Top 5 Breakdown

1. Bridget Jones’s Baby – £6,453,799 – £21,219,529

Down 22.9% in its second weekend after taking a strong £6.65m Mon-Thurs thanks to strong word of mouth and limited competition taking £14.77m in its opening week. In comparasion Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie took £7.46m in its opening 7 days in July which dropped 42.3% in its second weekend due to much tougher competition.

Will likely hold top again this weekend against Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children and Deepwater Horizon both aimed at different audiences to Bridget Jones’s Baby but will face much tougher competition targeting same demographics with The Girl on the Train out in two weeks.

The comparisons with the previous two films is impossible given its 12 years since Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason;

In 2004 Bridget Jones Edge of Reason took £5.01m in its second weekend dropping 52% but only 29% not including previews having taken £20.69m took £15.64m in its opening week (including previews). Bridget Jones’s Baby will likely last a week longer than Edge of Reason at #1 as it dropped to #2 with The Incredibles opening with £9.75m dropping 40% taking £3.01m and total of £27.01m.

In 2001 Bridget Jones Diary dropped 25.5% in its second weekend taking £4.26m and £14.78m total; taking £10.5m in its opening week. Dropping 17.6% in its third weekend.

Impossible to compare the performance of those two films by box office so admissions they compare using £4.14 average ticket price in 2001, £4.49m in 2004 and £7.66 for 2016 up 6.5% from average ticket prices Cinema Exhibitors Association claimed to be for 2015.

Bridget Jones Diary – 3,570,048 (£14.78m)

Bridge Jones: Edge of Reason – 4,608,017 (£20.69m)

Bridget Jones’s Baby – 2,770,173 (£21.21m)

Bridget Jones’s Baby admissions are 39.8% less than Edge of Reason and 22.4% less than Bridget Jones Diary.

Using the same CEA data inflated the box office of Bridget Jones Diary after 10 days is £25.2m and Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason £33.1m compared with Bridget Jones’s Baby £21.03m 10-day total. In reality a lot more as while £4.14 and £4.49 were close to average cinema prices in 2001 and 2004 the claimed £7.21 average price for 2015 is probably 35% less than real average ticket prices for Bridget Jones’s Baby as the majority of its audience would be over 16.

 

	R-Date	OWE	2WE	Drop	3WE	Drop	4WE	Drop
Bridget Jones Diary	13 April 2001	£5.72	£4.26	25%	£3.5	18%	£2.77	21%
Bridget Jones: EOR	12 Nov 2004	£10.4	£5.04	29%*	£3.0	40%	£1.69	44%
Bridget Jones’s Baby	16 Sept 2016	£8.11	£6.25	22%	£3.7*	40%	£1.66*	45%
50 Shades of Grey	13 Feb 2015	£13.2	£4.56	66%	£2.2	51%	£1.06	53%

Opening with no competition Bridget Jones Baby was always expected to opening strongly with positive reviews and stronger word of mouth than Edge of Reason was expected to hold well especially as the major new release in its second weekend The Magnificent Seven wasn’t targeting its audience demographic. Similarly, for weekend three Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is targeting families and teens while Deepwater Horizon similar male audience of The Magnificent Seven. But The Girl on the Train opening in four weeks’ time will be targeting its audience as it tries to repeat the success of Gone Girl which opened exactly two years ago with a very similar marketing campaign but will lightning strike twice and with audiences tired of reboots and remakes just see The Girl on the Train as a clone of Gone Girl?

2. Magnificent Seven – £2,132,609 – NE

 2D £1,826,687 – IMAX £177,857

Despite being the Magnificent Seven, performed more like the Magnificent One similar to Denzel Washington’s last film The Equalizer which opened the same weekend in 2014 with £1.87m it also failed to top the box office due to another Working Title production Billy Elliot: Live.

Denzel Washington films in recent years have had steady openings harder to compare with other similar actors as the with the exception of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and The Manchurian Candidate all have been original films. The Magnificent Seven opening must be seen as disappointing as despite its ensemble cast it failed to beat Denzel Washington’s 2012’s Safe House opening of £2.14m which is his biggest opening in the UK.

Next for Denzel Washington is Fences in which he also directs his third film after 2002’s Antwone Fisher and 2007’s The Great Debaters neither film had much of a theatrical release in the UK. He starts shooting The Equalizer 2 next September which will be his first sequel.

With a film featuring an ensemble cast would expect it to play to a wider audience; George Clooney led the ensemble cast in Ocean trilogy cast Denzel Washington does in The Magnificent Seven.

 

Ocean’s 11	15 February 2002	£5.09m	£24.87m
Ocean’s 12	4 February 2005	£3.39m	£12.03m
Ocean’s 13	8 June 2007	£3.02m	£13.08m

The wide releasing starring roles he starred in directly after.

 

Solaris	28 February 2003	£313,804	£663,508
Syriana	3 March 2006	£864,796	£3.55m
Michael Clayton	28 September 2007	£601,196	£1.27m

His co-star Brad Pitt had better success with films released after with Troy in 2004 with £6.01m, Mr and Mrs Smith in 2005 with £3.94m but not so well after Ocean’s 13 with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford in 2007 opening with £180,886 from 61 screens.

With Magnificent Seven while film top-lined Denzel Washington for many after the massive success of The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World in recent years have expected Chris Pratt would have helped to expand the audience for the film far more than it did? While the majority of the posters had Denzel Washington leading the cast some including one used by Vue Cinemas in an email had Chris Pratt leading the cast.

As The Magnificent Seven opened only 5% more than The Magnificent One aka The Equalizer released 2 years ago what did the other six bring to the film?

After starring in massive global hits The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World which have taken over $1.4 billion combined over the last 3 years would have expected Chris Pratt would have expanded the audience of The Magnificent Seven to more than just a Denzel Washington film which is how it as performed?

Asking the question is Chris Pratt a bankable actor yet; we will find out in December when he stars alongside Jennifer Lawrence in Passengers who similarly has starred in massive franchises (The Hunger Games took $1.4 billion and the X-Men reboot trilogy took $1.6 billion) making her the current highest paid actress. But neither have yet to open a film as similar to Chris Pratt has starred in ensembles Silver Linings Handbook, American Hustle and Joy but had the support of other actors with Passengers it’s just the two of them in what many have described as Titanic in space after the first trailer was finally released last week. Passengers which opens a week after Star Wars Rogue One while Disney recently said it won’t match the heights of Star Wars The Force Awakens last year it will still have a strong comic-book sized opening.

 3. Kubo and the Two Strings – £506,120 – £2,332,783

2D took £476,157 – total £2,126,723 – 3D took £3,276 total £168,133

Down 20.1% in its third weekend but climbing two places in the chart would normally be seen as an incredible achievement but this was more due to the massive drops of the films above it last weekend Blair Witch and The Beatles: Eight Days a Week.

As previous Lakia’s animations have held far stronger would have expected with the rave reviews Kubo and the Two Strings received and the success original animation has had in 2016 would have done far better against Finding Dory which had been out over 6 weeks by the time of opening.

Instead, Kubo and the Two Strings has taken less than half The Boxtrolls had taken in 2014 £4.94m which only dropped 15% in its third weekend taking 135% more £1,129,481. While ParaNorman in 2012 dropped only 11% in its third weekend but Coraline in 2009 did drop 67% in its third weekend but faced far tougher competition with the arrival of Night at the Museum 2; The Boxtrolls took £8.5m in 2014, ParaNorman took £6.3m in 2012 and Coraline £7.43m in 2009

Kubo and the Two Strings faces tough competition against the quirky Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children will see it drop down the charts.

4. Finding Dory – £461,285 – total £41,276,476

2D took £436,725 – total £36,796,881 – 3D took £1,558 – total £4,456,016

Down only 9.3% in its ninth weekend climbing up three places due to Finding Dory holding strongly while the other films dropped far more.

Last year in its ninth weekend Inside Out took a similar £436,111 holding in fifth having taken £37.36m. If Finding Dory holds similar in the upcoming weeks as Inside Out it could add £1.6m+ to its box office with a final box office of about £43m which would only be £3m behind the years current highest grossing film The Jungle Book.

Disney will definitely have at least one more £40m+ box office earner this year with Star Wars Rogue One with Doctor Strange and Moana likely to take £30m+.

5. The Girl With All the Gifts – £432,529 – NE

Despite strong reviews had a disappointing opening; the film shot in Birmingham starring Gemma Arterton. Being released by Warner Bros helped to generate strong media coverage giving it a much wider release than it would normally likely have if an independent distributor might have given it and despite a slow week of films failed to make much impact on the box office.

With similar themed Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children out this weekend it’s unlikely to stay in cinemas for long but will be one of those many films audiences will end up discovering on home entertainment.

Other box office news:

The BFG – eOne – £44,689 – £29,790,697 – climbs back into the top 10 after a week out in its tenth weekend as it inches its way towards £30m to be the eighth film to take £30m in the UK in 2016.

After disappointing in the US in July many were surprised with its success in the UK but The BFG is as beloved as Paddington was always likely to perform far better in the UK.

Opening the weekend before Finding Dory was vital for its success had opened weekend after would have been cannibalized as was in US by Finding Dory; will be Steven Spielberg’s first film since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull in 2008 to of taken over £30m in the UK (£39.7m) and so close to overtaking 2005’s War of the Worlds £30.36m. With half-term in a few weeks’ time eOne may hope to squeeze out a few more pounds to beat it.

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This weekend’s top 10 box office took £11,162,139 down 11.9% from last weekend £12,670,555; weekend admissions 1,457,193.

The weekend was up 60.1% from same weekend last year (£6,969,646) when Miss You Already £467,924 and Solace £340,515, Captive £52,227, 99 Homes £39,559, Life £36,000, McFarland £13,000 opened.

Next weekend 2015: The Martian £6,522,453, Macbeth £746,642, The Intern £732,184 and The Walk £157,597 opened.

After calculating admissions for Bridget Jones’s Baby against Bridget Jones Diary and Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason as being 12 and 14 years after they were released they can’t be compared by their box office would add admissions to my box office chart. The average ticket price using is £7.66 which would see it as a 6.5% increase from Cinema Exhibitors Association average ticket price of £7.21 for 2015 which was a 7.3% increase from 2014.

Complete UK Box office top 10 – September 23^rd – 25^th 2016

US Box Office

1. Sony Pictures – Magnificent Seven – opens with $34.7m; receiving A- CinemaScore after receiving mixed reviews from critics; opening was similar to Denzel Washington’s last film The Equalizer which opened with $34.1m would have expected a stronger opening benefiting from the other Magnificent Six including Chris Pratt.

2. Warner Bros – Storks – opens $21.8m; receiving A- CinemaScore and mixed reviews opening was far less than was tracking to open with; opening was less than half of last year’s Hotel Transylvania 2 opened same weekend last year and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 opening with $34.1m in 2013, Hotel Transylvania opened with $42.5m in 2012. But in 2014 The Equalizer opened top ahead of The Boxtrolls with $17m.

3. Warner Bros – Sully – drops 36.1% – $13.8m – $92.3m; has overtaken Tom Hanks last film Bridge of Spies $72m released last October and 2013’s Saving Mr Banks $83.3m and should overtake Captain Philips $107.1m in the next two weeks;

4. Universal Pictures – Bridget Jones’s Baby – dropped 47.3% – $4.5m – $16.4m; after 10 days Bridget Jones Diary had taken $25.3m in 2001 and Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason $21.5m in 2004.

5. Open Road – Snowden – dropped 48.2% – $4.1m – $15.1m

6. Lionsgate – Blair Witch – dropped 58.8% – $3.9m – $16.1m: hard to compare with original Blair Witch Project in 1999 as in its second weekend of expansion added 1,000 screens having taken $80.1m; while Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 had taken $23.1m after 10 days one positive for Blair Witch is it didn’t drop as heavily.

7. Screen Gems – Don’t Breathe – dropped 32.6% – $3.8m – $81.1m;

8. Warner Bros – Suicide Squad – dropped 33.9% – $3.1m – $318.1m; will overtake Iron Man’s US box office in days climbing into the top 50 highest grossing films in the US; incredibly despite all the negativity surrounding its release is still in the top 10 8 weeks after opening; is the eighth biggest film of the year taking almost double #9 film Jason Bourne which has taken $161.3m;

9. Screen Gems – When the Bough Breaks – dropped 54.4% – $2.5m – $26.6m;

10. Focus – Kubo and the Two Strings – dropped 56.6% – $1.1m – $45.9m; 2014’s The Boxtrolls had taken $48.6m after 6 weeks, ParaNorman $52.6m in 2012 but far less than Coraline which had taken $69.2m in 2009; Kubo and the Two Strings box office performance must be seen as disappointing after receiving rave reviews and limited competition.

 Also opened

Disney – The Queen of Katwe– $305,000 from 52 screens; receiving positive reviews opening was slightly disappointing as would have expected an opening of more than double. As Café Society opened in July in only 5 screens taking $359,289.

The film expands to 1,500 screens this weekend which was far too quick expansion for a film like this as it needed a far slower release to build awareness and buzz as many other films have suffered recently expanding far too quickly.