- Spider-Man No Way Home – £31,899,232 – NE
Took £12,388,380 from previews on Wednesday and Thursday 38.4% of opening weekend (taking £7.6m on Wednesday (47% more than No Time To Die (£4.88m) comic-book fans are desperate to see Spider-Man No Way Home on the first day to avoid spoilers but many still went to see No Time To Die despite knowing what happened at the end having Sony Pictures UK biggest Wednesday ahead of Skyfall and Spectre); £4.7m on Thursday and £6.23m Friday (£18.6m Weds- Fri) and £12.7m from Sat-Sun.
Had the 4th biggest opening between Star Wars: The Force Awakens (£34,011,849) and Avengers: Infinity War (£29,379,496); (10th biggest Fri-Sun opening between Beauty and the Beast (£19,700,000) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (£18,319,721 and £22,229,981 inflation inflated) both films didn’t have previews; 6th biggest opening inflation inflated between Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Avengers: Infinity War.
Spider-Man No Way Home had the biggest opening extended opening 5-day weekend but No Time To Die had a bigger Fri-Sun opening (£21.02m) compared with Spider-Man No Way Home £18.9m
Spider-Man No Way Home opened in 679 cinemas compared with No Time To Die 773 cinemas but both films played on over 3,000 screens with many multiplexes showing it every 30 minutes or less.
Had the third biggest previews after Spectre £21,321,626 (4.5 days) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban £14,374,339 (5 days) ahead of Avengers: Endgame £11,900,000 (1 day) Toy Story 3 (Sat/Sun) £9,693,440; Star Wars: The Force Awakens £9,679,746 (1 day); Wednesday is part of Meerkat Movies so would be interesting to see how many people saw the film using it.
5-day UK opening was 12.26% of US opening but only 7.5% of Fri-Sun opening; UK uses 10% as the guide as the equivalent UK Vs US opening showing that it didn’t perform as strongly as the US (7.5% of US was similar to Eternals and Shang-Chi; showing again how previews artificially inflate films opening as with previews 12.26% is similar to Ready Player One, The Matrix and Avengers: Endgame.
Spider-Man No Way Home is the 8th Spider-Man film made by Sony Pictures since 2002; original trilogy directed by Sam Raimi starring Tobey Maguire between 2002 and 2007 (Spider-Man £9.4m; Spider-Man 2 £8.7m; Spider-Man 3 £11.8m); The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 with a sequel in 2014 directed by Marc Webb starring Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man £11m; The Amazing Spider-Man 2 £9m); then Spider-Man part of the MCU directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland between 2017 and 2021 (Spider-Man: Homecoming £9.3m; Spider-Man: Far From Home £14.1m) and then Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse £2.2m (sequel in 2022)
119th biggest film in the UK (129th film taking over £30m since Jurassic Park in 1993) between The Incredibles and Slumdog Millionaire (close to Deadpool 2, Suicide Squad, Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man Homecoming) and 216th biggest film in the UK inflation inflated between Jurassic Park 3 and American Pie 2 (close to A View to A Kill, Octopussy, Sherlock Holmes and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1); next week will become 73rd film to take over £40m and the week after 42nd film to take £50m+
The reason why Spider-Man opened so big was simple if Spider-Man No Way Home looks like an Avengers film, swims like an Avengers film, and quacks like an Avengers film, then it probably is an Avengers film. As the previous comic-book movies released this year Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Venom Let There Be Carnage and Eternals were always going to be aperitifs for Spider-Man No Way Home, all playing to comic-book fans, not the extended fanbase Avengers films attract.
Over the last few weeks, the hospitality sector and the live entertainment sector has suffered due to the increase in COVID/Omicron but while exhibitors will use that as an excuse for the soft box office in November and early December after Spider-Man No Way Home opening this, of course, is just an excuse.
Cinemas have benefited from VAT reduced from 20% to 5% from July 2020 to September 30th, 2021, and from October 1st to March 31st, 2022, at 12.5% but while most of the hospitality sector passed on the reduction to its customer’s exhibitors haven’t done so as their excuse was it was only a few pennies. While that would be the case if ticket prices were the average price industry claims but for many, this would be over £1 a ticket.
While all the industry comparisons were Spider-Man No Way Home had stronger advance sales than No Time To Die and highest since Avengers: Endgame which sold 1.62m tickets were sold in advance. Sold over 600k tickets (£6.2m) three weeks before opening, with Odeon Cinemas reporting they were selling 30 tickets every 10 seconds while Vue sold 1m seats over its opening weekend with 500,000 on the opening Saturday from 91 cinemas. The day before opening Avengers Endgame had sold out almost 2,000 screenings across the UK and sold 1,177,613 tickets for its opening weekend and 2,148,092 total, taking £12.1m in advance for opening weekend and another £10m for other dates (using average ticket price of £10.28).
In 2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens sold over 1 million tickets in advance including 700,000+ at Odeon (sold more than double Spectre and four times 50 Shades of Grey)and 332,000+ at Vue Cinemas (more than 284,850 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 sold in 2010). When tickets went on sale on 19th October it crashed websites Vue Cinemas said they had sold 10,000 tickets in the first 90 minutes of sales selling 45,000 tickets in the first 24 hours.
For No Time To Die Odeon said it sold 200,000 tickets (more than Spectre) a day before opening saying “People booking online has increased versus 2019, and they are being a bit more planful and more organised in their cinema behaviours. So that might mean that advance sales are a little bit more inflated in the mix than they used to be, and we are cautious to take that into account when we do our predictions of the box office.”
Bookings for Spider-Man No Way Home opened on December 6th breaking post-pandemic presale records in its first 24 hours selling three times the amount of No Time To Die with Odeon selling over 400,000 tickets and Vue sold over 150,000 tickets five times more. It also broke presale records at Cineworld.
Comic-book fans are desperate to avoid spoilers far more than older audiences who will read reviews of films before seeing them and will rush out to see the films as seen with No Time To Die many older audiences still saw the film despite knowing the ending. As research has shown that older audiences do like having spoilers before seeing the films, while younger audiences prefer not knowing anything, which is hard to do with social media leaking every morsel of information about the films.
Exhibitors had a big deal about Spider-Man No Way Home having the best presales in its first 24 hours since Avengers Endgame but would be interesting to see the breakdown of advance sales how they were in the day afterwards and what was the split between bookings and walk-ins.
As with No Time To Die the industry reaction was predictable from exhibitors gloating over the opening of Spider-Man No Way Home seeing it as a sign that cinema wasn’t dead and Omicron has no effect on cinema. But this is very short-sighted as exhibitors have always said there haven’t been any outbreaks in cinemas since the pandemic started but it’s farcical to believe that among the 2m who saw the film over its opening five days at least 10% didn’t have COVID or were asymptomatic. With COVID cases dramatically increasing over the last few weeks there have been rumours of a short lockdown after Christmas.
Even exhibitors believe there will be further restrictions soon that will affect cinemas so surely it would make sense for the industry to be proactive rather than reactive, but the problem is exhibitors won’t do anything unless they are forced to do so which will be too late and cause longer-term damage as with The Matrix Resurrections opening on Wednesday and The King’s Man on Boxing Day alongside Spider-Man No Way Home all three are targeting under 35 males who are most likely not to have had the booster.
Watching Spider-Man Homecoming and Far From Home again the issue I have with them is Peter Parker’s childish behaviour continuously putting other people in danger this was similar to the arrogant behaviour of Tony Stark and Steven Strange. Surely even he could have realised the side effects of casting a spell making the rest of the world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man as whenever that happens in other films and TV shows it always ends badly. Having all the enemies from previous Spider-Man films and the two other Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield) it’s no surprise fans have swarmed to it but as Aunt May says halfway through the film just before she is killed by the Green Goblin “With great power there must also come great responsibility.” This has been lacking from Tom Holland Spiderman from the start never thinking out the consequences of his actions.
The other thing watching these films again is they are all hype no sustenance, do believe how and where you see a film has a massive influence on your reaction to it so critics who attended preview screenings were caught up in the hype and give these films far higher ratings reviewing them immediately.
This is the James Bond effect when critics are desperate to be the first review published, the first the studio sees and gets top billing on review quote adverts. I do realise that these films are aimed at me and when I was younger I too got caught up in the hype and watching previews in a full Empire or Odeon (when they were 1,800 and 1,330 seaters) you reactions are very different to seeing the same film alone in those cinemas.
While last weekend’s box office was blamed on Omicron this weekend it was always expected Spider-Man No Way Home will open big, the only question was how big and it would have similar headlines as there were after No Time To Die saving cinema but audiences need to see other films beyond sure things like James Bond and comic-book films that are sure things at the UK and global box office. While the majority of the audience who came out to see Spider-Ma No Way Home over 5 days also came out to see Black Widow, Shang-Chi and Venom Let There Be Carnage, while older audiences returned for No Time To Die they haven’t returned since.
While previous Spider-Man films have dropped heavily against similar-sized tentpoles (in 2017 War For the Planet of the Apes and 2019 The Lion King) this year The Matrix Resurrections opens a week after Spider-Man No Way Home and The King’s Man 9 days afterwards, both films targetting similar male under 35 demographic.
It would be interesting to see the breakdown in advance ticket sales the percentage of opening weekend box office that came from tickets sold in the first 24 hours many of which would be for the first shows on Wednesday as fans try to avoid spoilers. While Spider-Ma No Way Home had record presales over its first day, how were sales over the following days leading up to the opening on December 15, what percentage of BO comes from presales and then what percentage from walk-ins? While people rush out to book advance for films like Spider-Man what are presales like for other films. What is the breakdown on when people decide to book, is it days before or hours.
In 2019 Spider-Man: Far From Home had the 16th biggest previews taking £5,749,085 over two days 41% of its £14,148,624 opening similar to Deadpool 2 while Star Wars: The Force Awakens was 28.4% and Avengers Endgame 27.4% both from one day.
Tom Holland said at the launch of the second trailer “This movie exceeds expectations in every way. This is the most cinematic … superhero movie that has ever been made. I’m proud to say Sony and Marvel have pulled off the impossible.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home is the pièce de resistance to Marvel Cinematic Universe 2021 with three films Black Widow, Shang-Chi and Eternals and several Disney+ shows WandaVision, Falcon & the Winter Soldier, Loki, What if …? and Hawkeye. Having the biggest MCU opening in the UK since Spider-Man: Far From Home £14,148,624 (including £5,749,085 previews).
Used to be successfully brought success over many films but now it’s the success of one comic-book movie plays into the next as the same audience will see each of them with this year the four MCU films had similar openings Blade Widow with £6,889,187 (including £2,240,000 previews); Shang-Chi £5,759,504; Eternals £5,456,577; Venom Let There Be Carnage £6,167,833.
The problem with MCU now is they aren’t accessible to newbies need to have seen all of the other 26 MCUs and Spider-Man films, why for all the positivity surrounding Spider-Man No Way Home it’s a comic-book movie for the fans, not the extended fanbase many other MCU films have been?
The MCU films have become similar to the problem with Star Wars Anthology with lots of in-jokes only the fans who have watched and dissected all previous films will understand but won’t play wider, why ‘record presales’ doesn’t mean Avengers sized opening for Spider-Man No Way Home.
This is why Jumanji and The Greatest Showman performed so strongly against The Last Jedi, Spider-Man, Matrix and The King’s Man are all similar fan service films why Sing 2 will likely be the big winner this Christmas being the Ronseal movie doing exactly what it says on the can.
Just reading the review for Spider-Man No Way Home was exhausting, as most MCU films have been since Captain America Civil War (previously could just enjoy them separately) but now need to do your homework watching all 52+ hours again to properly understand the films?
Why it’s going to be almost impossible for any MCU to beat Avengers Endgame global BO apart from ticket inflation as the thought of having to watch 50+ hours to understand the latest MCU will put off many newbies from starting the journey.
Large clips of the film were uploaded illegally on YouTube on Wednesday and Sony Pictures removed them as quickly as they found them, they had foreign subtitles but it was unknown where they came from. The first trailer released in August has leaked online ahead of release.
While Spider-Man No Way Home ends Tom Holland’s contract with Spider-Man after the huge opening Sony will be wanting a fourth film to be made but as the film ends with Spider-Man not being part of the Avengers this could be a way for Sony to go alone with Spider-Man separate from the MCU, but as I’ve said before the reason for Spider-Man No Way Home’s huge opening is that it is an Avengers film in all but name.
The big question is how it will hold this weekend against The Matrix Resurrections and having a two-day weekend as most cinemas are closed on Saturday (Christmas Day) will likely have one of the biggest second-weekend drops for MCU similar to Spider-Man: Far From Home (68.9%) and Black Widow (73.9%); Avengers: Endgame dropped 67%, Avenger Infinity War 65.5% and Captain America: Civil War dropped 66.8% while Spider-Man Homecoming dropped 60.3%.
The difference they had was they didn’t have direct competition opening the week after and also had a three-day weekend. But The Matric Resurrections has received average reviews but the fanbase still came out to see the average sequels but cinema is a very different experience now than it was 18 years ago while Spider-Mam No Way Home will be holding on to most of the IMAX and PLF screens.
2. Clifford the Big Red Dog – £766,122 – £2,380,042
Dropped 40.8% in its second weekend; with Christmas holidays now started Clifford the Big Red Dog is likely to perform steadily over the next two weeks.
Had 1151st biggest second weekend between Apocalypto and Exorcism of Emily Rose (close to Working Girl, Mona Lisa Smile, Bringing Down the House and As Good As It Gets) and 1251st the biggest inflation inflated between Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules and Zombieland (close to Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Zathura, Why Him? and Sherlock Gnomes).
Films about pets have been hugely popular over the years in cinemas with films including in 2009’s Marley And Me taking £15.4m; 1992’s Beethoven taking £6.8m; 1993’s Beethoven’s 2nd taking £5.8m; 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose £490,942 (down 62% due to previews) taking £2,040,728 taking £3.2m and 2010’s Hachi: A Dog’s Tale took £1,048,876 and also the two The Secret Life of Pets films, the first took £35,825,195 and the second £18,638,365.
2001’s Cats and Dog £3,707,358 taking £23,013,391 (£40,134,464 inflation inflated); despite poor reviews, the film performed strongly and played for 14 weeks in the top 15 and was one of the biggest films of 200; 2010’s Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore £1,553,005 taking £3,972,149 (£4,819,986 inflation inflated); In October 2020 Cats & Dogs: Paws Unite! £456,531 taking £1.36m.
Children’s films have been the strongest performing genre of films since cinemas reopened for the first time in July 2020 but surprisingly the one family film that failed to meet expectations was Disney’s Encanto.
3. West Side Story – £587,305 – £2,933,993
Down 54.7% in its second weekend; taking similar to second weekend of In the Heights £689,041 down 35.8% taking £2,385,356 55.65% of £4,286,073 and 2007’s Dreamgirls £563,703 down 57.6% taking £2,369,272 68.18% of £3,475,271
Had 1,280th biggest second weekend in the UK between The Madness Of King George and Ghostbusters 2 (close to The Good Liar, Little Women (1995), 500 Days of Summer and The Prestige) and 1,312th the biggest inflation inflated between Tron Legacy and St. Trinian’s 2 (close to Love, Simon, The Book Thief, King Arthur and This is the End).
Had the lowest Steven Spielberg wide the second weekend in the UK taking £289,900 less than 2006’s Munich (£876,900); 29th biggest musical between Dreamgirls and The Producers
Two things were very predictable from West Side Story months ago that Ansel Elgort was always going to be the weakest element in the film as while he might look like a young Marlon Brando he doesn’t act like him. While Rachel Zegler was always going to be the best element after Disney cast her as Snow White in June in the live-action reimagination of their most iconic animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). While the second was it was always going to struggle to find an audience if it didn’t play to younger under 35 audiences.
Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story has received acclaim with many calling it his best film in 20 years but it was always going to struggle to find a wide audience unlike Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet 25 years ago bring West Side Story to GenZ along with the Millennials and GenX who grew up watching the original on TV never getting to experience it in the cinema. West Side Story is based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and 20th Century Fox had huge success 25 years ago with Baz Luhrmann’s directed Romeo and Juliet (taking £7,438,055 in the UK and £13,194,781 inflation inflated).
For almost the past year it’s been vaccine passports are discriminatory but with now 85% of the UK population vaccinated surely not having them is discriminatory to the majority who have been vaccinated as going to hospitality and entertainment is a choice, not a necessity. Cinema doesn’t want vaccine passports as the key demographic for comic-book are under 35 males and they probably make up the highest proportion of unvaccinated, but the problem is not having them will affect films targeting older demographics as will be seen this weekend as despite widespread critical acclaim West Side Story will struggle to find the audience it deserves to get. As older audiences despite being double and triple vaccinated don’t feel comfortable going back to the cinema and mixing with people who haven’t. Cinema should be for the many, not the few.
Musicals are extremely popular in the UK with the massive success of films like
The Greatest Showman dropped 49.3% taking £2,409,143 and £9,998,783 20.19% of £49,523,728
A Star Is Born dropped 24.8% taking £3,083,089 and £9,595,670 32.75% £29,299,129
Bohemian Rhapsody dropped 39.6% taking £5,750,267 and £20,427,866 36.89% of £55,375,213
Mamma Mia! dropped 30.8% taking £4,561,109 and £16,851,641 24.48% £68,828,265
La La Land dropped 33.7% taking £4,373,249 and £14,907,148 50% of £29,816,588
Les Misérables dropped 45.8% taking £4,406,828 and £17,360,303 42.53% of £40,818,299
Chicago dropped 3.3% taking £1,918,232 (£3,119,287 inflation inflated) and £5,552,239 33.82% of £16,419,445 (£26,700,088 inflation inflated)Into The Woods dropped 19.2% taking £1,999,377 and £5,368,800 54.78% of £9,799,873
Moulin Rouge dropped 22.6% taking £1,859,732 (£3,243,301 inflation inflated) and £5,668,964 31.21% £18,166,288 (£31,681,304 inflation inflated)
Do have to question why if 20th Century Fox had enormous success with The Greatest Showman opening two weeks later why Disney didn’t release West Side Story on December 22nd as an alternative to The Matrix Resurrections didn’t instead The King’s Man opens Boxing Day which targets the same demographic as The Matrix and Spider-Man. Boxing Day used to be a lucrative date to open films with musicals Evita and Chicago opening limited before expanding in the New Year. While Disney will reportedly spend a lot advertising the film it would have likely performed far stronger had 20th Century Fox released it as Disney have had very little interest in any of the films 20th Century Fox made before they acquired the studio.
Many have thought West Side Story could have longer legs (play through Christmas and beyond) if Disney and exhibitors allow it to as musicals normally have long legs as musicals normally do so as despite underperforming in the US In The Heights played in the top 10 in the UK for 5 weeks taking £4,286,073 while the poorly received Cats still managed to take £11,907,188…
Cinema attendance pre-pandemic at Christmas is very different than other times of the year the two weeks of Christmas. It’s a time when people go to see pantomimes, musicals and the cinema as a family far more than other times of the year and seek out family entertainment and musicals have been that genre of films families have been going to over the three years before COVID, in 2017 The Greatest Showman opened with £4,754,049, with Mary Poppins Returns in 2018 with £8,152,210 and the already mentioned Cats opened in 2019.
It’s impossible to look back at Steven Spielberg’s previous films and compare them with West Side Story as none of them is comparable, Steven Spielberg said in 2004 “I’ve always wanted to make a musical. Not like Moulin Rouge though – an old-fashioned, conservative musical. … Like West Side Story or Singin’ in the Rain. I’ve been looking for one for 20 years. I just need something that excites me.”
20 years ago, Moulin Rouge opened in the UK four months after the US in September performing far stronger than it did in the US opening with £2,403,378 down 22.6% in its second weekend taking £1,859,732 and £5,668,964 (31.21% of total box office) taking £18,166,288 (£31,681,304 inflation inflated) was in the top 15 for almost 3 months.
Likewise, 2017’s The Greatest Showman opened with £4,754,049 (including £2,575,147 previews) down 49% in its second weekend taking £2,409,143 and £9,998,783 (20.1% of total box office taking £49,523,728 and played wide in cinemas for over 16 weeks, was still in the top 10 when it was released on DVD.
4. Encanto £360,891 – £4,760,942
Down 43.2% in the fourth weekend; the surprising thing is children’s films have been the one genre that has performed steadily since cinemas reopened in July 2020 but Encanto is the most high-profile but disappointed, but this was expected as buzz was very soft ahead of opening. With Christmas holidays now started and only Clifford as the other family film open during the holidays it could hold better over the next two weeks.
It’s déjà vu for Disney again as Encanto has the second-worst second weekend for Disney made animated film after Onward similar to In March 2020 when Onward had the worst Fri-Sun opening for Pixar when COVID was taking over across the UK and the cinema industry was in denial it was affecting cinema attendance.
162nd biggest animated film between Corpse Bride and Team America: World Police (close to Ron’s Gone Wrong, Corpse Bride, Looney Tunes: Back in Action and The Angry Birds Movie 2)
168th biggest Disney film between Corpse Bride and John Carter (close to The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Tomorrowland – A World Beyond, Real Steel and The Lone Ranger).
Seeing how Encanto compares to these films highlights how disappointing the box office has been as after three weeks would normal expect Encanto to have taken more than double. While Lin-Manuel Miranda is very well known for Hamilton musical, In The Heights musical underperformed and it opened only a few months after animated Vivo starring Lin-Manuel Miranda which was due to be released in June theatrically but was released on Netflix in August. It was interesting that he was on Graham Norton Show two weeks ago the weekend Encanto opened but it wasn’t mentioned.
After Disney’s record-breaking 2019 BO this year’s slate it feels like Disney were focused far more o streaming than theatrical with the majority of their films or this year delayed from last year and all co falling short, with Cruella, Black Widow and Shang-Chi and then Eternals and now Encanto. The only positive coming from 20th Century Fox with Free Guy.
5. House of Gucci – £289,040 – £8,074,049
Down 62.9% in its fourth weekend; normally a major studio award contender holds much more strongly but House of Gucci is more style over substance, while it might look like an Oscar contender with its strong acting and creative talent, the film feels more like a soap opera.
After House of Gucci received mixed reviews it was always likely to drop much heavier than other studio award contenders 2018’s A Star Is Born dropped #2 in the fourth weekend with £2,150,987 and £19,238,711 down 25% in 634 screens against Bohemian Rhapsody opening #1 with £9,530,463 from 659 screens (£3,054,530 previews); stayed in top 5 for 7 weeks and top 10 for 9 weeks taking £29,299,129.
Instead, House of Gucci is holding similar to First Man which opened a week after A Star is Born, took £348,441 in its fourth weekend down 42% #11 from 347 screens taking £7,360,906
And also similar to The Post took £471,794 dropped 51% #10 from 367 screens taking £8,355,969 of £8,839,133
The Social Network took £541,763 dropped 46% #7 from 387 screens taking £9,029,931 of £10,306,540
Mary, Queen of Scots took £526,167 dropped 33% #6 from 469 screens taking £7,764,545 of £9,290,695
The Iron Lady took £567,397 dropped 40% #8 from 397 screens taking £8,405,809 of £9,616,872
Rather than what you would normally expect for a potential Oscar contender that has generated strong media coverage and buzz ahead of release that normally turns into the strong word of mouth by their second weekends.
House of Gucci is Lady Gaga second-leading film after 2018’s Oscar-winning and box office hit A Star Is Born, but in that film, she was playing a character similar to herself but House of Gucci is a very different iconic role.
2007’s American Gangster #4 dropped 51% taking £506,061 (£1m inflation inflated) and £8,553,288 of £9,336,495 (£13.5m inflation inflated)
2006’s The Devil Wears Prada #5 dropped 34% taking £900,618 (£1.5m inflation inflated) and £11,659,069 of £13,681,185 (£20.3m inflation inflated)
2014’s American Hustle #5 dropped 36% taking £997,259 and £11,213,740 of £13,096,887
803rd biggest film in the UK between Maid In Manhattan and The Panic Room (close to Inside Man, A View to A Kill, A.I. and True Grit) and 1,090th biggest inflation inflated between Exodus: Gods and Kings and Payback (close to Legends Of The Fall, The Fly, Notes on a Scandal and Prisoners).
86th biggest Universal Pictures UK film between The Incredible Hulk and Straight Outta Compton (close to Mary, Queen of Scots, Us, Burn After Reading and First Man) and 97th biggest inflation inflated between Girls Trip and Straight Outta Compton (close to Halloween, Public Enemies, The Boat that Rocked and Emma).
Other recent Ridley Scott directed films include
2021’s The Last Duel took £859,877; 2017’s All the Money in the World took £3,176,255
2015’s The Martian took £23,578,878; 2014’s Exodus: Gods and Kings took £7,529,032
2013’s The Counsellor took £1,855,158; 2010’s Robin Hood took £15,381,416
2008’s Body of Lies took £2,859,641; 2007’s American Gangster took £9,336,495
2005’s Kingdom of Heaven took £7,755,814
While 1992’s The Bodyguard took £17,001,069 (£38,239,165 inflation inflated) and 2018’s Molly’s Game took £3,788,031)
Also released Christmas re-releases
#9 Elf taking £86,029 from 395 screens and £423,111
#15 Home Alone £27,578 taking £78,018 from 264 screens and £1,066,261
#12 It’s A Wonderful Life (75th Anniversary) taking £68,878 from 113 screens and £157,254
#14 Muppet Christmas Carol taking £37,351 from 147 screens and £591,135
#11 Home Alone 2: Lost In New York from 88 screens taking £27,579 and £178,186
#28 Love Actually £8,088 from 21 screens taking £59,853
Most of these films had only a couple of shows a day and many had reduced ticket prices, these are Christmas classics that most of the audiences who see them have seen countless times before and are available to watch freely at home but people still decide to pay to see them in the cinema.
While Trafalgar released The Nutcracker Bolshoi Ballet taking £85,417 from 161 screens (ticket prices of about £15) they have released over the last few years ahead of Christmas but this year is the lowest it has performed; The Royal Opera House The Nutcracker was released last week.
After 11 weeks in the top 10, No Time To Die has dropped out of the top 10 to #13 taking £44,494 from 99 screens taking £96,439,125
Die Another Day opened on 430 screens on November 20th, 2002, taking £36,043,520 (£62,858,506 inflation inflated)
Stayed in the top 5 for 8 weeks and top 10 for 9 weeks
Casino Royale opened in 505 cinemas (988 screens) on 19th November 2006 taking £55,495,547
Stayed in the top 5 for 8 weeks and top 10 for 12 weeks
Quantum of Solace opened on 540 screens on 31st October 2008 taking £51,089,938
Stayed in the top 5 for 6 weeks and top 10 for 8 weeks
Skyfall opened on 587 screens on 26th October 2012 taking £102,816,893
Stayed in the top 5 for 8 weeks and top 10 for 11 weeks
Spectre opened in 651 cinemas and on over 2,500 screens on October 26th, 2015, taking £95,183,468
Stayed in the top 5 for 7 weeks and top 10 for 10 weeks
Box Office News
Despite Spider-Man No Way Home having the biggest opening in the UK since Avengers Endgame in April 219 the UK box office is overshadowed by the expectations of further measures to be brought in sooner rather than later to deal with the dramatic rise of Omicron cases over the last few weeks. With Vue Cinemas’ Tim Richards said last week “There will absolutely be further restrictions. We would not want a lockdown and I don’t believe a lockdown is coming. The arsenal right now is Covid passes, social distancing and reducing operating hours.”… “Inevitably I think we’re going to have to. And probably sooner rather than later.”
UKCA said the UK the demand showed “high levels of confidence in the safety of the cinema experience, particularly amongst those audience segments – teens and young families – which in many ways led the return to the big screen and so have seen for themselves the efforts that all cinemas have made to ensure that the experience is an enjoyable and reassuring one”. But the problem is cinema should be for the many, not the few but since they reopened for the first time in July 2020 only younger audiences have been going regularly to the cinema and despite older audiences returning for No Time To Die in October they haven’t returned since, why West Side Story predictably underperformed last weekend but then also predictable Spider-Man No Way Home opened so strongly.
Many countries have required COVID passes that cinemagoers would either need to show proof of vaccination or show a negative test result. COVID passports have constantly been rejected by UKCA as they believe they are discriminatory but as the vast majority of people are now vaccinated it is surely more discriminatory towards those who have been vaccinated rather than those that haven’t. The obvious reason why exhibitors don’t want COVID passports is the key demographic for comic-book movies and tentpoles are under 35s males and they are the ones who are most likely not to have a booster.
Exhibitors have said throughout the pandemic that there hasn’t been a single case of COVID from a cinema globally due to ventilation and enhanced cleaning but not all cinemas have MERV-13 filters. Exhibitors should have learnt from the first lockdown to be proactive with their safety measures rather than reactive as cinema make up only a tiny percentage of revenue made from the hospitality sector.
Warner Bros last week delayed the release of Operation Mincemeat from January to April due to the rise in Omicron cases in the UK as the film targets an older demographic as many of the Jan/Feb releases do which will be likely when further restrictions are put in place to deal with the increase in daily cases.
Cineworld Cinemas shared crashed last week after losing a ruling against Cineplex Cinemas after they were sued after they walked away from purchasing the cinema chain after they announced they were acquiring it in December 2019 two years after buying Regal Cinemas. At the time most believed, they were overstretching themselves buying into markets (the US and Canada) that have had little real growth for almost 20 years as they wanted to be the #1 global exhibitor. Cineworld Cinemas used to be the best performing exhibitor as they didn’t have US cinemas and months before they announced the acquisition of Regal Cinemas in December 2017 their shares were almost £3 but last week after losing the court case they were 27p.
Even after the huge global opening of Spider-Man No Way Home their shares only increased a few pennies to 32p on Tuesday, Buying Regal Cinemas gave Cineworld Cinemas huge debt long before COVID and both Cineworld and AMC were in trouble long before COVID but have used it as an excuse for their troubles. AMC have similar debt levels as Cineworld but they have been saved by “Redditors” that have artificially inflated the share price of AMC as GameStop, overvaluing both companies.
Biggest Films of 2021
The top 10 biggest films of 2021 are currently
No Time To Die £96.43m; Spider-Man No Way Home £31.89m; Dune £21.7m; Shang-Chi (£21.29m); Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (£20.47m); Black Widow (£18.83m); Venom 2 £18m; Free Guy (£16.78m); F9 (£16.44m); Eternals £14.76m; The Suicide Squad (£14.2m);
No Time To Die is the only film that is performing as it would in normal circumstances all others opened about a third less than they would and taken a third less.
The following 10 biggest films from 11-20 )
Space Jam 2 (£12.85m); Jungle Cruise (£12.55m); A Quiet Place 2 (£11.54m); Ghostbusters Afterlife £10.47m; The Addams Family 2 £10.2m; The Croods 2 (£9.8m); Cruella £9.45m; The Conjuring 3 £9.36m.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £34,452,921 up 560.4% from last weekend £5,216,788;
The weekend admissions 4,839,380 up 559.5% 733,725 from last week;
Top 3 took £33,252,659 96.5% of the top 10; Spider-Man No Way Home 92.6% (£31,899,232); Clifford the Big Red Dog 2.2% (£766,122); West Side Story 1.7% (£587,305);
Up 2940% from 2020 (£1,133,305); Wonder Woman 1984 (£846,435); Come Away (£42,834); The Nutcracker – Bolshoi Ballet 2020 (£13,821); Let Him Go (£12,907); #1 Wonder Woman 1984 £846,435 214 screens 1st weekend (74.7% of top 10)
Up 11.5% from 2019 (£30,884,264) Top three 87.4% (£27,004,256) of the top 10; Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker 67.5% (£20,864,500); Cats 10.4% (£3,207,471) Jumanji: The Next Level 9.5% (£2,932,285); #1 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker 740 screens (£20,864,500) 1st week
Up 108.3% from 2018: (£16,539,374); Mary Poppins Returns (£8,181,541); The Nutcracker – Bolshoi Ballet 2018 (£258,038); #1 Mary Poppins Returns £8,181,541 1st week 735 screens (39.4% of the top 10)
Up 16.2% from 2017: (£29,632,571); Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (£8,154,548); Pitch Perfect 3 (£4,334,525); Ferdinand (£3,644,748); #1 Star Wars: The Last Jedi £10,158,640 2nd week 706 screens 64% drop (35.3% of top 10)
Up 56.9% from 2016: (£21,944,702); Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (£17,305,011); The Nutcracker – Bolshoi 2016 (£135,026); The Eagle Huntress (£16,513); #1 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story £17,305,011 1st week 698 screens (78.9% of the top 10)
Down 10.6% from 2015; (£38,533,406); Star Wars: The Force Awakens (£34,011,849); Sisters (£1,215,368); #1 Star Wars: The Force Awakens £34,011,849 1st week 670 screens (88.3% of top 10)
Up 132.6% from 2014: (£14,808,248); Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (£1,851,424); Dumb & Dumber To (£1,807,059); The Nutcracker – Bolshoi 2014 (£293,192); Guys and Dolls (Re: 2014) (£5,570); #1 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies £5,409,312 2nd week 605 screens 45% drop (36.5% of top 10)
Up 92.6% from 2013: (£17,885,304); Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (£4,545,934); Walking with Dinosaurs (£982,023); The Harry Hill Movie (£549,736); Moshi Monsters: The Movie (£334,748); Sleeping Beauty – Bolshoi 2011 (£86,942); American Hustle platform (£39,595); #1 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug £5,358,380 2nd week 594 screens 43% drop (30% of top 10)
Up 134.1% from 2012 (£14,717,807); Life of Pi (£3,610,604); Pitch Perfect (£952,107); Home Alone (Re: 2012) (£43,544); West of Memphis (£1,103); #1 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey £5,979,241 2nd week 601 screens 48% drop (40.6% of top 10)
Up 215.1% from 2011 (£10,935,855); Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (£3,827,697); Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (£2,361,867); It’s a Wonderful Life (Re) (£46,785); #1 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows £3,827,697 1st week 540 screens (35% of top 10)
Up 422.1% from 2010: (£6,599,055); Tron Legacy (£1,970,692); Burlesque (£425,931); Animals United (£307,409); Fred: The Movie (£257,133); It’s a Wonderful Life (Re) (£44,422); Catfish (£28,056); #1 Tron Legacy £1,970,692 1st week 454 screens (29.9% of top 10)
Up 158.9% from 2009; (£13,679,336); Avatar (£8,509,050); St. Trinian’s 2 (£1,586,832); Nine (£44,443); #1 Avatar £8,509,050 1st week 503 screens (62.2% of top 10)
Up 309.9% from 2008; (£8,404,783); Twilight (£2,508,422); The Tale of Despereaux (£560,870); A Bunch of Amateurs (£91,156); It’s a Wonderful Life (RE) (£49,845); Bicycle Thieves (re) (£3,802); #1 Twilight £2,508,422 1st week 448 screens (29.8% of top 10)
Up 241.1% from 2007: (£10,130,524); Enchanted (£2,547,975); Bee Movie (£2,281,393); Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (£459,734); We Own the Night (£441,416); It’s a Wonderful Life (RE) (£15,025); Youth Without Youth (£8,174); #1 The Golden Compass £3,002,951 2nd week 59% drop 509 screens (29.6% of top 10)
Up 258.3% from 2006; (£9,614,556); Eragon (£1,317,687); Déjà Vu (£1,098,295); Black Christmas (£367,743); Grounded (£240,378); The Wizard of Oz (re) (£22,973); #1 Happy Feet £2,034,916 2nd week 466 screens 45% drop (21.6% of top 10)
Up 149.9% from 2005 (£13,786,105); King Kong (£6,944,740); The Family Stone (£247,515); Lassie (£132,926); #1 King Kong £6,944,740 1st week 481 screens (50.4% of top 10)
Up 319.8% from 2004 (£8,205,320); Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (£2,210,979); Ella Enchanted (£107,730); #1 Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events £2,210,979 1st week 452 screens (27% of top 10)
Up 68.3% from 2003 (£20,475,870); Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (£15,021,761); Freaky Friday (£1,214,559); Good Boy! (£146,354); #1 Lord of the Rings: Return of the King £15,021,761 1st week 494 screens 29% drop (73.4% of top 10)
Up 94.3% from 2002 (£17,727,804); Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (£13,063,560); Sweet Home Alabama (£758,267); Hey Arnold (£35,881); #1 Lord of the Rings: Two Towers £13,063,560 1st week 501 screens (73.7% of top 10)
Up 137.1% from 2001 (£14,532,108); The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (£11,058,045); The Princess Diaries (£587,677); #1 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings £11,058,045 1st week 470 screens (76.1% of top 10);
Next weekend in 2019 (£23,799,781); Little Women (£3,578,877); Spies In Disguise (£1,487,638); Playing With Fire (£762,850); #1 Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker £9,311,240 2nd week 741 screens 55% drop (39.1% of top 10)
US Box Office
- Spider-Man No Way Home – Sony Pictures
Opened with $260.13m; received positive reviews (94% Rotten Tomatoes) and A+ CinemaScore; the fourth MCU to get an A+ after The Avengers, Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame and 91st film to receive A+ CinemaScore.
Had the second-biggest opening in the US between Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War while it might have Spider-Man in its title the film is playing like an Avengers film but the big question is how it will hold against The Matrix Resurrections, The King’s Man and Sing 2 this weekend as it will likely become the next film to join the $100m loser club as the problem with these films opening $200m+ they will normally drop 60%+ in their second weekend. But normally these films have at least one week gap before the next big film opening and previous Spider-Man films have dropped heavily in their second weekends as they are normally front-loaded, but December is very different than opening a film in the summer.
After 3 days Spiderman No Way Home is the 117th biggest film in the US between The Incredibles and Jaws
Took $50m from Thursday previews 10% from IMAX screens ($5.1m); $122m Friday; $73.9m Saturday and $64.2m Sunday; taking $37.1m on Monday third biggest after Star Wars The Force Awakens and Black Panther.
Had the third-highest Thursday previews after Avengers Endgame ($60m) and Star Wars The Force Awakens ($57m) ahead of Star Wars The Last Jedi ($45m); Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($43.5m); Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker ($40m); Avengers Infinite (War $39m)
Can’t make any direct comparison with any of these as previews started at 3 pm with many of the others starting after 7 pm so had extra screenings.
Spider-Man No Way Home is the 8th Spider-Man film made by Sony Pictures since 2002; original trilogy directed by Sam Raimi starring Tobey Maguire between 2002 and 2007 (Spider-Man opened $114.84m taking $407.02m; $418m international and $825.02m); Spider-Man 2 opened $88.15m taking $373.58m; $415.39m international and $788.97m WW); Spider-Man 3 opened $151.11m taking $336.53m and $558.45m and $894.98m WW); The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 with a sequel in 2014 directed by Marc Webb starring Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man opened $62m taking $262.02m and $495.9m and $757.93m WW; The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opened $91.6m taking $202.85m and $506.12m and $708.98m WW); then Spider-Man part of the MCU directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland between 2017 and 2021 (Spider-Man: Homecoming opened $117.02m taking $223.2m and $545.96m and $880.16m WW); Spider-Man: Far From Home opened $92.47m taking $390.53m and $747.39m and $1.13bn WW) and then Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse opened $35.36m taking $190.24m and $185.29m and $375.54m WW with Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Part 1 and Morbius set for 2022 release.
Days, after advance sales opened first night tickets, were being put on eBay for as much as $25,000 unknown if anyone was crazy enough to spend that much on a $20 cinema ticket they could have paid to see the film in a cinema a few miles away at the same time, but it just shows how obsessed comic-book fans are and their desperate need to see the film over opening weekend, but then how fickle they are as they are also very quick to move on to the next film opening the week after. Which will likely see Spider-Man No Way Home drop upwards of 70% against The Matrix Resurrections.
As Terence Mann said to Ray, people will come to the Field of Dreams the same can be said for the reasons why MCU have become so popular over the last decade along with all the nostalgic reimaginations and sequels. “They’ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won’t mind if you look around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person”….
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”
Opened with $340.8m from 60 territories (38,900+ screens) and $600.8m total the third biggest opening ever; took $113m in Europe with UK took $41.4m; France $17.8m; Italy $13m; Germany $11.4m; Spain $10.4m; Mexico $32.4m; South Korea $23.7m; India $18.2m; Australia $18.7m; Russia with $17.4m; with many of these countries requiring vaccine passports for entry shows that they have no impact on cinemagoing if it’s a film audiences want to see
- West Side Story – 20th Century Studios
Dropped 65% in its second weekend taking $3.65m and $18.22m
Normally Steven Spielberg films have long legs making a sizeable percentage of their box office after their opening weekend War Horse (91%); Lincoln (88%); Bridge of Spies (79%); The Post (76%) normally would be expected West Side Story would also have long legs but not in these current conditions.
Never understand if a studio has had success opening a film over one date as 20th Century Fox and Disney both had with The Greatest Showman and Mary Poppins Returns that they didn’t open West Side Story on December 22as it was originally due to be released on December 18th, 2020. What is also interesting is that almost all of the films Disney announced months before opening would have a 45-day theatrical window have disappointed at the box office all except for Free Guy. This is why the theatrical window needs to be flexible depending on how a film opens.
Many made comparisons with 2017’s The Greatest Showman opened $8.8m but the difference is The Greatest Showman became the peoples champion despite receiving mixed reviews and playing to all demographics West Side Story won’t in these current conditions.
West Side Story was always likely to struggle to find an audience as older audiences have been very slow to return over the last 18 months and the film was unlikely to play initially to under 35s. The problem has been exhibitors have targeted Millennials and GenZ as the biggest films this year have been films targetting males under 35s with comic-book movies and F9.
Recent musicals second weekends
2021’s In The Heights #2 dropped 63.5% $4.2m taking $19.65m and $29.87m and $43.87m worldwide
2019’s Rocketman #5 dropped 46.3% $13.81m taking $50.31m and $96.36m and $195.32m worldwide
2018’s Mary Poppins Returns #2 up 20.5% $28.35m and $99.26m of $171.95m and $349.54m worldwide
2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody #2 down 38.9% $31.2m and $100.36m taking $216.42m and $911.1m worldwide
2018’s A Star Is Born #2 dropped 33.7% $28.44m and $94.6m of $215.28m and $436.18m worldwide
2017’s The Greatest Showman #4 up 76.3% $15.52m and $49.03m of $174.34m and $436.94m worldwide
2014’s Into the Woods #2 dropped 39.7% $18.72m and $90.87m of $128m and $212.9m worldwide
2001’s Moulin Rouge #6 dropped 44.2% $7.64m (after two weeks on platform) and $27.56m of $57.38m and $179.21m worldwide
While 1996’s Romeo & Juliet #2 down 18.9% $9.02m and $23.53m of $46.35m and $147.55m worldwide
Many have said could West Side Story have similar legs as 2017’s The Greatest Showman but these are two very different films, West Side Story had critical acclaim while The Greatest Showman was belittled by critics but became the peoples champion as younger audiences created a huge amount of user-generated content, this won’t happen with West Side Story. West Side Story will lose the 320 IMAX screens this weekend to Spider-Man No Way Home and then likely lose screens to The Matrix Resurrections and The King’s Man next week.
Always wonder why studios would open two high profile films within two weeks of themselves as Disney released The King’s Man on December 22. 20th Century Fox famously opened Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel days after Avatar in 2009 in case it underperformed.
Took $2.1m from 47 territories and $27.1m worldwide; UK $3.9m; France $2m; Germany $0.6m; Holland $0.3m; Russia $0.2m; Mexico $0.2m; Israel $0.2m; Sweden $0.2m; Belgium $0.2m
- Encanto – Disney
Dropped 35% in its fourth weekend taking $6.48m and $81.49m
Comparable to 2015’s fourth weekend of The Good Dinosaur down 57.8% taking $4.35m and $96.66m of $123.08m; Disney’s last animated film Frozen 2 dropped 45.8% taking $19.07m and $366.43m of $477.37m
133rd biggest animated film between Beowulf and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius; 985th biggest film in the US between Payback and Ted 2; 1,724th biggest inflation inflated between Alice Through the Looking Glass and Hercules; 168th biggest Disney film in the US between Eight Below and Snow Dogs.
Took $7.9m (down 42%) from 47 territories $93.5m total and $175m worldwide; France $11.3m; Colombia $9m; the UK $6.3m; Spain $6.2m; Japan $5.4m; Russia $5.2m; Italy $5m; Korea $4.7m; Mexico $4.6m; Brazil $3.1m; 136th biggest animated film worldwide between Flushed Away and Meet the Robinsons; 981st biggest worldwide between Identity Thief and Sleeping with the Enemy; 22nd biggest 2021 film worldwide between The Conjuring 3 and Ghostbusters: Afterlife; 148th biggest Disney film worldwide between Flubber and George Of The Jungle.
- Ghostbusters Afterlife
Dropped 52% in its fifth weekend taking $3.41m and $117.26m
589th biggest film in the US between Die Hard 2 and Rocky; 1,108th biggest inflation inflated between Hope Floats and Edward Scissorhands; 10th biggest 2021 film between Free Guy and Jungle Cruise; 73rd biggest Sony Pictures film between Basic Instinct and S.W.A.T.
Fifth weekend
1984’s Ghostbusters down 0.1% taking $11.13m ($29.5m inflation inflated) and $99.65m ($214.2m inflation inflated) taking $265m ($635m inflation inflated); was #1 for 7 consecutive weeks and returned #1 for another 7 weeks over the following 5 months
1989’s Ghostbusters 2 dropped 17.7% taking $4.33m ($10.5m inflation inflated) and $93.17m ($225m inflation inflated) taking $112.49m ($275m inflation inflated)
2016’s Ghostbuster dropped 51.4% taking $2.27m and $121.68m and $128.35m and $229.14m worldwide
Took $2m (down 69%) from 53 territories and $56.4m and $173.66m worldwide; 991st biggest film in the US between Evan Almighty and Mirror Mirror; 22nd biggest 2021 film between Encanto and The Suicide Squad; 124th biggest Sony Pictures film between Tootsie and Mr. Deeds.
- House of Gucci – MGM
Down 52% in its fourth weekend taking $1.95m and $45.01m
1,962nd biggest film in the US between Going in Style and Full Metal Jacket; 2,944th biggest inflation inflated between Swimfan and The Players Club; 28th biggest 2021 film between Tom and Jerry and The Forever Purge.
Similar fourth weekends
2018’s A Star is Born dropped 26.3% taking $14.03m and $148.61m of $215.28m
2007’s American Gangster dropped 30% taking $9.01m and $115.55m of $130.16m
2013’s American Hustle up 18.8% taking $9.86m and $101.26m of $150.1m.
Instead, it holds similar to First Man which opened the week after A Star Is Born down 55.1% in its fourth weekend taking $2.18m and $41.97m 84.1% of $44.9m
Took $4.1m (down 56%) from 63 territories $64.1m total and $109.12m worldwide; 1,554th biggest film worldwide between The Amityville Horror and Planet 51; 37th biggest 2021 film between The Addams Family 2 and PAW Patrol: The Movie.
- Nightmare Alley – Searchlight Pictures
Opened #5 with $2.81m; received positive reviews (80% Rotten Tomatoes) and B CinemaScore
While the industry uses Spider-Man No Way Home opening as a sign that cinema isn’t dead Nightmare Alley soft opening a week after West Side Story highlights the issues the industry has been in denial about that audiences have become much more selective in the films they see in cinemas and those they wait to see at home.
It always surprises me when a distributor changes a successful release strategy and the last two weeks have to question both West Side Story opening December 10th as it was originally due to open the week later last year before being delayed a year due to COVID. As 20th Century Fox had huge success opening The Greatest Showman as an alternative to Star Wars The Last Jedi in 2017 so you would have thought they would repeat the same strategy with West Side Story as despite the stature of Steven Spielberg the film had little relevance to younger audiences despite West Side Story being bast on Romeo & Juliet.
While with Nightmare Alley it was surprising given the current nature of older audiences being very slow to return to cinemas why they didn’t opt for a similar slow platform release for the Guillermo del Toro film as they did with The Shape of Water also released in December 2017, started on 2 screens on December 2 with $166,564, slowly expanding until week 10 (Feb 2nd with $4.44m) taking $63.85m, before it was playing in as many screens as Nightmare Alley opened. Of course, the difference with both is that now the studio is owned by Disney and they have struggled to open original films over the last decade despite Disney being the most creative studio in Hollywood for decades.
The long term consequences of West Side Story and Nightmare Alley underperforming along with The French Despatch, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Night House and Nomadland could have a major impact on the future of Searchlight Pictures and is probably the final nail in the coffin for original films for 20th Century Studios after The Last Duel also underperforming a few weeks ago and after receiving mixed reviews and opening so close to both Spider-Man No Way Home and The Matrix Resurrections The King’s Man is unlikely to be anywhere nearly as successful as the previous two films.
UK Box Office Top 10
UK Box Office Preview
The last two Spider-Man films dropped 50%+ in their second weekends Spider-Man Far From Home didn’t have any major competition in its second weekend while Spider-Man: Homecoming dropped 62% against War for the Planet of the Apes. Both previous Spider-Man films opened in July but December is a very different marketplace.
With Spider-Man Far From Home has a two-day weekend as Saturday is Christmas Day with most cinemas closed. Many cinemas are splitting their IMAX screens with The Matrix: Resurrections and Spider-Man No Way Home.
The Matrix: Resurrections opens only a week after Spider-Man No Way Home and it will be targetting the same demographic, but it’s 18 years since the last films were released and after all the excitement of the original film in 1999 the back-to-back sequels were disappointing.
The first film opened in UK cinemas in June 1999 receiving rave reviews (a month before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) with £3,384,948 (£5,805,065 inflation inflated) taking £17,279,897.
Two sequels opened back-to-back in 2003 6 months apart with receiving mixed reviews; The Matrix Reloaded opened May with a massive £12,165,276 (including £3,267,952 previews) £19,782,273 inflation inflated taking £33,423,117 (£54,350,204 inflation inflated)
The Matrix Revolutions opened with £8,712,350 (including £3,002,097 previews) £14,167,380 inflation inflated taking £17,754,338 (£28,870,793 inflation inflated) it was the first live-action film to be released in regular and IMAX cinemas at the same time; there are now 50 IMAX cinemas in the UK over half opened in the last 8 years mostly retrofitted in conventional cinemas and they take about 10% of the BO of the opening weekend BO of films including Eternals last weekend.
In 1999 The Matrix gave audiences something they hadn’t seen on the big screen, remember doing many preview screenings of the first film and the audience reaction was always so good afterwards. So the hype and expectation for the sequels in 2003 were almost as high as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and of course when that happens the films can never live up to that hype.
Over the years since there have been many film series that have taken up the mantle of The Matrix from John Wick to MCU and The Matrix Resurrections opens the week after Spider-Man No Way Home with both films targetting similar demographic males under 40. As will The King’s Man opening on Boxing Day.
In 2003 when The Matrix Reloaded opened in May X-Men 2 was #2 £903,221 in its fourth weekend taking £18,303,458 having comedies opening the weeks after Bringing Down the House, Anger Management, Dumb and Dumberer allowing it to stay #1 for 4 weeks until 2 Fast 2 Furious.
While in November The Matrix Revolutions opened against the 6th weekend of Finding Nemo £1,659,861 and dropped 70% in its second weekend despite no films opening against it (taking £ 2,575,595) with Love Actually opening in its third-weekend #1 with £6,657,479 as The Matrix Revolutions dropped 55% (£1,158,971).
With The Matrix Resurrections opening less than a week after Spider-Man No Way Home it’s unlikely to get many IMAX screens and will also struggle to get the largest screens in multiplexes as The Matrix films are all about the visual experience this will lessen the impact of the experience of watching the film.
The problem for The Matrix: Resurrections is it opens days after Spider-Man No Way Home and days before The King’s Man and all three are targetting males under 35. The last two Spider-Man films dropped 50%+ in their second weekends Spider-Man Far From Home didn’t have any major competition in its second weekend while Spider-Man: Homecoming dropped 62% against War for the Planet of the Apes. Both previous Spider-Man films opened in July but December is a very different marketplace.
While The Matrix: Resurrections opens on Wednesday similar to Spider-Man No Way Home the week before with Christmas Day on Saturday and Christmas Eve, not a big day for cinemagoing its opening will be preview loaded.
Opening on Boxing Day The King’s Man is the third instalment of the Kingsman film series and prequel to 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
It was originally set for release in November 2019 by Fox and then to 14th February 2020, in November 2018 was delayed by Disney to 18th September, then to February 2021 due to COVID and then to August 2021 and delayed again in March 2021 to December 2021.
The teaser trailer was released in July 2019, the second trailer in September 2019, the third in June 2020 and a red band trailer was released in August 2021. In September Disney announced it would have a 45-day theatrical window.
After directing Daniel Craig in Layer Cake Matthew Vaughn was briefly attached to direct Casino Royale before Martin Campbell was signed and Matthew Vaughn instead moved on to develop Kingsman: The Secret Service. Matthew Vaughn has talked about making a fourth Kingsman film next year but it is unlikely Disney would be interested in continuing this film series which 20th Century Fox had big plans for when they announced the prequel. Reviews have been mixed and opening it so close to both Spider-Man No Way Home and The Matrix: Resurrections will be fighting over scraps.
Of course, the one unknown is will cinemas be open after Christmas as it’s unknown yet when the restrictions will come in place in England as they have done in Scotland, Wales and Ireland and many countries in Europe including Holland and Denmark. With this overshadowing cinemas would have thought exhibitors would be proactive in bringing some safety measures but after the huge opening of Spider-Man No Way Home last weekend they won’t bring in any new measures unless they are forced to do so which will be too late and as with March 2020 the UK government will likely bring in further restrictions too late which will mean they will be in place much longer than they might have otherwise be needed. This will surely mean Jan/Feb BO will be very soft.
The problem many had with the Kingsman films was they were laddish ad women were seen as weak and needed saving by men and they had unnecessary misogyny scenes especially the end scene in the first film that ruined the film for me.
2015’s Kingsman: The Secret Service opened £4,241,292 (including £679,498 previews) taking £16,418,247
2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle opened £8,525,664 (including £2,327,105 previews) taking £24,883,225