1. Captain Marvel  –  £12,750,000 –   NE

48^th biggest opening in the UK (between Fast & Furious 7 and The Hunger Games; Mockingjay Part 1); 76^th biggest inflation inflated opening between Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Toy Story 2.

27^th biggest Fri-Sun opening (between Fast & Furious 7 and Fantastic Beasts 2)

 12^th biggest comic-book movie opening  (5^th not including previews)

15^th biggest Disney opening between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Thor: Ragnarok

Third biggest March opening ever after Beauty and the Beast £19,700,000 and Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice £14,621,007.

Biggest opening in the UK since Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and biggest Fri-Sun since Avengers: Infinity War

Took 74.1% of the top 10 box office

Disney now have 14 of the top 50 biggest openings in the UK (five of the top 10); will be up to 18 next week when Disney close their acquisition of 20^th Century Fox.

Took £4.1m on Friday the fourth biggest opening day for an MCU film in the UK (hard to compare with others with 15 of the 21 films having extended openings  

On Thursday Captain Marvel had sold 340k tickets in advance sales (260k in the last week) with an average price of £11.75. Captain Marvel opened in over 650 cinemas and over 1,500 screens which meant there were about 4.5m seats available with about 25% tickets sold.  

Reviews have been very mixed but words like not bad and average have been mentioned in many as Captain Marvel has been compared with Ant-Man

As with Marvel waiting 10 years to make Black Panther despite being on the first phase of films, they planned in the early 00s and why did Marvel wait 11 years to make Captain Marvel till after Wonder Woman was release in 2016?

Timing is everything Marvel waited to launch Captain Marvel as they did with Black Panther when the audience was pried after seeing the ending of Infinity War, they needed to see Captain Marvel as it was going to set up how the Avengers defeat Thanos in Avengers: Endgame next month.

Was an article on Monday in Variety saying that Captain Marvel ends the myths about female superheroes, but it doesn’t as while it might be a solo female Marvel film having Nick Fury also starring and being so connected to Avengers: Infinity War it already had the fans despite to see it despite the trolls. Would be different if Captain Marvel opened 5 years ago without any connect to MCU in a similar way Ant-Man was.

Marvel have soft launched comic-book characters in other films ahead of their solo films as did with Black Panther and Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, while Black Widow appeared in 2010’s Iron Man 2 but will appear in at least seven MCU film before a Black Widow film is made , despite Scarlett Johansson was the lead in 2014’s female action film Lucy. Black Panther was meant to be in Marvel’s first phase of films Marvel announced in 2004 (Ant-Man, The Avengers, Black Panther, Captain America, Cloak & Dagger, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Power Pack, and Shang-Chi).

Ever since the industry announced admissions would be the highest for over 40 years on December 20^th (day Mary Poppins Returns opened) UK box office has slumped, Captain Marvel finally lifted it up, but did take almost three quarters of the weekends box office. Hopefully this will kick-start 2019 as the slate of films that are due to be released over the remaining nine months of the year should break more records and I was expecting 200m+ admissions almost 20 years later than many experts believed UK admissions would top 200m.

The Odeon Leicester Square had its first almost sell-outs Friday and Saturday night after its reopening in December something Mary Poppins Returns could do when it reopened the cinema in December.

Captain Marvel is showing in 6 cinemas within 500m of the Odeon Leicester Square in 10 screens in Dolby Cinema, 3D IMAX, 4DX, Dolby Atmos, 2D and 3D. Used to be that a film opened at the Odeon Leicester Square had exclusivity but now seems to be a free for all but that does mean less choice as Captain Marvel was shoeing in all of the cinema’s biggest screens.

The big question is how big it will drop harder to predict as 14 out of the 21 MCU films had extended openings which saw them drop heavier, Captain Marvel received mixed reviews so a 55-60% drop is likely similar to Captain America Civil War with a second weekend of £5.5m+

Do find it odd how four recent Disney films have whole numbers Captain Marvel £12,750,000 Incredibles 2 £9,650,000; Beauty and the Beast £19,700,000; Black Panther £17,700,000. These are the only films in the biggest 200 openers that have whole numbers n all numbers and all are Disney?

The 21 Marvel Cinematic Universe films have taken almost £630m over the last 11 years (£676m inflation inflated) Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home will take close to £150m.

Captain Marvel was in a far different position than Wonder Woman when it opened as Wonder Woman underwhelmed at the box office due to non-film related issues with its UK premiere cancelled and its marketing muted after the tragic events at Ariana Grande’s concert in Manchester.

Wonder Woman was generating strong media coverage up to that point but was overshadowed by the real-life Wonder Woman as days later Ariana Grande had her One Love charity concert in Manchester on the Sunday Wonder Woman opened. The weather was also hot that weekend which also impacted on its opening.

Wonder Woman opened with £6,179,616 (including £1,219,884 previews) taking £22,086,045 (3.57x opening which is a better hold than 18 MCU films only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 and Ant-Man held better and that was due to summer holidays)

Over recent years studios have extended films openings to artificially inflate their opening weekend with only six out of the top 20 biggest openers having an old-fashioned 3 day opening weekend; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 £23,753,171; Skyfall £20,180,369; Beauty and the Beast £19,700,000; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 £18,319,721; Shrek The Third £16,671,727; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix £16,493,30.

Captain Marvel opened in many countries on Wednesday but decided to open on Friday probably due to International Women’s Day; had it opened on Wednesday probably would of opened bigger than Black Panther and be the third biggest opener in the UK, will be interesting to see what it takes in its opening seven days.  

2. Fighting With My Family –  £1,026,797 –   £3,648,932

Down 49.2% in its second weekend; (down 36.9% without previews)

Holding less than Eddie the Eagle (#4) in its second weekend which took £1,263,945 down 55% (down 18% not including preview) and £5,703,726 (£8,613,352 total) but faced far less tough competition in its second weekend with The Huntsman: Winter’s War #1 with £3,032,962.

As Captain Marvel targeted men as well as women it cannibalized all other films on release with only Oscar winner Green Book and children’s films not dropped 50%. Might have expected Fighting With My Family hold better in its second weekend

Had the 772^nd biggest second weekend in the UK between Sin City and Insidious: The Last Key and 921^st biggest inflated second weekend between Step Up and Insidious: The Last Key (close to Lion, Olympus Has Fallen and Quartet)[.

It’s the second film Stephen Merchant has starred with Dwayne Johnson; Tooth Fairy opened May 2010 dropped 36% in its second weekend taking £538,366 and £2,440,474 taking £3,866,018 (in the top 15 for 11 weeks).

25 years ago Four Weddings and a Funeral opened in May with £1,432,424 taking £27,369,755 at the box office (£60,802,963 inflation inflated) many British films have tried to repeat its success over the years since with feel-good stories.

These films often need time to find their audience as aren’t the first choice when The Full Monty opened in August 1997 opened against the Mel Gibson Julia Roberts action thriller Conspiracy Theory which flopped, and The Full Monty opened with £1.6m and ran in cinemas for almost a year taking £52,232,058 (£92,657,361 inflation inflated).

Fighting with My Family tells the similar British story of the underdog as in films like Billy Elliot, Eddie the Eagle, One Chance, Bend It Like Beckham, Brassed Off and Blow Dry.

This week comes another British underdog story Fisherman’s Friends based on the male singing group from Port Isaac, Cornwall who signed record deal with Universal Music in March 2010.

Feelgood British films were a staple of British cinema for decades but now it’s very hard to open these films and are normally slotted into gaps Fighting With My Family opened the week before Captain Marvel in the hope strong word of mouth will keep it going against in its second weekend.

3. The Lego Movie: The Second Part –  £816,200  –   £16,789,253

Down 41.2% in its fifth weekend; taken 56% of The Lego Movie and 65% of The LEGO Batman Movie box office after five weeks on release and 180% more than The Lego Ninjago Movie.

51^st biggest Warner Bros film in the UK between The Bodyguard and Aladdin and 68th biggest inflation inflated between The Final Destination and Ready Player One

63^rd biggest animated film after four weeks between How to Train your Dragon and The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists and 81^st biggest inflation inflated between Mulan and Rio 2 (close to Ralph Breaks The Internet, Puss in Boots and Coco).

Fifth weekends 

2014’ s The Lego Movie #4 £998,176 down 39% and £30,063,416 of £32,887,286

2017’s The Lego Batman Movie #3 £820,264 down 47% and £25,986,076 of £26,771,191

2017’s The Lego Ninjago Movie #10 £193,466 down 59% and £9,306,771 of £9,378,170

After The Lego Movie: The Second Part has taken less than half of The Lego Movie worldwide box office $469.2m and half of The Lego Batman Movie $312m will Warner Bros continue the Lego universe, there were rumours of The Lego Batman Movie 2 among other Lego spinoffs.

The problem The Lego Movie: The Second Part had was partly to do with The Lego Ninjago Movie underwhelming in 2017 after The Lego Batman Movie performed so well six months earlier but also due to the poor start of the year with cinema attendance and then opening so close to 5 How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

The Lego Movie: The Second Part and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World both received positive reviews but cannibalized  each other opening a week apart, had they been spaced out by a couple of weeks or either had previews would have given both films a better chance, as both will come short.

What either films didn’t either expect was the strong performance of Instant Family which has performed much better than you might expect after watching the schmaltzy trailer.

4. Instant Family £673,286 – £9,049,572

Down 37.9% in its fourth weekend holding strongly for another week with one of the lowest drops in the top 10.

While The Lego Movie: The Second Part and How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World cannibalised each other enabled Instant Family and its schmaltz to connect with audiences in a similar way to films like the feel-good films The Greatest Showman and Bohemian Rhapsody did.

There are many films you know how they will perform without seeing a trailer, but then there are others like Instant Family that you need to see how an audience responds to it and why these films normally gave extensive talker screenings to build word of mouth needed when opening against bigger films that have inbuilt audiences.

Films about adoption foster care play strongly to audiences with films including 2016’s Lion, 2013’s Philomena, 2010’s Despicable Me, 2007’s Juno, 2001’s I Am Sam, 1987’s Baby Boom and 2009’s The Blind Side (gets mentioned a lot in Instant Family).

The Blind Side opened March 2010 took £5,933,635

Lion opened January 2017 took £11,742,907

Juno opened February 2008 took £9,240,584

Was Paramount Pictures 49^th biggest film between Cloverfield and Bee Movie and their 53^rd biggest inflated between Transformers: The Last Knight and Super 8 (close to Baywatch, Cowboys & Aliens and Jack Reacher); will shortly become their 40^th film to take over £10m

Fourth weekends

About A Boy in May 2002 dropped 32% taking £1,521,312 and £10,667,633 total £16,513,078

Cheaper by the Dozen dropped in February 2004 dropped 32% with £414,031 and £6,354,785 taking £6,907,690 (£11,523,073 inflation inflated)

Cheaper By The Dozen 2 in January 2006 with £347,731 down 41% and £5,366,902 taking £5,647,928 (£8,981,525 inflation inflated)

While previous Mark Wahlberg films directed by Sean Anders

Daddy’s Home in January 2016 £1,500,364 #4 down 34% and £14,076,257 taking £16,742,333

Daddy’s Home 2 in November 2017 #2 £1,135,646 down 42% and £9,742,929 taking £14,296,957

5. How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – £655,248 –   £18,078,308 

Down 37.4% in its sixth weekend overtaking the total of the first film released in 2010.

17th biggest Dreamworks Animation film in the UK and 61^st biggest animated film in the UK between Ralph Breaks The Internet and How to Train Your Dragon and 78th biggest inflation inflated between Over the Hedge and Puss in Boots.

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and The Lego Movie: The Second Part have both performing similar to last year’s Ralph Breaks The Internet, but should have expected al three to take at least £25m+?

Fourth weekends

How to Train Your Dragon 2 in August 2014 took £647,613 down 28% (eighth including Scotland) and £21,165,875 of £24,258,735 total.

How to Train Your Dragon in April 2010 took £843,663 down 28% and £15,272,853 total £17,168,517.

The 31 Dreamworks Animation films released since 1998 have taken over £650m at the UK box office before Universal Pictures released How To Train Your Dragon 3 released by UIP, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox.

Dreamworks Animation next is Abominable opening in October (has a strangely familiar plot as is similar to last year’s Smallfoot and Missing Link opening next month). After Abominable Dreamworks Animation release three sequels in 2021 and 2021  Trolls World Tour, The Croods 2 and The Boss Baby 2.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £17,220,357 up 102.9% from last weekend £8,486,971

The weekend admissions 2,372,387 up 101.8% from last weekend 1,175,481 average ticket $7.22 down from last year’s £7.49

14 films opened at weekend taking (£13,377,386); Captain Marvel 95.3% (£12,750,000); remaining 13 films shared 4.7% (£627,386 ): Top three took 84.7% (£14,592,997) of the top 10; Captain Marvel (£12,7500,00) 74.1%; Fighting With My Family (£1,026,797) 5.9%; The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (£816,200) 4.7%   

The weekend was up 79.1% from 2018: (£9,614,433); You Were Never Really Here (£288,344); Gringo (£215,029); Walk Like a Panther (£91,333); Carmen – ROH, London 2017/18 (£57,931); Wonder Wheel (£42,976); #1 Black Panther (£2,931,682) 4th week 22% drop

Up 24.9% from 2017: (£13,776,935); Kong: Skull Island (£6,230,997); La Traviata – Met Opera 2017 (£323,284); Elle (£253,619); Dancer (£204,574); The Love Witch (£14,244); #1 Kong: Skull Island (£6,230,997) 1^st week

Up 64.5% from 2016: (£9,333,112); London Has Fallen (£3,229,675); Hail, Caesar! (£1,520,788); Manon Lescaut – Met Opera 2016 (£279,586); The Other Side of the Door (£262,955); The Choice (£139,669); Truth (£26,701); #1 London Has Fallen (£3,229,675 1^st week

Up 108.5% from 2015; (£8,258,448); Chappie (£1,015,058); Still Alice (£401,565); Unfinished Business (£394,177); It Follows (£229,927); Romeo & Juliet – Bolshoi 2013 (£189,674); Kill The Messenger (£57,666); #1 The Second-Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (£1,957,256); 2^nd week down 48%

Up  67.4% from 2014: (£10,284,056); 300: Rise of an Empire (£2,761,612); The Grand Budapest Hotel (£1,532,239); Escape from Planet Earth (£395,392); #1 300: Rise of an Empire (£2,761,612) 1^st week

Up 104.1% from 2013: (£8,440,254); Oz: The Great and Powerful (£3,712,948); Side Effects (£904,746); Parker (£568,777); Guilt Trip (£432,068); Robot & Frank (£106,346); Broken (£68,423); Fire with Fire (£19,201); The Princess Bride (Re) (£11,273); #1 Oz: The Great and Powerful (£3,712,948) 1^st week

Up 101.2% from 2012 (£8,558,124); John Carter (£1,960,414); The Raven (£299,254); Bel Ami (£296,341); Trishna (£64,398); Payback Season (£48,272); Cleanskin (£27,405); #1 John Carter (£1,960,414) 1^st week

Up 125.6% from 2011 (£7,630,267); Rango (£1,638,613); The Adjustment Bureau (£1,395,715); Unknown (£1,356,345); Archipelago (£60,162); Ironclad (£52,470); The Tempest (£8,445); #1 Rango (£1,638,613 1^st week

Up 16.3% from 2010: (£14,805,412); Alice in Wonderland (£10,555,220); Legion (£212,328); Case 39 (£183,088); Chloe (£135,540); Ondine (£102,138); #1 Alice in Wonderland (£10,555,220) 1^st week

Up 59.7% from 2009; (£10,781,295); Watchmen (£3,243,001); The Young Victoria (£1,016,053); The Secret of Kells (£25,657); #1 Watchmen (£3,243,001) 1^st week

Up 162.9% from 2008; (£6,550,070); Vantage Point (£1,454,636); The Other Boleyn Girl (£954,994); The Game Plan (£767,143); In Bruges (£343,760); #1 Vantage Point (£1,454,636) 1^st week

Up 144.9% from 2007:(£7,028,900); Norbit (£1,962,913); Becoming Jane (£649,323); Outlaw (£582,434); #1 Hot Fuzz Norbit (£1,962,913) 1^st week

Up 198.8% from 2006; (£5,762,109): The Hills Have Eyes (£1,126,575); The Proposition (£205,594); Two for the Money (£165,003); #1 The Hills Have Eyes (£1,126,575) 1^st week

Up 151.9% from 2005 (£6,835,834); Hitch (£4,230,857); Hostage (£807,171); The Chorus (£132,636); 9 Songs (£71,081); #1 Hitch (£4,230,857) 1^st week

Up 206.7% from 2004 (£5,614,199); 21 Grams (£582,951); Torque (£503,318); Uptown Girls (£304,525); Suzie Gold (£65,089); #1 Along Came Polly (£1,572,126) 2^nd week 30% drop

Up 122.8% from 2003 (£7,726,649); Maid In Manhattan (£2,424,584); Far From Heaven (£452,369); #1 Maid In Manhattan (£2,424,584) 1^st week

Up 139.1% from 2002 (£7,202,296); We Were Soldiers (£757,760); Hearts in Atlantis (£110,793); #1 Ocean’s Eleven (£1,850,350) 2^nd week (4^th week release) 29% drop  

Next weekend in 2018: (£15,554,372); Peter Rabbit (£7,273,207); Tomb Raider (£3,081,916); My Generation (£259,990); Mary Magdalene (£238,924); The Square (£221,256); #1 Peter Rabbit (£7,273,207) 1^st week

 

Also opened

• Everybody Knows – Universal Pictures

Opened with £118,080 (13^th) from 54 screens

The film opened the Cannes Film Festival last year receiving mixed reviews

• Miss Bala – Sony Pictures

Opened with £18,832 from 107 cinemas

After flopping when it opened in the US last month did similar in the UK but due to the antiquated theatrical window won’t be released on DVD for another 16 weeks, this makes no sense to me.

If a film underperforms at the box office why can’t it have a shortened theatrical window as once Miss Bala is out of cinemas on Thursday0. won’t be back.

 

UK Box Office Top 10

US Box office

• Captain Marvel – Disney

Opened with $153.43m; received mostly positive reviews (79% Rotten Tomatoes score) but an A CinemaScore;  Marvel Cinematic Universe films have all received A scores (A-> A or A+) 

Had the seventh biggest MCU opening between Iron Man 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and the 10th biggest comic-book opening ever between The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3; 

Took $20.4m from Thursday previews (Deadline was estimating on Friday previews could have been up to $24m) previews started earlier than Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War which allowed for more screenings.

Took $61.38m on Friday (including Thursday previews) having the 25^th biggest opening day ever in the US.

Had the 3rd biggest March debut of all time, and the 7^th biggest MCU opening of all time; Marvel now have 7 of the top 20 openings in industry and Disney now have 12 of the top 20.

Tracking a month ago started at $100m+ increasing to $125m+ about 10 days ago after overtaking Fandango advance for Wonder Woman and Aquaman (advance booking opened January 8h two months before release first 24-hour sales were more than Captain America: Civil War, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Thor: Ragnarok and Doctor Strange).

2D – 86%; PLF 2D 11%; IMAX 2D 9%; 3D 14%; PLF 3D 3%

Critical reaction for Captain Marvel was mostly positive with 79$ Rotten Tomatoes score but the audience score is only 52%. Before the film opened Rotten Tomatoes changed their scoring policy not allowing people to review a film before opening as trolls have targeted other female lead films ahead of release. But the problem is within the trolls there are many genuine mixed audience comments as were with Ghostbusters, Ocean’s Eight and Star Wars; The Last Jedi).

While the trolls attacked Captain Marvel both Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and its director Patty Jenkins celebrated its success in social media.

Having similar Rotten Tomatoes score as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor

Other MCU Rotten Tomatoes scores

Ant-Man and the Wasp 88%; Avengers: Infinity War 85%; Black Panther 97%; Thor: Ragnarok 92%; Spider-Man: Homecoming 92%; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 84%; Doctor Strange 89%; Captain America: Civil War 91%; Ant-Man 82%; Guardians of the Galaxy 91%; Captain America: The Winter Soldier 90%; Thor: The Dark World 67%; Iron Man 3 80%; Marvel’s The Avengers 92%; Captain America: The First Avenger 80%; Iron Man 2 73%; The Incredible Hulk 67% and Iron Man 93%.

The first trailer was released in September having over 53m views on YouTube and a second released in December with 35m views received a better reaction than the first.

Higher. Further. Faster has been Captain Marvel’s tagline since the first poster and trailer was released n September and the second trailer in December with Superbowl trailer in February.

Captain Marvel had been in development for many years but was officially announced at Comic-con in 2016 Brie Larson spoke of concern about the backlash she might face from irate fanboys while the writers spoke about how the film would fit into the Marvel Universe. A year later they said it would be set in 90s and be a prequel to the cinematic universe. The film also featured as part of 2018 CineEurope presentation announcing Pinar Toprak would score the film, the first woman to score  comic-book movie.

Captain Marvel received its European premiere in London on February 27^th and the week later received its world premiere in Los Angeles on March 4 (only in the US does the world premiere follow a European premiere)

Opened with $302m internationally (including $89.3m from China) and $455m worldwide having the sixth biggest worldwide opening ever and bigger than Black Panther last year and second biggest comic-book opening after Avengers: Infinity War. This should be such a surprise given that the end scene of Infinity War sees Nick Fury page Captain Marvel so you would assume those who saw it would want to see how it fits into Avengers: Endgame opening next month.

Has been a lot of talk after Captain Marvel saying it shows that female comic-book films can be successful but being the 21^st film of the MCU there is a huge audience waiting to see it and as with Black Panther expanded its audience beyond comic-book fans which was also boosted by opening on International Women’s Day as it centralized its marketing to its opening day.

Ahead of opening Captain Marvel was expected to open with about $300m worldwide $200m international; China $89.3m; Korea $24.1m; UK $16.8m; Brazil $13.4m; Mexico $12.8m; Australia $10.7m; Indonesia $10.1m; Russia $9.8m; France $9.2m; Germany $9.2m.

Captain Marvel is already #237 biggest film globally between The Last Samurai and 300

The 21 Marvel Cinematic Universe films have now taken $7.02bn in the US and $17.98bn worldwide

 

• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – Universal Pictures

Dropped 51.1% in its third weekend taking $14.68m and $119.65m  

How to Train Your Dragon in March 2010 dropped 33.7% taking $29.01m and $92.13m total $217.58m

How to Train Your Dragon 2 in June 2014 dropped 50% taking $24.71m and $94.59m total $172.1m

The three How to Train Your Dragon films have taken $1.55bn worldwide and $514m in the US; all three released by different studios, first by Paramount Pictures in 2010 and the sequel in 2014 by 20th Century Fox.

The 38 Dreamworks Animation films have taken almost $15bn worldwide over the last 21 years; Shrek 2 is the biggest Dreamworks Animation film in the US taking $441.2m and $919.8m worldwide; in comparison the 9 Illumination Entertainment films have taken $4.1bn worldwide since 2007.

It is the first DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Universal Pictures after they acquired the animated studio in August 2016 for $3.6bn; 20th Century Fox released Dreamworks Animation films from 2013 to 2017; were previously released by Paramount Pictures between 2006 and 2012 and before released by Dreamworks from 1998 to 2005 (Antz the first released in October 1998).

Took $21.7m from 65 territories and $315.5m and $435.2m worldwide; #251 biggest worldwide between Terminator: Genisys and The Greatest Showman.

• The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part – Warner Bros

Dropped 41.4% in its fifth weekend taking $3.86m and $97.15m

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part has taken 43.2% of The Lego Movie; 62.2% of The Lego Batman Movie and 178% more than The Lego Ninjago Movie

Fifth weekends

2014’s The Lego Movie dropped 47.6% taking $10.91m and $224.67m of $257.76m; $469.2m worldwide

2017’s The Lego Batman Movie dropped 34.9% taking $7.61m and $158.81m of $175.75m; $312m worldwide

2017’s The Lego Ninjago Movie dropped 48.4% taking $2.22m and $54.7m of $59.28m; $123.1m worldwide

The four Lego Movies have taken almost $590m in the US and $1.068bn worldwide

Took $6.1m from 74 territories and $67.3m total and $164.4m worldwide; UK: $21.7ml; Germany $3.9m; Mexico: $3.4m; Poland: $3.4m; Russia: $3.3m

• Green Book – Universal Pictures

Down 45.1% in its 17^th weekend taking $2.51m and $80.16m

Two weeks ago after the Oscars the winners saw big increases to their box office but this weekend all of them had big drops losing many screens;  

A Star Is Born dropped 60.1% (dropped 425 screens) $740,256 taking $214.52m; last weekend after winning Best Song at the Oscars Shallow finally became #1 on the Billboard charts almost 6 months after being released; since its release in September the video has been viewed over 394m times on YouTube.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse down 69.8% (dropped 1,580 screens) $649,380 taking $18.79m

The Favourite down 68% (dropped 464 screens) $260,117 taking $33.8m

Free Solo dropped 63.1% (dropped 119 screens) $137,203 taking $17.23m

Took $8.3m from 54 Lionsgate/Amblin territories $162.5m total and $242.6m #606 biggest film worldwide between RoboCop (2014) and Eraser; top territories China $44.2Mm; France $11.7m; UK $11m; Germany $10.3m; Italy $9.5m

• Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody dropped 60.7% (dropped 453 screens) taking $378,428 in its 19th week and $215.23m; #174 biggest film in the US between Mission: Impossible II and X2: X-Men United; #20 biggest 20th Century Fox film in the US between Alvin and the Chipmunks and X2: X-Men United.

Rumours of a Bohemian Rhapsody sequel started early this week which sounds almost as crazy as The Greatest Showman 2 as both were one-time films. This is what made the films the people’s champions they became misfit movies critics didn’t like but audiences enjoyed they went to see them again and again.

In the UK Took £116,200 in its 20th week on release in the UK taking £54,496,154 will shortly overtake Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Then to be the 25th biggest film in the UK as with The Greatest Showman it will likely play in cinemas for many more weeks despite being released on DVD last week.

Took $2.7m from 33 territories $660.6m internationally and $875.5m globally; #59 biggest fil, globally between Ice Age: Continental Drift and The Secret Life of Pets.

UK Box Office Predictions

Captain Marvel will drop upwards of 60% in its second weekend taking £5m-6m with limited new releases it will again take over 50% of the weekends box office.

As the market is so lop sighted with Captain Marvel it could allow Fisherman’s Friends to open similar to Finding Your Feet opened February 2018 with £923,220 taking £5,436,523 and Sunshine on Leith opened in October 2013 with £770,239 taking £4,499,183.

After receiving positive reviews and trailered with Fighting With My Family it could be the feel-good film could be the perfect tonic for the horrible weather and all the doom and gloom Brexit talk.

With the lower half top 10 films dropping heavily it could allow What Men Want and Ben Is Back to sneak into the bottom of the chart for one week.

 

Opening in UK Next Week

• Us- Universal Pictures

Psychological horror starring stars Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker and written and directed by Jordan Peele and produced by Blumhouse Productions.

Received world premiere at South by Southwest on March 8, 2019 receiving positive reviews currently has 100% Rotten Tomatoes score (Get Out received 98% in 2017)

Get Out opened March 2017 with £2,160,099 taking £10,053,463

Get Out didn’t perform as strongly as it did in the US which was similar to A Quiet Place but Us should perform better held being trailered before Captain Marvel and attracting similar audience.

• The White Crow – Studiocanal

Ballet drama biopic about Rudolf Nureyev starring Oleg Ivanko, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Chulpan Khamatova, Ralph Fiennes and Alexey Morozov written by David Hare and directed by Ralph Fiennes (the third film he has dirrected).

Received its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and UK premiere at the London Film Festival receiving positive reviews; Sony Classic will release it in the US next month.

• The Great Escape 75th Anniversary – Park Circus

Dan Snow presents a gala event on the 75th anniversary of the Allied POWs escaping from Stalag Luft III in March 1944 which was depicted in the 1963 film The Great Escape which gas been called the best World War II adventure film ever made.

The live event includes a 4K screening of The Great Escape on Sunday March 24^th in cinemas across the country.

 

• Us – Universal Pictures

Originally due to be released March 15^th but was pushed back a week in January after was announced it would open South by Southwest. Delaying the film a week allows it to have a two-week gap with Captain Marvel as well as being trailered with Captain Marvel for an extra week.

Get Out opened February 2017 with $33.37m taking $176.04m

Early tracking for US was expected to open with $35m+ but that was before it received rave reviews at South by Southwest last week;

When the first trailer was released in December there was speculation that Us was set in the same universe as Get Out; the second trailer was release as the Superbowl spot on February 3^rd.