- Tenet – £796,309 – £13,879,635
Down 35.4% in its fourth weekend taking £26,433 more than Sunday estimate (£769,876)
2D took £693,866 (87.1%) total £12,277,969.(88.5%); IMAX took £76,011 (9.5%) total £1,575,233 (11.5%).
With Mulan going to PVOD on Friday and The King’s Man delayed to next February there is only Death on the Nile in four weeks that could replace Tenet as #1 unless After We Collided climbs to #1 next weekend after expanding into 500 screens. If Tenet holds #1 next weekend it will be the longest #1 since Joker did last year Joker took £2,446,199, but if Tenet does hold #1 it will take about £500k similar to Blade Runner 2049’s 5th weekend (£347,024).
If Death on the Nile and Black Widow get delayed as expected and Tenet hold’s against After We Collided next weekend it will likely be #1 until No Time To Die to be the second-longest #1 after 1998’s Titanic was the longest ever #1 with 13 consecutive weekends; 2000’s Toy Story 2 and Gladiator 7 weeks; 1999’s The World’s Not Enough and 2009’s Avatar 6 weeks and 1995’s Star Trek Generations, 1999’s A Bugs Life, 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, Joker and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone all 5 weeks.
Showing Tenet was never going to be the saviour of cinema that the industry believing it would the only Christopher Nolan film other than Tenet to be #1 for four weeks was Dunkirk. All other Christopher Nolan films opened in crowded marketplaces and that helped them attract a wide audience.
Tenet was meant to open July 16th against Top Gun: Maverick a week after Ghostbusters, two weeks after Minions: The Rise of Gru and a week before Jungle Cruise, which would have likely seen it open #1 but as with Inception be replaced from #1 by Jungle Cruise as inception was with Toy Story 3.
While Christopher Nolan might believe he is the saviour of cinema, but his films aren’t big or strong enough to do it on their own, the only film that was Dunkirk as it played to all demographics, Nolanites came, younger audiences Harry Styles and older audience because of the subject matter. Tenet was front and centre a Christopher Nolan film as people weren’t going to come because of John David Washington and Robert Pattinson unlike they did with Inception due to Leonardo DiCaprio.
I know I keep going back to Christopher Nolan’s Washington Post op-ed in March, but this was when Tenet wasn’t a film anymore it was political propaganda that exhibitors would use as the relaunch of cinema as they made sure they had some summer box office. E
Dunkirk #1 for 4 weeks; Interstellar #1 for 2 weeks; The Dark Knight Rises #1 for 2 weeks; Inception #1 for 1 week; The Dark Knight #1 for 2 weeks (returned #1 in 5th week); Batman Begins #1 for 2 weeks; Insomnia #1 for 1 week
Tenet continues to hold in the UK similar to Blade Runner 2049 in its fourth weekend, soon as critics called Tenet the film for Nolan fans this immediately made everyone else think they’re not going to risk going to the cinema to see another pretentious style over substance film
Blade Runner 2049 opened with £6,071,625 14% more than Tenet (£5,335,654); while taking much more than Tenet in its second (£3,098,872 Vs £2,151,490) and third (£1,791,027 Vs £1,233,090) weekends in their fourth their box office is very similar as both films despite their hype weren’t able to play beyond their fanbase.
Blade Runner 2049 took £18,820,009 and Tenet is likely to take similar, which is less than half what most people expected it to take and could have taken if delayed, As like other Christopher Nolan films that critics said were for Nolan fans they managed to play beyond because non-fans saw trailers before other films.
Tenet had the 5th biggest second weekend of 2020 after 1917 (taking 65.3% less), Sonic the Hedgehog, Bad Boys For Life, Parasite and just ahead of Dolittle; in normal circumstances would expect Tenet to hold much closer to 1917 as other Christopher Nolan films.
Took +14.9% more than Blade Runner 2049 but -23.95% Parasite; -54.03% The Martian; -54.27% Gravity; -62.98% A Star Is Born; -69.50% Jurassic World; -71.54% 1917; -77.02% Joker; -78.09% The Kings Speech; -83.31% Avatar; if Tenet was really a marathon not a sprint then it would be holding far better than most of these films and taking £1m+ for many weeks more
Had the 9th biggest 4th weekend of 2020 after Jumanji: The Next Level (£3,069,462); 1917 (£2,798,457); Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (£1,824,607); Little Women (£1,480,139); Parasite (£1,047,024); Bad Boys For Life (£1,000,628); Sonic The Hedgehog (£951,104); The Gentlemen (£883,621); Dolittle (£837,444);
428th biggest film in the UK between American Pie and Thor (close to The Fugitive, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, True Lies and American Sniper) and 648th biggest inflation inflated between Maverick and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (close to American Hustle, The Panic Room, American Gangster and Wanted).
67th biggest Warner Bros opening between 300 and Two-Weeks’ Notice (close to The Great Gatsby, The Fugitive, American Sniper and Batman) 99th biggest inflation inflated between Maverick and American Sniper (close to Deep Blue Sea, Demolition Man, Shazam! and Wild Wild West).
29th biggest sci-fi film in the UK between Terminator Salvation and Paul (close to Ready Player One, I, Robot, Independence Day: Resurgence and Oblivion) and 41st biggest inflation inflated between Demolition Man and Alien Resurrection (close to The X- Files, Alien 3, The Fifth Element and Tron Legacy).
Tenet second weekend took +555.30% Memento; +469.70% The Prestige; +111.25% Insomnia; +1.81% Batman Begins
But less than; -34.94% Interstellar; -63.75% The Dark Knight Rises; -64.76% Inception; -65.42% The Dark Knight; -69.78% Dunkirk
Tenet is holding similar to Batman Begins which took £13,871,254 after 25 days compared with Tenet taking 0.6% more £13,879,635 (85.7%) after 26 days went on to take £16,179,376, which would be over 50% less than Inception (£34,976,999) which is what most people expected from Tenet at the start of the year.
Tenet is the 5th biggest film of the year after 1917, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bad Boys For Life and overtaking Parasite and becoming Warner Bros biggest film of the year; at the start of the year most people would have expected Tenet to take £40m+ and be one of the biggest films of the year but now it’s unlikely to take over £18m.
Warner Bros. international distribution head Andrew Cripps defending the box office performance of Tenet saying “It’s a 30-day opening, not a 3-day opening” this would make sense had Tenet not been playing on so many screens in the UK opened in 600+ cinemas but 3,100+ screens having 60,000+ screenings over it’s opening 5 days this is expected for front-loaded Avengers or Star Wars, not for a film they want to have long legs?
Last week Christopher Nolan was seen at a movie theatre in the US watching The Broken Hearts Gallery, but as he believed it was vital for Tenet to open now he should have been much more visible going to movie theatres across the UK and the US thanking floor staff and fans seeing his film in the cinema. As when you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. Christopher Nolan could go down in history books as the man who singlehandedly reopened and closed cinema within a couple of months.
Could cinemas stay open till November if Death on the Nile and Black Widow are delayed as with drop off over the next few weeks for Tenet being 35%+ box Tenet will be down to £200K within about three weeks? With Tenet still playing in 600+ cinemas and having 20+ screens in many multiplexes a day, there must be thousands of near-empty screenings, which is good for people who want to social distance in a cinema but not good for the industry.
Warner choose to live by the sword so they need to die by the sword and take put themselves into this position despite most believing was far too soon Tenet is performing exactly as most expected taking about a third of what it could have taken had it been delayed.
The same people who celebrated Warner Bros decision to releaser Tenet in August are now saying the experiment failed, but this was always likely to happen and Christopher Nolan needs to take responsibility. As he would have bee happy to take the credit to be the saviour of cinema so he should have to be the one that also closed cinema again.
Had it not been for Christopher Nolan, Warner and Disney wouldn’t have played out $2bn+ game of chicken during summer all films would have been delayed till November and exhibitors wouldn’t have rushed open cinemas far too soon as doing so did long-term damage and won’t return to normal till 2022.
In March when MGM started ball running delayed the release of No Time To Die from April to November with many more films that were due to be released between March and August delated to later in the year and next always felt October 2nd should have been the date Warner moved Tenet. Over the years Warner and other studios have had strong success launching adult drama the first weekend in October including Gravity, Gone Girl, The Martian, The Girl on the Train and A Star Is Born.
This would have meant cinemas wouldn’t have reopened until August/September which would have been a similar length of time China cinemas had been closed and maybe they would have implemented stricter safety measures that they had originally planned.
Tenet had the same issue Blade Runner 2049 had and what many fear for Dune that it was a film made solely for Nolanites and would be much too pretentious for the mainstream. As with Blade Runner 2049 reviews hurt Tenet more than benefited it as many called it a film Nolan fans would love, which alienated non-fans. As Blade Runner 2049 Tenet opened stronger internationally but won’t have the legs industry hope it will as it will struggle to play beyond its fanbase.
Warner said it’s a marathon, not a sprint but Tenet needed support and would have hugely benefited from the crowded marketplace that it would have opened into against Minions: The Rise of Gru, Ghostbusters and a week later Jungle Cruise and even in the UK opening against Top Gun: Maverick.
Global cinema should have followed in Chinese footsteps reopening cinemas 7 months later and could have seen a similar bounce back as they have, instead it’s going to be much slower to get back to pre-lockdown levels putting even more pressure on No Time To Die to be the saviour of cinema that Tenet couldn’t be.
Cinemas reopened far too soon and should have had much tougher safety measures that were discussed by exhibitors months earlier in a Deadline article, there was talk of checkboard seating, booking online only and temperature scanners before entry and limited concessions being sold. H
All of those and more were implemented in China after reopening cinemas months after UK and UK despite closed two months before. Had international exhibitors followed China with their reopening policies with stricter safety measures at the start they would have returned to pre-lockdown levels much sooner than they will as many don’t believe the US or UK will return to pre-lockdown levels until 2022.
In December France celebrates the 125th anniversary of commercial cinema with Coronavirus cases the highest ever yesterday in France cinemas might not be reopened in December to celebrate the anniversary as all the research shows Coronavirus cases could be higher than they were at their peak in March/April in Nov/Dec. Cinema will celebrate it’s 125th anniversary in the UK in February and May in the US, this should be a year to remember for cinema but instead, it will be for all the wrong reasons.
To quote the great Ian Malcolm Warner were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should release Tenet now. If Warner had any sense they would announce Tenet going PVOD in the next few weeks alongside theatrical to avoid many watching it illegally online over the next few months, given that 80% not willing to return to the cinema anytime soon a chance to see it legally.
While cinephiles and Nolanites will think differently the aim of a filmmaker is for cinemagoers to understand the plot the first time they see a film, but Tenet is just too clever for its own good and will end up confusing many with polarised reactions from regular cinemagoers? Just think that cinemagoers should be able to watch an original film and be able to understand it without having to do research before or after watching it or have to watch it multiple times as most people will only see a film one in the cinema.
How Tenet holds over the next few weeks will show if it is the success the industry has already said it is and if Christopher Nolan is really the Messiah or if he is just a naughty boy. As after The King’s Man has been delated until 2021 the next major release isn’t until Wonder Woman 1984 in four weeks, but as the original film wasn’t as huge as success as the US, the majority of cinemagoers who will see Tenet won’t return to the cinema again until No Time To Die in November.
Cinemas have been reportedly been losing £5.7m a day over the last 24 weeks and over the last four weeks have probably taken about a quarter of this. With Wonder Woman 1984 and Connected already delay from next month and Death On the Nile and Black Widow also expected to be delayed it’s unlikely the UK will see UK box office take more than £5.7m a day until November 12th when No Tie To Die opens.
With reports on Monday that Coronavirus cases are likely to double every week for the next few weeks and with possible second lockdowns and nationwide 10pm curfews will distributors risk open any major releases until the threat of both is over which might not be till early next year. It was a huge gamble for Warner to open Tenet in August and that was 8 weeks after cinemas reopened on July 4th it would be a far bigger gamble to open a major release over the next three months if there is a possibility cinemas could close or have a curfew at short notice.
A second lockdown will do even more damage to confidence in cinema which was already very low after most believed cinemas had reopened far too soon and while from March exhibitors always had Tenet as their canary in the coal mine who will be willing to be the second one after Tenet experiment failed despite what many say.
The 9 Christopher Nolan films have taken almost £257m at the UK box office (almost £300m inflation inflated).
The problem with Christopher Nolan films is they are often styling over substance and while previous Nolan films this was possible as they were based on comic-books, historical events or had big star name actors Leonardo DiCaprio or strong ensemble casts, Tenet is all about Christopher Nolan. While Nolanites and cinephiles will love that it is, any many comments have been that Tenet is for Nolan fans the question will be how it plays to a wider audience and if that wider audience is willing to go to the cinema.
The problem was ever since Christopher Nolan’s op-ed in the Washington Post in March he made the release of Tenet political propaganda and in so forcing their hand to release the film as the canary in the coalmine, the film that saves cinema. Instead, as everyone expected became the third of the film it could have been if delayed to October or next year.
The King’s Man was due to be released this weekend but was delayed by Disney/Fox four weeks ago to February 26th, 2021; three years ago Kingsman: The Golden Circle opened with £8,525,664. The prequel was never likely to open as big but in normal circumstances should have opened with £5m+.
10pm curfews start across many parts of the north from Tuesday which will see cinemas have their latest evening showings at 7pm which will impact on box office as screenings after 6pm are normally far more population than before, but when the national curfew was announced on Tuesday cinemas would be allowed to stay open with screenings until 9.59pm. Most medical experts don’t believe the curfew will work so a second lockdown is likely around half-term.
According to reports could be ‘circuit breaker’ over the next 6 months throughout winter that will see pubs, restaurants and cinemas forced to close randomly for two weeks over those months. While restaurants and pubs could cope opening and closing it will be much harder for cinemas to open and close randomly over the next 6 months as distributors will spend millions on marketing for a film, but films could be forced to be delayed within weeks.
During an interview with Anthony Fauci on the Daily Show on Monday Trevor Noah asked if there was a need to wear a face mask in a cinema if there were only two other people far away, he said that he would keep the mask on all of the time just to be safe because he’s indoors.
Would be interesting to see if attendance to Vue cinemas has increased since they reduced their ticket prices and if people are choosing to see films at Vue West End rather than Cineworld or Odeon Leicester Sq. with tickets 70% less?
In the US AMC are planning to close many of their cinemas mid-week and have far fewer screenings of their films with screenings only late afternoon and evening, similar is likely to happen in the UK.
- After We Collided – £598,294 – £1,719,760
Up 30% in its third weekend; took £22,779 more than the estimate (£575,515)
The media picked up on the opening of After We Collided after Charles Gant reported about its performance in his excellent box office column in the Daily telegraph every Tuesday which saw the Guardian write an article “After We Collided: does this shock hit point the way to cinema’s future?
After We Collided doesn’t change anything as the Anna Todd One Direction fanfiction has been compared to 50 Shades of Grey fanfiction of Twilight and described as a PG-13 rated version of 50 Shades of Grey. After the first film went straight to Netflix in the UK last July after soft box office in the US in April 2019 the sequel was off the radar of all major exhibitors and distributors as neither saw much box office potential for the film.
There is a small but very loyal fanbase for After books in the UK and they were disappointed original film didn’t get a cinema release. While most films since the reopening have underperformed After We Collided has probably done as it would have done in normal circumstances as if it’s a film people want to see they will see it no matter what’s happening.
Films like After We Collided don’t need a massive marketing campaign as the target audience knows the film is opening through social media and won’t play well beyond its fanbase. After books have been read over 1.5 billion times worldwide and are on bestseller lists in Italy, Germany, France, and Spain selling over 15 million copies.
Over the years Young Adult film adaptions would generate much social media coverage and have strong social media marketing campaigns with pre-teen and teens talking a lot about the film but that buzz doesn’t always turn to bums on seats.
After We Collide opening just as schools reopen helped a lot, as teenagers saw it and spread word of mouth, the only problem it had as so many teen films had was it’s 15 certificates (while Tenet with Elizabeth Debicki’s character being physically attacked gets a 12A after We Collided gets a 15). This meant a large percentage of its target demographic couldn’t legally see it, but I’m sure the audience was still mostly underage.
While older audiences have stopped going to the cinema as often since the restart, but the pre-teen and teen demographic still want to go but there has been little new content aimed at them since cinemas reopened.
After opening in only 42 screens performing strongly then major exhibitors bookers took notice and added 336 screens going far too wide as so often happens.
The question will be now if a UK distributor will acquire the two further sequels that have been recently announced.
Last weekend Break The Silence: The Movie took £249,997 from 363 screens and three weeks ago Break The Silence: The Movie was re-released taking £39,085 from 214 screens, showing that pre-teens and young teens are the cinema audience most comfortable to return to the cinema at the moment.
So if you have a film like After We Collided they will still come while older audiences won’t, what amazes me is that despite all the research over the last 6 months that have said similarly the industry seem to be surprised that After We Collided found an audience, but it is still a small audience despite taking £1,719,760 this is about 250k.
Exhibitors have had little to smile about since early March, why they see the performance of After We Collided such a surprise, but it has more to do with film booker choices and using algorithms to predict box office rather than understanding the kind of audience these films play to and understanding the market. The problem is everyone thinks they are a box office expert, but you need to understand how different films work and that fans know when films open they don’t need expensive marketing campaigns.
Maybe that’s why Warner Bros tried to shield the box office results for Tenet as much as they could as they were concerned that the same media that built up Tenet for the last 6 months as the saviour of cinema would immediately call it out a flop if daily figures were revealed. I do have some sympathy for Warner, but they did put themselves into this position as the canary in the coalmine when they didn’t need to do so, and they were right to say that its opening was unique and couldn’t be compared to any other film.
They said Tenet was a marathon, not a sprint but then book it in over 3,111 screens having as many screenings as an Avengers or Star Wars film but was never going to perform anywhere like that and in doing so made the film front-loaded. Distributors have a careful balancing act when they book the number of screens a film will play to like a film like Tenet that Warner believed had long legs should have expanded over several weeks, but of course, exhibitors wanted the film playing on as many screens as possible immediately as they believed the hype that it would be their saviour.
While with a film like After We Collided they completely ignored as the original film flopped and didn’t have a theatrical release in the UK. While it didn’t break box office records across Europe it performed well and exhibitor bookers would see there was an opportunity with the film as the 42 cinemas who originally booked the film saw. It’s unfair on those exhibitors that After We Collided went so wide and the major exhibitors who refused to book the film originally have taken away potential box office for them.
Always go back to the film Big and Josh saying he doesn’t get it, despite being told if he read the industry breakdown their success in the action figure has climbed from 27% to 45%, while industry algorisms might see these cinemagoers don’t choose their films by algorithms, why William Goldman’s famous quote from his 1983 book Adventures in the Screen Trade still rings true today “Nobody knows anything…… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”
The problem is exhibitor bookers often don’t see films with regular cinemagoers, how you see a film affects the way you respond to a film as bookers as critics would see a film like After We Collided and think it’s trash but then the films target audience and fans of the books will love t. As often happens exhibitor bookers will hate a film that plays strongly to audiences like Mamma Mia!, Avatar, The Greatest Showman as you don’t get that vibe watching it with a couple of others.
In 2010 Universal Pictures screened Kick-Ass to exhibitors and they hated and wouldn’t book it, the distributor saw huge potential for the film and asked exhibitors back but this time in a big West End cinema with 500 comic-book fans who loved the film. Seeing the reaction from fans exhibitors booked the film opening with £3,881,704 (£4,710,236 inflation inflated) taking £11,528,933 (£13,989,730 inflation inflated).
The same was the case with both Fisherman’s Friend (likely to play like Sunshine on Leith) and Blue Story, with exhibitors booking the film in the smallest screens in multiplexes which sold out and people brought tickets for Frozen 2 and then sneaked in this was partly the reason for the violence inside and outside cinemas which saw the film banned but that controversy helped it take £4.5m.
Studios spend years developing, making and marketing a film and they all start on opening day with £0 but they never can be sure how an audience might respond as many fantastic films receive critical acclaim but don’t find an audience and then there are many dreadful terrible films audience fall for. As with the fiasco that was the GCSE and A-Level results film industry uses algorithms to predict BO potential but as with school children cinemagoers are fickle and you never know how a film will play with an audience until a paying audience watches it.
When After We Collided opened far stronger than many expected taking £256k from 42 screens three weeks ago, major exhibitors took notice and immediately booked into 336 more screens taking £442,661 up 72% from 378 last weekend. In its, the third weekend increased another 30% and is expected to play in over 500 screens next weekend.
After We Collided had a very impressive screen average in its opening weekend, but its second-weekend average was much softer £1,147 averaging 54 people per screen and 6 people per screenings shows that it’s playing for too wide.
Over the last decade, distributors and exhibitors have waited to play films wider and wider, 20+ years ago an average film would open on 300 cinemas now it’s over 600 cinemas with big blockbusters opening in over 700 cinemas. Four weeks ago Tenet opened in 611 cinemas but 3,114 screens. While Tenet’s screen average from 611 cinemas is a strong £8,733 over 3,114 screens drops down to only £1,713.
This summer with the lack of content films including 100% Wolf, Pinocchio and Dreambuilder played in many more screens than they would normally have played in, but did they really need to play in 400 screens. I believe these films would probably perform as strongly opening in third fewer screens but since digital replaced prints exhibitors and distributors will now go as wide as they can, the problem with this is that means films will have shorter legs and have no room for further expansion.
International exhibitors talked a lot of industry is a global market not US-centric so US films like Tenet and Mulan should be released internationally early. But then failed to see the International value of After film series just because the first film underperformed in the US.
Rather than forcing US studios to open US films earlier which will hurt their US box office distributors should have looked closer to home and used this time to open local films and Sony Spain had huge success bringing forward the release of comedy Father There is Only One 2 as South Korea also had with Peninsula taking $28m since it’s opening in July. The Gerald Butler action film Greenland opened internationally early across Europe and Asia in July and August as his films normally perform far stronger internationally than in the US.
After We Collided box office wasn’t unexpected, what was unexpected was no UK distributor acquired the original film and then didn’t acquire the sequel. After books have been described as PG-13 50 Shades of Grey which was the fanfiction of Twilight, After We Collided was One Direction fan-fiction. While the fanbase might be smaller than 50 Shades the books have been read over 1.5bn times with over 15m books sold and are on bestseller lists in many European countries.
While Tenet, Andre Rieu’s Maastricht Concert, Bill & Ted Face the Music and Rocks have all underwhelmed at the UK BO After We Collided found it’s the audience and did it the old fashioned way through the word of mouth in school playgrounds, it didn’t need expensive marketing campaigns or critical acclaim, the fanbase knew that it was opening via social media.
If exhibitors want studios to risk opening new films over the next few months the current theatrical window needs to be voided and studios should be able to release the films on PVOD after 17 days if they failed to open as expected. As it’s madness that a film like The New Mutants is still going to be playing in 2,000+ this weekend in its fourth weekend taking less than $1m.
It doesn’t benefit either the exhibitor or the studio for it not to be on PVOD now instead. If studios knew that they had the safety net of early PVOD if films failed to find an audience after 17 days over the next few months then more studios will be willing to risk giving films a theatrical release this year. If not many more films will be delayed until 2021 with many more going straight to PVOD.
The problem with opening a film like Tenet internationally early is that it will often hurt it’s US BO and the US is still the most important global territory for most films.
After We Collided is the sequel to 2019’s After based on the Young Adult novel by Anna Todd (One Direction fan fiction about Harry Styles, Liam Payne and Zayn Malik being students at Washington State University.
In 2014 Paramount Pictures acquired rights but similar to what they did over a decade earlier with Twilight they put the film into turnaround in 2017 and the film was independently financed. After was released in the US in April 2019 (receiving poor reviews) opening with $6m taking $12.13m but was far more successful internationally taking $57.59m and $69.73m worldwide but the film was never released theatrically in the UK instead was released on Netflix in July 2019.
Films based on young adult novels will often generate strong social media coverage, but this won’t turn into box office, it was a strange coincidence After We Collided opened the same weekend as The New Mutants in the UK as Josh Boone previously directed one of the biggest films based on the young adult novel in recent years 2014’s The Fault In Our Stars opened with £3,434,334 taking £11,006,752.
The sequel After We Collided was directed by Roger Kumble best known for directing 1999’s Cruel Intentions (took £4,080,631) and The Sweetest Thing (took £2,163,344) but in the years since is best known for directed many TV series including Pretty Little Liars and Suits.
After We Collided will be released in cinemas and on VOD in the US in October; After opened in April 2019 with $6m taking $12.13m but took $57.59m internationally and $69.73m worldwide; After We Collided has taken $30m from 18 territories over the last three weeks.
- Bill & Ted Face the Music – £462,051 – NE
Took £141,433 from previews on Wednesday and Thursday charting #3 on both days
Took £10,817 more than estimates (£451,234)
Bill & Teds Bogus Journey took £5,290,335 in 1992 with 1,745,985 admissions an average ticket price of £3.03 (£12,606,013 inflation inflated 140% ticket inflation since)
The film was originally due to open in the UK on August 28th, but Warner Bros delayed it to September 18th after Tenet was dated in its place. While the first two films have become cult hits on video they failed to find an audience in cinemas and opening the film three weeks after the US many will stream it illegally.
The third film of the Bill & Ted series after 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, both films have become cult hits on video since their release but weren’t so successful when they originally were released in the cinema.
The first film had a limited release in the UK, went to see it at the Cannon Oxford Street (now part of Primark) was showing in one of the smallest screens of what was a fleapit fie screen cinema slightly better than the Cannon Panton Street (now Odeon Haymarket). The sequel had a wider release in the UK and was Columbia Tristar’s biggest hit of the Orion Pictures films they released internationally.
In 1991 to generate revenue fast they sold international rights to their upcoming slate to Columbia Tristar Pictures that included Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Love Field, RoboCop 3, The Dark Half, Blue Sky, Car 54, Where Are You?, The Favor, and There Goes My Baby, but soon after they filed for bankruptcy and in 1997 MGM acquired Orion Pictures 2,000+ library.
Despite the moderate success of the films, there were rumours for many years of a third film as the first two films were loved by fans, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter started talking about the third film in 2008 and Dean Parisot was attached to direct in 2012.
While the third film has much of the energy and charm of the original film it will struggle to find a wide audience especially as it’s been widely available online illegally as it was released on VOD day and date with it’s US release Warner should have done similar with its UK release, as all distributors should be doing with all releases for the next few months.
After the success of John Wick Keanu Reeves career was back on a high and sequel plans continued to be developed and approached MGM in 2017 and was greenlit in May 2018, in March 2019 production started and August 21st, 2020 release date was announced; Warner Bros acquired many international rights in May 2019 (Warner had previously released many MGM films internationally, MGM since signed distribution deal with Universal Pictures).
The first trailer was released on 9th June on Bill & Ted Day (as the date featured a 6 and a 9 their favourite numbers) and was positively received and a second trailer was released in July.
MGM relaunched Orion Pictures in 2014, Orion Pictures was the studio released the sequel in the US, Orion Pictures was an independent studio originally launched in the late 70s and one of many who tried to compete directly with the big 6 studios.
They originally released films through Warner Bros before setting up US distribution which is always where things go wrong as Orion Pictures didn’t have the same structure in place as the major studios and were much more dependent than they were on their films being successful in cinemas.
What helped Orion was they pre-sold international rights through output deals, the UK was through Rank Film Distributors and they released most of their films from Terminator to Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs.
At the 63rd Oscars in March 1991, host Billy Crystal made reference to the studio’s debt in his opening monologue, saying that “Reversal of Fortune is about a woman in a coma, Awakenings is about a man in a coma; and Dances with Wolves released by Orion, a studio in a coma.”
The year later Billy Crystal said ate Oscars “Take a great studio like Orion: a few years ago Orion released Platoon, it wins Best Picture. Amadeus, Best Picture. Last year, they released Dances with Wolves wins Best Picture. This year The Silence of the Lambs is nominated for Best Picture. And they can’t afford to have another hit! But there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Orion was just purchased, and the bad news is it was bought by the House of Representatives.”
- Andre Rieu’s Magical Maastricht: Together In Music – £124,101 – NE
Took £7,941 than Sunday estimates (£116,160)
Over the last 6 years, Andre Rieu’s concerts have been very popular but as they attract the older audience it was expected Together In Music would open much softer than previous Event Cinema concerts. As with most films that have opened since reopening Andre Rieu Event Cinema opened with about 10% of what it would have opened in normal circumstances as older audiences aren’t comfortable going back to the cinema and won’t probably be comfortable now till March next year.
In January Andre Rieu: 70 Years Young opened with £1,717,073 from screenings on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.
2019’s Andre Rieu’s New Year Concert from Sydney opened £1,745,941
2019’s Andre Rieu 2019 Maastricht Concert – Shall We Dance? Opened £1,492,154
2018’s André Rieu’s Maastricht Concert, ’Amore opened £1,783,222
2017’s Andre Rieu’s 2017 Maastricht Concert opened £1,439,604;
2016’s Andre Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert opened £1,414,075;
2015’s Andre Rieu’s 2015 Maastricht Concert opened £1,107,000;
2014’s Andre Rieu’s 2014 Maastricht Concert opened £830,586
Event Cinema had a record-breaking year at the UK box office in 2019 but it’s no wonder when prices are almost 250% more than regular prices. My local Vue has recently reduced prices to £6.74 but tickets for Andre Rieu: 70 Years Young are £23.24. Event Cinema as Secret Cinema is the greatest addition to the cinema.
Event Cinema box office also includes Secret Cinema events which included Casino Royale Secret Cinema last year but tickets for these events are over £80 when industry claims average ticket price is £7.08 how can they possibly include Secret Cinema box office?
- The New Mutants – £106,199 – £1,314,899
Down 48.3% in its 3rd weekend; took £2,562 more than estimates (£103,637)
The 18 X-Men films have taken over £282m at the UK box office over the last 20 years (over £340m inflation inflated); the biggest opening of an X-Men film was 2016’s Deadpool (£13,729,803).
The New Mutants has overtaken 2005’s Elektra (£1,303,703) to not be the lowest-grossing 20th Century Fox/Marvel film in the UK.
The New Mutants is far from the worst comic-book movie and far from being the worst 20th Century Fox/Marvel both versions of Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and X- Men Last Stand much worse.
Do believe in a parallel universe X-Men: Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants would have performed far better especially if they kept their original release date. X-Men: Dark Phoenix. As it was incredible as despite how dreadful 2005’s Fantastic Four was it took £11,782,585 and audiences came back for the far worse sequel in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer taking £12,278,806.
While Disney has either moved their 2020 releases to Disney+ (Artemis Fowl, The One and Only Ivan and Mulan) or delayed Jungle Cruise with back Widow and Soul likely to also be delayed it is the films from 20th Century Fox that are filling up their gap on their release schedule with Jojo Rabbit and The Call of the Wild and if Death on the Nile, Deep Water, Empty Man, Free Guy and West Side Story keep their release dates.
When will we next see X-Men in a film, they will likely be introduced within a MCU film as Spider-Man and Black Pantrher were, but will they be anything like the X-Men films under 20th Century Fox or will they be rebooted. Likewise, will we ever see the R-rated Deadpool 3 Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool fans hope they see after the first two films were critical and box office hits likewise the success of the darker adult Logan which saw Warner have even bigger success with the even darker Joker last year.
As had it not been for the success of the first X-Men film 20 years ago the MCU would have never existed as comic-book films before X-Men over the years that followed the release of Batman Returns in 1992 were poorly received critically and had mixed success at the box office.
In 2000 20th Century Fox took a massive gamble making X-Men as at the time comic-book films were poorly received both at the box office and critically with films like Batman and Robin and Barb Wire. The studio had little faith in the film bringing its release forward 6 months from December to July to fill a gap in their schedule (Minority Report delayed, but it’s success launched a new generation of comic-book films and saw Sony finally make Spider-Man two years later that had been in development for many years.
The success of both X-Men and Spider-Man allowed Marvel to take the risk ad self-finance a series of films that Paramount Pictures would release, and their success saw Disney acquire Marvel for $4bn in 2009.
Also released
- Rocks – Altitude Film Distributors
Opened with £75,478 from 92 screens including £30,713 from previews
Sarah Gavron previously directed 2015’s Suffragette and 2007’s Brick Lane also received their premieres at the London Film Festival.
Suffragette opened with £2,938,446 (including £1,394,771 previews) taking £10,600,616
Brick Lane opened #10 with £194,745 from 92 screens taking £633,541
Rocks opened without previews £44,765 similar to last month’s Babyteeth opened #8 in 139 screening taking £38,977 despite receiving much more media coverage and critical acclaim. Altitude Film Distributors have often opened films in 80+ screens and then expanded the films over following weeks as they build up word of mouth and they will be hoping to do similar with Rocks over the coming weeks.
Three weeks ago BFI Chief Executive was on Newsnight and talking about the opening of Tenet and said “there will be multiplex films for some audiences and some great independent films over the next few weeks including Rocks in September which we expected to be a big hit in the independent cinemas. So we think audiences will get back, but it’s going to take more than one film and one weekend to get audiences comfortable and back to where we were in March”.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £2,378,677 down 7.5% from last weekend (£2,572,068)
The weekend admissions 327,027 down 7% from last week (351,617)
The latest estimate for 2020 box office is £605m less than half of last year’s £1.227bn but as UK BO was only £282m after 35 weeks this is now unlikely especially if Black Widow is delayed to 2021 and Tenet not being the success many expected.
Gower Street Analytics predicted next year’s box office could be down up to 30% on last year levels but I believe had UK exhibitors done what Chinese exhibitor has done bringing in far stricter safety measures at the start and delayed the reopening of cinemas till early August with the right product admission levels could be up from last year.
Top 3 took £1,833,875 77.1% of £2,378,677; Tenet 33.5% (£796,309); After We Collided 24.2% (£575,515); Bill And Ted Face The Music 19.4% (£462,05)
Down 65.7% from 2019: (Top three took 65.4% (£6,933,258) of the top 10 (£10,591,748); Downtown Abbey 30.9% (£3,280,442); Ad Astra 21.4% (£2,265,387); It Chapter Two 13.1% (£1,387,429);
Down 78.2% from 2018: (£10,913,234); The House with a Clock in its Walls (£3,370,591); A Simple Favour (£1,621,900); Mile 22 (£795,888); The Little Stranger (£300,089); #1 The House with a Clock in its Walls £3,370,591 1st week 541 screens (30.8% of top 10)
Down 83.5% from 2017: (£14,426,113); Kingsman: The Golden Circle (£8,525,664); Maze (£123,985); Borg vs. McEnroe (£101,918); Lawrence of Arabia – 70mm (Re: 2017) (£9,359); #1 Kingsman: The Golden Circle £8,525,664 1st week 602 down (59.1% of the top 10)
Down 81.9% from 2016: (£13,181,394); Bridget Jones’s Baby (£8,111,077); Blair Witch (£959,401); The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years (£654,726); The Infiltrator (£370,439); Hunt For the Wilderpeople (£167,646); #1 Bridget Jones’s Baby £8,111,077 1st week 641 screens (61.5% of the top 10)
Down 74.5% from 2015; (£9,319,305); Everest (£3,160,154); A Walk in the Woods (£252,175); The Battle Of Britain At 75 (Concert) (£225,942); Bill (£221,807); The D Train (£8,516); #1 Legend £2,446,860 2nd week 544 screens 53% drop (26.2% of top 10)
Down 61.1% from 2014: (£6,109,464); A Walk Among the Tombstones (£1,317,948); The Riot Club (£496,647); 20,000 Days on Earth (£356,467); Magic in the Moonlight (£273,998); The Giver (£186,989); Think Like a Man too (£131,138); Wish I Was Here (£27,739); #1 The Boxtrolls £1,333,137 2nd week 509 screens (33% drop (21.8% of top 10)
Down 63.9% from 2013: (£6,586,232); Diana (£623,051); R.I.P.D. (£506,521); The Call (£409,975); Cold comes the Night (£4,833); #1 Rush £1,336,449 2nd week (1st #1) 464 screens (20.2% of top 10)
Down 63.3% from 2012 (£6,476,971); Killing Them Softly (£955,506); The House at the End of the Street (£796,041); Savages (£379,898); Now is Good (£317,451); Intouchables (£109,328); Raiders of the Lost Ark (Re: 2012) (£73,558); Tower Block (£36,371); Hysteria (£9,903); #1 ParaNorman £1,219,194 2nd week (1st #1) 484 screens 12% drop (18.8% of top 10)
Down 68% from 2011 (£7,431,246); Crazy, Stupid, Love (£860,112); Warrior (£808,410); Drive (£607,454); Killer Elite (£481,143); Jurassic Park (Re: 2011) (£245,422); Soul Surfer (£47,293); Page One: Inside the New York Times (£6,757); #1 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy £2,104,762 2nd week 422 screens 25% drop (28.3% of top 10)
Down 61.1% from 2010: (£6,120,627); The Other Guys (£1,980,601); Devil (£807,292); Just Wright (£82,513); I’m Still Here (£22,730); Grease Sing-along (£15,701); #1 The Other Guys £1,980,601 1st week 441 screens (32.5% of top 10)
Down 58.7% from 2009; (£5,767,172); Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (£1,583,544); Gamer (£641,568); The Firm (£310,060); Away We Go (£250,211); #1 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs £1,583,544 1st week 438 screens (27.4% of top 10)
Down 64.2% from 2008; (£6,654,546); Tropic Thunder (£2,483,271); Linha De Passe (£34,156); The Wave (£27,981); #1 Tropic Thunder £2,483,271 1st week 460 screens (37.3% of top 10)
Down 63.2% from 2007: (£6,468,802); I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (£1,090,831); Death Proof (£407,525); A Mighty Heart (£153,028); As You Like It (£9,444); Evening (£20,836); Clubland (£1,808); #1 Run, Fat Boy, Run £1,206,177 3rd week 401 screens 22% drop (18.6% of top 10)
Down 54.5% from 2006; (£5,225,385); The Children of Men (£1,284,254); Trust the Man (£280,929); Dirty Sanchez (£257,034); Clerks II (£223,046); #1 The Children of Men £1,284,254 1st week 370 screens (24.5% of top 10)
Down 63.7% from 2005 (£6,549,677); Pride and Prejudice (£2,529,947); Wolf Creek (£554,618); Must Love Dogs (£142,199); #1 Pride and Prejudice £2,529,947 1st week 397 screens (38.6% of top 10)
Down 62.1% from 2004 (£6,276,762); Collateral (£2,238,200); Trauma (£144,148); Ae Fond Kiss (£106,366); #1 Collateral £2,238,200 1st week 450 screens (35.6% of top 10)
Down 69.1% from 2003 (£7,710,363); The Italian Job (£2,294,027); Underworld (£1,487,839); Le Divorce (£93,061); Raising Victor Vargas (£50,672); #1 The Italian Job £2,294,027 1st week 428 screens (29.7% of top 10)
Down 65.7% from 2002 (£6,934,104); My Big Fat Greek Wedding (£1,503,436); Swimfan (£396,425); Road To Perdition (platform) (£256,035); #1 Signs £2,657,379 2nd week 440 screens 29% drop (38.3% of top 10)
Down 65.5% from 2001 (£6,893,581); A.I. (£2,285,786); Crazy/Beautiful (£137,017); #1 A.I. £2,285,786 1st week 428 screens (33.1% of top 10);
Next weekend in 2019: Top three took 54.6% (£4,978,947) of the top 10 (9,120,747); Downtown Abbey 29.4% (£2,682,080); Ad Astra `14.1% (£1,284,924); Hustlers 11.1% (£1,011,943);
UK Box Office since restart
848 cinemas were reopen before lockdown last weekend 659 cinemas had reopened 78% of cinemas have now reopened with most cinemas now from all of the major cinema chains with 164 independent cinemas still haven’t reopened. The reopening of cinema on July 4th was geared to major exhibitors leaving independent cinemas struggling until grants from the BFI before they were able to reopen with reduced capacity to follow the new safety measures. Independent cinemas are solely reopening with more opening over the next few months, surely the industry should have worked together to open all cinemas at the same time and the UK Cinema Association should have been as concerned with independent cinemas as they are with the major exhibitors?
UK cinemas have now been open for 12 weeks with box office up 1,277.6% from £189,000 to £2,603,624 but with 1,495% more screens open than first weekend (from 42 cinemas+ drive-ins (460 screens) to 670 cinemas+ drive-ins (5,401 screens up 1,075%) last weekend) (Tenet took 30.6% of the weekends box office, last year #1 Downtown Abbey (£3,280,442) 27.7%
Week 1 £189,000 from 460 screens (73 cinemas) 141 films on release
Week 2; Up 76.2% £333,002 (182 films) from 1,059 screens (123 cinemas 85 from the UK the rest from Ireland and drive-ins) up 130.2%; The Empire Strikes Back (40th Anniversary opening with £50,406 from 1012 screens)
Week 3: Down 7.5% £308,154 (191 films) from 151 cinemas and 1,286 screens up 21.4%
Week 4: Up 30.7% £402,752 (214 films) from 185 cinemas and 1,734 screens Up 34.8%
Week 5: Up 61.8% £651,914 (218 films) from 3,016 screens (326 cinemas reopened) up 74%; Unhinged opened with £175,263 from 243 screens)
Week 6: Down 17.4% £538,716 (236 films) from 338 cinemas and 3,393 screens up 12.5%: American Pickle opened with £27,732 from 162 screens
Week 7: Up 85.2% £997,837 (269 films) from 366 cinemas; Inception: 10th Anniversary opened £207,675 from 313 screens
Week 8: Up 10.9% £1,107,153 (264 films) from 3,889 screens (491 cinemas) up 21.5%
Week 9: Up 462.2% £6,224,288 (204 films) from 3, 856 (629 cinemas); Tenet opened with 85.7% (£5,335,654)
Week 10: Down 39.8% £3,746,637 (198 films) 658 cinemas (198 films on release; 487 England
Week 11: Down 25% £2,812,496 from 5,522 screens
Week 12: Down 7.4% £2,603,624 from 5,401 screens
This time last year UK box office was 78% more taking £11,824,111; top three took 65.4% (£6,933,258) of the top 10 (£10,591,748); Downtown Abbey 30.9% (£3,280,442); Ad Astra 21.4% (£2,265,387); It Chapter Two 13.1% (£1,387,429);
In Tenet’s opening week UK box office was £7.85m 50% down from what it took the same weekend last year (£17m) and the last weekend of August is normally a soft weekend being the last weekend of the summer holidays and a weekend distributors would dump films out. So with the release of Tenet, the biggest film to be released the last weekend of August for 20 years should have been much closer to last years box office levels especially as the opening included £2m from previews.
However, the industry tries to twist Tenet box office it underperformed but it was always likely to do so and industry needs to take responsibility for behaving like a bull in a china shop still going forward with the reopening on July 4th when all the research said people weren’t going to be returning for months. This failure goes to the highest levels of management with the industry who would have been heralded as heroes if Tenet were a success but should take the blame that it’s not.
A month ago UK cinemas launched their Love Cinema campaign and last week BIFA launched a similar campaign for independent cinema.
Do either of these make people want to go back to the cinema, as surely the best way to get people back into the cinema habit and showing them that it can’t be replicated at home who I always think the best trailer to show off the power of the cinema experience is the 1997 Star Wars re-release trailer… “for an entire generation, people have experienced Star Wars the only way it’s been possible on the TV screen, but if you have only seen it this way, you haven’t seen it at all”… “See it again for the first time”
After 35 weeks 2020 box office had taken 282m about 30% of the UK box office at the same time in 2018 and 2019; the remaining films of the year expected to attract big audiences are Death on the Nile, Black Widow, No Time To Die, Soul, Crood 2, Soul, Peter Rabbit 2 and Wonder Woman 1984 but many of these are expected to be delayed.
There are now big questions over if MGM/Universal Pictures can take the risk to open No Time To Die in November, while the promotional partners marketing campaign launched this week with Nokia launching their new James Bond phone.
The problem for the studios is that while they were the first to delay No Time To Die in March to November since then-rival studios have delayed many of their 2020 releases to 2021 and it will be extremely hard to find a similarly strong date. As February have either Externals or Black Widow along with The King’s Man. April F9, May Shang- Chi or Externals and Cruella, June Jurassic World: Dominion, Luca and Top Gun: Maverick, July Jungle Cruise, August The Suicide Squad October The Batman, November Spider-Man sequel, Fantastic Beasts 3 and Mission Impossible 7.
The problem the studios have is that delaying the film for a second time will be getting very expensive as it was weeks away from opening when cinemas shut in March as so it’s marketing was moving into fifth gear, it’s currently moving through the gears again now and only have a few weeks before they will have to open in November.
The problem the studios also have is that No Time To Die box office will be compared with the previous Daniel Craig films being his final film and that it’s the first at a new studio after the previous four were released by Sony.
The last four Daniel Craig James Bond films have taken over £300m at the UK after Spectre took £95,183,468 and Skyfall took £102,816,893 in normal circumstances No Time To Die would be expected to take upwards of £90m.
10pm curfew starts on Thursday which could run for up to 6 months but cinemas will still be allowed to have screenings until 10pm but with audiences dropping off over the last 4 weeks and not likely to improve until if Death on the Nile, Black Widow and No Time To Die will exhibitors keep all their cinemas open? The question is if these films were to be delayed where would they go as 2021 is crowded with many delated releases joining already dated releases, if No Time To Die was delayed the big question is where it could be moved to, for Disney with their Marvel and animation films it’s easier as they would just shift back them to the next date.
The Chinese box office is getting close to pre-lockdown levels with the huge success of The Eight Hundred and even though Chinese cinemas were closed between January and August China could overtake the US to be the biggest global territory this year.
International BO could have done similar had they waited as long as China did to reopen and brought in far stricter safety measures from the start and the loosened them as people felt more comfortable. Instead, UK and US probably won’t get back to pre-lockdown levels until 2022?
The short-term loss for long-term gain only need to see how China implemented far stricter safety measures when they reopened, and people returned at far higher numbers than the US or UK and capacity is being increased to 75% now.
US Box Office
- Tenet – Warner Bros
Down 40% in its third weekend taking $4.7m and $36.1m total (14% of total worldwide box office) Tenet is expected to take about $80m.
Tenet opened in 2,930 screens three weeks ago adding 20 screens in its third weekend mostly drive-in cinemas which were the highest performing cinemas. Ahead of opening Tenet Warner Bros refused to let drive-in cinemas to play the film in drive-in cinemas in states regular cinemas were closed.
After Warner Bros realised Tenet won’t be playing in Los Angles and New York movie theatres anytime soon and drive-in cinemas had the highest sales of all cinemas since the restart they allowed drive-in cinemas to show Tenet and of course, they were the strongest perfuming cinemas
Warner still hasn’t released any official daily box office for Tenet over its three weeks
While normally a 30% drop would be very impressive for a film Tenet started at such a low point and it’s dropped over the last two weekends have been bigger than The New Mutants which received terrible reviews and much worse word of mouth and negative media coverage for the last two years.
If Tenet had the legs the industry expects with Warner always saying it’s a marathon, not a sprint and expect Tenet to play for months not weeks, should be having a minimal weekly drop. With no releases from studios for 5 weeks, it needs to hold far stronger than it is currently as otherwise in 4 weeks it will be #1 taking less than $1m.
Have been many articles asking what exhibitors need to do to get people happy to go back to the cinema again, but exhibitors know exactly what they need to do as discussed what was required in Deadline article in April. Far tougher safety measures at the restart including MERV-13 filters, temperature scanners Adam Aron said he was ‘pricing out’ checkboard seating and masks mandatory at all times if you must eat you are given an inflatable face shield.
The short-term loss for long-term gain only need to see how China implemented far stricter safety measures when they reopened, and people returned at far higher numbers than the US or UK and capacity is being increased to 75% now.
While temperature scanners might not individually be effective they are a visible way for people to see businesses are doing all they can to keep customers safe, why people feel safer going into hairdresser or beauty salons than the cinema. Temperature scanners are part of the solution along with face mask and checkboard seating.
It was predictable exhibitors current safety measures wouldn’t make the majority feel safe going back to the cinema anytime soon as it was predictable the Tenet experiment was going to fail. If a studio is going to risk opening another major release before November exhibitors need to go much further on safety measures or else shut down again till late 2021.
9th biggest film of 2019 between The Gentlemen and Fantasy Island; 2,394th biggest film in the US between Breakin’ and Walking with Dinosaurs; 392nd biggest Warner Bros film between Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Just Mercy; 3,359th biggest inflation inflated between Mile 22 and Nightcrawler.
Took $505k from 293 IMAX screens in the US 24% drop and $4.6 total; 13% of the total box office; top sites Orange County: Regal Irvine Spectrum, AMC The Block in Orange and Regal Yorba Lind
The top 10 markets: Los Angeles (Orange County), Dallas, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Toronto, Greater New York (New Jersey and Connecticut), Houston, Atlanta, and San Diego.
On Friday Warner Bros announced they were delaying Wonder Woman 1984 from October 2nd to December 25th opening week after Dune, this will probably see Tenet stay #1 for 9 weeks (if Black Widow keeps it’s November 6th date) the longest since Home Alone in 1990 (held #1 for 12 weeks third-longest); the two longest ever #1 1982’s Tootsie and 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop 13 weeks and 1997’s Titanic 15 weeks.
Warner moving Wonder Woman 1984 a week after Dune makes me think of when Fox opened Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel a week after Avatar fearing it might flop as despite reaction to Dune trailer this week it does feel like potentially another Blade Runner 2049 as Tenet has become. As before Avatar opened in December 2009 critics and websites predicted the film would be a huge flop, this was similar to the predictions before Titanic was released in 1997 as both films went over budget and were delayed over 6 months from the original release date.
Studios have in the past opened two major films close to each other, but they are normally targeting different demographics but Wonder Woman 1984 opening a week after Dune are likely to cannibalize each other.
Often a studio will delay a film to open the film either a week before or after another and then would delay the other film, but feel that Warner has seen Tenet perform similar to Denis Villeneuve‘s Blade Runner 2049, a film that received positive reviews and was compared to the original which alienated non-fans and are concerned Dune might perform similarly.
Following on from Sony Pictures announcement two weeks ago that they wouldn’t be releasing any major films until more cinemas reopen, they predictable announced the release of animated Connected would be delayed from October leaving Death on the Nile in 5 weeks as the next film to be released by a major studio, but both Death on the Nile and Black Widow are expected to be delayed over the next few weeks. This would see the new horror from Blumhouse Productions Freaky, No Time To Die and The Croods: A New Age as the next three major releases.
So after Tenet underperforms even with the huge media coverage surrounding it for months taking a third of what could have taken if delayed, the solution is to open more similar-sized films that will likely perform even worse as Coronavirus cases are dramatically increasing across Europe.
While Warner and Disney played out a $1bn game of chicken with Tenet and Mulan since the start of lockdown in March. At the start of the year, these two films could have taken $2bn+ between then, but now they will likely take a quarter as much. Universal, Paramount and Sony Pictures went for different approach delaying many of their films a year to 2021.
This is all on Christopher Nolan, movie theatres shouldn’t have reopened before October his delusion of grandeur in wanting to be the saviour of cinema will be a very costly decision for the industry and many of its employees causing long-term damage that will affect all of 2021
With $200m+ budget Tenet will need to take $500m+ worldwide to turn a profit; Dunkirk took $520m WW; Interstellar $654m WW: The Dark Knight Rises $1.08bn WW; Inception $834m WW; The Dark Knight $1bn WW: Batman Begins $359m WW; Insomnia $114m WW.
Took $29.7m from 52 territories (down 20.5% from last weekend) $214m total and $250.1m worldwide; China $60.6m (24.2%); UK $18.2m (7.3%); France $15.6m (6.2%); Germany $12.9m (5.2%); Korea $11.9m (4.7%); opened with $4.3m in Japan more than both Dunkirk and Interstellar.
Took $3.5m in IMAX from 782 screens in 43 markets 11% of the total box office taking $24.4m globally worldwide from IMAX 11% of the total global box office (IMAX tickets are up to three times the average ticket price).
In China Tenet dropped 45.6% in its third weekend taking $5.6m and $60.6m it has underperformed in China as Mulan has done (dropping 72.5% in its second weekend taking $6.34m and $36.08m) with The Eight Hundred still #1 after it’s fifth weekend taking %17.7m dropping 14.1% and $425m.
We will of course never know if Tenet and Mulan would have performed much better away from The Eight Hundred and separate from each other. The game of chicken played by both Warner and Disney with Tenet and Mulan has been very costly for both studios as neither will be happy with the results as both films will end up taking about a third of what they could have done.
Tenet is the 5th biggest film of the year in the world after 1) Bad Boys For Life $424.61m; 2) The Eight Hundred $336.35m; 3) Sonic the Hedgehog $306.76m.
393rd biggest international film between Bolt and Back to the Future Part II; 3rd biggest film internationally in 2020 between Bad Boys For Life and Dolittle; 69th biggest Warner Bros film internationally between Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and The Lego Movie
617th biggest film worldwide between The Peanuts Movie and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip; 104th biggest Warner Bros film worldwide between Space Jam and Journey to the Center of the Earth; (Batman Begins #71; Dunkirk #26; Inception #21; The Dark Knight #6; The Dark Knight Rises #3
- The New Mutants – Disney/Fox
Dropped 22% in its fourth weekend taking $1.61m and $17.74m total
The 15 20th Century Fox X-Men films have taken over $2.56bn in the US; $2.8bn international and $6.05bn worldwide; X-Men films were the 7th biggest franchise series worldwide after MCU, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Spider-Man, James Bond, and Batman.
3,889th biggest film between The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Mr Holmes; 4,684th biggest inflation inflated between Show Dogs and The Weather Man; 14th biggest film of 2020 between The Photograph and Underwater; 96th biggest comic-book movie between Astro Boy and Brightburn; 2nd biggest 20th Century Studios film after The Call of the Wild and 421st biggest 20th Century Fox film between The Boston Strangler and For the Boys
Took 52m from 38 territories $17.3m total and $35m worldwide; France $2.6m; UK $1.7m; Mexico $1.6m; Spain $1.3m; Russia $1m; still to open in Croatia, Israel, Middle East, Slovenia, Brazil, Japan and China.
3,830th biggest film internationally between Dark City and Wolf Creek; 28th biggest 2020 film internationally between Emma. And Greenland; 99th biggest comic-book film between BrightBurn and The Powerpuff Girls;
3,889th biggest film worldwide between Blank Check and Norm of the North; 14th biggest film worldwide between Fantasy Island and Like A Boss; 100th biggest comic-book film between The Shadow and The Phantom; 341st biggest 20th Century Fox film worldwide between The Hate U Give and That Thing You Do!.
UK Box Office Top 10
Added two more columns to my box office, average admissions per screen and average admissions per performance, the later rough guess of 9 shows a weekend for most films as Tenet would have three on average per day but Bill & Ted Face the Music could have 5, but then Bill ^ Ted is playing on 569 cinemas but Tenet is playing in 616 cinemas but still probably over 2,000 screens. Not having exact data only what is freely available these numbers are probably much bigger than they really are.
The UK this weekend
Tenet has it’s the first challenge to #1 with it likely to drop 30%+ again in its fifth weekend taking £550k and After We Collided will expand to over 500 screens (over the last two weekends it’s box office has increased as it expanded from 42 screens to 454 screens) but it will probably see a slight decline which will both films taking similar box office.
Whilst the rest of the box office will be soft as Bill & Ted Face to Music will have a steep drop-off as will The New Mutants, while there aren’t any films likely to enter the top 10 Rocks should push itself into the top 5 as it expands further which will probably also see Onward return back into the top 5; Onward took £85,058 over the weekend in its 15 weeks of cinema release over 29 weeks. After lockdown, the film was available on VOD and then was released on video in June but still, people are choosing to see the film in the cinema.
Exhibitors who worry about PVOD should see Onward and Trolls World Tour (taking £27,172 in its 12th week and £841,650) that if it’s a film people want to see in the cinema they will see it ion the cinema no matter if it’s available on PVOD or video.
UK Coming Soon
- On the Rocks – A24
Comedy-drama starring Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, and Marlon Wayans and written and directed by Sofia Coppola received a world premiere at New York Film Festival in September; released in cinemas on October 2nd before being released on Apple TV om October 23rd.
Bill Murray previously starred in Sofia Coppola’s 2003 Lost in Translation which opened in the UK with £797,071 but had exceptionally long legs taking £9,865,162 12.4x opening. The 11th longest legged film at the UK box office after The Full Monty, Sense and Sensibility, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Slumdog Millionaire, East Is East, Titanic, Gosford Park, Emma, The King’s Speech and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
On the Rocks received critical acclaim after premiering at the New York Film Festival this week but is likely to struggle to find an audience as many of these types of films do now, as it’s doubtful a film like Lost in Translation would take anywhere nearly as much or play as long as it did back in January 2004.