Top 5 Breakdown

1. Sing – £10,487,380 -NE

After taking £4.2m from previews last weekend took £6.25m from this weekend to have the third biggest opening of Illumination Entertainment film in the UK ahead of last year’s The Secret Life of Pets opening with £9.58m (which included £3.6m from previews) behind 2013’s Despicable Me 2 £14.78m and 2015’s Minions £11.55m both films took over £47m at the box office.

Sing received mixed reviews but with half term holidays in two weeks’ time will likely perform similar to previous Illumination Entertainment films but unlike those other films which had the market for themselves for several weeks Sing has Lego Batman to deal with from this weekend when it has preview screenings;

In its second weekend, last year The Secret Life of Pets easily defeated Ice Age: Collision Course which took only £967,599 from its first weekend of previews. After the massive success of The Lego Movie three years ago, which opened with £8.033m including £1.9m from previews The Lego Batman Movie with previews this weekend is likely to be serious competition for Sing. As The Lego Batman Movie will play to children as well as adults and be the DC film comic-book fans have been wanting since The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.

But Sing does have the advantage of being the first family film released as normally the first film released always performs far better than the film that follows but with half term in two weeks both are likely to take £30m+ at the box office.

Universal Pictures announced this week December 25^th, 2020 release date for Sing 2  (which has been set for a January 2021 release in UK) along with release dates for other Illumination Entertainment sequels, The Secret Life of Pets 2, 3^rd July 2019 opening strangely only two weeks after Toy Story 4 and Minions 2, 3^rd July 2020 also opening two weeks after an untitled Pixar animation.

2. T2 Trainspotting £5,146,791 – NE  

After huge hype and expectations, the nostalgic sequel opens strongly with the third biggest Fri-Sun opening of all time in the UK behind 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey £13.27m and 2001’s £6.40m. But as 50 Shades of Grey T2 Trainspotting cannot be compared to other 18 films as the original released in 1996 was a cultural phenomenon and the sequel has seen the now parents going back to see the sequel to the original film which was the film of their generation.

While T2 Trainspotting is director Danny Boyle’s biggest ever opening in the UK ahead of 2000’s The Beach £2.42m its impossible to compare with a film released 17 years later. Likewise, the original film which opened February 23^rd, 1996 on limited release in West End and Scotland taking £2.1m went it opened wide.

Industry claimed average prices were in 1996, in 2000 was £4.14 and in 2016 £7.41; Trainspotting opening weekend admissions 567,568, The Beach admissions 584,541 and T2 Trainspotting 688,259 but anyone who goes to the cinema regular knows the average is £8.50 T2 Trainspotting opening is very similar to the original 600,000. While the original film played in cinemas for months was the tenth biggest film of 1996 taking over £12m it’s unlikely T2 Trainspotting will get close to the £26m which would be its equivalent box office today. 

T2 took 26% (£1.37m) of its box office from Scotland normally Scotland contribute about 7% of a film’s UK box office total. This is more impressive as ticket prices are much lower in Scotland than other parts of the UK.

T2 Trainspotting and La La Land follow on from the many nostalgic memberries movies that have been made in recent years. While audiences complain about sequels, reboots and remakes they are often fickle when it comes to nostalgic reboots, remakes and sequels as sometimes audiences are accepting of them as with Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens but not so with Independence Day: Resurgence all three films repeat what came before all of which having casts that weren’t in the originals but audiences are more accepting with some films over others.

Last year The Jungle Book reimagination was always expected to be successful as the original animated film was a massive hit in the UK when it was first released in 1967 and with its re-releases the last being in 1992 taking £7.41m which was the 10^th biggest film of the year.

South Park highlighted this in the last series with their memberries ‘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’. They highlighted this saying as many realised day weeks and months after watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens it was not as good as everyone thought it was, it may seem fun to go back and recycle the past we loved but we end up with no substance.’

Sony Pictures have three more memberries movies opening this year reboots of Flatliners and Jumanji and the eagerly awaiting sequel to Bladerunner all three have huge risk attached as Flatliners starred Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon and Julia Roberts who had just starred in the massive surprise hit Pretty Woman taking $178m while the remake has a much more upcoming cast. When Jumanji remake was announced most thought it was far too soon after Robin Williams death and how could you improve on the original film. While fans have been wanting a Bladerunner film for over 30 years but while the original is seen as a classic by fans and critics but opening two weeks after E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and a week before Tron disappointed at the box office in the US. 

3. La La Land – £3,105,328 – £20,954,690

Down 29.34% in its third weekend; after three weeks is ahead of all over recent Oscar winners apart from 2012’s Les Misérables which had taken £24.61m (73.6%) of its final box office of £33.45m.

Les Misérables stayed #1 for 4 weeks in 2013 taking £4.016m in week 3 dropping only 9% and £2.78m in week 4 down 31% if La La Land was to drop similar in its fourth weekend will take £2.13m.

Will see La La Land will end with similar final box office as Les Misérables 4.98x opening but as average ticket prices are up over 13.5% since 2013 the two can’t be compared by their box office; Les Misérables admissions 5.12m Vs 4.51m for La La Land with admissions down 12%.

Over the weekend La La Land overtook the final UK box office of Moulin Rouge which took £18m in 2001 La La Land will go on to take £30m+ which will be 86% more but their admissions will be only 3.5% apart as average ticket prices in 2001 were £4.14 compared with £7.41 in 2016.

This highlights the massive problem facing the industry while film box office is increasing year on year admissions have been flat for 14 years. There was massive growth in the 90s with experts predicting 200m admissions by 2000 but failed to match expectations with growth stopping completely in 2002. But despite admissions, no increasing since 2002 box office has almost doubled from £742m to £1.246bn  

		O w/e	2nd w/e	2 w/e T	3rd w/e	3rd w/e T
Spotlight	29 Jan 2016	£1.06m	£864,199	£2.64m	£451,302	£3.65m
The Revenant	15 Jan 2016	£5.23m	£3.85m	£12.01m	£2.27m	£16.09m
Birdman	1 Jan 2015	£1.52m	£826,316	£2.99m	£551,250	£4.01m
12 Years A Slave	10 Jan 2014	£2.51m	£3.05m	£7.12m	£2.23m	£11.03m
Les Misérables	11 Jan 2013	£8.12m	£4.40m	£17.36m	£4.01m	£24.61m
The Kings Speech	7 Jan 2011	£3.52m	£4.40m	£10.75m	£4.22m	£18.31m
Slumdog Millionaire	9 Jan 2009	£1.82m	£2.63m	£5.95m	£2.80m	£10.23m
No Country For Old Men	18 Jan 2008	£1.25m	£828,196	£2.75m	£712,346	£3.93m

The hype around La La Land has been immense heralded as the film of the moment but as many have shown with comparisons videos it’s a montage of scenes from classic scenes from Hollywood’s glories past which is why critics and Academy members love it and have described it as the film we need now. But is it? Why watch a remake when you can as easily see the original which will show that films like La La Land are like the Emperor’s New Clothes all hype no substance. Ever since La La Land premiered at Toronto Film Festival in September critics and awards have clambered over it in awe but is it as special and deserving of all that praise.

In 2005 Crash surprised everyone winning Best Film Oscar ahead of the favourite Brokeback Mountain while La La Land has the momentum to probably win Best Picture Oscar I do believe in months and years to come many will compare La La Land’s win to Crash s the film that shouldn’t have won as all the other eight nominees are far more deserving of winning Best Film as they tell an original story while a win for a Moonlight, Fences or Hidden Figures will show the Academy is serious about change and not just celebrating their own.

As with most films, the final cast is not normally the original cast for LaLa Land it was originally Emma Watson and Miles Teller both dropping out for different reasons for Emma Watson it was because of Beauty and the Beast. Much has been written about the reasons why they dropped out but until the hype started for La La Land in September after screening at Venice Film Festival little was expected being heralded by critics as ‘the film we need right now’. 

4. Split £2,000,319 – £6,030,395

Holding surprisingly strongly in its second weekend down only 21.9% despite the arrival of T2 Trainspotting and Hacksaw Ridge.

Has already overtaken the box office of M. Night Shyamalan’s 2015’s The Visit, 2008’s The Happening and 2010’s The Last Airbender. Split will shortly overtake 2013’s After Earth which took £6.22m after opening with £2.24m to become his fifth biggest film in the UK.

Over the coming weeks should overtake 2004’s The Village which took £9.98m but unlikely 2000’s Unbreakable £11.22m. M. Night Shyamalan’s biggest two films are still 1999’s The Sixth Sense which took £25.4m and 2002’s Signs £16.08m.

It was claimed that if you looked at international poster for Split net to the poster for Unbreakable you see the cracked glass is connected; Split had been previously described as thematic sequel to 2000’s Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan has recently said he plans his next film to be a sequel to Unbreakable along with a sequel to Split.

5. Hacksaw Ridge – £1,490,158 – NE

After surprisingly receiving 6 Oscar nominations including Best Film and Best Director for Mel Gibson which shocked many who saw it as Hollywood forgiving Mel Gibson for being an anti-Semite, racist, and Holocaust denier.

But Hacksaw Ridge was independently financed and released by Lionsgate talent agencies, studio chiefs, agents and actors will have nothing to do with Gibson the question will be if this will still be the case if he was to win an Oscar was Hacksaw Ridge is the kind of film the Academy like.

Thirty years ago, Mel Gibson was loved by Hollywood starring in the first Lethal Weapon followed it with three sequels over next 11 years along with many other massive films. In 1995 he directed Braveheart nominated for 10 Oscars and won 5 including Best Film and Best Director. But then in July 2006, he was arrested for drink driving exploding into an angry anti-Semitic rant against the arresting sheriff who was Jewish.

After many controversial statements, he was blacklisted in Hollywood for many years only starring in a few independently produced films Edge of Darkness and The Beaver made by Icon Productions which he owned and Machete Kills and The Expendables 3. The last major film he starred in was M. Night Shyamalan’s 2002 film Signs.

Hacksaw Ridge opened ahead of Mel Gibson’s last film 2006’s Apocalypto £1.36m but less than his biggest opening as a director 2004’s The Passion of the Christ £1.7m. Hacksaw Ridge opening included £219,072 from Thursday previews)

Braveheart opened in September 1995 with £1,32m and took £12.65m (3.16m admissions) and was the third biggest film of 1995 behind Batman Forever and Casper which took £20.01m and £15.96m.

Also, released

Denial – eOne – £229,067 from 79 screens

Other box office news

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £25,816,418 up 99.2% from last weekend £12,971,749;

Weekend admissions 3,483,997 up 90.2% from last week 1,750,573

This weekend was the biggest January ever with £27.7m; with Rogue One in tenth place taking over £500,000 only twice this has happened in 2016 with box office shared across many films; Sing even though took £10.48m took only 40.6% of the top 10 box office normally when a film opens so big it’s over 70% of the top 10.

Weekend was up 90.7% from last year (£13,532,704) Dirty Grandpa £1,440,811, Spotlight £1,054,466, Capture The Flag £774,867, Youth £265,249, 13 Hours £238,000, The 33 £26,208.

In 2015: (£10,690,982) Big Hero 6 £4,291,285, Kingsman: The Secret Service £4,235,456, Inherent Vice £360,497, and Les Contes D’Hoffman £237,910 opened.

Next weekend in 2016: Goosebumps – £2,683,690, Dad’s Army £2,067,827 and Trumbo £144,308

Previous biggest January

2^nd -4^th Jan 2015 £22m: The Theory of Everything £3.74m, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies £3.24m, Paddington £2.83m.

11^th-13^th Jan 2013 £21.3m: Les Miserables £8.12m, Life of Pi £2.33m, Gangster Squad £2.09m.

1^st-3^rd Jan 2016: Star Wars: The Force Awakens £10.3m, Daddy’s Home £2.9m, Joy £1.51m.

3^rd-5^th Jan 2014 £20.7m: American Hustle £3.46m, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug £3.2m, Frozen £2.92m

Cinema Exhibitors Association average ticket price of £7.41 for 2016 up only 2.77% from 2015 despite a 7.3% increase from 2014. If the same percentage was used 2016 average ticket price would be £7.74.

 

US Box Office

As in the UK M. Night Shyamalan’s Split held surprisingly strongly in its second weekend already overtaking Lady in the Water, After Earth, The Happening and The Visit and by next weekend should overtake Unbreakable.

The new releases had disappointing openings the controversy surrounding A Dog’s Purpose affected its opening (still received A CinemaScore) and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter bowed out with the lowest opening of the film series (received B CinemaScore) will likely drop heavily this weekend.

Hidden Figures held strongly in third is performing similar to 2011’s The Help and is now incredibly Kevin Costner’s fourth biggest film and will overtake 1992’s The Bodyguard in the coming weeks and if it continues to hold as well could overtake Prince of Thieves.

After a disappointing last ten years is there a comeback on the cards for Kevin Costner who stars alongside Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba in ‎Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut Molly’s Game next which is released at the end of the year. For me, the late 80s and 90s films are the best as had a far better mix of genres and original movies Kevin Costner had massive success over those years with classic films including The Untouchables, No Way Out and Field of Dreams.

Rogue One looks like it will drop out of the top 10 chart this weekend which is three weeks earlier than The Force Awakens last year; Rogue One has taken $375.56m less than The Force Awakens after seven weeks.

Live by Night dropped a record 2,659 screen in its third weekend taking only $101,028 and $10.27m total; the film was reported to have a loss of $75m for Warner Bros and was rumoured to be the reason Ben Affleck dropped out of directing The Batman.

But it didn’t need to be this way as had Warner kept Live by Night’s original release date of October 20^th, 2017 it would have given Ben Affleck to complete the film and rather than going after Academy members the film would have opened for cinemagoers avoiding the cannibalizing award contenders. The film might have still flopped in October 2017 but it would have been able to start its marketing campaign premiering at Venice or Toronto Film Festivals as many award contenders now start their film campaigns.

Opened February 3^rd

Opening UK

• Rings – Paramount Pictures

The supernatural psychological horror film starring Matilda Lutz, Alex Roe, Johnny Galecki, Aimee Teegarden, Bonnie Morgan and Vincent D’Onofrio and directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez. It is the third film in the Ring franchise, directly following The Ring and The Ring Two. It is also the remake of the 2012 Japanese horror film Sadako 3D.

The Ring opened in October 2002 with £3.2m taking £9.45m

The Ring 2 opened April 2005 with £2.06m taking £5.16m

With Split holding strongly in its second weekend Rings opening against Resident Evil: The Final Chapter are likely to cannibalize each other as all three are targeting similar audiences.

• Resident Evil: The Final Chapter – Sony Pictures UK

The sixth and final installment in the Resident Evil film series based on the Capcom survival horror video game series Resident Evil starring Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Shawn Roberts, Ruby Rose, Eoin Macken, William Levy, and Iain Glen and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

Resident Evil	12 July 2002	£801,628	£2.68m
Resident Evil: Apocalypse	8th October 2004	£801,171	£1.82m
Resident Evil: Extinction	12 October 2007	£931,991	£2.37m
Resident Evil: Afterlife	10 September 2010	£1.69m	£4.12m
Resident Evil: Retribution	28th September 2012	£792,265	£1.79m

 With Sing, La La Land and T2 Trainspotting likely taking the top three places Resident Evil: The Final Chapter us likely to be cannibalized with rings sharing its box office as The Bye Bye Man and Underworld: Blood Wars did three weeks ago over the January 13^th weekend.

• Gold – Studiocanal

Crime adventure starring Matthew McConaughey, Édgar Ramírez, Bryce Dallas Howard, Corey Stoll, Toby Kebbell, Craig T. Nelson, Stacy Keach and Bruce Greenwood and directed by Stephen Gaghan;

Gold was seen as a potential award contender as films including Silence, The Founder, A Monster Calls, Miss Sloane, Patriots Day and The Founder but all those films failed to receive any major nominations studios must date films for cinemagoers first over playing the lottery that is award season. 

• Loving – Universal Pictures UK

Drama starring Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga, Nick Kroll, and Michael Shannon and directed by Jeff Nichols; received its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival with critical acclaim receiving Best Actress Oscar nomination for Ruth Negga. 

Loving opened on a limited release in November in the US despite receiving very positive reviews failed to get to a wide audience probably due to Moonlight also being released at the same time. Loving is based on a true story about interracial marriage which is similar to A United Kingdom, was released in November which opened with £0.61m taking £2.24m but had the benefit from the media coverage generated by opening the London Film Festival in October. Loving received its UK premiere also at the film festival but is unlikely to find a similar audience opening in a crowded marketplace for adult dramas.

It’s Jeff Nichols second directed film released in the last year his previous Midnight Special received similar critical acclaim in April but failed to find an audience opening with £0.49m taking £1.08m.

Opening in US

• Rings – Paramount Pictures

Similar to xXx: Return of Zander Cage Rings is back after a 12-year gap; The Ring opened 18^th October 2002 with $15.01m taking $129.1m; The Ring Two opened 18^th March 2005 with $35.06m taking $76.2m.

Rings has been moved almost as many times as Paramount Pictures Monster Tracks and their Friday 13th reboot. Originally set for November 13th, 2015, moved to April 1st, 2016 and then October 28th, 2016 but then moved to November 4th the weekend after Halloween which seems rather a strange move.

At CinemaCon Paramount Pictures Rob Moore said if Rings is successful Rings could become an annual Halloween event as Paranormal Activity films were for five years.

As with many horror films recently Paramount Pictures created a marketing video that went viral online which featured customers in an TV shop looking at TVs on display when a woman dressed as Samara comes out of the TV; video was seen over 247 million times on Facebook and 3.3 million times on YouTube in the first two days which would be very positive but trailers for xXx Return of Xander Cage were watched over 100 million times in two days but was disappointing at box office.

• The Space Between Us – STX

Romantic science fiction starring Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, Gary Oldman, and Carla Gugino and directed by Peter Chelsom.

Was originally set for release on July 29^th, 2016 but was switched with Bad Moms, was then moved to August 19^th and then December 21^st and then finally moved to February 3^rd, 2017.   

• The Comedian – Sony Classics

Comedy-drama starring Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann, Danny DeVito, Edie Falco, Veronica Ferres, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman, Patti LuPone, and Harvey Keitel and directed by Taylor Hackford; received its world premiere at the AFI Fest in November receiving mixed reviews.