Top 5 Breakdown
- Finding Dory – £1,505,280 – total £35,826,701
2D took £1,479,303 (98.2%) – total £31,423,971 (87.7%)– 3D took £25,977 (1.7%) total £4,402,730 (12.2%)
Holding top spot for a second weekend in its second spell at the top of the UK box office helped by the sunny weather which caused the new releases to underperform. Also becoming the biggest animated film of the year overtaking The Secret Life of Pets last week.
Added £470,000 from Bank Holiday Monday bringing its total up to £36.3m
Over the coming weeks Finding Dory will overtaking both Batman Vs Superman and Captain America: Civil War to become the second biggest film of the year behind The Jungle Book and will also overtake last year’s Inside Out total box office. Which will also see it overtake the box office of the original Finding Nemo of £37.5m and Monsters Inc £37.9m but its box office can’t be compare to either as they are 13 and 15 years ago but it won’t stop people doing so.
With days left of school holidays it will be limited to weekend matinees and face competition from Kubo and the Two Strings in two weeks’ time but last year Inside Out still managed to add almost £5m to its box office when schools returned something similar will it pass £40m barrier the first animated film to do so since Minions last year and the second film of 2016.
Are likely probably only two more films Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Rogue One that will take £40m+ this year compared with five films that did similar last year (Star Wars The Force Awakens, Spectre, Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Minions).
Last year after five weeks on release Inside Out had taken £1.34m and £30.6m.
- Bad Moms – £1,428,652 – NE
After becoming the summer sleeper in the US was expected Bad Moms would do similar in the UK; but whereas Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Jada Pinkett Smith and Christina Applegate are stars in their own right in the US they are best known as support actresses in the UK.
Took £253,739 from previews Wed/Thurs but didn’t manage to get into the top 5 always bad sign as the film had received much media coverage along with positive reviews. With limited competition over the next two weeks’ positive word of mouth could help it hold well before the arrival of Bridget Jones’s Baby.
Apart from Bridesmaids and Forgetting Sarah Marshall (also starred Kristen Bell with Mila Kunis but was helped in the UK by Russell Brand) Judd Apatow films have performed similarly in the UK underperformed to their US BO.
| This is 40 | 15th February 2013 | £1.22m |
| The Five Year Engagement | 22nd June 2012 | £1.05m |
| Forgetting Sarah Marshall | 25th April 2008 | £2.14m |
| Bridesmaids | 24th June 2011 | £3.44m |
| Trainwreck | 14th August 2015 | £0.92m |
| Get Him to the Greek | 25th June 2010 | £1.56m |
| Superbad | 16th September 2007 | £1.48m |
| Knocked Up | 26th August 2007 | £1.58m |
Mila Kunis leads the cast she voices Meg in Family Guy but was more of the co-star in 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall £2.12m, 2011’s Friends with Benefits £1.94m and 2012’s Ted £9.32m. Similarly, in 2015’s Jupiter Ascending (£1.34m) having Channing Tatum as co-star and for Oz the Great and Powerful might be the leading actress but audiences came to see it as the Wizard of Oz prequel.
Her co-stars Kristen Bell, Jada Pinkett Smith and Christina Applegate aren’t as well known in the UK, Kristen Bell might have featured in both Frozen and Zootropolis but that’s probably the last thing moms want to hear having listened to on a loop for the last three years and being dragged to see Frozen multiple times. While Jada Pinkett Smith and Christina Applegate are best known for TV series Gotham and Married with Children also known as Mrs Will Smith and Veronica Corningstone from Anchorman.
In recent years there has been a lack of female comedies this year How to Be Single and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 performed well taking £5.87m and £3.81m and in two weeks’ time Bridget Jones’s Baby opens. It never used to be like that as in 2011 had The Help, Bad Teacher and Bridesmaids which all performed strongly but The Heat in 2012 and Trainwreck in 2015 underperformed in the UK campaigned with US.
Entertainment Films normally really their films day and date with US but with Bad Moms and The Space Between Us have delayed them likely due to STX Entertainment request who are currently setting up UK distribution and will self-release next year.
Both Bad Moms and The Space Between Us received positive reaction at CinemaCon in April and CineEurope in June. Bad Moms was originally set for release close to its US opening as was The Space Between Us. While Bad Moms was never likely to match its US success the late summer opening didn’t help which is likely to be seen with The Space Between US opening the same weekend as The Lego Batman Movie.
- Suicide Squad – £1,263,980 – total £30,634,313
2D – £1,127,421 (89.1%) –total £23,553,262 (76.8%) 3D – £35,459 (2.8%) – total £4,752,530 (15.5%) – IMAX /3D – £101,100 (7.9%) – total £2,328,521 (7.6%)
Dropping 50.5% in its fourth weekend becoming the seventh film this year to take over £30m despite the negativity surrounding its release will take much close to both Batman Vs Superman and Captain America: Civil War than most expected. Has overtaken Man of Steel’s 2013 total box office to climb into the UK top ten superhero movies.
Suicide Squad for most cinemagoers is as well-known comic-book series as Guardians of the Galaxy which had taken £24.5m after 4 weeks having summer holiday friendly 12A certificate.
After four weeks
Batman Vs Superman took £988,879 and £35,346,988
Deadpool took £1,487,073 and £34,065,741
Man of Steel took £802,763 and £28,352,216
- War Dogs – £995,843 – NE
Boosted by strong performances from Jonah Hill and Miles Teller War Dogs had a positive opening receiving decent reviews; away from the massive success of The Hangover trilogy Todd Philips has had mixed success as a director; his biggest opening was film version of Starsky & Hutch classic TV series in 2004 opening with £4,145,897 (second weekend as first weekend opened limited), Due Date in 2010 £2.34m, Road Trip in 2000 with £1.91m.
While many previous Todd Philips films like The Hangover movies have been gross out War Dogs is more of a comedy so hard to compare with his other films as all were much higher profile comedies while the plot of War Dogs again unless you read it in Rolling Stone in 2011 it’s doubtful you would have heard of it or believed it was true.
War Dogs opening was far bigger than 2003’s Old School £742,478 and his dreadful 2006 School for Scoundrels remake opened with £340,984.
With so many films opening over the next few weeks War Dogs is unlikely to last for long in the charts.
- The Purge: Election Year £800,022 – NE
Third part of the social science fiction horror had the lowest opening of the series in the UK The Purge opened May 31st 2013 with £1,019,877 taking £3.36m, The Purge: Anarchy opened 25th July 2014 with £1,165,143 taking £4.43m.
Was originally due to be released July 15th but was then delayed till end of August possibly due to the police massacre in Dallas. In so doing was sandwiched between two horrors that have received positive reviews and strong buzz Lights Out and Don’t Breathe.
The previous two Purge films have been very front-loaded as will The Purge: Election will quickly drop out of the charts over the next few weeks with the arrival of Morgan, Don’t Breathe and Blair Witch all expected to open far stronger.
Also released
Popstars: Never Stop, Never Stopping – Universal – £31,128 from 103 screens – while up from release of similar themed Jem and the Holograms £8,869 in February both given unnecessary theatrical releases; similar themed Josie and the Pussycats opened with more £37,662 in August 2001.
Other box office news:
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £8,935,822 down 31.2% from last weekend £12,985,800;
Weekend was up 4.44% from same weekend last year (£8,555,375) when Straight Outta Compton £2,487,720, Hitman: Agent 47 £967,274 and 45 Years £331,197 opened.
Next weekend 2015: No Escape £636,924, Me and Earl £394,192, Transported Refuelled £350,438 and American Ultra £346,769, Ricki and the Flash £220,000 and Dope £40,000 opened.
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The BFG became Steven Spielberg’s fourth biggest film in the UK overtaking 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park but won’t sadly now be able to crack £30m barrier and overtake 2005’s War of the Worlds but £28m+ will be a fantastic performance for the film with huge competition of The Secret Life of Pets and Finding Dory and that many expected to disappoint after its failure in the US in July.
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As expected David Brent: Life on the Road had a huge second weekend drop of 65% similar Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa 61% and Keith Lemon: The Movie 69% drops both lasting only two weeks in the top 10 as Life on the Road.
Similar to the US is congestion at the box office with films cannibalizing themselves with so many films opening they aren’t big enough to hold their own so very little between the top films and the bottom films. This normally happens this time of year when studios are holding back their bigger films for mid-September as families look to enjoy their last few days of holidays and getting ready for the return of school and work after the long summer holidays.
Complete UK Box office top 10 – August 26th – 28th 2016
US Box Office top 10
- Screen Gems – Don’t Breathe– opens $26.1m; much bigger than expected helped by strong social media campaign positive reviews; received B+ CinemaScore
- Warner Bros – Suicide Squad – dropped 41.9% – $12.1m – $282.8m; held better than Batman V Superman will overtake Man of Steel $291m by next weekend; will take $300m+ by the end of its run 10% less than BvS
- Focus Features – Kubo and the Two Strings – dropped 37.3% – $7.9m – $24.9m
- Sony Pictures – Sausage Party – dropped 50.5% – $7.6m – $80m;
- Lionsgate – Mechanic: Resurrection – opens $7.5m; received B+ CinemaScore
- Disney – Pete’s Dragon – drooped 35.8% – $7.2m – $54.7m
- Warner Bros – War Dogs – dropped 50.6% – $7.2m – $27.7m
- STX- Bad Moms -dropped 27.5% -$5.7m – $95.4m;
- Universal Pictures – Jason Bourne – dropped 34.8% – $5.2m – $149.3m;
- Paramount Pictures – Ben Hur – dropped 59.6% – $4.5m – $19.5m
Dropping out of the top 10 Paramount Pictures – Florence Foster Jenkins $3m – $19.8m; loosing screens in its third week showing that it should of never opened limited wide as it gave it no chance to build its audience. Hell or High Water suffered similarly expanding too quickly in a congested market apart from Don’t Breathe.
Opening on limited wide
Roadshow Attractions – Southside with You – opens with $3.1m from 813 screens
Weinstein- Hands of Stone – opens with $1.7m from 810 screens
Expanded
Lionsgate – Hell or High Water – $3.7m – up 38.3% after adding 437 screens – $8.5m; disappointing doubled its screens but only increased its box office by 38.3% partly to do with congestion of many films cannibalising themselves; climbed up to #12 but should have entered the top 10; despite critical acclaim called best film of the year audiences aren’t coming out to see it next week’s expansion will be key to see if it can still build on wards with onslaught of adult targeted film.
Sony Classics – Equity – $351,420 up 164.4% adding 212 screens – total $936,020
Focus Features – A Tale of Love and Darkness – $121,000 up 225.5% adding 24 screens – $127,207