1. Spider-Man: Far From Home – £4,396,516 – £22,550,191

Down 68.9% in its second weekend including previews but 47.6% without surprising its box office doesn’t seem to be affected by almost 20m watching England’s incredible World Cup Cricket Final win, the Men’s Wimbledon Final or the British Grand Prix.

(Would be interesting to see if Sunday’s box office was lower as non-film events do often affect films box office as Wonder Woman opening two years ago it opening Sunday was the same day as the One Live Manchester Concert watched by over 20m mostly the films targeted demographic).

Did think Sunday finals would come in lower than estimates as few would of predicted the cricket especially would be watched with such a big audience and the Men’s Wimbledon Final having the second biggest TV audience for a sporting event this year after the Women’s World Cup Semi-Final against the US received 11.7m.

10^th biggest second weekend between The King’s Speech and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the 157^th biggest inflation inflated second weekend between Despicable Me 2 and Night at the Museum close to The Amazing Spider-Man

Had the second biggest Spider-Man second weekend after 2007’s Spider-Man 3 (£5,596,612) and close to 2002’s Spider-Man (£4,255,920) both took much more inflation inflated and close to 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man (£3,905,474).

Had the fifth biggest second weekend in 2019 (after Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, Captain Marvel and Aladdin) and biggest non-Disney second weekend.

Had the 11^th biggest MCU second weekend (after Avengers: Endgame, Avenger Infinity War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers Assemble, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Iron Man 3, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Captain America: Civil War and Thor:Ragnorok); 10^th biggest after 12 days on release (after Avengers: Endgame, Avenger Infinity War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers Assemble, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man 3 and Captain Marvel).

14^th biggest MCU film (overtaking Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger).

After 13 days taken 135.33%+ Spider-Man 2; 119.64%+ The Amazing Spider-Man 2; 134.06%+ Spider-Man: Homecoming; 136.15%+ Spider-Man; 119.64% The Amazing Spider-Man and taken 92.39% of Spider-Man 3.

After Spider-Man: Far From Home opening close to Captain America: Civil War thought it could top £40m but now likely to come short but will become the biggest Spider-Man film in the UK ahead of Spider-Man: Homecoming (£30,380,216) and Spider-Man 3 (£33,458,286).

As Spider-Man: Far From Home ended the story arc started with Captain America: Civil War and being the epilogue to Avengers: Endgame might of expected it to receive a bigger boost than it did.

18^th biggest second weekend for comic-book film in the UK between Man of Steel and Spider-Man and 29^th biggest inflation inflated between The Amazing Spider-Man and Suicide Squad (close to Hancock, Captain America: Civil War, Men in Black 3 and X-Men).

The 9 Spider-Man films Sony have taken almost £215m in the UK (£272m+ inflation inflated) includes the 7 Spider-Man films and Venom and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse; Morbius opening next July is the next film within Sony Pictures Marvel Universe with sequels planned of Venom, Into The Spider-Verse and Spider-Man.

The 23 MCU films have taken almost £744m in the UK and £764m inflation inflated;  

By next weekend should be the 121^st film to take over £30m at the UK box office and Sony Pictures 11^th since Men in Black in 1997 (Skyfall, Spectre, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Men in Black, Spider-Man 3, The Da Vinci Code, Peter Rabbit, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Spider-Man Homecoming).

2. Toy Story 4 – £3,801,247 –  £36,039,107  

31.4% drop in its fourth weekend

Had the 14^th biggest third weekend between Avenger Infinity War and Casino Royale (close to The Jungle Book £5,758,824 and Alice in Wonderland (£4,847,129).

Toy Story 4 is now 58^th biggest film in the UK between Paddington 2 and Alice In Wonderland and 84^th biggest inflation inflated between Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and Inception.

 

Disney’s 2^nd biggest fourth weekend between Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi; strong weekend holds are due to box office being condensed into mostly weekend box office that is until this week when school holidays begin).

Toy Story 4 is the 5^th biggest Pixar film (the fifth Pixar film to take over £40m (will overtake Toy Story 2 and Finding Dory by next weekend to become Pixar’s third biggest film in the UK.)

But Toy Story 4 won’t match the box office of Toy Story 3 with a 9 year gap (22$ ticket inflation) between the two would of expected it to do so, while it didn’t suffer similar sequel fatigue as many other sequels this summer it didn’t match the high expectations the film had especially after the rave reviews. Younger audiences weren’t so excited with it, was the opposite to Aladdin and will also be with The Lion King.

Comparisons with Toy Story 3 are difficult as its opening was inflated with £9,693,440 from weekend previews and then its following weeks were during summer holidays removing preview box office Toy Story 3 took £41,831,079 after 17 days 14% more than Toy Story 4 with 21.2% ticket inflation.

Since 2010 88 films have taken over £30m and Disney now have 31 (40%); 66 films have taken over £40m Disney 21 (31%); 35 films taken over £50m Disney 11 (+5  from Fox)

In 2010 Toy Story 3 was Disney’s biggest ever film in the UK (until Star Wars: The Force Awakens  in 2015) previous highest was 2006’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (£51,998,590)

Toy Story 3 was in the top 5 for 9 weeks (taking £1m+ for 6 weeks) and in the top 10 for 12 weeks (taking £261,359 in its 12th weekend);

Toy Story 3 was #1 for four weeks before The Expendables opened with £3,935,700 but Toy Story 4 has only lasted two weeks could possibly return to #1 next weekend as Spider-Man; Far From Home will likely drop 70%+ but with The Lion King, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw and Angry Birds 2 unlikely to stay in the top 5 as long as Toy Story 3.

21 Pixar films have taken £661m in the UK and almost £861m inflation inflated.

In the first 12 years of Pixar released 6 films with only one sequel. Over the last 10 years they have released 12 films 7 sequels. Pixar have said Toy Story 4 will be the last sequel for some time and have also said Toy Story 4 will be the final film of the series but said similar with Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.

Over the last decade Disney have moved into the properties business, but animation continued to make many wonderful original films including Inside Out and Coco.  Pixar have said that they will concentrate on original animated films after Toy Story with Onward and Soul next year are both original films, Disney are releasing both films day and date in the UK as US.  While Illumination have Minions: The Rise of Gru and Sing 2 opening over the next two summers against Pixar which will be much tougher competition for Pixar against original films.

3. Annabelle Comes Home – £2,223,482 –  NE

Included £700,000 from previews on Wednesday/ Thursday

Opened 364.66%+ The Curse Of La Llorona; 114.61%+ Annabelle; 113.43%+ Annabelle: Creation; 103.12%+ The Conjuring; 54.26% less than The Nun and 47.94% less than The Conjuring 2.

Will Likely be the lowest grossing film of The Conjuring universe taking less than the two previous Annabelle films (Annabelle £7,510,000 and Annabelle: Creation £8,079,017).

Warner Bros surprisingly choose to open Annabelle Comes Home two weeks after its US release and a week after Midsommar as they did in May with The Curse of La Llorona which is surprising as would normally expect horror films to open day and date and opening after Midsommar  likely also hurt it.

Horror is a genre of films Warner Bros have had strong success with over recent years and release two more this year the eagerly awaiting It Chapter 2 in September and The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep on October 31^st. Horrors can be very lucrative as budgets are very low for The Conjuring universe films so can be much more profitable to studios than megamovies and they are a genre of films that Disney don’t make.

Sequel fatigue had some impact on Annabelle Comes Home but as did opening the week after Midsommar which opened soon after Child’s Play and Brightburn.

Much has been written over the last few weeks about the power and influence Disney now has (what is most surprising is that these articles are only being written now as was very predictable how it was going to work out with Disney acquitting Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm before buying Fox), rival studios need to target genres of films Disney don’t make and horrors is one of them.

With a lack of releases opening this weekend and the weekend after against The Lion King until Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw opens in three weeks Annabelle Comes Home could stay in the charts longer than might have expected.

4. Yesterday – £1,084,847 –  £8,137,797

Down 33.3% in its third weekend

73^rd biggest Universal Pictures UK film between Knocked Up and Role Models (close to The World’s End, Girls Trip, One Day and About Time) and 85^th biggest inflation inflated between Dad’s Army and Girls Trip (close to About Time, Get Him to the Greek, The Boat that Rocked and The Invention of Lying).  

Has overtaken the box office of The Boat that Rocked and About Time and become Danny Boyle’s 5^th biggest film in the UK (overtaking 127 Hours and 28 Days Later); but won’t get close to either Richard Curtis or Danny Boyle’s biggest hits.

Maybe had it opened in its original September slot before Downtown Abbey: The Movie was dated could have done much better as that mid-September slot has been very lucrative for British films over recent years. Summer used to be a good time to open sleeper films alongside the blockbusters but over recent years they have got squeezed at the box office

5. Aladdin £355,707 – £35,225,791

Dropped 18.3% in its 9^th weekend holding surprisingly well against Toy Story 4 but probably the two films are targeting different demographics as with many of Disney re imaginations they play stronger to younger audiences than those who were children when original film opened.

The common denominator the re-imaginations (apart from Dumbo) the remakes of the older film’s critics prefer over the remakes of the newer films as they don’t add anything new to the classic animated films.

Parents who have tweens now were children of the 90s who saw The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast Aladdin and The Lion King were iconic once in a lifetime sacred moments of movie history to those who grew up with them cheapened being remade.

Aladdin is now the 91^st biggest film in the UK between Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and Inception and 109^th biggest inflation inflated between The Lego Movie and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Despite mixed buzz ahead of release Aladdin is performing as expected as the 1992 original animated was the second biggest film of 1993 after Jurassic Park despite opening in 1992; took £16,115,822 would be over £52m today.

This week The Lion King reimagination opens, the original animated film was the biggest film of 1994 taking over £34,077,997 (would be £108,944,735 today, the seventh biggest film in the UK between Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Jurassic Park. Opening the start of the summer holidays (same weekend Jurassic Park, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Toy Story 3 and several Harry Potter films have opened strongly) it will open bigger than 2017’s Beauty and the Beast (£19.7m) having one of the biggest 3 day openings ever and could be the biggest film of the year (£100m+).

Would have expected Ron Howard’s documentary Pavarotti to open in the top 5 this weekend after opening om Saturday and taking £303,540 from Sunday box office but are previews to its official opening on Monday July 15^th so will be included in next weekends o office as an 8-day opening weekend.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £13,229,066 down 46.4% from last weekend £24,700,057

The weekend admissions 1,789,247 down 45.8% from last weekend 3,303,355; average ticket £7.22 down from last year’s £7.49 but Applaudience estimate ticket price of £10.28

17 films opened at weekend taking (£2,984,732); Annabelle Comes Home 74.5% (£2,223,482); Stuber 7.1% (£211,274); The Died Don’t Lie 6.4% (£192,917); remaining 14 films shared 11.9% (£357,059)

Top three took 78.8% (£10,421,245) of the top 10; Spider-Man: Far from Home (33.2%) (£4,396,516) Toy Story 4 (28.3%) (£3,801,247); Annabelle Comes Home 16.8% (£2,223,482)    

The weekend down 6.8% from 2018: (£14,198,894); Incredibles 2 (£9,650,000); Skyscraper (£1,829,830); The Secret of Marrowbone (£171,161); First Reformed (£73,233); Vertigo (60th Anniversary) (£10,845); #1 Incredibles 2 £9,650,000 1st week 664 screens (67.9% of top 10)

Down 31.1% from 2017: (£19,205,602); War for the Planet of the Apes (£7,195,773); Cars 3 (£2,625,000); The Beguiled (£414,924); #1 War for the Planet of the Apes £7,195,773 1^st week 597 screens (37.4% of top 10)

Down 17.5% from 2016: (£16,046,904); Ghostbusters (£4,388,944); Ice Age: Collision Course (£3,780,694); Dirty Dancing (Secret Cinema) (£946,086); Keanu (£13,736); #1 Ghostbusters £4,388,944 1^st week 581 screens (27.3% of the top 10)

Down 2.4% from 2015; (£13,559,349); Ted 2 (£3,867,723); Love & Mercy (£105,718); Song Of The Sea (£72,172); The Human Centipede 3 (£938); #1 Minions £4,154,359 3^rd week 605 screens 33$ drop (30.6% of top 10)

Down 42.3% from 2014: (£22,934,264); Transformers: Age of Extinction (£11,751,427); How to Train Your Dragon 2 (£7,779,040); Begin Again (£456,438); Boyhood (£332,834);  #1 Transformers: Age of Extinction £11,751,427 1^st week 533 screens (51.2% of top 10)

Up 26.8% from 2013: (£10,431,833); Monsters University (£3,463,917); Pacific Rim (£2,193,500); We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (£19,309); Trap for Cinderella (£2,845); #1 Monsters University £3,463,917 1^st week 525 screens (33.2% of top 10)

Down 27.6% from 2012 (£18,271,575); Ice Age: Continental Drift (£10,087,052); Magic Mike (£2,651,015); Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (£357,200); Chariots of Fire (Re: 2012) (£63,857); 1^st week 522 screens (55.2% of top 10)

Down 54.9% from 2011 (£29,355,666); Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (£23,753,171); Cell 211 (£21,479); #1 Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 £23,753,171 1^st week 582 screens (80.9% of top 10)

Down 38.9% from 2010: (£21,686,365); The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (£13,756,653); Predators (£2,203,193); Leaving (£35,532); #1 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse £13,756,653 1^st week 523 screens (63.4% of top 10)

Down 9.9% from 2009; (£14,688,163); Bruno (£5,000,229); Fired Up (£30,691); #1 Bruno £5,000,229 1^st week 456 screens (34.1% of top 10)

Down 20.4% from 2008; (£16,622,538); Mamma Mia! (£6,594,058); Journey to the Centre of the Earth (£953,878); Forbidden Kingdom (£676,217); #1 Mamma Mia! £6,594,058 1^st week 496 screens (39.6% of top 10)

Down 40.1% from 2007:(£22,106,427); Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (£16,493,305); Moliere (£76,061); Macbeth (£2,093); #1 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix £16,493,305 1^st week 567 screens (74.6% of top 10)

Up 10.8% from 2006; (£11,936,216); Superman Returns (£4,337,637); Atomised (£25,823); #1 Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest £6,048,087 2^nd week 514 screens 56% drop (50.6% of top 10)

Up 18.1% from 2005 (£11,195,244); Madagascar (£5,431,639); Wedding Crashers (£2,182,597); Festival (£34,010); #1 Madagascar £5,431,639 1^st week 505 screens (48.5% of top 10)

Up 4.6% from 2004 (£12,636,832); Around the World in 80 Days (£1,631,963); Fahrenheit 9/11  (£1,304,115); Walking Tall (£356,193); Twisted (£108,235); #1 Shrek 2 £7,097,154 2^nd week 512 screens 56% drop (56.1% of top 10)

Up 170.6% from 2003 (£4,889,023); Daddy Day Care (£796,259); Veronica Guerin (£271,996); Whale Rider (£121,610); The In-Laws (£108,031); #1 Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle £1,581,273 2^nd week 475 screens 52% drop (32.3% of top 10)

Up 27.1% from 2002 (£10,406,087); Scooby-Doo (£5,129,109); Resident Evil (£801,628); Bad Company (£382,949); Nine Queens (£49,438); #1 Scooby-Doo £5,129,109 1^st week 472 screens (49.2% of top 10)

Next weekend in 2018: (£19,632,862); Mamma Mia: Here we Go Again! (£9,735,931); Hotel Artemis (£357,261); Spitfire (£211,464); Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie (£125,081); Escape Plan 2 (£6,737); #1 Mamma Mia: Here we Go Again! £9,735,931 1^st week 702 screens (49.6% of top 10)

Also opened

• Stuber – 20th Century Fox

Opened with £211,274 from 392 screens

Comparisons have been made with last years Tag (opening £475,373 taking £1,346,420) but being a mismatched buddy comedy looked to 2014’s Let’s Be Cops opened #2 £1,650,912 including £505,612 from 2 days of previews) taking £1,145,300 Fri-Sun taking £5,159,561

The film feels like a late summer comedy film not mid-July release; Fox haven’t been successful opening comedies mid-summer with films like 2013’s The Internship opening with £1,248,431 taking £3,258,226) 2006’s My Super Ex-Girlfriend opened with £714,920 taking £2,548,064; 2012’s The Watch opened with £2,235,933 (inflated with £1,432,531 previews) taking £3,578,073

But then We’re the Millers opened August 2013 with £1,508,326 taking £8,077,006

Mismatched buddy comedies have been popular at the cinema for more than a century going back to Laurel and Hardy back then it was normally just a straight man and a punchline.

1982’s Eddie Murphy film 48 Hours in 1982 brought something new to the genre with a criminal partnering up with a cop that lead into films like Lethal Weapon and Planes Trains and Automobiles and many films since with films including Tuner and Hooch, White Men Can’t Jump, Dumb and Dumber, Step-Brothers and Midnight Run.

• The Dead Don’t Lie – Universal Pictures

Opened with £192,917 from 175 screens

• The Matrix – Warner Bros (20th Anniversary)

Opened with £163,812 from 286 screens

The Matrix Reloaded  £876 from 12 screens

The Matrix Revolutions £583 from 10 screens

Warner Bros re-released the classic sci-fi film in cinemas to celebrate the films 20th anniversary digitally remastered in 4K before its 4K video release; unlike other anniversary screenings including the 30th anniversary of Die Hard and Batman it’s a month after its UK release in the UK (13th June 1999) rather than before.

In May

Batman (4K Restoration) £38,112 from 221 screens

Batman Returns (4K Restoration) £7,906 from 90 screens

Batman Forever (4K Restoration) £293 from 2 screens

Batman & Robin (4K Restoration) £154 from 2 screens

The problem with these re-releases is few will pay £15+ to see the film in the cinema even though its remastered in 4K as swill be able to buy the 4K DVD for a little bit more in a months’ time. If exhibitors would reduce prices for re-releases then many more would see them.

The Matrix opened June 1999 with £3,384,948 taking £16,918,842 (£30,100,268 inflation inflated) 

The Matrix Reloaded opened May 2003 with £12,165,276 taking £32,510,686 (£54,843,477 inflation inflated)

The Matrix Revolutions opened November 2003 with £8,712,350 taking £17,754,338 (£29,950,449 inflation inflated)

As with Batman the first film The Matrix will get the widest release with the two sequels having a much more limited re-release.

Other Box Office News

After a disappointing start of the year in January/February UK was down 24% £57m down from 2018 mostly due to the lack of Black Panther (£50.6m) and the Christmas films including Mary Poppins Returns not holding as strong as The Greatest Showman and Jumanji: Welcome To the Jungle despite many believing it would.

2019’s box office up to July 4^th was £630m compared to £665.8m in 2018 down £35.8m (5.4% drop); with Disney taking more than a third of the ox office from only 6 films.

Thanks to Avengers: Endgame admissions in April and May were 15,981,248 and 16,570,282 the highest this century; after Avengers: Endgame had the biggest ever opening in the UK most expected it to become the biggest film in the UK too but took £88.5m the fifth highest-grossing fil in the UK>

Disney have the five biggest films in the UK this year; Avengers: Endgame (£88.5m); Captain Marvel (£41.6m); Toy Story 4 (£36m); Aladdin (£34.6m; Dumbo(£34.4m); Disney have 39% share of the box office not including 20^th Century Fox.

In the 80s and 90s United International Pictures distributors of Universal, Paramount and MGM used to have large percentage of the box office and the EU tried to break the distributor up, but in the early 00s they split up themselves with Paramount and Universal setting up their own operations and MGM releasing their films through 20^th Century Fox. It will be interesting if the EU try to do similar with Disney or if rivals will partner up.

Rocketman taking £22.7m  and The Favourite taking £17.4m were the biggest British films but both were made and distributed by US studios. .

Independent film successes were Stan & Ollie ( £10.9m); Green Book,(£10.6m),; John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (£10.7m); Fisherman’s Friends (£7.5m)

429 films were released in the first 6 months up 10 from last year.

Away from Disney’s The Lion King (July 19), Frozen 2 (November 22) and Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (December 14) are few films from rivals that could possibly get close to Disney this year only Jumanji 2, Cats, Downtown Abbey, Hobbs & Shaw, It Chapter 2.

From the start of 2019 it was always going to be Disney’s year but next year Disney don’t have either Star Wars or Pixar sequels and rival studios have upped their game with much stronger slates so Disney might not have it all their way. That will probably suit Disney as will stop questions about Disney having a monopoly as will take about 50% of the UK and US box office this year taking over £500m not including 20^th Century Fox.

 

UK Box Office Top 10

US Box office

• Spider-Man: Far From Home – Sony Pictures

Dropped 51% in its second weekend taking $45.35m and $274.58m

2^nd weekends

Spider-Man: Homecoming dropped 62.2% taking $44,205,210 and $207,275,524 62.1% of 334,201,140 total

Took 30.97%+ The Amazing Spider-Man; 27.75%+ The Amazing Spider-Man 2; 2.6%+ Spider-Man: Homecoming; 0.4%+ Spider- Man 2

And 22.03% less than Spider-Man 3 and 36.5% less than Spider-Man

Sony Pictures don’t seem to be benefiting as much as Disney have with Spider-Man now being part of the MCU with Spider-Man: Far From Home performing less than the original trilogy that was released over a decade ago.

As Spider-Man: Far From Home had the 13^th biggest MCU second weekend would have expected as Spider-Man made his first appearance in the MCU three years ago in Captain America: Civil War starting this story arc opening with $179.13m and now Spider-Man: Far from Home closes the story opening with $92.57m ($185.06m from 6 days).

The seven Spider-Man films have taken $2.37bn in the US and $6.06bn worldwide

Took $100m from 67 territories and $572.5m total and $847m worldwide; 73^rd biggest film worldwide between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

• Toy Story 4 – Disney

Dropped 38.1% in its fourth weekend taking $20.94m and $346.65m

Toy Story 4 continues to hold similar to Toy Story 3 taking 0.3% less than Toy Story 3 in its fourth weekend $20,945,639 Vs $21,015,958 and 2.2% more $339,240,857 Vs $346,650,213 but with ticket inflation of over 20% since and production and marketing costs also up has suffered similar sequel fatigue as many of the other sequels this summer.

Toy Story has become the 5^th biggest Pixar film in the US after Incredibles 2 ($608.58m); Finding Dory ($486.29m) ; Toy Story 3 ($415m); Inside Out ($356.46m);; ahead of release would of expected Toy Story 4 to beat Finding Dory box office and get close to Incredible 2 but will likely come short.

Toy Story films have taken $1.23bn in the US and $2.74bn worldwide

20 Pixar films have taken $5.82bn in the US and $14bn worldwide since 1995

Toy Story took $191.79m in the US and $374.6m worldwide

Toy Story 2 took $245.85m in the US and $597.4m worldwide

Toy Story 3 took $415m in the US and $1.067bn worldwide

Took $48.1m from 45 territories and $424.74m and $771m worldwide; #93 biggest film worldwide between Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1; Mexico $66.1m; UK $53.7m; China $28.6m; Brazil $26.4m; Australia $24.2m; Argentina $23.7m; Korea $23m; Spain $18m; France $17.5m; Japan $15.3m.

• Crawl – Paramount Pictures

Opened with $12m; received positive reviews (81% Rotten Tomatoes and B CinemaScore; (Paramount decided not to screen the film to critics)

Opened almost 20 years to the day of the similarly themed Lake Placid opened with $10.97m (opened third Eyes Wide Shut opening #1 and American Pie 2) taking $31.77m and %6.67m had a similar B-movie vibe to it as

Similar films

1999’s Deed Blue Sea opened $16.89m taking $73.64m

2010’s Piranha 3D opened $10.1m taking $25m

2016’s Don’t Breathe opened $26.41m taking $89.21m

2016’s The Shallows opened $16.8m taking $55.12m

2017’s 47 Meters Down opened $11.2m taking $44.3m

2018’s The Meg opened $45.4m taking $145.44m

After Paramount let go of their biggest properties to rivals with Disney acquiring MCU from out of their hands and then Paramount swapping Indiana Jones for Jerry Bruckheimer… now without the properties Disney, Warner or Universal have need a different approach to try to compete with rivals.  

As they now have so few properties had to go back to the mid-80s Top Gun and Coming to America for their big films in 2020 but as with all of these long gap sequels who is their audience teens like me who saw them in the 80s or today’s teens who haven’t grown up with the films?

• Stuber – 20th Century Fox

Opened with $8.22m; received mixed reviews (47 Rotten Tomatoes)  and B CinemaScore

Trailer received positive reaction and comparisons have been made with last year’s Tag (opened $14.94m taking $54.73m)

While audiences might begrudgingly pay $20+ to see properties they won’t pat the same to see smaller films like Stuber and Crawl and if exhibitors want cinema to be more than properties need to lower prices to smaller films.

Surprising that Stuber and Crawl opened the same weekend and also opened in mid-July rather than late summer as similar films have had far better success opening later.

Stuber will be out of cinemas as Dark Phoenix (currently playing in only 200 screens taking $197,992) makes little sense for exhibitors to force these films that have almost no second run box office to not be allowed early VoD release.

Opened with $3m from 9 territories; Russia $0.5m; Australia $0.4m; UK $0.3m; Netherlands $0.2m; UAE $0.2m.

• Annabelle Comes Home – Warner Bros

Dropped 50% in its third weekend taking $5.62m and $60.83m

The five Conjuring Universe films have taken $604.51m in the US and $1.74bn worldwide; The Conjuring 3 will be released September 2020; Annabelle trilogy has taken $247.2m in the US and $737.8m worldwide

Third weekends:

2014’s Annabelle dropped 50.3% taking $7.87m and $74.08m total $84.27m and $257m worldwide

2017’s Annabelle: Creation dropped 50.8% taking $7.68m and $78.21m total $102.1m and $306.5m worldwide

Took $18.1m from 78 territories and $112.8m total internationally and $173.6m worldwide; Mexico: $14.6m; Indonesia: $8.8m; Brazil: $5.8m; Russia: $5.2m; India: $4.4m; Malaysia: $4.0m; Colombia: $3.8m; Australia: $3.5m; Korea: $3.2m; Vietnam: $3m; Argentina: $3m; Italy: $3m

• Yesterday – Universal Pictures

Dropped 33.3% in its third weekend taking $6.7m and $48.27m

Has overtaken overtake The Beach ($39.78m) and 28 Days Later ($45.06m) to become Danny Boyle’s  second biggest film in the US after 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire ($141.31m) Fox Searchlight’s second biggest film ever and $377.91m worldwide.

Danny Boyle’s 12 films have taken almost $350m in the US and $878m worldwide

Will shortly overtake Richard Curtis 1994’s Four Wedding and a Funeral $52.7m and 2004’s Love Actually $59.69m

Took $7.8m from 42 territories and $32.2m total and $80.5m worldwide

• Aladdin – Disney

Dropped 17.99% in its eighth weekend taking $6.17m and $331.78m

39^th biggest eighth weekend between Silver Linings Playbook and The Lion King; #61 Beauty and the Beast; #3 Aladdin; #35 The Greatest Showman; The Jungle Book #94

61^st biggest film in the US between Guardians of the Galaxy and Forrest Gump; Disney’s 26^th biggest film in the US between Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok.

Took $14.6m from 45 territories and $628.7m total and $960.2m worldwide #47 biggest film worldwide between Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; Japan $88.1m; Korea $73.7m; China $53.3m; UK $44.5m; Mexico $32.4m; Spain $26.1m; Australia $23.6m; Russia $20.7m; Brazil $20.2m.

UK Box Office Predictions

While I see absolutely no need for The Lion King animation remake even if the animation is photo realistic still believe it will be the biggest film in the US, UK and worldwide will have the biggest 3 day opening ever and play throughout the summer into early autumn as Toy Story 3 did 9 years ago.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the currently biggest 3-day opener taking £23,753,171 in July 2011 from 582 screens (80.9% of top 10) £28,299,983 inflation inflated; its opening was 32.50% of its total box office £73,090,591 and £87,081,529 inflation inflated.

The man upstairs got the memo for The Lion King which he didn’t get for Toy Story 4 with the weather expected to be cooler and wetter over its opening weekend. You should never book your holidays the week a major Disney film opens as more often than not the weather is wetter than the week before. Does make me think if Disney are on a mission from God.

Audiences will be drawn to it in the Field of Dreams way and as will all the previous Disney reimaginations will play much stronger to younger audiences who didn’t grow up with the original animated film. It will be admired for the stunning photorealistic animation as it tells the same story and has the same music as the original.

This isn’t me being anti-Disney but just feel that remaking The Lion King with photorealistic animation is the easy option before being acquired by Disney earlier this year 20^th Century Fox were developing their own photorealistic animation original film Mouse Guard test footage was released online recently and it looked absolutely stunning but Disney dropped the film weeks before it was due to start production. Disney used to be the most creative studio in Hollywood but have had few original live-action hits since moving into the property business.

Disney are the Manchester City of film industry buying Pixar Marvel Lucasfilm and Fox to quote Ian Malcolm “saw what others had done and took the next step didn’t earn the knowledge and as fast as they could, patented it, packaged it, slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now?”

Marvel and Paramount took the risk with MCU in 2008 likewise Fox took the risk with Star Wars and Paramount with Indiana Jones but then Disney swooped in acquiring these companies made billions with sequels Pirates in 2003 is probably last property Disney launched successfully?

2019 was always going to be the year of Disney and not much else with the slate they had but 2020 will be very interesting as with Avatar 2 delayed don’t have as strong slate and rivals have upped their game with very strong slates so Disney won’t have it all their way.

21 years ago Universal received huge criticism making a shot-by-shot remake of Psycho but Disney have done the same over the last decade with animated classics and they get critical acclaim and audiences fall for them like lemmings every time

Sunday was the European premiere of The Lion King with massive star power in attendance including Beyonce and Elton John, but it was overshadowed by England’s incredible last ball victory of the Cricket World Cup which took over the front pages of all the newspapers Disney were expecting “When Meghan Met Beyonce”.

Film distributors can marketing campaigns to the mutinied detail but then non film related issues can put a spanner into the months of planning as was the case with Wonder Woman two years ago and 22 years ago with The Full Monty (opening the weekend Princess Diana died) becoming the feel-good film to lift the spirits of a nation. While 25 years ago Liz Hurley wore the black Versace dress at the UK premiere of Four Wedding and a Funeral and received huge media coverage for weeks after which helped it become the biggest British film at the box office until The Full Monty.

Film premieres used to get huge media coverage in the press and on TV but over the last decade if its not Bond, Harry Potter or Star Wars they don’t get the coverage unless someone does something stupid or wears something stupid.

With Disney making 2/3 reimagination each year with a couple more for Disney+ in a few years’ time they will have remade them all, will they just make sequels to all of them or remake them all over again. There was a suggestion that Disney with the reimaginations are doing what they use to do for decades re-release their classic animations every 7 years to a new generation. Disney would normally re-release their classic animated film in July and they were very lucrative to Disney.

There are also questions over Star Wars after Rise of Skywalker where the Star Wars films go as the anthology films only attracted the fans, while Disney with Indiana Jones 5 will be looking to bring in a replacement for Harrison Ford as he will be almost 80 when it opens and needs to get past Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which was poorly received. While Avatar 2 opens 12 long years after the first film can it possibly be as big a film in 2021 as it was in 2009 as cinema is very different.

In the US The Lion King was tracking to open with $150m+ but always felt $200m+ opening was the minimal opening and do believe it will be the first $1bn film the US and $3bn+ film worldwide.

While I don’t see any reason for the film to exist (as with the other Disney re imaginations) it is a licence to print money. After the original animated masterpiece everything about the film from the original taking almost $1bn worldwide in 1994, to the musical being seen by over 100m worldwide taking over $8bn worldwide to Beyonce being cast in the film and having a new song in the film

Opening in UK Next Week

• Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans – Altitude

Children’s historical comedy based on best-selling Horrible Histories stories by author Terry Deary with the tone of Monty Python with the classic cult adventure of Princess Bride starring Sebastian Croft, Emilia Jones, Nick Frost, Craig Roberts, Kim Cattrall, Kate Nash, Rupert Graves, Alex Macqueen and Derek Jacobi and directed by Dominic Brigstocke.

Horrible Histories is the world’s best-selling children’s history book series with more than 100 titles in the series, selling over 32 million copies in more than 31 countries and in over 37 languages since 1993.

• The Current War – Entertainment Film Distributors

Historical drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, Katherine Waterston, Simon Manyonda, and Tuppence Middleton and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 receiving mixed reviews and was originally due to be released by The Weinstein Company in November 2017 but its release along with several others was cancelled after the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations.

It was bought by Lantern Entertainment who sold US rights to 101 Studios, but Entertainment Film Distributors acquired UK rights when the film was owned by Weinstein Company opening in the UK three months before its US release in October.

Since the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival the director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has added five additional scenes and cut ten minutes from the running time.

As with all Entertainment Film Distributors releases they are heavily promoting the film but its unlikely to find an audience in the UK even with the strong British cast Benedict Cumberbatch, Nicholas Hoult and Tom Holland (pre-Spider-Man role he shot in 2016).

• The Intruder – Sony Pictures

Psychological thriller starring Michael Ealy, Meagan Good, Joseph Sikora, Dennis Quaid and directed by Deon Taylor It is a loose remake of the film Cold Creek Manor.

2004’s Cold Creek Manor opened with £136,556 and took $29.11m worldwide

Original film was directed by Mike Figgis a few years earlier I screened The Loss of Sexual Innocence for him at Sony Pictures Preview Theatre, it was my first day of being relief projectionist there and I couldn’t get the focus right with the film. (had screened it a week earlier at the 20^th Century Fox Preview Theatre and it was a 16mm blow-up with many cement joins, every time join went through it went out of focus). After the screening he stormed into the projection room shouting at me that I was the worst projectionist he ever had. I did have many happier times and far more positive comments than negative but it’s the negative ones that seem to remember more.

Screen Gems acquired world rights to the film then called Motivated Seller at the Cannes Film Festival

Domestic thrillers were very popular in the late 80s and 90s with films including Pacific Heights, Unlawful Entry and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

The Intruder adds the racial element to the plot, in those films it was a white man, woman terrorising a white family in The Intruder it’s a white man terrorising an African American couple, as Get Out did two years ago.

The Intruder is likely to open similar to Breaking In opened last May with £0.42m taking £1.24m  

Unlawful Entry opened in October 1992 with £850,039 taking £1,701,717

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle opened April 1992 with £2,709,000 taking £6,306,436

Pacific Heights opened February 1991 with £689,850 taking £1,159,398

It’s still surprising distributors will still give films like The Intruder a theatrical release two months after opening in the US as it has very limited box office prospects, but its all due to their lucrative Sky TV deal a film that gets even a token theatrical release will get more than a straight to video title. If distributors didn’t release their turkeys theatrically would give more space for other films.

• Andre Rieu 2019 Maastricht Concert – Shall We Dance? – Piece of Magic

The most popular Event Cinema over the last five years has been André Rieu’s Maastricht Concert; 2018’s André Rieu’s Maastricht Concert, ’Amore £1,783,222; Andre Rieu’s 2017 Maastricht Concert £1,439,604; Andre Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert £1,414,075; Andre Rieu’s 2015 Maastricht Concert (Concert) £1,107,000; Andre Rieu’s 2014 Maastricht Concert £830,586. Piece Of Magic release Andre Rieu 2019 Maastricht Concert – Shall We Dance? July 27th and BTS: Bring The Soul: The Movie in released in August.

Event Cinema/Secret Cinema took £19.1m Jan-June this year 3% more than the first half of 2018 and thanks to Take That Greatest Hits Live and Casino Royale Secret Cinema June was the biggest month ever; Event Cinema has added 2.6m+ admissions to the year but every Event Cinema ticket sold added 3 admissions (due to 100%+ surcharges on regular ticket prices) while Secret Cinema adds 11; over 1000% more than regular ticket prices so actual admissions are closer to 660k.

Last year Event Cinema/Secret Cinema added over 6m admissions to the UK which saw admissions grow to the highest for almost 40 years.

Part of the problem with Event Cinema now is the sheer number of titles released n ow which must be about 100 a year which dilutes the brand as due to the cost of seeing them in the cinema. Event Cinema has also squeezed the independent film sector in the UK as exhibitors are more willing to give an Event Cinema distributor one evening weekend slot for Event Cinema rather than a week for an independent film.

I’ve always said Event Cinema is a great addition to cinema, but price is a factor a month ago Vue West End reduced their prices for Take That Greatest Hits Live, but they were the normal inflated prices for Westlife: The Twenty Tour at the weekend. 

Opening in US Next Week

• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Sony Pictures

Comedy-drama starring ensemble cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie, alongside Emile Hirsch,  Timothy Olyphant, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, and Al Pacino and written and directed by Quentin Tarantino (his ninth film)

It is the first Quentin Tarantino film not to be produced by Harvey Weinstein after he cut ties with The Weinstein Company following sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein in October 2017.

In November 20127 Sony Pictures acquired distribution rights agreeing to all of Quentin Tarantino demands which included final cut, $95m budget and 25% of first-dollar gross and the fil, rights revert back to him after 10 to 20 years.

Was originally set to be released on August 9 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Tate–LaBianca murders but was seen as poor taste so was brought forward two weeks. At the time Sony said it was to give the film more summer playtime but in doing so opens the week before Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

After Inglourious Basterds opened strongly 10 years ago late August with $38.5m taking $120.54m was surprising Sony didn’t opt for a similar release date.

Had world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival May 21, 2019; received positive reviews from critics (92% Rotten Tomatoes score); at the Cannes Film Festival Quentin Tarantino asked the audience nit to reveal spillers for the film “The cast and crew have worked so hard to create something original, and I only ask that everyone avoids revealing anything that would prevent later audiences from experiencing the film in the same way,”; but then why premiere the film over two months before release?

The film received much controversy including Oscar-nominated actress Margot Robbie barely getting any screen time compared to the two male leads. A reporter asked Quentin Tarantino at the Cannes press conference why her cast Margot Robbie but then gave her a few lines with his response “I reject your hypothesis,” Margot Robbie said, “I think the moments I was on screen gave a moment to honour Sharon,”…  “I think the tragedy was the loss of innocence. To show the wonderful sides of her could be done without speaking. I did feel like I got a lot of time to explore the character without dialogue, which is an interesting thing. Rarely do I get an opportunity to spend so much time on my own as a character.”

Quentin Tarantino did say later than lots of characters in the film had longer scenes but were cut, that might appear in a future cut, but as he had final cut n the film he didn’t think they were worth including?

While Roman Polanski’s wife Emmanuelle Seigner sparked more controversy for the film including a dramatized version of her husband without asking him “I am just saying that it doesn’t bother them [in Hollywood] to make a film which takes Roman and his tragic story… while at the same time they have made him a pariah. And all without consulting him of course,”

Early tracking expected the film to open with $30m+

The nine Quentin Tarantino films have taken almost $650m at the US box office and $1.47bn worldwide