (£9,103,851): Angry Birds (£2,138,507); Our Kind of Traitor (£358,180); Everybody Wants Some!! (£169,764); Green Room (£144,517); Mustang (£65,038); Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (£58,798); The Darkness (£51,490); #1 Captain America: Civil War £2,789,985 42% drop 586 screens 3rd week (30.6% of top 10)

Down 40.2% from 2015; (£13,363,529); Pitch Perfect 2 (£5,005,394); Mad Max: Fury Road (£4,538,933); #1 Pitch Perfect 2 £5,005,394 496 screens 1st week (37.4% of top 10)

Down 17.1% from 2014: (£9,627,777); Godzilla (£6,385,483); The Two Faces of January (£328,438); Concussion (£9,507); #1 Godzilla £6,385,483 550 screens 1st week (66.3% of top 10)

Down 43.3% from 2013: (£14,089,241); Star Trek: Into Darkness (£8,431,574); Mud (£239,037); Deadfall (£33,987); Vehicle 19 (£239); #1 Star Trek: Into Darkness £8,431,574 554 screens 1st week (59.8% of top 10)

Down 27.9% from 2012 (£11,071,152); Dark Shadows (£2,404,029); Piranha 3DD (£242,889); How I Spent My Summer Vacation (£152,728); Jeff Who Lives at Home (£92,472); All in Good Time (£76,111); Cafe De Flore (£43,719); #1 Avengers Assemble £4,169,087 3rd week 498 screens 49% drop (37.6% of top 10)

Up 5.5% from 2011; (£7,566,720); Attack the Block (£1,133,859); The Way (£104,397); Take Me Home Tonight (£45,859); Taxi Driver (35th Anniversary) (£15,161); #1 Thor £1,360,418 30% drop 3rd week 472 screens (17.9% of top 10)

Down 25.1% from 2010: (£10,656,307); Robin Hood (£5,750,332); Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (£5,623); #1 Robin Hood £5,750,332 1st week 537 screens (53.9% of top 10)

Down 47.6% from 2009; (£15,250,846); Angels and Demons (£6,054,627); Fighting (£991,180); Synecdoche, New York (£123,125); #1 Angels and Demons £6,054,627 506 screens 1st week (39.7% of top 10)

Up 38.7% from 2008; (£5,755,952); Caramel (£122,790); Charlie Bartlett (£97,181); Smart People (£88,235); Shutter (£72,574); #1 Iron Man £1,917,925 3rd 496 screens 3% drop (33.3% of top 10)

Down 17.3% from 2007: (£9,654,662); 28 Weeks Later (£1,575,620); My Best Friend (£117,440); Spider-Man 3 £5,596,612 2nd week 522 screens 53% drop (57.9% of top 10)

Up 38.8% from 2006; (£5,753,595); Prime (£851,322); When a Stranger Calls (£494,131); Brick (£142,878); #1 Mission: Impossible III £2,751,733 2nd week 511 screens 49% drop (47.8% of top 10)

Up 54.7% from 2005 (£5,161,794); Monster-in-Law (£1,312,679); The Jacket (£175,773); A Good Woman (£130,193); Seed of Chucky (£109,110); #1 Kingdom of Heaven £1,385,529 2nd week 450 screens (26.8% of top 10)

Up 90.8% from 2004 (£4,185,573); The Football Factory (£207,683); Troy (platform) (£89,286); Shattered Glass (£46,921); #1 Van Helsing £2,403,036 2nd week 456 screens 56% drop (57.4% of top 10)

Up 37% from 2003 (£5,829,019); Kangaroo Jack (£764,917); The Actors (£226,860); Secretary (£165,318); Antwone Fisher (£59,976); To Kill a King (£59,701); Extreme Ops (£14,751); #1 X-Men 2 £2,115,011 3rd week 468 screens 31% drop (36.2% of top 10)

Up 45.7% from 2002 (£5,480,784); Dog Soldiers (£681,348); Slackers (£152,078); I Am Sam (£151,079); #1 About A Boy £2,239,288 444 screens 3rd week 32% drop (27.7% of top 10)

Next Week 2022 (£6,243,546); Lucia Di Lammermoor – Met Opera 2022 (£78,829); Robocop (35th Anniversary 4K Restoration) (£20,004); On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Re: 2022) (£11,114); #1 Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness £2,968,358 3rd week 699 screens 48% drop (47.5% of top 10)

US Box Office

  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – Disney

Dropped 48% in the second weekend taking $62m and $214.7m

197th biggest film between X-Men 2 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; 442nd biggest inflated between Venom and Coco; 2nd biggest 2023 film between The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; 46th biggest comic-book film between X-Men 2 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; 59th biggest Disney film between Ant-Man and the Wasp and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

35th biggest second weekend between The Dark Knight Rises and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (close to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 #29 $65.26m; Avatar: The Way of Water #31 $63.33m; Wonder Woman #45 $58.52m and Spider-Man 3 #46 $58.16m.

Had the lowest second-weekend drop since 2018’s Black Panther (-44.7%) but that doesn’t tell the complete story as many of the others had much bigger openings so were always going to have a bigger drop, whilst GOTG3 didn’t have any competition in its second weekend and Sunday was Mother’s Day so likely saw lower than normal drop. With Fast X opening this weekend then The Little Mermaid in two weeks it will have bigger drops over the next two weeks.

Second Weekends

2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 dropped 55.3% taking $42.12m and $176.51m of $333.17m

2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 dropped 55.5% taking $65.26m and $248.42m of $389.81m

12th biggest MCU second weekend between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 ($65.26m) and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness ($61.75m) close to Captain Marvel, Black Panther Wakanda Forever, Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder).

After 10 days it’s the 15th biggest MCU between Thor: Love and Thunder and Thor: Ragnarok (close to Spider-Man: Far From Home, Captain Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok and Iron Man 2).

Showing again that MCU films since Captain America: Civil War have all performed very similarly as they are likely attracting the same audience each time.

2014’s GOTG took $333.7m US, $439.6m internationally and $773.3m worldwide; GOTG2 took $389.8m US, $473.09m internationally and $863.8m worldwide, so GOTG3 should take $1bn+ worldwide.

Took $92m from 52 territories and $282.1m worldwide; China $58.4m; UK $29.6m; Mexico $24.7m; Korea $22.1m; France $18.3m.

Took $43.6m worldwide from IMAX from 1,550 screens.  

214th biggest worldwide between World War Z and Ralph Breaks The Internet; 46th biggest comic book worldwide between Venom and Thor: Ragnarok; 60th biggest Disney film between WALL-E and Ralph Breaks The Internet.

  • Super Mario Bros – Universal Pictures

Dropped 32% in the sixth weekend taking $12.61m and $535.57m

29th biggest sixth weekend between The Revenant and How the Grinch Stole Christmas; close to Zootopia, The Lion King (1994), Incredibles 2 and Finding Nemo.

2nd biggest animated film between Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory; the 15th biggest film between   The Lion King (2019) and The Dark Knight; the 44th biggest inflated between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Back to the Future; 2nd biggest Universal Pictures film between Jurassic World and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Universal Pictures gave exhibitors two options when they booked Super Mario Bros either a flat fee of 63% rental for the entire run or 63% in the opening weekend and then a sliding scale dropping down to 35% after a few weeks.

17 Illumination Entertainment films have taken $3.7bn in the US and $9.3bn worldwide.

Took $26.1m from 80 territories and $675m and $1.21bn worldwide; Mexico $82.4m; UK $63.2m; Japan $59.8m; France $55m; Germany $50.1m.

4th biggest animated worldwide between Incredibles 2 and Minions; the 23rd biggest worldwide between The Fate of the Furious and Iron Man 3; the 5th biggest Universal Pictures film between The Fate of the Furious and Minions.

Universal became the second studio to take over $2bn in 2023bn; $910m US and $1.03bn internationally.

  • Book Club: The Next Chapter – Focus Features

Opened $6.67m; received mixed reviews (51% Rotten Tomatoes) and B CinemaScore

It was expected to open with between $7m-$10m but there was little interest in this unnecessary sequel. Focus Features were surely hoping the film would get a boost on Mother’s Day on Sunday which has seen films like 2015’s Hot Pursuit opening with $13.9m; 2017’s Snatched $19.54m; 2018’s Life of the Party $17.9m and 2019’s The Hustle $13m.

Took $500k from Thursday previews compared to 80 For Brady taking $750k previews ($1.27m including other previews).

2018’s Book Club opened $13.58m taking $68.56m and $104.43m WW; A- CinemaScore

2023’s 80 For Brady opened $12.7m taking $39.33m and $40.27m WW

Opened with $3.2m from 35 territories and $9.7m worldwide.

  • Evil Dead Rises – Warner Bros

Dropped 37% in the fourth weekend $3.71m taking $60.18m

1,466th biggest between The Cable Guy and Resident Evil: Afterlife; 2,364th biggest inflated between All Dogs Go To Heaven and Fever Pitch; 11th biggest 2023 film between A Man Called Otto and Shazam! Fury of the Gods; 80th biggest horror between Devil’s Advocate and Resident Evil: Afterlife; 240th biggest Warner Bros between The Lucky One and Spies Like Us.

The fifth movie in the Evil Dead film series started in 1981 with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead starring Bruce Campbell. 2013’s Evil Dead dropped 51.7% in the fourth weekend taking $1.98m and $51.85m of $54.23m and $97.54m worldwide had a budget of $17m.

Took $6.7m from 65 territories and $71.6m and $131.8m worldwide; UK $6.3m; Mexico $6.2m; India $4.5m; Brazil $4.2m; and Indonesia $4.1m.

1,375th biggest worldwide between School of Rock and Julie & Julia; 14th biggest 2023 worldwide between Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Pathaan; 72nd biggest horror between Saw 3D and 1408; 217th biggest Warner Bros film between Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Cloud Atlas.

  • Hypnotic – Ketch

Opened with $2.4m; received poor reviews (38% Rotten Tomatoes) and C+ CinemaScore.

Robert Rodriguez’s first film since 2019’s Alita: Battle Angel opened $28.52m taking $85.83m and $404.98m. Best known for directing 1995’s Desperado (opened $7.91m taking $25.53m), 1996’s From Dusk Till Dawn ($10.24m taking $25.72m), 2001’s Spy Kids (26.54m taking $112.69m), 2005’s Sin City (29.12m taking $74.1m). directed 23 films taking $800m in the US and $1.6bn worldwide.

UK Box Office Top 10

UK Box Office Preview

Fast X opens two years after Fast & Furious 9 opened with £6,014,132 from 594 screens including £1,177,359 previews like the opening of 2019’s Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw £6,377,583 from 614 screens including £1,468,289 previews. Both openings were half of the openings of the previous two films 2015’s Fast & Furious 7 £12,765,033 (no previews) and 2017’s The Fate of the Furious £14,026,301 including £5,380,621 previews.

Fast X was to be the penultimate part of the Fast & Furious series and the eleventh film of the franchise, but Vin Diesel has recently said it would be a three-part finale not two. But they say it will be the last film but as with all franchises now they never end as there will be more spinoffs and then a reboot.

Immediate premiere reaction was mixed some saying it was the best since Fast 7 and perfect popcorn film but others weren’t so positive, that said audiences will still come out over opening weekend but will likely be front-loaded as the last two films despite the cameos.

The 10 Fast & Furious films have taken £182m and £215m inflation inflated.

Sadly, the two more interesting films will struggle to find an audience despite both receiving critical acclaim Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and black comedy horror Beau Is Afraid. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is based on the novel by Judy Blume, as with John Hughes films in the 80s Judy Blume’s novels wrote about how teens were feeling growing up, long before the internet.

Other coming-of-age girls’ films include Lady Bird, Now and Then, My Girl, Thirteen, Little Women, Superbad, Edge of Seventeen, Juno, Sixteen Candles, Dirty Dancing, Mermaids, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Heathers, Booksmart, Eighth Grade, Mean Girls and Bend It Like Beckham, many of those also struggled to find a wide audience despite receiving positive reviews and strong word of mouth but found their audiences away from cinemas.

Coming-of-age girl’s films are often very different to coming-of-age boys’ films focused on sex but John Hughes’s films would break that barrier telling it from both sides as Superbad also did.

Opening in two weeks

  • Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – Paramount Pictures

Sci-Fi action film and the seventh instalment in the Transformers film series and both a standalone sequel to 2018’s Bumblebee and a prequel to 2007’s Transformers starring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, Tobe Nwigwe, Dean Scott Vazquez and voices of Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh, Pete Davidson, Peter Cullen, John DiMaggio, and David Sobolov.

Paramount announced the film in 2019 after the critical and BO success of Bumblebee, while it was the lowest-grossing film of the series it had the lowest budget of the franchise $102m compared with $217m for the last Transformers film and $200m for Rise of the Beasts.

The 6 Transformers films have taken $1.5bn+ in the US and $4.8bn+ worldwide including almost £120m in the UK (£160m inflated).

Hard to make comparisons with their openings as some of them had extended openings; 2007’s Transformers opened £8,718,561 from 456 screens #2 (no previews) against The Simpsons #1 £13,626,853; was the 9th biggest film of the year £22,863,864; 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction had the biggest opening £11,756,482 but it was inflated with a week of previews.

2018’s Bumblebee opened £5,103,382 #2 (inflated with two days of previews taking £2,611,599) with Mary Poppins Returns #1 £7,441,687 and Aquaman #3 £2,445,108 and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse #6 £1,015,505 (3rd weekend).

Rise Of the Beasts will likely open closer to Bumblebee than other Transformers films.

Has the world premiere in Singapore on May 27, 2023.

Early tracking has been similar to Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Morbius, X-Men: Dark Phoenix and Terminator: Dark Fate, while it’s sandwiched between Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Flash and all three target the same demographic.

  • Chevalier – Disney

Biographical drama starring Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton, Marton Csokas, Alex Fitzalan, and Minnie Driver and directed by Stephen Williams.

Had the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September receiving positive reviews from critics (81% Rotten Tomatoes). Opened in the US in April with $.52m from 1,275 screens.