Top 5 Breakdown

1. Dunkirk – £ 8,235,532 – £ 27,017,724

Down 17.84% in its second weekend the fourth smallest drop for a wide release of 2017 Going in Style has surprisingly had the smallest second-weekend drop of the year 12% with Lion 12.7% and Jackie 16.6% second and third less surprising as were Oscar nominees).

Dunkirk has the lowest second-weekend drop for a Christopher Nolan film in the UK as the film is playing to old and young in the screening I was at were teenagers alongside pensioners it is rare for a film to play across such a while audience demographic. Films like Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens played to children and parents who were children when the original films were released but older generation wouldn’t normally also watch films the young people liked too.

Dunkirk had the fourth biggest first week of 2017 £18.79m behind Beauty and the Beast (£27.55m) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (£21.32m) and The Fate of the Furious (£19.42m). Last years biggest were Star Wars: Rogue One Batman £28.7m Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice £23.16m Captain America: Civil War £22.57m and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them £21.01m.

But the second biggest second weekend of the year after Beauty and the Beast £13.33m but of course had the advantage of opening during school holidays over many of its rivals but they were very front-loaded opening bigger and dropping much heavier in their second weekend. Last year’s biggest second weekends were Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them £8.89m, The Jungle Book £8.09m and Bridget Jones’s Baby £6.45m.

While Dunkirk had Christopher Nolan’s third biggest opening in the UK I had his biggest second weekend beating 2008’s The Dark Knight £6.73m and 2012’s £7.27m. after 10 days on release, the Dark Knight Rises was still ahead with £30.55m

Within 10 days of release Dunkirk has overtaken Kong: Skull Island, Wonder Woman, and The Lego Batman Movie to become Warner Bros biggest film of the year and eighth biggest film of the year by the end of the week Dunkirk will of overtaken The Boss Baby, Sing, Furious 8 and La La Land and by the end of the next weekend will of overtaken Despicable Me 3 and have Guardians in the Galaxy Vol 2 in its sights.

Christopher Nolan’s 9 films have now taken over £200m at the UK box office; Dunkirk has overtaken Batman Begins and Interstellar and by next weekend Inception and will probably overtake The Dark Knight but come shortly to overtake The Dark Knight Rises £56.24m.

Even with their 5-day inflated openings Emoji Movie or Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets won’t get close to Dunkirk next weekend. Annabelle: Creation opening in two weeks’ time currently with 100% Rotten Tomatoes could possibly do so being the fourth film of The Conjuring franchise and prequel to 2014’s Annabelle, The Conjuring 2 opened last June £4.64m over its 7-day opening weekend taking £2.78m which could be enough to overtake Dunkirk in its fourth weekend.

There is of course talk of Oscars with many predicting it will sweep the boards next February but while it is stunning to look at its unlikely to get acting or screenplay nominations. With Venice, Toronto Film Festivals line-ups announced last week and shortly Telluride and London where many more Oscar contenders will get their first viewings. Dunkirk might be now favorite there is a long way to go.

Hans Zimmer score added to the intensity of the plot features the Shepard tone which is a key part of many scores for Christopher Nolan films from The Dark Knight to The Prestige

There were the typical complaints about Dunkirk in cinemas being too loud similarly have been similar issues with how the film is projected as most cinemas don’t have movable masking the black bar top and bottom and the sides depending on the format the films are shot. As with many films, Warner Bros sent out projection instructions from Christopher Nolan in how the film should be projected. This is similar to the director’s notes that were sent with 35mm prints Michael Bay’s always said always it loud.

2. Captain Underpants – £ 2,495,744 – NE

Normally a film opening with £2.5m would be a very positive opening but after Captain Underpants opened on Monday it was a 7-day opening weekend.  Which is such a shame for the film which is a fun originally children’s film for the whole family went with my brother and sister in law at the weekend with their children and they were laughing more than the children.  Compare this to the now tiresome Despicable Me 3 and Cars 3 which were funny once but not third time around.

Opening on Monday was more a negative than a positive as it pushed it closer to Cars 3 opening which had already been cannibalized by Despicable Me 3 with Disney opening their Pixar film a week earlier than they normally do against Illumination animation film. Had 20^th Century Fox opened Captain Underpants on Friday would have given it a week separation but instead made Captain Underpants cannibalize with Cars 3; with Captain Underpants taking only £1.2m Mon-Thurs and then £1.27m Fri-Sun.

Captain Underpants had a similar Fri-Sun opening as Ice Age: Collision Course last July was inflated by two weeks of weekend previews taking £2.3m of its 7-day opening of £3.77m. It’s two weeks of weekend previews were cannibalized by The Secret Life of Pets and as last year on just weekend box office Despicable Me 3 took far more than Captain Underpants in its Fri-Sun opening as Ice Age: Collision Course was against The Secret Life of Pets.

Captain Underpants is the final Dreamworks Animation film released by 20th Century Fox before distribution rights move to Universal Pictures after they acquired the studios last year. 20^th Century Fox has released 10 films since 2013 taking almost £180m The Boss Baby was their biggest and Penguins of Madagascar was the lowest suffered opening weeks after the release of Paddington.

The film is based on children’s novel series by Dav Pilkey his books have sold over 70 million copies worldwide with 50 million in the US but I’m sure Brits thought it was a spinoff to Pants Man character created on The Apprentice for a breakfast cereal

Losing Dreamworks Animation will be a big loss for 20^th Century Fox as it can be very lucrative for studios when Dreamworks Animation moved to 20^th Century Fox it left a big hole in Paramount Pictures release schedules as animation films take far longer to make Paramount’s first of their new animation division was The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water released in February 2015 the long delayed $150m write-off Monster Trucks followed with Gnomeo & Juliet: Sherlock Gnomes, Amusement Park, The Loud House and SpongeBob 3 dated for release over the next two years.

The one positive 20^th Century Fox have over Paramount Pictures is they already have Blue Sky Studios which has already made 11 films for the studio its next Ferdinand based on the classic children’s book opens in December and will be followed by Pigeon Impossible and Nimona in 2019 and 2020.

The problem 20^th Century Fox have is Disney with Pixar and Universal Studios now with both Illumination Entertainment and Dreamworks Animation will be churning out sequels to many of their animated hits while as Ice Age and Rio film series are over they must launch new animation stories.

 

3. Despicable Me 3 – £ 2,250,597 – £ 35,851,868

Down 27% in its fourth weekend by opening two weeks before Cars 3 and three weeks before Captain Underpants its cemented itself as the biggest animated film of the summer and the year whilst losing much of what made the film series so much fun when it started.

Despicable Me 3 has overtaken the final box office of last years The Secret Life of Pets £35.82m but is unlikely to match the totals of either Despicable Me 2 or Minions but still holding far stronger than the US where it was much more front-loaded.

Now third film in and fourth of the franchise Despicable Me 3 has become tiresome for adults but children are happy to watch saying that I’m sure would be as happy to watch the first two films again at home. Children, unlike adults, are happy to watch the same thing again and again as We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is always what my nephew wants to watch even though he must have seen it dozens of times already.

Despicable Me 3 has overtaken La La Land to become the third biggest film of the year and now in a race with Dunkirk to see which will overtake Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 first.

4. War for the Planet of the Apes – £1,656,290 – £ 16,240,721

Dropping 38.9% in its third weekend being sandwiched between Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dunkirk was always likely to squeeze War for the Planet of the Apes box office but no one expected Dunkirk to open so strongly and then hold as strongly.

War for the Planet of the Apes is slightly ahead of 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes after three weeks £16.24m Vs £15.26m taking similar box office in its third weekend and will likely take slightly more than its final box office of £20.54m but that will be a lot less than 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes which took £32.5m.

20^th Century Fox started War for the Planet of the Apes marketing early holding its UK premiere almost a month before its release to get ahead of its rivals. Early reaction was very positive and the embargo was lifted almost three weeks before its release but audiences are fickle and shortly after Spider-Man: Homecoming reviews released and War for the Planet of the Apes lost some of its momentum.

Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes, Dunkirk and Baby Driver was the best-reviewed films of the summer but opening the films so close together was always likely to cannibalize their box office. Before the hype and buzz started for Dunkirk many thought it would lose out to War for the Planet of the Apes but the opposite happened.

5. Spider-Man: Homecoming – £1,560,458 – £24,540,721

Down 28.5% in its fourth weekend has overtaken final box office of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and will shortly overtake The Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man but won’t get close to beating 2007’s Spider-Man 3 £33.45m which must have been what Sony Pictures were targeting when they partnered up with Marvel to reboot the franchise.

After four weeks Spider-Man: Homecoming is the sixth biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe film behind Avengers Assemble, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Captain America: Civil War and Iron Man 3. The three non-Avengers films had taken over £30m after 4 weeks showing how far behind Spider-Man: Homecoming is performing against where it should be now being part of the MCU especially after Spider-Man: Homecoming was seen as the follow-up to last year’s Captain America: Civil War.

The six Spider-Man films have taken over £160m at the UK box office of course as the earlier trilogy was released over 10 years ago inflated box office today would be over £225m.

 

 

6. Girls Trip – £ 1,557,981 – NE

With only £2,444 between fifth and sixth must mention Girls Trip as these films a few years ago would often be huge successes in the US but then won’t travel UK.

Distributors were unsure how to release them in the UK away from the Spike Lee or Eddie Murphy films partnering up with Nubian Tales from 1989 which create marketing campaigns and distributed many films UK distributors were clueless over how to find audiences. Film bookers were very predictable with the cinemas they book them into. But two years ago, Sony Pictures decided to bring Kevin Hart to the UK to promote The Wedding Ringer and similarly Jada Pinkett Smith came to the UK to promote the film in the UK.

After positive reviews and strong media coverage after its strong opening in the US two weeks ago had a far stronger opening than many expected to play to a much wider audience than many expected; the film took £399,537 from previews.

These films are normally stereotypically targeting a specific audience African American demographic but as seen with The Wedding Ringer two years ago £986,123 if they film is marketed close to last year’s Bad Mom’s (opened with £1.47m) they can open far better than 2012’s Think Like a Man £81,516, 2014’s About Last Night £172,181 and 2014’s Think Like a Man 2 £131,000.

While the media was busy claiming The Big Sick was the best rom-com of the decade and then the best since Four Weddings and a Funeral The Girls Trip was off the radar.

After Rough Night, Snatched and Baywatch flopped in the US earlier in the year many said it was the end of gross-out comedies but Girls Trip was quietly building buzz becoming the film many were hoping Rough Night was going to be. Will Girls Trip be able to hold as well as it did in the US?

Upcoming from Universal include Atomic Blonde which generated much media coverage but failed to be the female John Wick that many expected it to be. Then surprisingly the release Tom Cruise’s next film American Made a month before its US opening after his last few films have disappointed both critically and at the box office, Doug Liman directs who previously directed Edge of Tomorrow in 2014 which was Tom Cruise’s last good film. With the American plot similar to the underrated Jeremy Renner film Kill the Messenger also released in 2014 which Universal dumped unless American Made is a great film opening it a month before the US it could kill the film before its US opening. Victoria and Abdul open in September again a strange date for a film many are expecting Judi Dench to win Best Actress BAFTA playing Queen Victoria 20 years after winning for Mrs Brown would have thought a London Film Festival premiere and then Oct/Nov release? The Snowman and Happy Death Day two thrillers for young and old and then end the year with Pitch Perfect 3.

Also released

Studiocanal – The Big Sick – £488,718 from 160 screens – after receiving very postiche reviews with some calling it the best rom-com in the decade and others since Four Weddings and a Funeral opening in 10^th place must be a little disappointing and was probably overshadowed by audiences preferring Girls Trip.

Hadley Freeman wrote in the Guardian recently The Big Sick is funny, sweet. original so why did it make me furious. The reason being while it might be an original premise with an Indian character played by Kumail Nanjiani you can swap it for Irish, Greek, Jewish or many different cultures where the man or woman tries to marry out of their culture. 

Studiocanal has had a disappointing 2017 apart from the Oscar winning Manchester by the Sea also a film Amazon acquired world rights for. Other films underperformed including Silence, The Founder, Gold, Lost City of Z and Free Fire. Upcoming Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky (reviews have been very positive with many calling it Ocean’s 14) and then Paddington 2 hope will be as successful as the first film released in 2014 as seen with Lionsgate with La La Land one film can change a distributors year against eOne who had The BFG and Girl on the Train last year but while releasing more films than many of their rivals have yet to have a breakout film for the year.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £20,414,621 down 7.48% from last weekend £22,066,254  

The weekend admissions 2,682,605 down 4.41% from last weekend 2,806,440 (now into the second half of 2017 average price predicted increase by UK Cinema Association/BFI for 2017).

10 films opened at weekend taking £5.397,781; Captain Underpants took 46.2% (£2,495,744); Girls Trip 28.8% (£1,557,981); 47 Meters Down 11.8% (£637,964); The Big Sick (9.05%) with the remaining 6 films sharing £217,374 (4.02%)

Dunkirk took 40.3% of the top 10 box office; 

Weekend was down 12.63% from last year (£23,366,167): Finding Dory £8,122,075, Jason Bourne £7,600,420,

Up 35.2% from 2015: (£15,097,286): Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation £5,330,000 and Hot Pursuit £311,000 opened.

Next weekend in 2016: (£21,178,761) Suicide Squad – £11,209,442

 

UK Box Office Top 10

 

US Box Office Top 10

US Box office

Warner Bros- Dunkirk dropped 47.3% $26.61m taking $101.31m to become the first film since Wonder Woman in June to hold the top spot for two weeks. But after receiving 94% Rotten Tomatoes and strong word of mouth should have held far stronger in its second weekend. 19 years ago, Saving Private Ryan dropped only 22.8% in its second weekend while that kind of drop would be very unlikely a 30%+ drop should have been more expected.

Showing Dunkirk second weekend wasn’t as impressive as many have said Christopher Nolan’s last film Interstellar dropped 40.4% taking $28.3m and $96.92m but didn’t have as strong reviews as Dunkirk received. Dunkirk is part of a crowded marketplace with Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes and Atomic Blonde cannibalizing each other something Interstellar didn’t have to deal with as had a mix of genres of films released against it including Dumb and Dumber To, Big Hero 6 and Beyond the Lights. Studios need to stop opening similar genre of films close together as it squeezes their box office as cinemagoers won’t see all of them if they were more spaced out as they used to be they might do. Dating has gotten worse in recent years is it that they are now more dependent on software and analytics to make decisions for them which would be fine if they were the only studio to see that same data.

Dunkirk only held top against Emoji Movie due to IMAX/PLF and adult surcharges adding over 40% to its box office as Emoji Movie tickets would have been mostly children and their tickets are 40% less while Emoji Movie was released in 3D children films are where 3D has suffered the most as parents aren’t willing to pay a third more for their children to see them in 3D.

All studios except for 20^th Century Fox overestimated their weekend box office for the top 10 films with Dunkirk and Emoji Movie both by over a million. So, with a gap of only $1.9m while Dunkirk might have held top Emoji Movie must be the actual winner for the weekend after all the deserving negativity surrounding the film’s release.

As while cinemagoers are currently happy to pay surcharges for PLF/IMAX they aren’t so keen to do so for 3D and it’s those extra charges with IMAX cinemas charging over $26.25 that made Dunkirk hold top for what was the lowest summer #1 for 2 years.

After a very crowded May- June late July and August has little to get excited about while a year ago much was expected from The Dark Tower now it’s seen as the inferior Stephen King movie adaptation with a running time of 95mins suggesting studio has taken control from a novice director while It is a decent length 135mins both are based on big novels.

Annabelle: Creation is the only film that could have a $40m+ opening being the fourth film in The Conjuring franchise. The Hitman’s Bodyguard starring Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson in a sorta The Bodyguard remake could but faces off against Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky starring Daniel Craig and Channing Tatum targeting a similar audience. It makes no sense at all for studios to open similar films targeting similar demographics against each other which is happen regularly in recent years, it used to be studios would separate these films but when they open close together there is rarely a winner as they just cannibalize each other.

There are a few other films that might find an audience Step and Patti Cake4 the two films Fox Searchlight acquired at Sundance that has received positive reviews and strong buzz but will they find an audience in cinemas as have been so many that failed at the box office.

Despite the negativity surrounding The Dark Tower, it is likely to open with $20m+ and if Dunkirk was to drop similar this weekend will take $16m so likely to lose #1.

Dunkirk took $45.6m internationally to take $131.3m total and global box office $234.1m.

Sony Pictures – Emoji Movie – opens with $24.53m – Despite receiving a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score last week and all the negativity justifiable surrounding the film many calling an Inside Out clone. The Emoji Movie proved one thing that Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t have the power many in Hollywood believe; a few months ago, when Pirates of the Caribbean 5, Baywatch and Transformers: The Last Knight many were blaming the website’s algorithm for their failure.

The reason they flopped like so many other films was because audiences had no interest in seeing them. The other reason why Emoji Movie was able to do something those films failed to do was the main audience for the films were under 8’s who don’t read the reviews so critics went into rant mode for nothing.

Emoji Movie received B CinemaScore opening day 48% male vs. 52% female 64% were under the age of 25;

Universal Pictures – Girls Trip dropped 37% in its second weekend taking $19.64m and $65.08m; after female comedies including Snatched and Rough Night flopped Girls Trip is performing similar to last summer Bad Moms which took $14m in its second weekend taking $50.85m.

The strong holdover for Girls Trips follows the success Universal Pictures had earlier this year with low budget films Get Out and Split which are their two biggest non-franchise films of the year. By next weekend Girls Trip is likely to of overtaken The Mummy $79.5m which had a budget of $100m more than Girls Trip.

This year has been a very strong year with films with women in the lead the two biggest films Beauty and the Beast and Wonder Woman will be joined in December by Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Upcoming mother!, A Bad Moms Christmas, Molly’s Game and Pitch Perfect 3

Focus Features – Atomic Blonde – opens with $18.26m; opened close to Ghost in the Shell $18.67m despite positive reviews and strong buzz opening was close to an inflation increases opening of Charlize Theron 2015’s Aeon Flux $12.65m to $18.65m +45% her last role she was main lead.

After received positive reviews expectations were close to John Wick being described by many as a female John Wick/James Bond after Charlize Theron’s

Sony Pictures – Spider-Man: Homecoming drops 40.1% with $13.26m taking $278.16m.

Has overtaken the total box office of the first The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 but will come short of getting close to the box office of the original trilogy which it should have been able to do 15 years later with the addition of Marvel.

Internationally Spider-Man: Homecoming added $33.2m taking an international box office of $320m and global box office of $570m.  

20^th Century Fox -War For the Planet of the Apes drops 49.9% in its third weekend taking $10.47m and $118.78m total;   

Has taken $106.37m internationally and $225.16m globally; unlikely to get close to either 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes $710.6m or 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes $481.6m global box office; was always likely to be a loser opening between Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dunkirk as audience for the three films is similar.  

STX Entertainment – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets dropped 60% in its second weekend $6.36m taking $30.18m; the film was always going to be a hard sell in the US but opening it in July was suicide August would have been a far better month for it to open given the lack of major movies that could excite the box office as mentioned above.

Universal Pictures – Despicable Me 3 drops 41.6% taking $7.59m taking $230.29m;

Internationally Despicable Me 3 now taken $592.4m internationally and a globally total of $822.69m; won’t match global box office of Minions $1.15bn or Despicable Me 2 $970.8m.

Warner Bros –  Wonder Woman – $3.34m dropping 23.2% (the lowest of the top 10) taking $395.24m; now taken $393.4m internationally and $788.64m worldwide. (#68 biggest film globally)

Wonder Woman should cross $400m by next weekend which will see her overtake Frozen. In 2019 Elsa will battle it out with Wonder woman for box office supremacy when Wonder Woman 2 opens two weeks after Frozen 2 in one of many crazy box office face offs of franchises in 2019.

Wonder Woman will also overtake Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Jurassic Park and Spider-Man but will she be able to match Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games.

Next up for DC is Justice League which is reportedly going through extensive reshoots much has been written about Henry Cavill’s mustache have to be digitally removed which he has grown for Mission Impossible 6.  Aquaman follows December 21st, 2018 Paramount Pictures have strangely dated their Transformers spinoff  Bumblebee to open it which is madness given the disappointing performance of Transformers: The Last Knight but will be the first Transformers film not to be directed by Micheal Bay so will be interesting to see if they try to reboot the franchise with another director or give us more of the same. 

Are many more DC Extended Universe films in development including Flashpoint, Shazam, Cyborg, Green Lantern Corps, Suicide Squad 2, Gotham City Sirens, Nightwing, Batgirl and The Batman Ben Affleck was originally to star and direct but after the failure of Live By Night Matt Reeves replaced him as director. Was much speculation before Comic-Con that Ben Affleck could leave The Batman but at Comic-Con he said he will star in the film which is due to start shooting next year for a likely summer 2020 release.

Opening on limited release

Annapurna – Detroit – opens with $365,455 from 20 screens;

Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit has received very positive reviews it’s her first film since Zero Dark Thirty in 2012 and The Hurt Locker in 2009 but for me she will always be known for two incredible action films 1991’s Point Break and the very underrated Strange Days.

After Eon and MGM announced November 8th, 2019 release date for Bond 25 been a list of directed expected to direct it few have a background in action after Patty Jenkins success directing Wonder Woman Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson get Kathryn Bigelow’ to direct she will make you Bond great again.

Paramount Pictures – An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power – opens with $130,000 from 4 screens; opened with half 2006’s An Inconvenient Truth opened with 11 years ago showing that even with documentaries some audiences aren’t interested in sequels even though the battle against climate change has become even more important since Donald Trump pulled out of the 2016’s Paris Agreement earlier this year. But I’m sure many saw the film as “fake news”.

Opened August 4^th 

Opening UK

• Emoji Movie – Sony Pictures

Animated comedy featuring voices of T.J. Miller, Anna Faris, James Corden, Patrick Stewart, Maya Rudolph, Jennifer Coolidge, Sofia Vergara, and Christina Aguilera and directed by Tony Leondis,

Sony Pictures released the first three minutes of the film a couple of weeks ago and it looks as bad a most adults feared. Director Tony Leondis said he was inspired by Toy Story was probably the inspiration for Illumination Entertainment’s The Secret Life of Pets and Sing. 

After all the negativity surrounding the film ever since Emoji Movie was announced it was then strange Sony Pictures decided to open the film in the UK a week after opening in the US. But in recent years must question many studios dating decisions with so many films opening day and date with the US but some have opened ahead of the US including films like The Huntsman, Warcraft and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 last year received negative reviews and disappointed at the box office.

Emoji Movie was always expected to get poor reviews currently 0% Rotten Tomatoes so made little sense to delay the film’s release by a week but of course the under 8 audience that will watch Emoji Movie close to The Angry Birds Movie last year don’t read these reviews so will still want to see it. Despite the negativity surrounding Emoji Movie it will still likely open bigger than £2.49m Captain Underpants opened last weekend over 7 days.

• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – Lionsgate Films

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was always the biggest unknown of the summer directed by Luc Besson who directed The Fifth Element 20 years ago it is the highest budget French film ever made trailers have looked stunning. But after predictably disappointing in the US crazily keeping its July 21^st date against Dunkirk; how will UK audiences react or will they prefer to hear Patrick Stewart as poo in The Emoji Movie?

The first trailer was released in November; part of its unique marketing campaign if someone shared the trailer on Twitter would get a personalized version of the trailer. 

Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element took £7.08m in June 1997 is the 22nd biggest film of 1997; the biggest films of 1997 where The Full Monty £40.81m, Men in Black £35.8m and The Lost World: Jurassic Park £25.79m. Leon opened February 3rd taking £3.68m the 34th biggest film of 1995 but in the years since has become a cult classic close to Shawshank Redemption opened two weeks after took only £2.63m 49th biggest film of 1995. The biggest films of 1995 were Batman Forever £20.01m, Casper £15.96m, Braveheart £11.02m; 20 years later Valerian has a 5-day opening weekend as Emoji also has opened against it with Dunkirk locked in to stay at #1 its unlikely Valerian will find an audience in the UK but it has opened strongly in France.

After Valerian failure, the inquest started on why it failed are many reasons from lack of stars to being based on unknown 50-year-old French comic-book. But the main reason which has strangely happened far more often in recent years poor dating.

Valerian received mixed reviews some saying it was visually stunning as Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element 20 years ago while others called it a fun dumb summer movie but opening Valerian after Spider-Man: Homecoming and War for the Planet of the Apes and the same weekend as Dunkirk it was predictable Valerian would suffer. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and Transformers: The Last Knight it couldn’t open any earlier but opening August 4^th as it is in the UK and many European countries would have been a far better date for it to open in the US.

Of course, it would have put Valerian against The Dark Tower but as that had been delayed from February and with delays on its trailer buzz was very low.

With all the data studios have at their fingertips from companies like ComScore, Movio, MarketCast, NRG and much more why are studios making many more dating mistakes than even before.

Is it that they depend on the data far too much to have human interaction making them think that these dates are good for certain films so why not reason several similar films close by. All this does is cannibalize their box office a few months ago many blamed Rotten Tomatoes for the failure of Pirates of the Caribbean 5, King Arthur, Baywatch, and Transformers: The Last Knight because they received low scores. In recent weeks Spider-Man: Homecoming,

War for the Planet of the Apes and Dunkirk all received high Rotten Tomatoes and the first two films suffered almost as big declines as Baywatch and Transformers: The Last Knight so Rotten Tomatoes was just an excuse. Last year Star Trek: Beyond, Jason Bourne and Suicide Squad opened over three weeks and similar happened Suicide Squad was the last to open received the worst reviews but took as much as the first two films together.

While Dunkirk won’t do that it will still likely take more than double War for the Planet of the Apes and a similar box office to Spider-Man: Homecoming all of which will be a “surprise” but it’s all very predictable. As is a repeat of this year next year in the UK as thanks to the World Cup Han Solo, Deadpool 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom open over three weeks. This will happen again in the US with Skyscraper, Alita: Battle Angel, Mission Impossible 6, The Predator, Meg, and Scarface next July and August.

But it’s not just action films the same will happen this autumn with potential award contenders and the London Film Festival with the last three weeks of October having dozens of films opening many after screening in the film festival but then they also must deal with films for half term and in recent years either a James Bond film or a Marvel Cinematic Universe film this year being Thor: Ragnarok.

• Maudie – Sony Pictures

Biographical romantic drama about the life of artist Maud Lewis starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke and directed by Aisling Walsh; premiered at last year’s Telluride Film Festival receiving positive reviews; opened on limited release in the US in April and will have a limited release in the UK

Opening in US

• The Dark Tower – Sony Pictures

Science fiction western based on a series of books by Stephen King starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey and directed by Nikolaj Arcel.

The film had a long development history originally based at Universal Pictures with J. J. Abrams attached to direct and then Ron Howard would make a trilogy of films with the first dated for May 17^th, 2013 but then universal canceled it in 2011.

Was then reported Warner Bros were interested seen as a potential franchise to follow The Hobbit but they passed and in April 2015 Media Rights Capital and Sony Pictures announced plans to make the film with Nikolaj Arcel signed to directed in June 2015 a surprising choice having only made low budget Danish films previously including the critically acclaimed A Royal Affair, But while Patty Jenkins was criticised having only made a low budget film before directing Wonder Woman there is no similar outcry for the many independent novice directors who get signed to make a big budget film is  it possible studios feel they can control a novice director more possibly why Lucasfilm fired Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from Han Solo as they dared make the Star Wars film they wanted to make instead of what the producers wanted bringing in Ron Howard who would.

So often an indie director being chucked into the deep end with a mega-movies ends in failure. One of the most famous was Michael Lehmann who directed two great quirky films Heathers and Meet the Applegate’s then Sony signed him to direct Hudson Hawk which was a massive failure, while Bruce Willis went on immediately to make many more films while Michael Lehmann hasn’t had much success film wise since.

Studios never seem to learn as they keep hiring independent directors to direct their tentpole releases Colin Trevorrow went from directing Safety Not Guaranteed to Jurassic World but then made The Book of Henry which received very poor reviews and flopped at the box office but still signed up to direct Star Wars IX. Colin Trevorrow said “There’s an assumption — and it’s partially cynical, and it’s also partially based in reality — that the studio is making the movie,” Trevorrow said. “That couldn’t be further from the truth [with ‘Jurassic World’]. I didn’t have a studio giving me notes on the set. I answered to Steven, and he had notes. His presence was a great shield that allowed me to make the film like I was in the ’70s or ’80s when filmmakers were given that level of control.”

While Josh Trank directed Chronicle and then directed 2015’s Fantastic Four was signed up to direct a Star Wars film afterwards but after Fantastic Four flopped he was fired. Gareth Edwards went from 2010’s Monsters to directing 2014’s Godzilla and 2016’s Star Wars: Rogue One (but of course with reshoots how much of the final film was his vision of the film). Marc Webb went from 2009’s 500 Days of Summer to 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man. Jordan Vogt-Roberts from 2013’s Kings of Summer to Kong: Skull Island, Sam Taylor-Johnson from 2009’s Nowhere Boy to 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey and Jon Watts directed Spider-Man: Homecoming having only directed Cop Car with an $800,000 budget.

The film was originally due for release February 17^th, 2017 but while all other studios were releasing trailers for their spring films in the autumn the lack of a teaser trailer for what was expected to be one of Sony Pictures big franchises for 2017 was notably absent.  A trailer was leaked online in October and then Sony announced due to needing more time to complete the complex special effects the film would be delayed until July 2017 pushing back Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle to Christmas. Never a good sign as are few films that have been a success after being delayed most famously 20 years ago Titanic was delayed from July to December 1997.

Variety reported this week it was the predictable studio and director creatively differences along Media Rights Capital who had kill rights over every part of the film from the production to its marketing. The film tested badly with audiences confused by the plot Sony considered bringing in a more experienced director to recut the film but in the end stuck with Arcel but who knows if the final version was what he envisaged when he signed on to the film two years ago.

It is the tale of two Stephen King films this year as a month after The Dark Tower It opens the teaser trailer released in March was seen by over 197 million in first 24 hours the second trailer released last week again generated huge media coverage.

The lengths of the two films tell a lot as both are based on big Stephen King novels but The Dark Tower is only 95 mins while IT is 135mins long.

While of course The Dark Tower has yet to open and could still surprise us despite all the negativity surrounding it but whenever Sony Pictures fail they fail big its 30 years ago since their most famous flop Ishtar but others have been Hudson Hawk, Last Action Hero and After Earth. One of the most surprising things of The Dark Tower is despite knowing all this Sony Pictures UK choose to delay its UK release until two weeks after UK which is similar what they did with Rough Night originally set to open week after US but the pushed back to end of August.

• Kidnap – Aviron

Action thriller starring stars Halle Berry, Lew Temple, Sage Correa and Chris McGinn and directed by Luis Prieto.

Was originally due to be released October 9^th, 2015 but was pushed back to February 26^th, 2016 due to Relativity having financial difficulties. Was rescheduled many times acquired by Aviron Pictures in May 2017 and given August 4^th release date. The delay for Kidnap was due to distributor issues rather than the film but it’s unlikely to find an audience in cinemas and probably should have gone straight to DVD.

• Step – Fox Searchlight

Dance documentary directed by Amanda Lipitz; won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Inspirational Filmmaking at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival where Fox Searchlight acquired world rights.

Variety gave it a very positive review “Documentaries aren’t often discussed in terms of their ability to entertain, but ‘Step’ might be the most infectiously entertaining doc since Chris Rock’s ‘Good Hair.’”

Since Sundance has generated strong buzz but will this translate into box office as so often films get much hype at Sundance studios spend crazy sums of money buying the films and then months later the pixel dust has faded away.

• Wind River – Weinstein Co

Thriller starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen and directed by Taylor Sheridan; premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival receiving positive reviews being compared to Hell or High Water and Sicario; in the UK it will be the first film released by STX Entertainment.