Top 5 Breakdown

1. Avengers: Infinity War – £5,706,170 – £60,353,842

Down 43.7% in its third weekend; the third weekend is when the box office stabilities after its inflated extended opening weekend then the second weekend to have a bigger drop but then the third week settles down before fourth normally having a bigger drop with the arrival of the next film.
Avengers: infinity War had the eighth biggest third weekend:
Skyfall £10,447,385 total £72,019,129 70.04% of £102,816,893
Star Wars: The Force Awakens £10,304,562 total £97,383,157 79.17% of £123,000,894
Star Wars: The Last Jedi £7,975,174 total £68,263,774 82.45% of £82,676,198
Spectre £7,833,891 total £77,579,879 81.5% of £95,183,468
Beauty and the Beast £6,750,000 total £51,385,248 71.01% of £72,355,735
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story £5,959,299 total £52,070,413 78.9% of £65,973,257
Jurassic World £5,776,475 total £48,901,995 76.7% of £63,674,773
How Infinity War holds against Deadpool 2 will give a better understanding of its final box office but its likely to of taken about 80% of its total box office after 18 days with a final total of £72m which will see it become the eighth biggest film in the UK taking about £72m similar to last years Beauty and the Beast.
Disney now have 10 of the top 30 biggest films in the UK all franchises, sequels or reimaginations with 7 of them released in the last 3 years.
After a sun affected second weekend Infinity War dropped less than both Avengers Assemble and Age of Ultron in its third weekend and similar drop to Black Panther becoming the sixteenth biggest film in the UK overtaking The Dark Knight Rises to become the biggest comic-book film in the UK.

But is Infinity War really the 16^th biggest film in the UK and the biggest comic-book film in the UK as with ticket inflation of over 20% since The Dark Knight Rises was released in 2012 its impossible to compare the two but still the industry does. As ticket inflation has increased about 4% every year for the last 20 years it’s impossible to compare box office performances of films year to year let alone 6 years ago.
Titanic is now the sixth biggest film in the UK on box office but with ticket inflation of almost 90% since its inflation inflated box office is now over £150m almost double its 1998 total of £79.9m. In 1998 there weren’t any additional charges for 3D, IMAX, 4DX and other PLF formats and premium seating but now all those formats come with surcharges.

In 2012 Avengers Assemble held #1 for three weeks dropping 49% in its third weekend taking £4,169,087 and £40,279,282 77.5% of its final box office of £51,910,045. American Pie: Reunion #2 £2,546,626 and Dark Shadows #3 £2,404,029. In its fourth weekend The Dictator which opened with £4,963,745 #1 while Avengers Assemble took £2,814,216 and £44,983,702 staying in the top 10 for 9 weeks.
In 2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron also held #1 for three weeks down 59% in its third weekend taking £3,509,620 and £40,353,610 83.6% of its final box office of £48,227,409. Spooks: The Greater Good opening #2 with £1,010,363; dropped down to third in its fourth weekend behind Pitch Perfect 2 £5,005,394 and Mad Max: Fury Road £4,538,933 taking £1,661,968 and £43,250,662 in third.
The second weekend of Infinity War was similar to both Star Wars The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi second weekends after opening with £34.1m and £28.1m The Force took £10,164,805 and The Last Jedi took £10,158,640 dropping 70.1% and 63.7% in their second weekends.
The 19 Marvel Cinematic Universe films have taken over £560m at the UK box office over the last 10 years with an average of £29.01m over the 10 years but since Avengers Assemble opened six years ago this climbs up to £34.4m. Only minor blip since was 2015’s Ant-Man was surprising as it was which took only £16.3m as it’s the most enjoyable MCU film but was poorly marketed will be interesting to see how Ant-Man and the Wasp does in August being the first MCU to open in the UK a month after the US.
Kevin Feige has previously said they have finalised their MCU line-up for films up to 2025, unlike previous phases none of the nine dated MCU films from May 2020 to July 2022 has confirmed titles. Captain Marvel is released next March followed by an Untitled Avengers 4 but we know that Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 will be released next summer which will end the story arc that started with Captain America; Civil War and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 will likely be released in 2020.
Those two films question the ending of Infinity War being real as how can you have a Spider-Man film without Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy film without the Guardians. With Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 opening in July how will it be able to be marketed without spoiling Avengers 4 as the sequel will likely be at Comic-Con in July with the trailer released in November? Avengers 4 will likely follow similar release patter of Infinity War with teaser trailer released in October? Or will it as Disney don’t release a Marvel film in October and it’s unlikely it would play with The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. A July release with Ant-Man and the Wasp would then make more sense but the storyline within the film is separate from Infinity War while it would also likely spoil Captain Marvel?
While Bob Iger was talking about a new franchise beyond Avengers, said Avengers 4 will “have a significant conclusion” to the story that began with 2008’s Iron Man. Marvel Entertainment have over 7,000 characters in their library and next year with the acquisition of 20^th Century Fox will be joined by the X-Men which will likely mean there will be infinite Marvel Cinematic Universe films joining the infinite Star Wars films.
While Avengers 4 might have a significant conclusion to the film series Kevin Feige has previously said comic-book characters never really die so those who disintegrated in Infinity War will likely return as will either Captain America or Iron Man who are expected to die in Avengers 4 will be back.

2. Sherlock Gnomes – £2,522,342 – NE

Boosted by three days of previews over the Bank Holiday weekend taking £900,000 much of it taken on Bank Holiday Monday as Sat/Sun was affected by the weather.
The original 2011 Gnomeo & Juliet received decent reviews opened in February 2011 with £2,945,627 taking £15,326,020 boasted in the UK with its British connections (plot, cast, setting and Elton John music) the sequel also benefited by all of them but also received poor reviews.
But as The Emoji Movie and Peter Rabbit have shown younger audiences don’t care what Rotten Tomatoes say and Sherlock Holmes was helped to be the only children’s film on release and with its trailers played before Peter Rabbit.
The opening was close to The Angry Birds Movie opening May 13th, 2016 with £2,138,507 without previews taking £10,002,458. With limited competition targetting younger children over the next few weeks (only other children’s film is Show Dogs) and half term Sherlock Gnomes could perform similarly despite poor reviews.
Apart from Peter Rabbit (now taken £40m at the box office) Coco £18.3m and Early Man £11.15m 2018 has had far fewer children’s films than last year which probably helped Peter Rabbit be the success it was. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle took about £10m of its £36.38m in 2018 but as The Greatest Showman taking about £40m of its £46.4m in 2018 but both aimed at older audiences.
Last year Sing £29.17m, The Lego Batman Movie £27.43m, Beauty and the Beast £72.43m, Power Rangers £4.52m, The Smurfs: The Lost Village £6.01m, The Boss Baby £29.11m, Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience £3.62m, A Dog’s Purpose £2.9m, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul £6.01m and Despicable Me 3 £47.7m all opened before the summer holidays.
Next family film after Show Dogs is the British dog comedy Patrick opening June 29^th with Incredibles 2 two weeks later and Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation two week later.
Is the reason why box office is 10% down from last year and year to date is 5% down from 2017 due to having far fewer family films released in the first 4 months than last year and is probably the reason why Peter Rabbit performed so strongly as it didn’t have any competition over Easter and the weather was terrible. While last year had Beauty and the Beast, Power Rangers, The Smurfs: The Lost Village, The Boss Baby and Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience.
The Incredibles opened in November 2004 with £9,753,035 taking £32,039,321 the sequel opens 14 years later so must compare inflation inflated box office opening would be £16,660,530 taking £54,730,867 which would be the second biggest Pixar film in the UK after 2010’s Toy Story 3 £73,405,113 (Toy Story 4 opens next year 9 years after Toy Story 3 ended the series so perfectly).
The last two Hotel Transylvania films performed far more steadily at the box office opening during a far less competitive time for children’s films Halloween, but the third film is pushed to the centre of summer opening only two weeks after Incredibles 2

3. I Feel Pretty – £931,614 – £3,097,220

Down 26.7% in its second weekend overtaking Den of Thieves £2.7m to become STX International’s biggest film in the UK.
While the film initially had a backlash, it was likely from people who haven’t seen the film as audience reaction has been far more positive.
It’s performing similarly to Shallow Hal the 2002 film many have compared the film to which dropped 17% in its second weekend taking £1,056,207 and £2,981,607 of £5,620,87i4 total. Three years earlier She’s All That took £743,158 in its second weekend and £2,414,814 taking £ 5,787,132.
This highlights the issue with many films these days they are performing like similar films did 20 years ago but the inflation on their box office over the 20-year gap shows up their weakening box office.
Holding better than Amy Schumer’s previous two films last years Snatched which took £336,854 down 60% in its second weekend taking £1,626,748 of £1,955,348 and Trainwreck which took £492,567 down 47% in its second weekend taking 2,171,353 of £2,824,472.
Over the years have been many films seeing women transformed by makeup, fashion and manners including My Fair Lady, The Breakfast Club, Mean Girls taking £5,411,323), Pretty Woman, Clueless, Easy A (opened October 2010 taking £773,795), Grease, The Devil Wears Prada (opened October 2006 taking £13,681,185), The Princess Diaries (opened December 2001 taking £4,904,418), She’s All That, Miss Congeniality (opened March 2001 £1,873,246 taking £10,040,993), Never Been Kissed (opened August 1999 taking £4,500,033). All based on the Cinderella fairy-tale an ugly duckling can become a swan, but they were already but people couldn’t see.

4. Life of the Party – £618,311 – NE

Opened similar to Melissa McCarthy’s last solo leading film 2016’s The Boss opened June 10th £594,672 which took £1,692,452 which was her previously biggest leading film after 2014’s Tammy opened 4th July £471,429 taking £1,433,635.
It’s her first film role since starring in female Ghostbusters remake which opened in July 2016 with £4,388,944 taking £10,554,557 while she and her co-stars didn’t deserve the misogynist comments she received the reboot was shockingly awful made worse after the years of development the film had.
Other films she co-starred in performed far stronger
2015’s Spy opened June 5th £2,557,824 taking £9,654,086
2013’s The Heat opened 1st August £2,500,522 taking £6,825,860
2013’s Identity Thief opened 22nd March 2013 £1,313,162 taking £4,716,437
She next stars in The Happytime Murders in August and then Can You Ever Forgive Me? opening in October and stars in Superintelligence, The Kitchen and Margie Claus next year.
Been many films featuring adults who go back to college over the years including 2012’s 22 Jump Street, 1986’s Back to School, 1995’s Billy Madison, 1999’s Never Been Kissed, 2003’s Old School and 2008’s The House Bunny.
Never Been Kissed opened August 1999 with £825,168 taking £4,500,033
The House Bunny opened October 2008 with £894,188 taking £2,931,090

5. Breaking In – £424,675 – NE

With all last week’s holdovers wilting from the sunshine it was likely Breaking In would perform far better than it might have done otherwise but with trailers playing with A Quiet Place it was seen by a much wider audience than might have been expected.
Home invasion films have always been very popular horror as the fear is much more real as we all hear noises at night and wonder what it was, and should we go downstairs but that’s always our first mistake. Last year’s Get Out was a twist on the home invasion story as it used race and others have been popular at the box office in recent years including 2016’s Don’t Breathe, 2008’s The Strangers and 2013’s You’re Next and The Purge.
Maybe it’s another nostalgic look back at the 90s with the rebirth of the home invasion film or is it more a culture and a social issue that we aren’t feeling as safe and comfortable in our own homes as we used to. The 90ssaw many home invasion films including 1990’s The Desperate Hours and Pacific Heights, 1991’s Cape Fear, 1992’s Unlawful Entry, Single White Female and The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, 1993’s Malice and 1997’s Funny Games
Panic Room opened May 2002 with £2,022,582 taking £8,202,281 but was expected to open similar to Obsessed opening in May 2009 with £154,344 taking £393,854 and 2014’s No Good Deed opening with £40,583.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £11,439,662 down 13.8% from last weekend £13,277,203;
The weekend admissions 1,464,778 down 14.09% from last weekend 1,7042,08; 2018 average ticket price is probably up about 3% from last year’s £7.49 to £7.67 for 2018;
17 films opened at weekend taking £4,034,581; Sherlock Gnomes took 62.5% (£2,522,342); Life of the Party took 15.3% (£618,311); Breaking In took 10.5% (£424,675) remaining 14 films shared 11.6% (£469,253): Avengers: Infinity War took 49.8% of the top 10;
The weekend was up 2.74% from last year (£11,133,770) Alien: Covenant £5,178,531, Der Rosenkavalier – Met Opera 2017 (Opera) £313,653, Miss Sloane £190,295, Frantz £69,982; This weekend was inflated with £900,000+ from Sherlock Gnomes previews last weekend
Up 25.6% from 2016: (£9,103,851) Angry Birds £2,138,507, Our Kind of Traitor £358,180, Everybody Wants Some!! £169,764, Green Room £144,517, Mustang £65,038, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot £58,798, The Darkness £51,490.
Next weekend in 2017: (£8,745,494) King Arthur: Legend of the Sword £2,501,993, Snatched £842,489, Colossal £150,642
Other news

The Greatest Showman – £90,376 – £46,409,385
The film was released on Monday on DVD after being released in digital download for the past 10 days was still in the top 15 for its 20th weekend on release. It has held in the top 10 for 18 of its 20 weeks twice as long as the films opened against in December Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Pitch Perfect 3.
Through most of The Greatest Showman’s release have been comparing its box office performance to Titanic 20 years ago as was a film audience were watching similarly multiple times in its 20^th weekend took £134,182 from 137 screens. Titanic wasn’t released on video until September 1998 but for the last two weeks, The Greatest Showman has been available to buy as a digital download for less than the price of many cinema tickets.
Must admit that I didn’t see The Greatest Showman till many weeks after it opened but from the trailers got that Moulin Rouge vibe and it was the live trailer released a week before opening that made me believe if audiences were allowed to discover the film it would be a similar success.
My only concern was being exhibitors fourth choice Christmas film after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Pitch Perfect 3 as it was the type of film exhibitors wouldn’t get as they didn’t for films including Mamma Mia, Avatar and Kick-Ass as all three were films that you needed to see with an audience of regular cinemagoers, not cynical bookers and critics.

The Greatest Showman opening was only 5.5% of its final box office only film that has beaten that over the last 21 years was The Full Monty in 1997 with 3.1%. While it took 18.02x opening which is more than four times most films released today only beaten again by The Full Monty in 1997.
Going to the cinema was a very different and much cheaper experience 21 years ago and films would regularly run I cinemas for up to a year or more as they wouldn’t be released on home video for up to nine months after release. The Full Monty was and still is a very funny film do believe its success was boasted by the death of Princess Diana who died the weekend the film opened as the sadness of her death saw people go to the cinema for cheering up in a similar way Austin Powers did a week later when it was also released.
Film distributors spend months planning their marketing and release campaigns for films but it’s often non-film related issues that have the biggest impact on the film’s success or failure. In 1994 Rank Film Distributors released a very small British wedding comedy had received very positive reviews but then came Liz Hurley’s black Versace dress she wore at the UK premiere this was, of course, a time before the internet and social media, so newspapers and magazines were talking about for weeks afterwards.
The opposite happened last June in the build-up to Wonder Woman release the two tragic terrorist’s attacks first at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester followed by the London attacks this saw Warner Bros cancel the premiere which affected the films media campaign m its final days ahead of its release.

What 20^th Century Fox could have never predicted about The Greatest Showman is how audiences responded to the film who became the film’s marketing as it became more than just a film.

Today 20^th Century Fox release the first trailer for their Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody opening October 24^th a week earlier in the UK which is sadly likely to be one of their final films released as an independent studio. The success of The Greatest Showman shows cinemagoers still want to be entertained with films that aren’t comic-book movies, reboots, remakes, sequels and reimaginations hopefully the 20^th Century Fox label within Disney will be allowed to keep making these riskier original films.

Also opened

• How to Talk To Girls At Parties – Studiocanal

Opened with £23,311 from 12 screens
A year after receiving its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and over six months after its UK premiere at the London Film Festival. It is one of many films released over recent weeks released months after its London Film Festival premiere that have been gathering dust on the distributor’s shelves was there any reason for delaying its release.

• Entebbe – eOne

Opened with £138,390 from 124 screens

• Anon – Altitude Film Distribution

Opened with £19,108 from 61 screens
The third film Sky Cinema have simultaneously released in cinemas and on Sky Cinema and the third major exhibitors have rejected. If exhibitors weren’t so negative about VOD, the would see the benefits of VOD and theatrical releasing would mean that fewer films were released theatrically which would mean that the smaller films would have longer time to find their audiences than they do now. 20 years ago, exhibitors were complaining there were over 400 films being released each year now are more than double the amount but few of them will play the full 16-week theatrical window.
Entebbe also opened at the weekend will be out of cinemas after only a week but won’t be released on video for another 3 months how does this benefit the customer. Also thought Paramount Pictures plan to release films on VOD a week after they dropped below 1,000 screens in the US would be the best for both distributor and exhibitors as it would be in their interest to keep successful films paying for longer whilst pulling films that don’t. Avengers: Infinity War might be breaking records at the box office in week three but Black Panther in week ten is almost played out of cinemas but are pirate copies online so would benefit everyone now if it was released on VOD now instead of a months’ time.
UK Box Office Top 10

US Box office

• Avengers: Infinity War – Disney

Drops 45.9% in its third weekend taking $62.07m and $548.09m.
Having the fourth biggest third weekend behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens $90.24m, Avatar $68.49m and Black Panther $66.3m only $6m more than 2012’s The Avengers $55.64m and Jurassic World $54.53m
After 17 days
Star Wars: The Force Awakens took $742.2m 72.93% of $936.66m total
Black Panther took $501.7m 70.2% of $720m expected the final total
Jurassic World rook $500.37m 76.7% of $652.2m
The Avengers took $457.66m 73.4% of $623.25m
Avengers: Age of Ultron took $372.03m 81.1% of $459m
Black Panther took 3.53x opening but Avengers: Infinity War will likely hold with a 2.8x opening in between Avengers: Age of Ultron 2.4x and Marvel’s Avengers 3x opening taking about $720m which will be about the same as Black Panther took. Ut internationally Infinity War will take much more than Black Panther taking upwards of $2bn depending on how it does in China and how it holds against Deadpool 2 this weekend.

Avengers: Infinity War has become the biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe film globally taking $1.6bn and overtook Black Panther $1.32bn to be the biggest film globally in 2018. Iy has also become the fifth biggest film globally taking $1.6m will shortly overtake Jurassic World $1.67bn and depending on how it holds in China could overtake Star Wars: The Force Awakens $2.06bn.
In 2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron was the fourth biggest film globally taking $1.4bn behind Furious 7 $1.51bn, Jurassic World $1.67bn and Star Wars: The Force Awakens $2.06bn while Marvel’s The Avengers was the biggest film globally in 2012 taking $1.51bn; Black Panther has taken $1.33bn.
The 18 Marvel Cinematic Universe films have taken $6.51bn in the US and $16.46bn
Infinity War took $343.1m internationally ($200m from China 2^nd biggest opening in China behind The Fate of The Furious) $1.058bn and $1.606.8bn worldwide. .

• Life of the Party – Warner Bros

Opens with $17.88m; received 42% Rotten Tomatoes and B CinemaScore
The first Melissa McCarthy film to open since the Ghostbuster female reboot having the lowest opening for a film with her in the lead; she next stars in The Happytime Murders in August, Can You Ever Forgive Me? in October and then The Kitchen< Margie Claus and Superintelligence in 2019.
2016’s The Boss opened 8th April $23.58m taking $63.28m
2015’s Spy opened June 5th $29.08m taking $110.82m
2014’s Tammy opened 2th July $21.57m taking $84.52m
2013’s The Heat opened 28th June $39.11m taking $159.58m
2013’s Identity Thief opened 8th February 2013 $34.55m taking $134.5m
Opened close to I Feel Pretty opening with $16.03m last month and Overboard remake which opened with $14.71m last weekend all targetting similar female audiences.
It took $2.9m internationally including $858k from the UK.

• Breaking In – Universal Pictures

Opens with $17.63m; received 29% Rotten Tomatoes score and B CinemaScore
Final figures were more than a million more than Sunday estimates which were expected as tracking and box office prediction often fail to predict the box office for these low budget genre films.
With trailers played with films including Black Panther and A Quiet Place Breaking In could open close to his 2014’s thriller No Good Dead opening with $24.25m in September 2014 taking $52.54m or Don’t Breathe in 2016 opened with $26.41m taking $89.21m. But both opened at the end of summer with far less competition.
Breaking In was produced by Will Packer his films including Ride Along 2, No Good Deed, Think Like a Man Too, Ride Along, Think Like a Man and Takers have taken almost $1 billion at the box office having production deal at Universal Studios his upcoming Films include Night School starring Tiffany Haddish and Kevin Hart and female remake of What Women Want to be called What Men Want opening in January.
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• Overboard – Pantelion

Taking $9.64m down 32.9% in its second weekend and $29.35m
The remake of the 1987 film of the same name starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell; original film opened in December 1987 with $1.88m taking $26.21m; average ticket pieces have gone up 135% from $3,91 to $9,18; 2018 opening would be $4.5m and $63m total.

• A Quiet Place – Paramount Pictures

Down 16.8% in its sixth weekend taking $6.45m and $169.6m
A Quiet Place has become Paramount Pictures #38 biggest film in the US and will shortly overtake 2016’s Star Trek Beyond becoming their biggest film since 2015’s Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation $195m.
In Get Out’s sixth weekend it took $8.85m and $147.66m 83.8% of its final box office of $176.1m if a Quiet Place was to hold similar could take about $192m.
Took $4.1m internationally from 57 territories and $95.4m total and $270m globally #510 biggest film and Paramount Pictures #48 with several major countries still to come including China.
UK Box Office Predictions

In 2016 the first Deadpool opened with similarly strong marketing and buzz opened with £13,729,803 including £3,762,513 from two days of previews and went on to take £37,616,432 becoming one of 20^th Century Fox’s biggest films in the UK.
Two years later Deadpool 2 opened with a similar strong marketing campaign and received similarly positive reviews while some have said that it lost some of its originality which is often hard to replicate in a sequel as it can’t eve be seen as fresh and original a second time. Opening on Tuesday night gives the sequel a 6-day opening weekend which should see it open with £15m+ with £4m+ from previews and Fri-Sun £11m+ opening.

Deadpool 2 opening will depend on how Infinity War holds and if the weather will affect it.
Sherlock Gnomes will likely drop 50%+ due to its preview inflated opening while all other holdovers will likely be squeezed as has happened over recent weeks which cold let On Chesil Beach squeeze into the top 10 depending on the size of its release.
Of course, the big question will be with Solo: A Star Wars Story opening next Thursday how its opening will affect Deadpool 2 opening so soon after as normally these kinds of films get a two-week window. It will depend on if Solo plays to the fanbase of Star Wars as Rogue One as most expect or the extended fanbase of the new trilogy. Its Cannes premiere and reaction will give more clues to this premiere reaction was not so positive as previous Star Wars films with much lower expectations. Deadpool was originally going to open the week after Solo but opening the week earlier puts it in a far stronger position.
Opening UK

• On Chesil Beach – Lionsgate

Drama starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle and directed by Dominic Cooke, Ian McEwan adapted his own 2007 Booker Prize-nominated novella; had its world premiere in at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017 receiving positive reviews.
In 2010 Sam Mendes was attached to direct with Carey Mulligan in talks to star but was delayed when he left to direct Skyfall. A year later Mike Newell was attached to direct but stopped in pre-production. In February 2016 was announced Saoirse Ronan would star and production started in October 2016 and Lionsgate acquired UK rights in November.
It was one of several films released over the last few months after receiving their UK premiere in October at the London Film Festival opening five months later. Ghost Stories, Thoroughbreds, Wonderstruck, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, The Breadwinner, Funny Cow, You Were Never Really Here, Journey’s End and My Generation.
Never understand the logic of premiering a film at the London Film Festival if it won’t be released for several months as have to double up with their marketing bring talent together twice as the most successful festival releases are released within weeks of their opening Captain Philips, Fury and The Imitation Game opened weeks after their premiere using the London Film Festival as the launch platform for the film. But then Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire premiered at the 2016 London Film Festival receiving positive reviews and buzz but didn’t open until March when it underwhelmed at the box office.
The London Film Festival as Cannes have lost their importance on the film calendar that hasn’t stopped them being a place to be seen with lovies and parties but in the scheme of things, Venice and Toronto are now far more important launch platforms for award contenders. While studios have become less interested in premiering their bigger titles at the London Film Festival as BFI take control of the screenings. Last year Breathe opened the film festival it was the first release for STX International who was hoping the media coverage it would receive would expand the profile for the film but underwhelm at the box office. The closing film was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri but its Oscar campaign started 6 weeks earlier at Venice, so its London Film Festival screening can’t be used as the excuse for its success at Oscars or taking £15m+ at the UK box office.
Every year play the game of what films will BFI select for the London Film Festival many are predictable as their release dates shift within weeks of the line-up announced while others are also predicted by them being delayed. 30 years ago, Things Change opened and For Queen and Country closed the festival but did also include many more commercial films including Die Hard.
Opening in the US

• Deadpool 2 – 20^th Century Fox

Eleventh instalment in the X-Men film series, and sequel to the 2016 film Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller and directed by David Leitch previously directed last years Atomic Blonde.
Critics have compared it to the original receiving 84% Rotten Tomatoes score with many saying its bigger and funnier but being a sequel it’s not so fresh.
Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have been trolling each other for years and last week Hugh Jackman said on Instagram “I’m gonna say this once, and then delete it… really quickly: Deadpool 2 is a work of genius. It is epic. It is… dammit, can’t believe I said it.” A few weeks ago, Ryan Reynolds trolled Hugh Jackman over a picture of his wife and previous to that was interrupted by Reynolds dressed as Deadpool as he tried t record a birthday message.
In February were reports online about negative test screenings but this was denied in March saying that it was testing very well the first over 90 and the second even higher. Testing means very little as both Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League both tested well but then were poorly received critically while also many other films that tested well but underwhelmed at the box office.

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The first teaser trailer was released with Logan in March 2017 has been viewed over 25m times on YouTube. It didn’t feature any footage ended with title card Deadpool will return not soon enough.

The second teaser was released in November 2017 has been viewed over 17m times on YouTube

Next trailer was released in February 2018 seen over 22.5 million times on YouTube instead of having an expensive Superbowl advert Deadpool live-tweeted during the game released the week after as work in progress trailer with the first full trailer released at the end of March with the final trailer released at the end of April (viewed 33.1m times on YouTube) featuring the character Peter who has a Twitter account with 99.7k followers.
Deadpool’s IMAX trailer not understanding how the format works

Celine Dion surprised everyone releasing the song Ashes for the Deadpool 2 soundtrack, 21 years after she sang My Heart Goes On for the soundtrack to Titanic. The video was released on Thursday May 3rd and viewed almost 2 million times within the first couple of hours and over 15.7m times on YouTube.

Deadpool also apologised to David Beckham for his comment about his voice in the first film.

The 10 Marvel X-Men film have taken over $2bn at the box office over the last 18 years in the US and almost $5bn globally Marvel Cinematic Universe 19 films have taken three times more in the US and globally.
While Disney gets much credit for the success of Marvel Cinematic Universe over recent years when 20^th Century Fox put the first X-Men film into production in September 1999 after more than a decade in development as seen as a massive unknown. As the 90s wasn’t a great decade for comic-book movies apart from Men in Black, The Mask and The Rocketeer (Disney’s previous attempt at comic-book movies) had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman Forever, Barb Wire, Judge Dredd and Cannon’s Captain America film.
20^th Century Fox had planned to release X-Men Christmas 2000, but they brought it forward 6 months after Steven Spielberg delayed making Minority Report a year to make A.I. Artificial Intelligence instead. Two years later Sony Pictures launched Spider-Man but took another 6 years before Marvel released their first MCU film Iron Man it was only after Iron Man success and in 2008 Disney took notice of Marvel and acquired Marvel Entertainment the following year in the years that followed Disney continued what Marvel previously did 20^th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures did all the hard work launching the genre of films to audiences. This was close to what Disney has done with their Star Wars reboots and will do from 2020 with their Indiana Jones reboots.
The backstory to how Deadpool became a film is well known started development in 2000 at Artisan Entertainment moving to New Line Cinema in 2004 but there were rights issues as 20^th Century Fox-owned rights to X-Men. Fox started developing a Deadpool film a year later and Ryan Reynolds appeared in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine despite dying in the film 20^th Century Fox developed a spinoff.
After Ryan Reynolds’s Green Lantern flopped in 2011 Fox was concerned with the film along with its R-rating gave director Tim Miller some money for test footage which wasn’t received positively. The footage was leaked online in July 2014 getting a positive reaction and three months later Fox announced February 12^th, 2016 release date with a March 2015 start date.

Deadpool 2 is probably 20^th Century Fox’s last major release before it is sadly incorporated into Disney next year; Deadpool 2 was tracking to open with $150m a few weeks ago more than the $132.43m Deadpool opened with two years ago while that more than $100m less than Avengers: Infinity War opening three weeks ago impossible to compare the two as its R-rated and not released in 3D.
Deadpool 2 had fans screening in the UK on Thursday, May 10^th which generated a positive reaction from social media review embargo ended on May 15^th same day opens in the UK but as its US premiere was the day before embargo couldn’t end sooner.

The first Deadpool opened with $132.43m in February 2016 had limited competition for several weeks at #1 for three weekends. Dropped 57.4% in its second weekend taking $56.47m and $236.86m and $31.11m in its third weekend. Zootopia taking $75.06m took over #1 from Deadpool in its fourth weekend.
Deadpool 2 is expected to open with $150m+ but then its second weekend is against Solo: A Star Wars Story which is also expected to open with $150m+ over Memorial Day weekend. The big question is how will Deadpool 2 hold it with both targetting similar audiences.

• Book Club – Paramount Pictures

Romantic comedy starring Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen and directed by Bill Holderman. It’s been comparable to 1996’s The First Wives Club opened with $18.91m in September 1996 taking $105.48m
Paramount Pictures acquired US and US rights in November 2017