Top 5 Breakdown
- Spider-Man: Homecoming – £9,369,166 – NE
However, you spin Spider-Man: Homecoming UK opening as its US opening it must be disappointing but still, it’s been heralded by the media and Sony Pictures as a triumphant return. But as with its US opening which I go into much more detail below the UK opening must be seen for what it is if you compare it to previous comic-book movies and the last five Spider-Man films.
While Spider-Man: Homecoming had the sixth biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe opening in the UK behind Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers Assemble, Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Must be seen as direct sequel to Captain America: Civil War which is how Marvel has described the film rather than the first part of a new Spider-Man film series
Spider-Man: Homecoming opening was inflated with two days of previews taking £2.6m; just looking at its previews you can see issue if you compare previews of the other films Spider-Man £3,523,198 from 492 previews, Spider-Man 2 £1,571,001 from 498 previews, The Amazing Spider-Man £4,326,524 from 551 previews and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 £2,882,230 from 446 previews. Spider-Man: Homecoming had previews in 25% more screens but they took more of only Spider-Man 2 £1,571,001.
Then you compare average ticket price if you believe UK Cinema Association and BFI ticket price has increased from £4.29 in 2002 to £7.61 a rise 77.4% but if you trust your own instinct they are up over 120%. Despite this Spider-Man: Homecoming opened with almost the same box office as Spider-Man which opened 15 years ago but with 962,212 less cinemagoers.
Normally a film would be given 7 days before the next blockbuster opens but with War for the Planet of the Apes opening today Spider-Man: Homecoming has tough competition to battle within a week which will see it likely drop heavily this weekend with 65% as its opening was inflated with two days of previews. Spider-Man: Homecoming is expected to drop 62% in its second weekend taking £3.5m £16.5m total after 12 days was originally expected the film to take over Spider-Man 3’s £33m but will perform similarly to all other Spider-Man films in the UK with £27m+ so unlike the US it will beat Wonder Woman’s £23m.
That said of course the following weekend War for the Planet of the Apes will have an equally high drop having 3 days of previews when Dunkirk opens against I which has been described as one of Christopher Nolan’s best films and gets a great performance from One Direction’s Harry Styles which the director compared to Heath Ledger.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is yet another film that has footage in the trailers which didn’t end up in the final film including some of the big scenes of the trailer which was close to Rogue One when they were later revealed they were shot only for the marketing and were never planned to be in the final film.
The Onion spoof review of Spider-Man: Homecoming leered at Tom Holland the same way many critics leered sexually at Gal Gadot for Wonder Woman.
- Despicable Me 3 – £5,275,120 – £19,578,209
Dropping 51.5% in its second weekend after taking £14.33m in its opening week with 78% taken over its opening weekend which is expected this time of the year with summer holidays still a couple of weeks away.
Despicable Me 3 is 15% down from Despicable Me 2 (£22.91m) but was inflated with £4,868,323 from previews and 7.1% down from Minions (£20.97m).
Despicable Me 3 will shortly overtake the final box office of Despicable Me £19.75m
Originally expected Despicable Me 3 to take £40m+ but now looking at slightly under this depends on how it holds against Cars 3 opening on Friday.
The six Illumination Entertainment films will shortly take £200m at the UK box office is more than the nine Dreamworks Animation films have taken for 20th Century Fox £174m with Captain Underpants still to be released but six of them were original animation films compared to only three for Illumination Entertainment.
Of course, from next year they become part of one big happy family along with Laika Entertainment at Universal Pictures. Both Dreamworks Animation and Illumination Entertainment upcoming slates are heavy on sequels How to Train Your Dragon 3, Trolls 2, The Boss Baby 2, Minions 2, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Sing 2 and soon to be added to that list Despicable Me 4.
- Baby Driver – £1,388,336 – £6,554,729
Down 61.1% in its second weekend (42% not including previews) was close to T2: Trainspotting second weekend drop of 43% targeting similar audience demographic.
Baby Driver has overtaken Edgar Wright’s 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World £5.08m and will shortly overtake 2004’s Shaun of the Dead and 2013’s The Worlds End but unlikely to get close to matching the box office of his biggest hit 2007’s Hot Fuzz.
As with its US second weekend would have expected Baby Driver to hold slightly better after the strong buzz, word of mouth and positive reviews but the key audience are fickle and will move quickly onto the next film Spider-Man: Homecoming so it’s strange Sony would put the two films in direct competition with them. With War for the Planet of the Apes opening today and then Dunkirk the following weekend the marketplace is getting crowded with Baby Driver likely to not be able to hold up against those other films.
- Transformers: The Last Knight – £440,822 – £8,961,918
Down 72.5% in its third weekend will likely end with £10.5m which is almost half the box office of Transformers: Age of Extinction. While it was always expected Transformers: The Last Knight would do poorly at the box office it wasn’t expected to do as badly as it has done.
Casting is currently happening for Bumblebee spinoff that’s set for release next June with Paramount still seemingly to go through on their threat to make 14 more Ttansformers films.
Paramount Pictures released 6 films taking £29.2m in the first 6 months of 2017 taking only 5.03% distributor share with only eOne, Entertainment Films and Studiocanal UK performing worse. They have four more films due for release in the UK for the rest of the year An Inconvenient Sequel, Mother!, Daddy’s Home 2 and Cloverfield 3.
While the first Daddy’s Home was a surprise hit it was a one hit wonder similarly Cloverfield 3 while the first film was a surprise the sequel underwhelmed and doesn’t help that as with 10 Cloverfield Lane they are opening Cloverfield 3 several weeks after the US. 2018 looks equally as sparse with Bumblebee and Mission Impossible 6 thier two major releases.
But as with Tom Rothman at Sony Pictures it took him 18 months to build up a slate of films which we are seeing now with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Baby Driver, and The Dark Tower will Jim Gianopulos be able to do similar in 15 months’ time? In the 80s Paramount were one of the biggest studios releasing many box office hits Raiders of the Lost Ark, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and much more.
The sadness thing is it didn’t need to be this way as in 2011 they were ‘king of the world’ the biggest studio in US and global but due to poor management decisions failed to buy Marvel when they had the chance before Disney but Viacom refused. Not treating Dreamworks with the respect it deserved losing both Dreamworks and Dreamworks Animation and swapping Jerry Bruckheimer for Indiana Jones rights who has yet to make a film for the studio but Disney have dated Indiana Jones 5. Since 2012 Paramount have been the worst performing studio while some of thier big franchises they failed to get off the ground Beverly Hills Cop 4 in development for years after the dreadful third film was dated for March 2016 but never got made. But the most shocking thing was as part of the deal for Warner Bros to distribute Interstellar Warner gave them full ownership for several years for Friday the 13th and South Park movies but this year those rights return back to Warner with no films made similarly planned to make a trilogy of Terminator films but after first flopped unlikely to make any more with rights returning shortly to James Cameron who will surely produce another Terminator film in the coming years. While of course the biggest failure for Paramount was Blockbuster rejecting to buy Netflix for $50m in 2000 Netflix now worth $67 billion Viacom $17 billion Blockbuster $0
https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/07/03/blockbusters-cmo-failure/
Whicb makes me quote the line from ending of Gladiator to Jim Gianopulos “we believed it once, make us believe it again”.
- Wonder Woman – £315,611 – £21,456,299
With the arrival of Spider-Man: Homecoming Wonder Woman was always expected to drop heavily but 65.3% was still less than Transformers: The Last Knight third weekend.
But while Wonder Woman has overtaken the box office of eight Marvel Extended Universe films in the UK (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: Winter Soldier and Ant-Man). Warner Bros UK must be disappointed that it couldn’t get close to the box office of DC Extended Universe Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad as it has done in the US.
As with The Mummy, the loss of the UK premiere of Wonder Woman canceled after the Manchester terrorist attacks at the end of the Ariana Grande concert affected both films momentum as their premieres would be central to their films marketing after months of planning the premieres both films lost a huge amount of media coverage. While film premieres don’t get the same media coverage they used to get Wonder Woman and The Mummy being the films they are would have likely received more than most.
Next, up for DC is Justice League opening the weekend after Paddington 2 Warner Bros will hope that all the positivity they have received with Wonder Woman after the negativity for Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad will continue. After a mixed reaction to the first Justice League trailer in March, the second is expected to be released in two weeks’ time at Comic-Con where Warner Bros will also likely announce more plans for future DC films.
Next up for Warner Bros is Dunkirk opening in two weeks’ time Christophe Nolan’s first film since 2014’s Interstellar which receives its world premiere in London this week.
Rumors have started with Wonder Woman 2 which recently was confirmed director Petty Jenkins would return as of course Gal Gadot that the film will be set in the 1980’s facing off against the forces of the Soviet Union. Wonder Woman 2 is likely to be released in summer 2020.
UK box office data
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £17,613,020 down 10.27% from last weekend £19,630,337
The weekend admissions 2,314,457 12.6% from last weekend 2,649,168 (but now into the second half of 2017 increased average ticket price to predicted increase by UK Cinema Association/BFI for the year up 2.7%. as inflation is 2.6% for May this will be the minimum 2017 average will be.
13 films opened at weekend taking £9,898,203; Spider-Man: Homecoming took 94.6% (£9,369,166); It Comes At Night 2.2% (£226,688) with the remaining xx films sharing £302,349 (3.05%)
Spider-Man: Homecoming took 53.2% of the top 10 box office
The weekend was up 8.02% from last year (£16,304,545): The Legend of Tarzan £3,570,350, Now You See Me 2 £2,964,641, Sultan £1,048,417, The Neon Demon £126,996, Maggie’s Plan £102,534.
Up 23.6% from 2015: (£14,239,396): Ted 2 £3,865,825, Love & Mercy £101,516 and Song of the Sea £56,679 opened.
Next weekend in 2016: (£15,261,672) Ghostbusters £4,378,842, Ice Age: Collusion Course £3,775,602, Dirty Dancing Secret Cinema £946,086, Keanu £13,700,
UK Box Office Top 10
US Box Office Top 10
US Box office
Sony Pictures – Spider-Man: Homecoming opens with $117m Sony Pictures described the opening as a “triumphant return” while Variety called it a “heroic US opening”. But how can an opening 1.9% more than 2002’s Spider-Man opening be anything but? As Marvel described the film as the second part of a five-picture arc which started with Captain America: Civil War last year and ends with Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 in July 2019. If this is correct Spider-Man: Homecoming should have been looking at an opening of at least $150m.
15 years ago, Spider-Man was finally released after a long development process which I went into detail about last week which ended with everyone suing each other before the film found its home at Sony Pictures. The film opened with $114.8m having the biggest opening of the year 30% bigger than the second biggest opener Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets $88.35m.
Spider-Man became the biggest film of 2002 taking $403.7m 18% more than second placed The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. In comparison Spider-Man: Homecoming is currently the third biggest opening of 2017 with Justice League, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Thor: Ragnarok also has Avenger cross-over as Spider-Man: Homecoming did it will likely see an increase on 2013’s Thor: The Dark World $85.73m opening so Spider-Man: Homecoming won’t have one of the top 5 biggest openings of the year.
After Wonder Woman continuing to hold strong in its sixth weekend there are doubts Spider-Man: Homecoming will take more than it currently taken $368.78m Wonder Woman will probably overtake Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to be the biggest comic-book film of the year until possibly Justice League if it can build on the positivity DC has received thanks to Wonder Woman.
So, Spider-Man: Homecoming openings $117m 1.9% more than Spider-Man but with 25%+ bigger budget and 50%+ more marketing and depending on who you believe either 50%+ or 100% ticket inflation. Using industry claimed ticket price increases it was $5.80 in 2002 now $8.65 up 50% which would see Spider-Man: Homecoming admissions 33% less than 2002’s Spider-Man or to put it into perspective close to 2004’s Spider-Man 2 opening of $88.15m.
So again, I ask how is Spider-Man: Homecoming a successful return, especially as Sony Pictures, have given up their merchandise rights to allow them to partner up with Marvel which turned the film into a two hour $175m advertisement for Disney paid for by Sony Pictures to sell far more lucrative merchandise.
Internationally Spider-Man: Homecoming opened with $140m taking a global box office of $257m opened in 60% of the overseas market with several more European countries and China still to come but as previous Spider-Man films weren’t hugely successful it’s unlikely Spider-Man: Homecoming will take Transformers: The Last Knight sized box office.
When the summer season started box office experts were predicting with two hands how many $1bn global hits there will be but it’s unlikely now there won’t be any while the drop in China box office is part of the reason the other was the predictable marketplace cannibalization of a Groundhog Day summer slate at the cinema where few films have been better than their predecessors.
Universal Pictures – Despicable Me 3 drops 53.1% taking $33.98m taking $149.18m; surprisingly Despicable Me 3 is performing most similar to the first film but with a bigger drop-off. Whereas Despicable Me 2 took $368.1m and Minions took $336.1m it’s unlikely Despicable Me 3 will get to $300m while still likely to be the year’s biggest animation it shows that in the US audiences are tiring of the franchise as with so many this summer could be up to 30% down from Despicable Me 2
After 10 days:
Despicable Me took $118.43m second w/e $32.80m (41.8% drop)
Despicable Me 2 took $228.37m second w/e $43.89m (47.4% drop)
Minions took $215.76m second weekend $49.27m (57.4% drop)
Internationally Despicable Me 3 took $139m (including $66m from China) now taken almost $300m internationally and a globally total of $450m. But it unlikely to match the global heights of Minions $1.15bn or Despicable Me 2 $970.8m but will by next week overtake the global box office of Despicable Me $543.1m.
Sony Pictures – Baby Driver drops 38% taking $12.7m and $56.88m; after the strong buzz and great reviews was expected to hold stronger in its second weekend slightly surprising Sony didn’t expand its release in its second weekend as its playing on similar number of screens as Wonder Woman and Transformers: The Last Knight.
After taking $30m at the box office last week Baby Driver was being described as the surprise hit of the summer but as for months, the film has been given that label it’s not really a surprise when it’s performing as expected.
Warner Bros – Wonder Woman drops 35.3% taking $10.13m and $368.78m;
After six weeks become the 10th biggest comic-book movie in the US overtaking Deadpool by next weekend should overtake Spider-Man 2 $373.5m and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 if Wonder Woman holds similarly over the next few weeks overtaking Spider-Man $403.7m, Captain America: Civil War $408.1m and Iron Man 3 $409.1m is still a possibility.
Deadpool celebrated Wonder Woman overtaking it at the US box office tweeting The Merc may be filthier, but her B.O. is stronger. Congrats #WonderWoman. Deadpool 2 is currently shooting and will be released June 1st, 2018
Wonder Man will likely be the biggest comic-book film of the summer as it’s unlikely Spider-Man: Homecoming will hold as strongly.
Has now taken $745.8m worldwide with $377m internationally; international box office overtaking Suicide Squad to be DC’s second biggest film globally behind Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice currently #80 biggest film in the world and will shortly overtake X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Amazing Spider-Man with Maleficent, Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool and incredibly Star Wars in its sight.
As with Alien: Covenant last week Wonder Woman climbed the chart of the most pirated films of the week thanks to pirate copies being sourced from China. Wonder Woman took $98m was its biggest international performer but of course the downside in opening your film in China is within weeks of opening pirates are available online next likely to appear are The Mummy and Transformers: The Last Knight.
Paramount Pictures – Transformers: The Last Knight dropped 62.7% taking $6.3m and $118.91m;
Internationally it has taken $375.7m for a worldwide total of $495m currently #173 biggest film in the world it could have trouble now getting to beat 2007’s Transformers global total of $709.7m which is a long way from Transformers: Dark of the Moon $1.12bn and Transformers: Age of Extinction $1.1bn.
Paramount Pictures still plan to continue the franchise with spinoff Bumblebee set for release next summer and then Transformers 6 for 2019 but they will need to reboot the franchise Michael Bay has said Transformers: The Last Knight was his final Transformers film but new Japanese animation show could be his inspiration for the reboot teen girls in lingerie who transform into robots with lingerie Henkei Shoujo
Lionsgate – The Big Sick expanded to 326 screens taking $3.65m up 120.9% taking $6.92m; The big Sick has received rave reviews with many describing it as the sleeper of the summer. The question is will it can stay in the top for long as The Beguiled dropped down two places in its third weekend of release despite adding 267 screens and having very possible reviews.
Are both films cannibalizing each other being an alternative the franchises these films need far more careful handling The Beguiled is now on that dangerous 941 screens will Focus Features hold or gamble to expand further? Similar to last August Hell or High Water had a similar platform release expanding to 472 screens in its second week strongly but third-weekend expansion to 909 screens wasn’t so positive but did still see an increase of 31.9% while The Beguiled saw a decrease of 34.1%
On limited release
A24 – A Ghost Story opens with $108,067 from 4 screens
Opened July 14th
Opening UK
- War For the Planet of the Apes – 20th Century Fox
The third part in the Planet of the Apes reboot series and sequel to the 2014 film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes directed by Matt Reeves starring Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Amiah Miller, Karin Konoval, Judy Greer, Sara Canning, and Terry Notary.
According to Rotten Tomatoes War For the Planet of the Apes is one of the best trilogy ending behind Toy Story 3, Before Midnight and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. But as Toy Story will soon have a fourth film and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly wasn’t planned as a trilogy which leaves Before Midnight as the best trilogy.
Opening Tuesday, July 11th to give it a six-day opening weekend. having an 6 day opening weekend it should top Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opened £8.70m with either Cars 3 or Spider-Man: Homecoming in second with Despicable Me 3 in fourth. But with another hot sunny weekend expected they could all be affected by the weather again that is, of course, an excuse given by exhibitors as Despicable Me 3 still managed to open strongly with the sun last weekend.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes opened August 2011 £5.83m taking £20.54m and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opened in July 2014 £8.70m taking £32.71m.
During the broadcast of Skyfall on ITV and Bridesmaids on Channel 4 on Saturday a TV spot with the “In every war, there are two sides. Whose side do you want to hear? Stay tuned for the human story on ITV, or witness the ape story on Channel 4 now.”
- Cars 3 – Disney
The third part in the Cars film franchise, and the sequel to 2011’s Cars 2 directed by Brian Fee featuring voices of Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger, Cheech Marin, Jenifer Lewis, Chris Cooper, Armie Hammer and Nathan Fillion.
Cars and Cars 2 have been average Pixar performers in the UK first opened July 2006 with £2.66m taking £16.1m and Cars 2 in July 2011 with £3.54m taking £15.09m.
Surprising Disney choose to open Cars 3 only three weeks after Opening the third weekend of Despicable Me 3 as The Secret Life of Pets took £3.62m in its third weekend; Disney choosing to wait until 6 weeks after to opening Finding Dory. As 4 years ago Disney released Monster University three weeks after Despicable Me 2 opening with a disappointing £3.46m Vs DM3 £2.22m third weekend similar is expected with Cars 3 Vs DM3.
Disney/Pixar have avoided direct opening of their tentpole animation films against Illumination Entertainment but in 2019 we will have the first battle with The Secret Life of Pets 2 opening two weeks after Toy Story 4 due to Disney’s live-action remake of The Lion King opening in July (which John Oliver has just recently be cast as Zazu; Originally Toy Story 4 was set for release this year so could have had a Despicable Me 3 Vs Toy Story 4 face/off.
The teaser for Cars 3 has been surprisingly scary but maybe this is being done on purpose to try to break out of the shadows of opening two weeks after Despicable Me 3 will likely be overshadowed as Monsters University was against Despicable Me 2 in 2013 £46.1m Vs £29.48m. Similarly Inside Out opened 45 weeks after Minions
As with Despicable Me 3 Cars 3 opening won’t be inflated with weekend previews probably because it’s the second weekend to Despicable Me 3 learning from the mistakes made by 20th Century Fox holding previews of Ice Age: Collision Course over the second weekend for The Secret Life of Pets
- The Beguiled – Universal Pictures
Drama starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning and written and directed by Sofia Coppola based on the novel The Beguiled by Thomas P. Cullinan. It’s a remake of 1971 directed by Don Siegel starring Clint Eastwood French critics heralded his best performance of his career but the film underwhelmed at the box office.
The film premiered on May 24, 2017, at the Cannes Film Festival with Coppola winning Best Director award becoming only the second woman to do so the film received positive reviews Sofia Coppola highlighted the female empowerment angle which its social media marketing has also done also.
In recent weeks, there have been several films targeting non-mainstream audiences most of which received positive reviews but have had mixed performance at the box office, Miss Sloane, Colossal, My Cousin Rachel, Wilson, Gifted, Churchill, The Book of Henry and Hampstead. My Cousin Rachel was the best performing opening with £0.63m taking £2.27m. While all those films cannibalized each other opening over following weeks The Beguiled has a two-week window before The Big Sick opens with Maudie, Step, An Inconvenient Sequel, Detroit and Patti Cake$ over the following weeks.
The question will be how wide will Universal open The Beguiled as distributors of the other alternative films released over the past 6 weeks opted to go wide in over 400 screens which is far too wide release for these films as with all of Sofia Coppola previous films apart from Marie Antoinette opened in less than 100 screens and then slowly expanded having a two-week window before the next art-house film could do similarly.
Opening in the US
- War For the Planet of the Apes – 20th Century Fox
The ninth Planet of the Apes film the first film released 39 years ago which had four sequels was rebooted in 2001 with Tim Burton directing receiving mixed reviews but still opened with $68.5m taking $180m.
In 2011 20th Century Fox rebooted the franchise a second time Rise of the Planet of the Apes directed by Rupert Wyatt which was both a critical and box office success opening with $54.8m taking $176.7m. Three years later Dawn of the Planet of the Apes directed by Matt Reeves was also a was both a critical and box office success opening with $72.6m taking $208.5m and $710m worldwide. Matt Reeves replaced Rupert Wyatt for the sequel instead went on to direct The Gambler as in 2012 the sequel was set for 2014 release and he didn’t think he had time to make the film properly. (he is currently directing Captive State due for release next summer).
Buzz for the film was very strong with 20th Century Fox screening the film almost a month before opening with the embargo ending more than two weeks before the film’s release date. Fox had done similar with X-Men: Apocalypse last summer and Alien: Covenant both times receiving mixed reviews but this time they knew they had a great film with incredible special effects that many expect to win Oscars next year.
After the two previous films opened between $54-$72m it was surprising early tracking was predicting $50-60m but with so many films this year tracking has failed badly as most expect to open between $70-$80m.
While War For the Planet of the Apes is the end of the trilogy last October it was announced a fourth film was planned.