As with the US box office for March was down by 28% from last year while box office was slightly up in January and February from last year the first quarter is down 9% on last year £324,628,319 Vs £356,734,417 in 2017; the top 11 distributors took 97.06% £315.06m.
Disney
£75.96m (23.81%)
from 4 films up almost 8% from 2017
Last year their only first quarter release was Beauty and the Beast which took £51.38m and their 2016 holdovers Rogue One took £13.85m and Moana £5.18m.
This year Black Panther has taken £46.72m and Coco £18.3m (delaying the film from last year to avoid opening against Paddington 2) but A Wrinkle in Time disappointed taking only £1.46m and Star Wars: The Last Jedi took only £9.49m of its box office in 2018 many were predicting it would have much longer legs than Rogue One but while critics loved it had a much more polarized response from cinemagoers.
While A Wrinkle in Time failure highlights Disney’s massive issue with original films ever since they moved into making properties over the last decade. As they used to have strong success making original films before they moved into the comic-book and Star Wars business.
Over the last decade, they have seen 20th Century Fox have steady success with original films that have been critical, box office and award successes and after seeing Rupert Murdoch’s attempts to buy Sky TV delayed saw it as a chance to buy 20th Century Fox.
20th Century Fox
£73.78m (23.13%)
From 8 films up 68% from 2017
In 2017 their big films were Logan £22.81m, Assassin’s Creed £7.97m and Hidden Figures £6.13m with A Cure for Wellness disappointing.
This year started even stronger with the strong holdover of The Greatest Showman taking £33.6m of its £41.5m in 2018 and their Oscar winners Three Billboards £14.88m and The Shape of Water £7.5m.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure and Red Sparrow were their two slight disappointments being the final part of the Maze Runner franchise but as the two-year gap between the first and second Fifty Shades of Grey sequel the forced gap due to the actor’s injury hurt its box office as millennials have very short memories. While Red Sparrow generated strong media coverage due to Jennifer Lawrence but as with many films that opened in the weeks after Black Panther it was squeezed at the box office.
Walk Like a Panther was another failed attempt to try to make another The Full Monty feel-good British film while that came out of nowhere Walk Like a Panther as so many other similar films were trying to hard to be a similar film rather than be its own film. But the marketplace has changed over the last 20 years since The Full Monty opened and these kinds of films will find it hard to find an audience.
Do wonder if The Full Monty opened today would be a similar success, or as with films like Mamma Mia! and The Greatest Showman film bookers won’t get it and prefer to book something that is more likely to be a hit. But as shown with The Greatest Showman it was the fourth choice Christmas film but film bookers but took 3x Star Wars: The Last Jedi 2x Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and 10x Pitch Perfect 3.
Had Pitch Perfect 3 been as good as the second film do believe The Greatest Showman wouldn’t have been nearly as successful as it did but audience discovered The Greatest Showman after being disappointed with Pitch Perfect 3.
When The Greatest Showman opened with £2.57m in December 2017 few would have imaged it would have taken £20m let alone over £41m to become 20th Century Fox’s fifth biggest film ever in the UK.
Has now taken 16.11 times its opening compared with 14.26x for Titanic, 10.33x for Mama Mia! and 3.62x for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Its opening is only 6.21% of its final box office which was regular twenty years ago with films like The Full Monty, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Jurassic Park. But nowadays the opening weekend can be up to 30% of its total box office or more when a film has previews like Spectre 43.3% while Titanic was 7.01%, Avatar 9.11%, Paddington 13.56%, Star Wars: The Force Awakens 27.65%.
Disney-Fox combined would have taken £149.74m 47% of the 1st quarter box office; showing what a scary prospect those two companies coming together is for the rest of the industry. As they have taken as much as Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, eOne and Warner Bros combined.
Universal Pictures
£59.45m (18.64%)
From 8 films down 20.5% from 2017
Last year Universal Split, Sing, Fifty Shades Darker and Get Out all performed strongly this year Darkest Hour became the must-see Oscar nominee taking £23.92m and Fifty Shades Freed took £18.13m taking 20% less than Fifty Shades Darker last year.
While Pitch Perfect 3 failed to match the success of the last film and despite massive hype and rave reviews from critics but had more polarized reaction from audiences Lady Bird took £5.17m.
Sony Pictures
£44.74m (14.03%)
From 6 films up 72% from 2017
Last year Trainspotting 2 was Sony’s big first quarter success taking £16.95m and 2016 holdover Passengers took £5.01m.
This year while all the media coverage for All the Money in the World didn’t transfer into huge box office taking £3.24m Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle took £14.56m of is box office in 2018 and despite all the negative reviews Peter Rabbit has taken £21.64m to date.
Others
eOne
After a very disappointing 2017, eOne is up 215% from last year taking £21.87m which is close to their £27.34m total for 2017. Steven Spielberg’s The Post was their biggest film taking £9.1m with Finding Your Feet, Molly’s Game and I, Tonya all performing strongly in a crowded marketplace.
Warner Bros
Had a disappointing start to 2018 down 67% from last year taking only £17.04m compared to £52.79m. Last year The Lego Batman Film took £27m, Kong: Skull Island £14.43m and John Wick 2 took £5.76m. This year Tomb Raider is their current biggest taking £6.72m and Ready Player One opened with £5.11m