Top 5 Breakdown

1. A Star Is Born – £2,883,000 – £14,874,834

Down only 6.49% in its third weekend; three weeks ago the film opened in 526 screens increased to 612 screens in its second weekend after the Vue cinemas dispute ended but then has added another 51 screens in its third weekend which has seen its average per screen drop below Halloween. For a film like A Star Is Born which is likely to have a long run in cinemas it didn’t need to go as wide as it has been, but distributors seem to feel they need to open films as wide as possible.

Depending on if you call A Star Is Born a musical it is the 9^th biggest in the UK between Chicago and Hairspray and 13^th biggest inflation inflated between Phantom of the Opera and Michael Jackson’s This Is It.

After 19 days on release, A Star Is Born has become the 15^th biggest film of the year and is Warner Bros third biggest film of the year. By the weekend will have overtaken both Ready Player One and The Meg to be their biggest film of the year until Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald opens in four weeks’ time (advance bookings opened this week) the first film opened in November 2016 with £15,333,146 taking £54,703,625 and the sequel should do similar which will likely see it becoming one of the biggest five films of the year.

Warner Bros had a very disappointing start of the year with Game Night being the only positive as Tomb Raider, Ready Player One and Rampage all disappointed. Since Ocean’s Eight (taking £11.02m) opened in late June all of their major releases have performed strongly only slight disappointment was Crazy Rich Asians not matching its US success but opening the film 6 weeks earlier probably impacted on its box office. The Meg took £15.3m and The Nun £11.5m.

Musicals perform much stronger in the UK than the US and often have long legs (A Star is Born has been described as a musical but its more a drama with music as Walk the Line, probably why Warner Bros are putting it up for Best Drama rather than Best Comedy or Musical for Golden Globes).

Musicals third weekends

2008’s Mamma Mia! took £2,830,207 and £24,608,293 36.1% of £68,162,804

2018’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again took £4,121,275 and £39,324,001 60.2% of £65,222,094

2017’s The Greatest Showman took £2,142,337 and £13,537,211 28.8% of £47,000,000

2013’s Les Miserables took £4,016,611 and £24,618,896 60.3% of £40,818,299

2001’s Moulin Rouge took £1,533,223 and £8,366,042 46.6% of £17,934,410

La La Land took £3,105,328 and £20,954,690 70.2% of £29,816,588

2003’s Chicago took £1,248,340 (third week wide) and £7,975,054 50.1% of £15,927,431

Other adult drama film comparisons

Comparisons could be made with 2013’s Gravity (which was held back a month in the UK to avoid opening against Captain Phillips, which should have been done also for First Man this year) took £2,389,193 in its third weekend and £19,444,886 59.4% of its £32,692,161 total was nominated for 10 Oscars winning 7 and similar is currently expected for A Star Is Born (saying that often the favourite early in award season doesn’t always win, but as with films like The Artist, Spotlight and La La Land it is the kind of film Academy members love).

Captain Phillips took £1,622,925 in its third weekend and £11,418,489 74.9% of its £15,249,377 total; was nominated for 6 Oscars

A Star Is Born box office is currently 23% less than Gravity but that is due in part to Gravity opening with £6,238,375 with Thor: The Dark World a distant second with £2,979,564 in its second weekend compared to A Star Is Born opening third behind Venom £8,031,342 and Johnny English Strikes Back £4,117,692 and that a large percentage of Gravity box office was either from 3D or IMAX which added a third to ticket prices (since 2013 average ticket price has increased by 20%). Gravity stayed in the top 10 for 11 weeks until the end of 2013, A Star is Born will likely gold similarly as long this year.

In 2014 Gone Girl took £2,361,051 in its third weekend and £14,153,879 63.9% of its £22,125,201 total after opening with £4,109,628 with Dracula Untold its only competition opening with £1,713,283 (but had an 18-certificate limiting its audience) staying in the top 10 for 8 weeks.

In 2015 The Martian took £2,419,958 in its third weekend and £17,491,033 75% of its £23,321,249 after opening with £6,531,734 with Legend a distant second taking £1,054,608 in its fourth weekend. Stayed in the chart for 7 weeks and was nominated for 7 Oscars winning two Golden Globe’s Best Picture Musical or Comedy and Best Actor for Matt Damon.

In January 2014 The Wolf of Wall Street opened with £4,655,984 taking £2,385,585 in its third weekend and £14,964,390 67.2% of its £22,267,066 total; was nominated for 5 Oscars

If A Star Is Born was to hold similar to Gravity (a lot depends on the coming weekend against Bohemian Rhapsody with Widows opening two weeks later) could take about £25m

Jess Glynne pushed the films to soundtrack down to #2 (The Greatest Showman is still #3 in its 43^rd week on release with Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again #10 in its 14^th week on release) and singles Shallow up to #4, I’ll Never Love Again #34 and Always Remember Us This Way #31.

The first song from the film’s soundtrack Shallow has now been viewed over 53m times viewed almost 17m times over the last seven days. 

2. Halloween – £2,656,097  – NE

Had the 487^th biggest opening in the UK between Pixels and Non-Stop (close to A Quiet Place, Saw III and Scream 2); 738^th inflation inflated opening between The Interpreter Grown Ups (close to Split, Scream 4, Saw VI and 28 Weeks Later).

After opening with a massive $77m in the US was surprising Halloween couldn’t get anywhere near its opening in the UK; It opened last year with £10.01m taking £32.34m with 8.1% of US opening compared with only 3.5% for Halloween; many believe films open with 10% of their US box office.

This is highlighted by Halloween opening similar to A Quiet Place £2,696,892 (including  £704,378 from previews) being the 16^th biggest opening for a horror film in the UK and was the 13^th biggest Fri-Sun between Sleepy Hollow (released 18 years ago) and The Ring (released 15 years ago)

But while blockbusters Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Avenger: Infinity War take about 10%, horrors are normally closer to 5%+ (Truth or Dare, The First Purge, Hereditary, Insidious: The Last Key, The Nun and A Quiet Place), musicals 25%+ (The Greatest Showman and La La Land) and Brit-based films 40%+ (Darkest Hour, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and Peter Rabbit)

Halloween opening was The Conjuring 2 (+7%), Split (+20%), The Conjuring (+40%), Annabelle: Creation (+54%), Annabelle (+56%) and Jigsaw (+101%).

When Deadline reported on Friday Halloween had given 4th highest Friday opening day and the biggest of the last five years opening with $3.94m (£3.1m) it read that Halloween opened with that figure on Friday as when Deadline report international box office on Saturday it is normally its opening day. After Halloween had opened with a similar amount on Friday in the US it looked like Halloween was going to match its US opening in the UK.

This weekend is an unusual weekend as it’s the weekend before Halloween which has been traditionally of course a strong weekend to launch a horror film but is also the weekend before half term holidays so also the weekend children’s film opens (sometimes the two combined with a children’s horror film this year Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween and previously Hotel Transylvania 2 (was the reason for the first Goosebumps film not to get a Halloween release in 2015). While also being the weekend often a film that premiered at the London Film Festival opens (Fury in 2014) making for a very crowded weekend.

While opening the start of the half-term week since 2015 with Spectre, Doctor Strange and Thor: Ragnarok (this year’s The Hate U Give and Bohemian Rhapsody and next year was going to be Bond 25 before it was delayed to February 14th, 2020).

Comparing Halloween opening with other classic horror reboots was 31.6% less than The Omen (£2,096,002); +105% Nightmare on Elm Street (£1,342,837); +317% Carrie (£662,625); +101% Evil Dead (£1,375,842); +104% The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (£1,357,534); +132% Friday The 13th (£1,198,653)

Previous recent Halloween films 

Halloween H20 opened October 1998 with £1,038,646 taking £3,059,894

Halloween: Resurrection opened October 2002 with £520,171 taking £1,299,433

Halloween II in 2009 opening with £522,661 taking £1,291,368

While other reimaginations of classic horrors

A Nightmare on Elm Street opened May 2010 with £1,342,837 taking £3,502,236

Friday the 13th opened February 2009 with £1,198,653 taking £1,955,271

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre opened in November 2003 with £1,357,534 taking £3,860,962

Halloween opening was closer to the Saw and Scream sequels openings

Saw II   opened October 2005 with £2,189,212

Saw III  opened October 2006 with £2,522,521

Saw IV opened October 2007 with £2,482,889

Saw V  opened October 2008 with £2,436,817

Saw VI opened October 2009 with £1,736,287

Saw 3D opened October 2010 with £3,600,083

Scream 2 opened May 1998 with £2,493,950

Scream 3 opened April 2000 with £2,449,937

Scream 4 opened April 2011 with £2,061,885

But with 10+ year gap since those films opened their inflation inflated openings would be more than a third more for each

3. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween –  £2,119,165  – NE

The opening included last weekend previews of £787,000 without previews would have opened below Smallfoot second weekend.

Had the 640^th biggest opening in the UK between The World’s End and The Fighter (close to Dinosaur, The Polar Express, Angry Birds, Arthur Christmas and Jumanji and had the 904^th biggest inflation inflated opening between Last Vegas and Cabin in the Woods (close to Rango, Zathura, Freaky Friday, Fantastic Mr. Fox, 102 Dalmatians and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

Opening was 21% less than Goosebumps in February 2016 (opened five months after the US due to Sony Pictures releasing Hotel Transylvania 2 for Halloween) £2,686,105 (including £1,004,560 from previews) taking £8,575,763; with half term this week and then Halloween next weekend should perform well over the next 10 days with Smallfoot its only competition for younger audiences over half-term holidays.

Reviews were far more mixed than the original film and opening so close to The House with A Clock in Its Walls the two films

4. Johnny English Strikes Back £1,681,394 – £10,973,138

Down 42.03% in its third weekend

Opening 15 years after the first film was released and seven years Johnny English Strikes Back is holding similar to both films but must remember is about 80% ticket inflation different from the first film released in 2003 and 30% from the first sequel released in 2011.

This follows a similar pattern of many films recently including Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again many of today’s films are performing similar in the box office of many similar historical films but should be performing much stronger as they don’t take in count inflation increases between the films. 

Johnny English dropped only 10% in its third weekend in April 2003 taking £2,279,100 (holding #1 for a third weekend and £13,735,384 total £19,209,597 (inflation inflated £34,049,443)

Johnny English Reborn dropped 33% in its third weekend in October 2011 £2,052,062 taking £12,906,637 total £20,632,010 (inflation inflated £26,794,376) was in a similar position as Johnny English Strikes Back with its fourth week being half term taking £1,787,451 and £17,497,821 faced tougher competition for half-term with The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn opening with £6,758,724. Depending on how Johnny English Strikes Back performs across half-term holidays its unlikely it will take £20m now.

As with Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Johnny English Strikes Back after opening similar to previous films isn’t holding as strongly and despite taking similar box office it can’t be compared with their box office due to the gap between releases.

In 2003 Johnny English was the ninth biggest film of the year behind LOTR: The Return of the King, Finding Nemo, Love Actually, The Matrix Reloaded, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Bruce Almighty, X-Men 2 and Calendar Girls.

In 2011 Johnny English Reborn was the eleventh biggest film of the year behind (Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Inbetweeners Movie, The King’s Speech, The Hangover Part II, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Twilight: Breaking Dawn: Part 1, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Bridesmaids and Arthur Christmas.

If Johnny English Strikes Back was to take £19m+ will likely be the 18^th biggest film of the year with Avengers Infinity Wars, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, Incredibles 2, Black Panther, Peter Rabbit, Jurassic World 2, Deadpool 2, Mission impossible Fallout and Star Wars  Solo currently ahead of it and films including A Star Is Born, The Grinch, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them 2, Wreck-It-Ralph 2 and Mary Poppins Returns will all take more than £20m.

Bean opened August 1997 with £2,563,326 (£4,956,603 inflation inflated) taking £17,972,562 (£34,752,841 inflation inflated)

Mr Bean’s Holiday opened March 2007 with £6,440,093 (£10,036,343 inflation inflated) taking £21,781,782 (£33,945,074 inflation inflated)

Has taken $96m internationally from 57 territories with $14.4m from the UK opens in the US this weekend but the last two films failed to find an audience in the US similar to Bridget Jones’s Diary films US audiences just don’t get them.

5. Venom – £1,568,433  – £16,652,223

Down 47.7% in its third weekend

Has become the 41^st biggest comic-book film in the UK between Iron Man and Ant-Man and is the 53^rd biggest inflation inflated comic-book film between Ant-Man and The Wasp and Blade 2; will shortly overtake X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: Apocalypse and Justice League but depending on how it performs over half-term will probably come short of £20m.

Had bigger third weekend than 2004’s Spider-Man 2 £1,557,140 and 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man £1,051,641 but is still pacing behind all six Spider-Man films and won’t get close to any of them. But Venom was never expected to be as Venom is not known away from comic-book fans (he made a small appearance in one of the Spider-Man films previously) and it was also a 15 compared with 12A other Spider-Man films were.

Comparing it to the MCU it’s the 14^th biggest after three weeks between Thor: The Dark World (was very front-loaded) and Captain America: Winter Soldier.  The sixth biggest Marvel/X- Men film between X2 and X-Men: Apocalypse

Sony Pictures continue to surprise as they seem to have the Midas touch being able to polish turds into hits Emoji Movie, Peter Rabbit and now Venom but I guess having released many Adam Sandler films in the past are experts now.

Does show again that audiences don’t listen to critics with comic-book movies, they will still come out to see them on opening weekend Justice League £7,264,784, Suicide Squad £11,252,225, X-Men: Apocalypse £7,354,293 and Batman Vs Superman £14,621,007 but then drop off much faster than films that critics and audience love like Wonder Woman which might have had a lower than expected opening of £6,179,616 but opened with only 27.98% of its £22,086,045 total.

11 comic-book films have held better but most of them were released over 10 years ago when films held much stronger for longer Batman Begins, Blade, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman Returns, Ant-Man, Batman Forever, The Dark Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman, Men In Black and Men in Black 3 (had a very disappointing opening of £2,935,736 in May 2012 over a very hot weekend taking only 13.50% of its £21,750,343 total. Next summer Sony Pictures release their Men in Black reboot (not much is known of the reboot apart from it’s a UK branch of the Men in Black and the first trailer is expected later this year.

Sony Pictures release Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse in December; the animated film c0-exists with the live-action Spider-Man films is produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and written by Phil Lord.  They previously had big success at the studio making Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, 21 Jump Street and 22 Jump Street.

The post-credit scene at the end of Venom sets up Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse after a screen caption says “Meanwhile, in another universe…” then shows an action sequence from the film. While the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming titled Far from Home will be released next summer, the trailer is expected with Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

But as Spider-Man died at the end of Avengers: Infinity War how is he alive for the sequel, Avengers 4 trailer is expected to be released in November ahead of its release in April. The question is how those two films marketing campaigns will run after the events that featured in Infinity War and what will happen in Captain Marvel which will likely change the course of events from Infinity War.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £14,380,279 down 15.9% from last weekend £17,103,615    

The weekend admissions 1,816,544 down 12.9% from last weekend 2,086,655; average ticket up 3.87% from last year’s £7.49 to £7.87 for 2018; but as with the US claiming the ticket price dropped 6% in the summer I wouldn’t be surprised UK claims similar at the end of the year to try to make admissions increase for the first time since 2002.

19 films opened at weekend taking £5,530,193; Halloween 48.02% (£2,656,097): Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween 38.3% (£2,119,165): remaining 17 films shared 13.65% (£754,931): Top three took 53.3% (£7,658,262) of the top 10; A Star is Born 20.04%; Halloween 18.4%; Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween 14.7%;

The weekend was up 46.9% from 2017 ((£9,783,969); Geostorm £1,625,895; Happy Death Day £998,388; The Death of Stalin £995,458; My Little Pony £916,123; Marshall £14,967; The Princess Bride (30th Anniversary) £1,128;  

Down 6.91% from 2016: (£15,448,907): Trolls £5,440,878; Jack Reacher: Never Go Back £2,688,561; Ouija: Origin of Evil £779,626; I, Daniel Blake £444,800; Keeping Up with the Joneses £271,306; Don Giovanni – Met Opera 2016 (Opera) £254,469; Queen of Katwe £73,754

Down 17.4% from 2015; (£17,426,172); Hotel Transylvania 2 £6,317,438; Suffragette £2,938,446; Pan £2,738,758; Crimson Peak £967,168; The Lobster £229,619; Otello – Met Opera 2015 (Opera) £172,773; The Program £144,181;

Up 12.8% from 2014: (£12,738,897); Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles £4,785,448; The Best of Me £636,842; The Judge £420,720; Northern Soul £278,829; Le Nozze di Figaro – Met Opera 2014 (Opera) £247,958; Black Butler £1,327

Up 32.9% from 2013: (£10,812,691); Turbo £3,892,774; Captain Phillips £3,483,981; Escape Plan £961,470; Enough Said £170,357; Like Father, Like Son £13,132; Love, Marilyn £191

Down 1.9% from 2012 (£14,670,714); Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted £6,030,904; Paranormal Activity 4 £2,544,701; Beasts of the Southern Wild £181,801; Ginger and Rosa £62,689;

Up 28.1% from 2011 (£11,227,673): Paranormal Activity 3 £3,405,036; Contagion £1,463,638; We Need to Talk About Kevin £492,297; Monte Carlo £237,469; Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer £33,605; Restless £11,270

Up 17.2% from 2010: (£12,266,017): Paranormal Activity 2 £3,764,722; RED £1,662,472; Legend of the Guardians £737,444; Alpha and Omega £643,425; Easy A £277,975; Africa United £177,827; Ramona and Beezus £84,475;

Up 37.5% from 2009 (£10,454,829); Saw VI £1,736,287; Fantastic Mr. Fox £1,517,312; Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant £798,641; The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard £35,362; Johnny Mad Dog £9,718

Up 96.1% from 2008 (£7,332,004); Burn After Reading £2,045,565; Eagle Eye £1,096,777; Igor £981,750; The Rocker £217,745;

Up 86.8% from 2007 (£7,694,181); Stardust £2,245,143; Rendition £583,345; Dark is Rising £214,058; Nancy Drew £135,753; The Last Legion £125,540; Daddy Day Camp £65,989; Once £65,256; Razzle Dazzle £6,185

Up 69.4% from 2006; (£8,486,228); Barnyard: The Original Party Animals £1,022,890; The Guardian £826,569; The Grudge 2 £773,422; The Last Kiss £431,071; Marie Antoinette £283,883

Up 26.9% from 2005 (£11,324,493); Nanny McPhee £2,603,834; Corpse Bride £1,150,464; Sky High £646,569; Into the Blue £510,323; Dreamer £149,058; Broken Flowers £395,880

Up 49% from 2004 (£9,648,812): Alien vs Predator £2,003,663; Alfie £1,314,156; The Princess Diaries 2 £807,008;

Up 7.5% from 2003 (£13,372,837); Kill Bill Volume One £2,693,742; The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen £2,005,435; Mystic River £295,135; Bollywood Queen £27,020;

Up 58.9% from 2002 (£9,046,691): XXX £3,435,891; Slap Her, She’s French £210,321; The Powerpuff Girls £92,007;

Up 51.9% from 2001 (£9,463,581); America’s Sweethearts £1,719,897; Jeepers Creepers £1,533,151; Atlantis £1,282,458; Brotherhood of the Wolf £123,245;

Next weekend in 2017: (19,248,577); Thor: Ragnarok £12,375,804; Jigsaw £1,851,249; Breathe £535,675; Call Me by Your Name £235,760; Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami £98,299

The fact box office is only up 50% from 17 years ago while ticket inflation since has gone up over 90% highlights the issue I’ve said for years that UK box office now has highs and lows as most films now open big and then drop big. A Star Is Born as The Greatest Showman earlier this year are now exceptions as even Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again didn’t hold as strongly as most believed it would (10 years ago Mamma Mia! was still in the top 10 in its 16^th week taking £257,705 while the sequel took less than 10% with 50%+ ticket inflation since).

Last weekend the UK box office was taking up to 200% of previous years box office this weekend up 100% from 10 years ago but down 17% from 2015 and will be down even more next weekend as Spectre and Skyfall opened the same weekend over previous years.

While many might believe UK admissions might increase for the first time since 2002 with the highest admissions since 171 it will likely be due to them moving the goal posts as has happened in the US with exhibitors claiming average ticket price dropped 6% from June to July to $8.83 from $9.38.

As anyone who actually pays to go to the cinema they know this is nonsense as ticket prices continue to go only one way, especially now with exhibitors being obsessed with reclining seats. It was revealed recently that the Odeon Leicester Square capacity will drop from 1,679 seats to 794 with all recliners, the cinema was the most expensive the UK before refurbishment with tickets up to £25 losing 800 seats it’s likely they could top £30 which will price out most from going to the cinema.

In the late 80s/90s when I started to develop my love of cinema I would go to Leicester Square cinemas every weekend seeing films in the four Leicester Square cinemas and tickets was only £4. In the late 90s multiplexes opened close to where I lived and would only see multi-media screenings in Leicester Square and later rehearsal and premiere screenings when I worked at 20^th Century Fox, (was always a strange experience to be sitting alone in Leicester Square cinema rehearsing the West End show print).

Also opened             

• They Shall Not Grow Old – Trafalgar Releasing

On Tuesday, October 16^th Peter Jackson’s World War I archive film received its world premiere at the London Film Festival receiving critical acclaim and also screened in cinemas for one night only taking £558,000 from 247 screens.

Using Imperial War Museums’ film archive footage and audio from BBC archives it was colourized, and the sound was added and was retrofitted in 3D  and will be broadcast on BBC1 on Armistice Day, November 11.

• Hunter Killer – Lionsgate

Opened with £368,082 from 356 screens

After Den of Thieves opened in February with £1.08m taking £2.79m and Geostorm opened with £1.62m taking £3.98m more was expected from Hunter Killer.

Next year Gerard Butler will be back in Angel Has Fallen sequel to London Has Fallen sequel to Olympus Has Fallen.

 

• Fahrenheit 11/9 – Vertigo Films

Opened with £56,814 from 40 screens

Vertigo Films acquired the film late and had a very small window to release the film before the US elections and was always going to be a hard sell and unlikely to get close to Michael Moore documentaries

Fahrenheit 9/11 opened in July 2004 with £1,304,115 taking £6,049,187

Bowling for Columbine opened in November 2002 with £157,898 taking £1,215,039

 UK Box Office Top 10

US Box office

• Halloween – Universal Pictures

Opens with $76.22m; received 83% Rotten Tomatoes score and B+ CinemaScore

Jamie Lee Curtis tweeted on Sunday Halloween had the biggest opening featuring a female lead aged over 55 but what was the film it overtook?

Took $7.7m from Thursday previews slightly less than 2011’s Paranormal Activity 3 $8m (opening with $52.56m taking $104.02m)

beating The Nun’s $5.4m but less than 2017’s It previews of $13.5m opening with $123.4m, the second film will be released next September.

A month before release tracking to open with $65m but Universal Pictures was predicting an opening of $50m+; after it took $7.7m from previews was expected to open with $80m but Sunday estimates came in at $77.5m but final figures dropped another $1.3m which probably means it will be very front-loaded and won’t last long in the charts after Halloween. This was similarly the case with Thursday night previews Halloween was originally expected to open with about $10m from previews but that reduced to $7.7m

Saturday box office was down 18.1% from Friday and Sunday was down 40.7% from  Saturday in comparison The Nun dropped 10.4% on Saturday and 39.7% Sunday while A Quiet Place increased 1.2% on Saturday and dropped 35.8% Sunday.

Halloween marketing played strongly to its strengths 40^th anniversary and Jamie Lee Curtis and also being a horror for the #MeToo era.

While much credit has gone to Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures the relaunched Miramax was also key to its success as they owned the rights previously with Dimension Films who made several Halloween films in the 90s and early 00s (Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Halloween Resurrection and Halloween II). They opted to make the film instead with Blumhouse Productions.

In early 00s were many reboots of classic horrors including 2003’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre  opening with $28m taking $80.5m, 2005’s Amityville Horror $23.5m taking $65.2m, 2009’s Friday the 13th $40.5m taking $65m, 2010’s Nightmare on Elm Street $32.9m taking $63m and even 2007’s Halloween $26.3m taking $58.2m.

Over recent years Warner Bros have been trying to reboot Friday the 13^th franchise, they gave Paramount Pictures their rights for the film franchise in exchange for international rights for Interstellar for 5 years but since has been legal issues over ownership of the film series. If these legal issues get sorted Warner Bros would surely be looking to do similar to the film series in 2020 is the 40^th anniversary of the series?

After Halloween opened so strongly in the US would have expected similar big numbers internationally but opened with $14.3m from 23 territories; a month ago The Nun opened with $77.5m internationally from 60 territories a third more than it was expected to open $45m taking $131m worldwide. The audience for Halloween should be the same that saw The Nun so why did they come out to see it in the  US but not internationally?

• A Star is Born – Warner Bros

Dropped 33% in its third weekend taking $19.05m and $126.12m

The musical that’s not a musical is hard to make comparisons with as its not a musical or a drama it’s a mix of both but that is what La La Land and The Greatest Showman were dramas with musical as you could take the music out of the film and it wouldn’t affect the structure of the film.

Has already overtaken Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again $120.63m

After three weeks holding stronger than The Greatest Showman ($76,875,323 of $174,340,174), La La Land ($89,758,080 of $151,101,803), Les Miserables ($118,723,185        and $148,809,770), The Great Gatsby ($114,270,174 and $144,840,419, Chicago ($82,606,872 and $170,687,518 and Mamma Mia! ($87,470,125 and $144,130,063)

Holding stronger than

2013’s American Hustle $12,404,207 down 33.7% and $87,923,123 of $150,117,807

2014’s Gone Girl $17,511,956 down 33.7% and $106,780,820 of $167,767,189

But less than

2015’s The Martian $21,300,120 down 42.4% and $143,595,778 of $228,433,663

2013’s Gravity $30,027,161 down 30.5% and $169,563,291 of  $274,092,705

And similar to 2017’s Dunkirk taking $17,135,246 and $133,090,984 of $188,045,546

If A Star is Born continues to hold as it could take upwards of $180m+ overtaken Crazy Rich Asians to be their biggest film of the year until Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Took $22.8m from 75 territories and $74.7m total and $201.1m worldwide; #749 biggest film worldwide between Fun with Dick and Jane and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

• Venom – Sony Pictures

Dropped 48.5% in its third weekend taking $18.04m and $171.06m total #49 biggest comic-book film in the UK between Captain America: The First Avenger and Batman Returns

Took more than 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man ($10,887,111) and 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($16,803,227) and total is similar in its second weekend $172,169,864; and the 15^th biggest third weekend of MCU between Doctor Strange and Thor and 16^th biggest total after three weeks between Ant-Man and the Wasp and Thor: The Dark World

Took $32.3m internationally from 65 territories $296.7m total and $461.2m worldwide #224 biggest film globally between Cars and Gladiator; opens in Japan and China next month. Venom was expected to take $350m worldwide but instead will take about $600m worldwide which will be similar to last years Logan showing that good reviews mean very little with comic-book films.

• First Man – Universal Pictures

Dropped 48% in its second weekend taking $8.32m and $29.76m

Last week Universal Pictures said after the film opened below expectations “Audiences, critics and award pundits will be talking about First Man for months, well into the New Year.  We anticipate First Man to have a very long, successful run at the domestic box office which it certainly deserves.”

But dropping almost 50% in its second weekend and down to fifth shows that it won’t have the legs they expected while the film received critical acclaim audience reaction was much more mixed, but the biggest problem wasn’t the film, it was its release date as opening a week after A Sar Is Born was always going to be an issue.

Apollo 13 dropped only 22.6% in its second weekend taking $19.63m and $65.64m (more than double First Man box office despite opening 23 years ago) total $173.83m.

In Hidden Figures, the second week of expansion dropped only 8.5% taking $20.85m and $55.23m total $169.6m

While Bridge of Spies dropped only 26% in its second weekend taking $11.37m and $32.59m of $72.31m total if First Man was to have a long theatrical release would have dropped under 30% in its second weekend.

Second weekends of October openings

Gravity dropped 22.8% taking $43.18m and $122.32m of $274.09m total

Gone Girl dropped 29.6% taking $26.4m and $77.88m of $167.76m total

The Martian dropped 31.9% taking $37m and $108,71m of $228.43m

Took $13.4m from 47 territories taking $25.5m and $55.5m total

• Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween – Sony Pictures

Dropped 38.5% in its second weekend taking $9.72m and $28.81m

Goosebumps took $15.52m and $43.73m in its second weekend of its $80,080,379 total and $150,170,815 worldwide 

Took $6.2m from 24 territories and $11.1m total expands into many more next weekend ahead of Halloween

• Bad Times at The El Royale – 20th Century Fox

Dropped 52.1% in its second weekend taking $3.42m and $13.46m

Took $2.5m from 49 territories and $8.1m total

• Smallfoot – Warner Bros

Dropped 27.5% in its fourth weekend taking $6.57m and $66.32m; #129 biggest animated film in the US and will shortly overtake Storks and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Holding slightly stronger than 2016’s Storks taking $5.68m in its third weekend and $59.228m ($72.67m total) and The Lego Ninjago Movie taking $4.31m and $51.57m ($59.28m total) and should take $80m+

Smallfoot took $14m from 71 territories (including $3.9m from China) and $76.8m total; Storks took $183.3m and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie took $125.5m worldwide

• The Hate U Give – 20th Century Fox

Up 337.7% in its third weekend adding 2,055 screens climbing into the top 10 taking $7.6m and $10.74m total; received A+ CinemaScore (audience reaction has been very positive and will likely hold well in the coming weeks)

• Collette – Bleecker Street

Down  38% dropping 73 screens taking $619,810 and $3,710,063

The first casualty of award season platform releasing; received positive reviews (86% Rotten Tomatoes score) with many critics saying featured one of Keira Knightley’s best performance for many years.

Premiered at the London Film Festival last week opening in the UK in January.

• The Old Man & the Gun – Fox Searchlight

Up 132.6% in its fourth weekend adding 574 screens taking $2.13m and $4.28m

• Beautiful Boy – Amazon Studios

Up 89.9% in its second weekend adding 44 screens taking $415,735 and $698,687

Has received positive reviews and is one of Amazon Studios Oscar contenders this year;

Its Amazon Studios fifth film they have released this year previous films have underwhelmed and have Suspiria and Cold War still be released this year both have received positive reviews.

• The Sisters Brothers – Annapurna

Added 1,012 screens up 187.3% in its fifth weekend taking $757,975 and $1,986,693

Received positive reviews 85% Rotten Tomatoes score after having the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival; Annapurna acquired US rights for the $40m western but has only taken $6m worldwide.

Annapurna Pictures launched in 2011 producing films including Zero Dark Thirty, The Master, American Hustle and Joy for other studios and in January 2017 announced they were launching their own distribution but the five films they have released have underwhelmed at the US box office despite most receiving positive reviews.

A few weeks ago announced they were dropping several high-profile projects and then the dreaded restructuring was rumoured to be happening at the studio. There is a growing divide at the box office Halloween and Venom might be opening bigger than ever, but they are squeezing all of the other films making it harder than ever for independent cinema.

Barry Diller ex-Paramount Pictures and 20^th Century Fox studios head said last week after it was announced Netflix had added 7m subscribers worldwide in the last quarter “The movie business, for all intents and purposes, is dead,” that the business had mostly moved to Netflix and HBO. “Now, it is only about making sequels and big tentpole movies.”

This is seen but the underwhelming performance of the films Annapurna Pictures have released, these are films that might have found an audience a decade ago but will rarely find an audience now. After First Man had a disappointing opening two weeks ago and dropped almost 50% in its second-weekend exhibitors will likely start dropping screens this weekend as exhibitors just don’t give films a chance to find an audience anymore.

The problem is that a film like The Sisters Brothers audience won’t rush out to see it on opening weekend, while it might perform well on limited release studios often expand far too quickly as Annapurna Pictures have done with The Sisters Brothers. But studios are in a catch-22 situation as they fear if they don’t expand wide the film might never play wide, but The Sisters Brothers were doing steady business building slowly from 4 screens up to 129 screens over four weeks.

September/October is also the time studios start opening their potential award contenders after premiering at Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, so the marketplace is getting crowded with these films which are getting cannibalized. To play the award game it’s a lottery as there will likely be about 30 films released over the last three months of the year that have award potential, but they are fighting over 5 spots and of course its much harder for an independent studio like Annapurna Pictures as they don’t have the same resources. Annapurna Pictures surprised the industry acquiring US rights to Bond 25 the question is will they still be able to release it in 2020 with Universal Pictures ready to pounce if they can’t.

• Can You Ever Forgive Me? – Fox Searchlight

Opens with $161,510  from 5 screens

After premiering last month at the Telluride Film Festival received critical acclaim and is seen as one of Fox Searchlight major Oscar contenders this year. Much is unknown of what Disney’s plans are for 20^th Century Fox (likely to be a production label similar to Touchstone Pictures was in the 80s and 90s) but Bob Iger has said it will be business as usual for Fox Searchlight as it gives Disney something they haven’t had since they owned Miramax award recognition. Disney has had huge success from properties over recent years but is the one studio that hasn’t won Best Picture.

UK Box Office Predictions

After A Star Is Born has held strongly for the last two weeks it’s the battle of the two non-musicals with Bohemian Rhapsody opening Wednesday has a 5-day opening it’s a hard film to make comparisons to as Queen has huge fan-base as similar to ABBA but Mamma Mia! also had the hugely successful stage show which the film was based on.

Freddie Mercury was The Greatest Showman, so it is the probably the film it has most in common with despite it not being a musical but with the Brit factor, having a 5-day opening (with three of those days half-term) and having huge awareness £4,754,049 opening with similar £2,178,902 from previews and taking £2,575,147 Fri-Sun

The big question will be if the stronghold of A Star Is Born will impact on its opening but and if Bohemian Rhapsody will play to under 30s.

The Hate U Give has received positive reviews had a 7-day opening weekend could see it open with about £1m

Opening in the UK

• The Hate U Give – 20^th Century Fox

Drama film starring Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, KJ Apa, Algee Smith, Lamar Johnson, Issa Rae, Sabrina Carpenter, Common, and Anthony Mackie and directed by George Tillman Jr based on Angie Thomas’ 2017 novel of the same name; premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival receiving critical acclaim and last week screened at the London Film Festival

Opening Monday the start of half-term holidays is surprising as was given a platform release in the US expanding over several weeks, while the film has received positive reviews opens in a very crowded marketplace made even more crowded two days later with Bohemian Rhapsody.

The Hate U Give and Bohemian Rhapsody are films 20th Century Fox have made a name with over recent years but with the imminent acquisition by Disney of the studio are the films many fear a Disney owned 20^th Century Fox will have less interest in making.

Monday opening rarely expand films box office just shares it across seven days rather than three as seen most recently with the last Monday opener The Happytime Murders (but of course that had poor reviews and was always likely to be DOA)

A better comparison is Paper Towns also based a young adult novel opened in August with £2,072,789 but 64.1% (£1,328,805) was taken Mon-Thurs and it took 61% of its total box office (£3,405,575) in its opening week.

• Bohemian Rhapsody – 20^th Century Fox

Biographical drama starring Rami Malek, Ben Hardy, Gwilym Lee, Joseph Mazzello, Allen Leech, and Lucy Boynton and directed by Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher.

Bryan Singer was fired as director of the film in December after being absent from the production on multiple occasions and clashing with the cast and crew and Dexter Fletcher replaced him.

The film was first announced in 2010 with Sacha Baron Cohen set to play Freddie Mercury and directed by Tom Hooper but he left the film in 2013 due to “creative differences” he wanted a more adult film while Queen wanted a more family-friendly film.

In 2013 Dexter Fletcher was chosen to direct the film but dropped out due to disagreements with producer Graham King. In November 2016 was announced Bryan Singer would direct and Rami Malek was cast as Freddie Mercury and the title would be Bohemian Rhapsody. They built an exact replica of the 1985 Live Aid set at Wembley Stadium in Bovingdon Airfield.

Hard to compare Bohemian Rhapsody with other musician’s biopics 1991’s The Doors £4,881,275; 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do With It opened with £1,583,230 taking £3,420,933; 2002’s 8 Mile opened with £4,440,334 taking £12,974,253; 2005’s Walk the Line opened with £1,111,142 taking £9,737,493; 2015’s Straight Outta Compton opened with £2,498,231 taking £8,043,283 are probably the closest as have been many others but either older artists or not mainstream.

Queen also had a hugely successful stage show We Will Rock You was the tenth longest-running musical in West End history closing in May 2014, but it was about their songs rather than about the band. Brian May has said the original plan for the Queen musical was to make a biographical story of Freddie Mercury using the Queen songs but then decided to make it an original story featuring Queen songs similar to Mamma Mia! When the musical was launched there was talk of a film version of the stage show and if Bohemian Rhapsody is a success then that might be a possibility, but after similarly themed Rock of Ages in 2012 flopped, that is unlikely.

After the huge success of The Greatest Showman (opening with £4,754,049) and A Star Is Born (opening with £4,100,196) performing strongly and with strong early buzz for Bohemian Rhapsody should perform strongly in the UK in the US its tracking to open a week later with $30m+; UK 5 day opening of £4m+ with total of £18-20m

Tickets for the film went on sale in July and sales have been reportedly robust (whatever that means)

Had its world premiere on Tuesday, October 23^rd at Wembley Arena in front of over 6,500 people making it the biggest UK premiere since 10,000 people attended the world premiere of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian at the O2.

Embargo ended at 10pm immediately after premiere ended reviews have been mixed with US much harsher than the UK but will play stronger to UK audiences than the US where it opens next Friday.  

Leicester Square was the home of film premieres for decades with Odeon Leicester Square, Empire (now Cineworld) both having seating capacity of over 1,000 and the Vue with two screens with two screens having seating capacity of over 400; but then all three cinemas had refurbishments with Empire screen 1 split into two screens IMAX screen with 751 seats and Impact screen with 398 seats which saw many premieres move across to the Odeon as the cinema didn’t have the seating capacity. Odeon Leicester Square has been closed for refurbishment since January and has been revealed seating capacity will drop from 1,679 seats to only 791 as they have replaced all seats with recliners. The one major thing going for the Odeon was the number of seats it had with the number cut will be interesting to see once the novelty wears off will distributors be so eager to hold their premieres as it has lost its USP. 

20^th Century Fox has held many marketing stunts in the build-up to the film’s release including a group of baggage handlers at Heathrow Airport performing a routine to Queen’s I Want to Break Free on September 5^th celebrating Freddie Mercury ’s birthday as he worked as a baggage handler at the airport before he joined the band.

They are also opening an immersive exhibition in Carnaby Street opening on October 18^th with photographs, prints, exclusive footage and official film merchandise.

The opening of Bohemian Rhapsody is tinged with sadness to me as it is probably the last major 20^th Century Fox film to open before being absorbed within the Disney empire. I spent five years (mostly happy) working at 20^th Century Fox in the late 90s and early 00s working on films including Moulin Rouge Minority Report, Die Another Day and Road to Perdition.

Over recent years have made many original films targetting older audiences including Gone Girl, The Martian, Logan, Deadpool, The Revenant, Hidden Figures, Life of Pi, Avatar, The Greatest Showman and Bohemian Rhapsody rivals don’t make anymore.

Opening in the US

• Hunter Killer – Lionsgate

Action thriller starring Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Michael Nyqvist (one of his final film roles), Common and Toby Stephens and directed by Donovan Marsh based on the 2012 novel Firing Point by Don Keith and George Wallace.

Gary Oldman has gone from winning Best Actor Oscar for Darkest Hour to starring in Hunter Killer as several Best Actress winners have done in the past including most famously Halle Berry from Monster’s Ball in 2001 to Catwoman in 2004.

Gerard Butler has made a name for himself making action films critics hate but audiences enjoy most recently with Den of Thieves (sequel already announced) opened in January  with $15,206,108 taking $44,947,622 and Geostorm opened with $13,707,376 taking $33,700,160; Next year stars in Angel Has Fallen sequel to London Has Fallen sequel to Olympus Has Fallen; Olympus Has Fallen opened with $30,373,794 taking $98,925,640 and London Has Fallen opened with $21,635,601 taking $62,678,608

Gerard Butler held a press conference for the film at the Pentagon last week 

• Johnny English Strikes Again – Universal Pictures

Spy action comedy starring Rowan Atkinson, Ben Miller, Olga Kurylenko, Jake Lacy, Emma Thompson and directed by David Kerr; the third part of the Johnny English film series launched in 2003 based on 90s series of Barclaycard TV adverts spoofing James Bond.

Johnny English opened July 2003 – $9,134,085 taking $28,082,366

Johnny English Reborn opened October 2011 – $3,833,300 taking only $8,305,970          

Opened in Asia five weeks ago taking $82.1m internationally performing better than Bad Moms and Daddy’s Home 2; the film has received poor reviews as Johnny English and Johnny English Reborn received 33% and 38% Rotten Tomatoes scores.

• Suspiria – Amazon Studios

Horror starring Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Angela Winkler, Jessica Harper and Chloë Grace Moretz and directed by Luca Guadagnino based on the 1977 film directed by Dario Argento.

The remake of Suspiria was announced in 2008 with David Gordon Green attached to direct but due to studio financing issues, it was cancelled. In 2015 Luca Guadagnino announced plans to direct starring the four main actors from A Bigger Splash; the score was composed by Radiohead singer Thom Yorke; premiered at the Venice International Film Festival receiving mostly positive reviews with many saying it will be the most polarizing film since mother last year.

The footage was screened at CinemaCon in April that “traumatized” audiences because it was so intense.

• London Fields – GVN Releasing

Thriller starring Billy Bob Thornton, Amber Heard, Jim Sturgess, Theo James, Johnny Depp, Cara Delevingne and Jaimie Alexander and directed by Mathew Cullen based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Martin Amis.

Was originally selected to be shown at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival but was pulled after the director sued the film’s producers using his name to promote a version of the film he didn’t approve.

When a film opens many years after being made always makes me think of the 2007 film Hippie Hippie Shake which was made 11 years ago by Universal Pictures/Working Title and has not been released. It can’t just be that the film is bad as have been many terrible awful horrible films released over the years straight to video so it’s surprising that it was never released. 

Another long-delayed film Tulip Fever opens in the UK in December over a year after being dumped out in the US and many years after filming commenced.