1. Project Hail Mary £4,776,660 – £15,139,079

Dropped 35.2% (up 3% without previews) in its second weekend.

£1.2m 25.1% (-2.4% £1.23m) Fri; £1.89m 39.6% (+0.5% £1.88m) Sat; £1.68m 35.3% (+12.9% £1.49m) Sun; took £849k Mon

109^th biggest second between Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe and Titanic (close to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Gravity, Gladiator II and Spider-Man No Way Home) and 209^th biggest inflated second weekend between Mission: Impossible and The Golden Compass (close to Back to the Future Part II, Crocodile Dundee, The LEGO Batman Movie and Star Wars Special Edition).

6^th biggest second weekend over the last 52 weeks between Superman and Zootropolis 2 (close to Wuthering Heights, The Housemaid, Mission Impossible 8 and Jurassic World Rebirth).

Project Hail Mary has generated a lot of media coverage, including Ryan Gosling telling Hollywood it’s not cinemagoers’ job to keep cinemas open, it’s the film industry’s job to make films that are worth audiences going to the cinema. Ryan Gosling is a “one and done” actor; he doesn’t like sequels. While he has starred in Blade Runner 2049 and will star in Star Wars: Starfighter next year, he hasn’t starred in a sequel to a film he starred in, one of the many reasons why Warner Bros didn’t immediately announce Barbie 2 in 2023.

The one sequel he would have been interested in would have been The Nice Guys, but as the film flopped, Ryan recently blamed it flopping due to The Angry Birds Movie, but as with its predecessor Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the reason why The Nice Guys flopped was due to poor dating and as with the original it’s a film critics and cinephiles love but struggles to find a wider audience. It’s 10 years old from The Nice Guys, while we won’t have a sequel, we do have a third Angry Birds Movie.

Much has been written about how Project Hail Mary has held in its second weekend. While it has held very well, it’s not the first film to do so. Its strong hold isn’t a surprise: it had weeks of buzz before opening, positive reviews, strong word of mouth, and the “must-see it on the biggest screens” IMAX/PLF factor. It followed a well-worn path, the spiritual successor to The Martian and Gravity, films that were also heralded as “bringing adults back to cinema.”

But Project Hail Mary has received far more media attention than The Housemaid did three months ago, and that was a far bigger surprise. No one expected The Housemaid to take £10m. It took £32m. Without IMAX/PLF, it took $400m worldwide, 11 times its budget. For Project Hail Mary to perform similarly, it would need to take over $2.2bn worldwide.

The Housemaid did what Project Hail Mary did, but without the safety net, without the template, without the established genre, without the $200m budget, without the premium format surcharge, without the Super Bowl ad, without the global press tour. It just… worked. And the industry barely noticed.

The Martian and Gravity were celebrated as events. The Housemaid did the same thing—for a different audience, a different genre, a different budget tier—and was treated as a pleasant surprise, not a cultural event. Project Hail Mary is the story the industry wants to tell: a male-led sci‑fi epic with a $200m budget, IMAX, a bestselling book, and a director brand. The Housemaid is the story it doesn’t: a female-led thriller that made eleven times its budget with none of that.

One is celebrated as a triumph of original filmmaking. The other, a fluke. You don’t have to name the pattern for it to be obvious.

While Project Hail Mary has been heralded as an original film success, it would have never been made if The Martian hadn’t been a huge success in 2015, taking £23.6m in the UK, $631m worldwide and was an award winner. Project Hail Mary is a brand like Dunkirk, Oppenheimer, and The Odyssey are brands of Christopher Nolan; they aren’t original films, as a film like The Housemaid was that didn’t have the existing audience already in place. There have been many hugely successful novels that haven’t had successful film adaptations.

The real test for Project Hail Mary started on Wednesday when it lost most IMAX/PLF screens to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

The running time of Project Hail Mary of 2hr 36 mins is another reason why it’s held strongly in its second weekend especially on Saturday and Sunday as seen by its Mon-Thurs taking (£692k Mon; £757k Tuesday; £810k Wednesday and £695k Thursday, its steady but not spectacular as with a 3 hour running time with adverts and trailers most people wouldn’t see it on a school/work night, but now school holidays are on as seen by its 22% increase on Monday to £849k more people will see a longer film during the week when they are on holiday.

Ryan Gosling’s last film, 2024’s The Fall Guy, dropped 73.6% £948,970 and £6,708,809, 55.3% of £12,126,013; next year he returns to space in Star Wars: Starfighter. Ryan Gosling’s previous sci-fi films include 2018’s First Man, which dropped 45.1% £1,324,867 and £5,115,235 69.5% of £7,360,906, and 2017’s Blade Runner 2049 dropped 48.9% £3,098,872 and £12,184,828 64.4% of £18,918,361.

Second weekends

2015’s The Martian dropped 41% (21% without previews) £3,854,809/£4,282,527 #1 582 screens and £13,211,096 56.03% of £23,589,854; 3.61x opening

2013’s Gravity dropped 22% (14% without previews) £4,838,152/£5,934,701 #1 571 screens and £14,711,488 45% of £32,756,514; 5.24x opening

2021’s Dune dropped 44% (31% without previews), £3,312,159 #2 689 screens and £13,214,527 60.21% of £21,947,056; Dune took 3.73x opening

2024’s Dune Part 2 dropped 37% £5,851,155 #1 and £19,340,959 49.01% of £39,466,555

Took £1.58k 43.8% drop (£2.81m) Friday; £2.47k 29.6% drop (£3.51m) Saturday; £1.8m 30.78% (£2.96m)

2010’s Inception dropped 29% £4,172,568 #2 456 screens and £14,204,521 40.61% of £34,976,999 (£46,851,543 inflated); took 5.92x opening

2014’s Interstellar dropped 30% £3,777,804 #1 576 screens and £12,131,990 60.46% of £21,173,601; 3.73x opening

2016’s Arrival dropped 49% (42% without previews) £1,496,205 #2 571 screens and £5,782,996 63.24% of £9,144,719; 3.13x opening

2023’s Oppenheimer dropped 24% £8,222,657 #2 694 screens and £27,657,602 47.55% of £58.9m; took 5.37x opening

2007’s I Am Legend dropped 66% £3,740,369/£5,932,744 #1 458 screens and £18,469,146 72.86% of £25,348,532 (£39,754,529 inflated); 2.3x opening

2005’s War of the Worlds dropped 51% (44% without previews) £4,219,120/£7,175,191 #1 506 screens and £17,568,570 57.41% of £30,367,791/£51,386,687; 3.43x opening

2009’s Avatar dropped 55.01% £3,828,123/£5,636,630 and £18,404,659 19.57% of £93,442,625 (£136,900,316 inflated); 14.1x opening

2017’s Dunkirk down 17% £8,235,532 #1 663 screens and £27,017,724 47.74% of £56,797,955; 5.65x opening

Having IMAX screens is vital for films’ opening, as seen with Dune Part 3 holding its December release date despite Avengers: Doomsday moving to December. Everyone has expected Warner to move Dune part 3, but if they did, they wouldn’t get IMAX screens and be in a similar situation to Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, which was opening ahead of Oppenheimer.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller previously directed.

2012’s 21 Jump Street dropped 23.9% £1,184,044/£1,488,884 and £3,947,933 40% of £9,863,555/£12,402,995

2014’s The Lego Movie dropped 25.7% £5,978,904/£6,463,026 and £21,880,053 66.5% of £32,887,286/£39,200,470

2014’s 22 Jump Street dropped 53.5% £2,255,100/£2,437,699 and £9,771,503 53.3% of £18,322,998/£21,840,359. also directed 2009’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Ryan Gosling went viral when he met Elmo on Sesame Street; Elmo has had a long-standing feud with Zoe’s pet rock on Sesame Street, Rocco, as she treats the rock as her friend. Rocco first appeared in 1999.

• 2. The Magic Faraway Tree £2,838,248 – NE

Took £592k 20.93% Friday; £1.1m 38.9% Saturday; £1.36m 40.17% Sunday; £726k Mon

618^th biggest opening between We Live In Time and American Beauty (close to Horton Hears a Who, Sleepy Hollow, Eddie the Eagle and Lyle, Lyle Crocodile) and 989^th biggest inflated opening between Spy and Father of the Bride (close to Space Jam, The Muppets Christmas Carol, Lilo & Stitch (2002) and Flubber).

25^th biggest opening over the last 52 weeks between The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants and Weapons (close to Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Hamnet, Karate Kid: Legends and One Battle After Another).

13^th biggest opening for Entertainment Films between Lost in Space and Rush Hour 3 (close to Blade: Trinity, Seven, Gangs of New York and 17 Again) and 37^th biggest inflated opening between St. Trinian’s and He’s Just Not That Into You (close to Highlander 2: The Quickening, Around the World in 80 Days, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Super Mario Brothers).

It’s Entertainment Films biggest opening since 2014’s The Inbetweeners Movie 2 (£12,538,114), showing how the independent distributor has struggled over the last decade after losing its New Line output deal and a much more competitive marketplace for independent films in the UK with the deeper pockets of Lionsgate, Studiocanal and eOne, who acquired multiple territories rights.

While The Magic Faraway Tree is a beloved Enid Blyton book, (her books have sold over 600m copies worldwide and are one of the top 10 best-selling authors of all time, alongside Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, and J.K. Rowling) and its screenplay written by Simon Farnaby (previously wrote Wonka and Paddington 2 scripts, and TV shows Horrible Histories and Ghosts), there was a question over if it will play to audiences.

While it is a portal fantasy where children discover a whole other world, like CS Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it could be a bit too quaint and old fashioned and play to adults who grew up on the books and not their children as 2016’s Swallows and Amazons remake (opened to £676k and taking £3.1m) and The Railway Children Returns (opened to £365k and taking £3m). Both were well‑reviewed, warmly nostalgic, and quickly forgotten. The question was whether Faraway Tree could break out into mainstream audiences, or whether it would settle into the same slow-burning, modestly performing lane as the Nativity films, playing steadily in the background while Super Mario Galaxy Movie dominates the Easter holidays.

Reviews have been positive, but the target audience isn’t critics; it’s children. And the real question is whether today’s kids, raised on video games and blockbuster IP, will embrace a story that feels more like a stage panto than an epic fantasy. Narnia broke through because it had scale, stakes, and a 12A edge. The Magic Faraway Tree has charm, whimsy, and a U certificate. As the children in the film crave their tablets and mobile phones, it’s a film parents would drag them to see, as the children will drag them to take them to see The Super Mario Galaxy Movie this weekend.

The film had been in development since 2014, after Sam Mendes Neal Street Productions acquired all four books in the book series. In 2017, Studiocanal came on board to develop it into a successful series, as they had done with Paddington. The film moved to Elysian Film Group and was fully financed by Ashland Hill Media Finance with their subsidiary Palisades Park Pictures, the film sales company selling UK rights to Entertainment Films in September 2024 (also selling the film to many other international territories).

Entertainment Films has a long history of acquiring British films, promoting them heavily with many successful films, including Shooting Fish, The Inbetweeners Movie, St Trinian’s, Fisherman’s Friends, Sunshine on Leith and Run Fatboy Run and also films like Sex Lives of the Potato Men.

Next year will be the 50^th anniversary of Entertainment Films; they have outlasted so many other independent UK distributors that have either closed or been sold, like Redbus and Optimum. Electric and Rank over the last 30 years. EFD also had huge success having an output deal with New Line Cinema that saw them release the Lord of the Rings Trilogy between 2001 and 2003, taking £200m in the UK.

Entertainment Films has acquired many high-profile US films over the last 35+ years, including the original live-action 1993 Super Mario Bros. A flop like that killed many other independent UK distributors paying high minimum guarantees like First Independent Films in the late 90s.

The question for The Magic Faraway Tree is how it will hold against The Super Mario Galaxy Movie opening on Wednesday, as it is playing to a younger and family audience, so there should be room for both to perform well over the next two weeks; it had a strong hold on Monday, taking £726k.

• 3. Hoppers £1,023,834 – £10,820,438

Down 17% in its fourth weekend  

350^th biggest fourth weekend between Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil and Tarzan (close to The Smurfs, St. Trinian’s, The Nutty Professor and Shaun The Sheep Movie) and 603^rd biggest inflated fourth weekend between Back To The Future Part III and Romeo & Juliet (close to Batman and Robin, Dumbo, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Hotel Transylvania).

19^th biggest Pixar fourth weekend between Elemental and Cars (close to Wall-e, Coco, The Good Dinosaur and Brave).

Performing similarly to recent Pixar’s fourth weekend, including

2008’s Wall-e dropped 31.5% £1,405,966/ £2,165,728 and £16,971,062 75.97% of £22,340,631/£34,413,164

2018’s Coco dropped 26.5% £1,213,572/£1,346,359 and £11,674,613 64.8% of £18,013,336

2023’s Elemental dropped 18% £1,172,116 and £11,814,343 63.9% of £18,151,466

20006’s Cars dropped 29.6% £943,377£1,551,632 and £12,820,576 79.6% of £16,099,943/£26,480,604

2015’s The Good Dinosaur dropped 30.1% £890,350/£989,141 and £8,087,040 54.6% of £14,810,130/£16,453,418

690^th biggest between London Has Fallen and Bullet Train (close to Flubber, The Fault in Our Stars, Superman II and Speed) and 1,136^th biggest inflated between Limitless and The Other Guys (close to The Thomas Crown Affair, Working Girl, Flatliners (1990) and Die Hard).

124^th biggest animated film between Turbo and Flushed Away (close to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Over the Hedge, Hercules and Pocahontas) and 151^st biggest inflated animated film between Atlantis: The Lost Empire and The Addams Family 2 (close to Treasure Planet, Snow White (1992 re-release), Lightyear and Anastasia).

• 4. Dhurandhar: The Revenge £664,345 – £3,413,139

Down 67.8% in its second weekend

Despite dropping heavily in its second weekend, Dhurandhar: The Revenge still held far stronger than most other Indian films that are normally far more front-loaded. It was, of course, helped by other holdovers dropping heavier and new release horror, They Will Kill You, struggling to find an audience as Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come did last weekend.

Dhurandhar: The Revenge is the second-biggest Indian film of all time in the UK behind Pathaan (£4.37m).

It’s playing in 282 cinemas, less than half of the cinemas Project Hail Mary, showing again that studio films don’t need to open so wide, as less is more.

• 5. Reminders Of Him £515,196 – £3,415,138

Dropped 23.7% in its third weekend.

543^rd biggest third weekend between Brother Bear and The Matrix: Resurrections (close to The Death Of Stalin, Memphis Belle, All Of Us Strangers and Anna Karenina) and 600^th biggest inflated third weekend between The Duke and Grimsby (close to The Salt Path, Saltburn, Widows, and What’s Love Got To Do With It?).

Dropped more in its third weekend than last year’s third weekend of Colleen Hoover adaptation, Regretting You, down 12.9% £790,645 and £5,247,189, 84.8% of £6,186,391

While 2024’s It Ends With Us dropped 34.8% £1,847,480 and £15,860,073, 73.8% of £21,241,321.

Reminders of Him only stayed in the top 5 as horrors Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, and They Will Kill You cannibalised each other, being similarly themed female-led horrors.

The third weekend was similar to 2022’s Where the Crawdads Sing, which dropped 41.3% £501,947 and £5,306,310, 65.4% of £8,115,231

The next adaptation is Verity, opening in October, starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett for MGM. As it stars Anne Hathaway after she appeared in The Devil Wears Prada 2 in May, Verity is likely to perform much stronger than Reminders of Him and Regretting You.

Sony has wanted to make the sequel to It Ends with Us, It Starts With Us, but the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, ever since the film opened, has delayed any potential sequel until the result of the court case.

Also opened

• They Will Kill You – Warner

Opened £325,911 #7 from 471 screens.

Despite receiving positive reviews, as with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, the female-led horror struggled to find an audience. Opening a week apart didn’t help, and so close to Scream 7 and The Bride, after which audiences probably have had enough of female-led horrors, despite They Will Kill You and Ready or Not 2 being far better films.

The killer blow for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come was after the film had received strong buzz ahead of the SXSW premiere. Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed on Instagram that Hulu had cancelled Buffy: New Sunnydale. The timing of the announcement surprised Searchlight Pictures as surely it was madness to announce the news when the star was promoting one a film being made by the studio as it switched the topic of all the interviews on the promo tour Sarah Michelle Gellar was on to Buffy rather than Ready Or Not 2, while her fans opted to boycott the film which was an obvious response, but this just highlights how Disney really have no interest in the films 20^th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures make despite them attracting a very different audience to the other film Disney makes.

Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come dropped 36% in its second weekend #6 £397,632 and £1,384,962.

• Romeo + Juliet (30th Anniversary) – Park Circus

Opened £67,598 #17 from 276 screens.

While it’s the US 30^th anniversary of Romeo + Juliet, it was exactly 29 years ago last weekend Baz Lurhman’s Romeo + Juliet opened in the UK (March 28^th, 1997) £662,546/£1,303,930 taking £7,438,055/ £14,638,531.

The last month has seen Baz Lurhman’s documentary EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert open strongly in IMAX and also had a strong regular release for a documentary. Last year, Park Circus re-released Moulin Rouge for its 25^th anniversary and now has Romeo + Juliet, which was part of Luhrmann’s Red Curtain Trilogy.

•             Splitsville – Universal Pictures

Opened £40,539 #22 from 159 screens.

Comedy starring Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin, and directed by Michael Angelo Covino. Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, receiving positive reviews and also received positive reviews ahead of its UK opening, but struggled to find an audience, and as with Midwinter Break last weekend, it will be out of cinemas within a week.

——————–

BO is currently up 7% from 2025.

The weekend’s top 10 box office took £11,018,005, down 17.1% from last weekend’s £13,295,685:  1,375,531 admissions, down 17.1% from 1,659,886 admissions.

25^th biggest weekend of the last 52 weeks between 11 April 2025 #1 A Minecraft Movie £7,201,921 (63.01%) and 23 January 2026 #1 The Housemaid £2,038,034 (18.58%)

102^nd biggest since cinemas reopened out of 280 weeks between 20 December 2024 #1 Mufasa: The Lion King £4,415,961 (39.65%) and 17 November 2023 #1 THG: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes £5,420,681 (49.29%)

554^th biggest top 10 of the last 25 years (out of 1,251) between 20 January 2012 #1 War Horse £3,202,493 (28.97%) and 05 January 2007 #1 Night at the Museum  £2,958,093 (26.88%) and 871^st biggest inflated between 02 December 2011 #1 Arthur Christmas £1,896,595 (22.74%) and 06 March 2020 #1 Onward £3,419,500 (36.93%)  

The top 3 took £8,638,742 (78.4%) of the top 10; Project Hail Mary 43.35% (£4,776,660); The Magic Faraway Tree 25.76% (£2,838,248); Hoopers 9.29% (£1,023,834)

409^th biggest percentage share #1 (43.35%) between 25 November 2011 #1 Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 £4,574,978 (43.38%) and 24 July 2015 #1 Inside Out £7,376,513 (43.29%)

597^th biggest admissions (596,337) between 20 June 2025 #1 28 Years Later £4,780,374 (596,801) and 18 October 2013 #1 Turbo £3,892,774 (596,137)

Up 68.64% from 2025; (£6,533,435); L2: Empuraan (£1,210,579); A Working Man (£658,134); Novocaine (£544,179); Billy Elliot: The Musical Live (Re: 2024) (£295,143); Dr. Strangelove – NT Live 2025 (£203,070); The Woman In The Yard (£185,276); #1 Snow White £2,015,179 2nd week 658 screens down 48% (30.84% of top 10)

Down 25.05% from 2024; (£14,699,986); Kung Fu Panda 4 (£5,020,600); Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (£4,139,394); Aadujeevitham (£480,977); Mothers’ Instinct (£406,489); Madama Butterfly – ROH, London 2024 (£61,129); Mary Poppins (60th Anniversary) (£22,140); #1 Kung Fu Panda 4 £5,020,600 1st week 709 screens (34.15%)

Up 24.04% from 2023; (£8,882,883); Dungeons And Dragons (£3,544,354); Mummies (£648,460); The Big Lebowski (25th Anniversary) (£31,818); #1 Dungeons And Dragons £3,544,354 1st week 680 screens (39.9% of top 10)

Down 13.43% 2022 (£12,727,545); Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (£4,986,334); Morbius (£3,254,830); The Bad Guys (£2,279,074); #1 Sonic The Hedgehog 2 £4,986,334 1st week 650 screens (39.2% of top 10)

2021 Lockdown

2020 Lockdown

Down 2.20% from 2019: (£11,266,299); Dumbo (£6,076,779); Die Walkure – Met Opera 2019 (£176,278); #1 Dumbo £6,076,779 1st week 666 screens (53.9% of top 10)

Down 38.24% from 2018; (£17,838,773); Ready Player One (£5,113,041); Isle of Dogs (£1,641,509); Blockers (£1,349,627); Duck Duck Goose (£653,832); Cosi Fan Tutte – Met Opera 2018 (£261,409); Midnight Sun (£163,482); Journeyman (£60,249); #1 Peter Rabbit £5,610,556 3rd week up 23% 694 screens (31.45%)

Down 24.33% 2017: (£14,560,830); Ghost in the Shell (£2,300,753); Smurfs: The Lost Village (£1,383,059); Free Fire (£480,644); Peter Kay’s Car Share: A Second Series Celebration (£283,024); Madama Butterfly – Royal Opera, London 2016/17 (£65,810); The Autopsy of Jane Doe (£12,678); #1 Beauty and the Beast £6,750,000 3rd 45% drop 647 screens (46.36%)

Down 16.86% 2016: (£13,252,091); Eddie the Eagle (£2,834,785); Madama Butterfly – Met Opera 2016 (£421,695); Victoria (£108,602); #1 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice £4,661,959 2nd week 68% drop 612 screens (44.45%)

Down 14.61% 2015; (£12,903,791); Cinderella (£3,803,799); The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water 3D (£2,262,498); Get Hard (£1,438,389); Seventh Son (£411,576); Wild Tales (£183,423); The Signal (£10,103); #1 Cinderella £3,803,799 1st week 554 screens (29.5% of top 10)

Up 1.25% from 2014: (£10,881,865); Captain America: The Winter Soldier (£6,037,850); Muppets Most Wanted (£2,214,906); The Legend of Hercules (£189,881); 20 Feet from Stardom (£62,154); #1 Captain America: The Winter Soldier £6,037,850 1st week 535 screens (55.5% of top 10)

Down 11.73% from 2013: (£12,481,896); GI Joe: Retaliation (£2,792,861); Trance (£1,592,339); The Host (£991,017); Finding Nemo 3D (£264,779); In the House (£209,431); Good Vibrations (£56,320); #1 The Croods £3,305,642 2nd week 535 screens 38% drop (26.5% of top 10)

Up 9.87% from 2012 (£10,028,615); Wrath of the Titans (£2,192,740); The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists (£2,176,195); Streetdance 2 (£608,024); #1 The Hunger Games £2,986,317 2nd week 505 screens 39% drop (29.78%)

Up 69.75% from 2011 (£6,490,539); HOP (£1,392,740); Source Code (£1,306,661); Sucker Punch (£814,976); Killing Bono (£112,206); Oranges and Sunshine (£82,922); Psycho (£8,552); The Railway Children (RE) (£1,470); #1 HOP £1,392,740 476 screens 1st week (21.46%)

Down 49.37% from 2010: (£21,761,471); Clash of the Titans (£5,682,875); How to Train your Dragon (£4,846,532); Kick-Ass (£3,881,704); Remember Me (£987,310); #1 Clash of the Titans £5,682,875 446 screens 1st week (25.19%)

Up 27.14% from 2009; (£8,665,959); Knowing (£2,471,605); The Haunting in Connecticut (£1,127,679); The Damned United (£618,929); Two Lovers (£88,060); Traitor (£78,675); The Life Before Her Eyes (£1,596); #1 Knowing £2,471,605 1st week 391 screens (28.5% of top 10)

Up 36.34% from 2008; (£8,081,479); 27 Dresses (£1,752,897); Drillbit Taylor (£724,738); First Sunday (£40,706); Grindhouse (£27,225); The Hottie and the Nottie (£17,167); #1 27 Dresses £1,752,897 1st week 428 screens (21.7% of top 10)

Down 10.40% from 2007: (£12,296,196); Mr Beans Holiday (£6,440,093); Meet the Robinsons (£895,955); The Hills Have Eyes II (£775,160); The Last Mimzy (£188,116); The Namesake (£125,084); #1 Mr Beans Holiday £6,440,093 1st week 512 screens (52.4% of top 10)

Up 79.77% from 2006; (£6,128,821): Failure to Launch (£874,999); The Shaggy Dog (£831,250); Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction (£487,031); Firewall (£465,880); Yours, Mine, and Ours (£330,665); The White Countess (£70,012); #1 Inside Man £1,117,054 2nd week 356 screens 38% drop.

Up 38.33% from 2005 (£7,489,470); The Ring Two (£2,062,792); Be Cool (expansion) (£1,150,434); Downfall (£163,413); #1 The Ring Two £2,062,792 419 screens 1st week (25.90%)

Up 36.57% from 2004 ((£8,067,662); The Passion of the Christ (expansion) 3rd week (£2,019,935); Dawn of the Dead (£1,944,745); Agent Cody Banks 2 (£246,755); Under the Tuscan Sun (£203,634); The Station Agent (£97,044); The Honeymooners (£8,229); Fear X (£7,902); #1 The Passion of the Christ £2,019,935 3rd week up 573% (25.1% of top 10)

Up 167.92% from 2003 (£4,112,397); The Recruit (expansion) (£923,834); The Core (£583,238); Cradle 2 The Grave (£374,938); The Rules of Attraction (£227,531); #1 The Recruit £923,834 1st week 382 screens (2nd weekend up 2545% (22.4% of top 10)

Up 19.66% from 2002 (£9,207,851); Blade 2 (£2,540,226); Crossroads (£1,126,053); E.T. (20th Anniversary) (£465,048); #1 Blade 2 £2,540,226 1st week 345 screens (27.6% of top 10)

2025 Next week: (£19,423,078); A Minecraft Movie (£15,013,136); Six The Musical (£2,139,374); Death Of A Unicorn (£487,459); Mr. Burton (£138,682); Muriel’s Wedding (30th Anniversary) (£16,550); #1 A Minecraft Movie £15,013,136 1st week 677 screens (77.30%)

US Box Office

• Project Hail Mary – MGM/Amazon

Dropped 33% in its second weekend $54.06m and $163.82m.

65^th biggest second weekend between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and The Passion of the Christ (close to It, Joker, Star Wars: Episode: The Phantom Menace and The Lego Movie)

IMAX has taken $59.6 m from IMAX worldwide; US $33m and $26.5m internationally.

Played in 15 screens in 70mm IMAX (including BFI IMAX), taking $4.3m; from Wednesday Project Hail Mary loses IMAX/PLF screens but keeps the 70mm IMAX screens.

EntTelligence average ticket prices $15.53 (standard) and $18.89 (PLF/IMAX).

The industry’s reaction to Project Hail Mary’s opening “shattered box office expectations” having a  $140.9m worldwide opening is part of the problem, as surely if it was compared to 2015’s The Martian then its BO has been expected, its $80.5m opening was similar to The Martian’s inflation inflated opening $80.46m ($54.3m) Project Hail Mary had all IMAX/PLF screens, The Martian didn’t have IMAX screens in 2015 (Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk had IMAX) while average ticket price since 2015 ($8.43 to $12.49) is up 48% even more if using EntTelligence average.

As Aaron Sorkin wrote in The American President script: “They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.” The industry celebrates these films as strong results, but the numbers tell a different story. Original, mid-budget films that were once a staple of the top tier now need extended previews, premium format surcharges, and artificially inflated headlines to be considered successes. The bar has lowered.

PLF screens (IMAX, Dolby, etc.) now account for 50% or more of a tentpole’s opening weekend gross. These formats carry significantly higher ticket prices, inflating the box office gross without necessarily reflecting a corresponding increase in admissions. It is the same mirage that 3D offered fifteen years ago, a temporary revenue high that masked underlying audience erosion.

2015’s The Martian dropped 31.9% $37m and $108.71m of $228.43m and $630.62m worldwide

2025’s Sinners dropped 4.8% $45.7m and $123.23m of $279.98m and $369.88m worldwide

2024’s Dune Part 2 dropped 44% $46.21m #2 and $157.24m of $282.14m and $714.84m worldwide

2021’s Dune dropped 62.4% $15.41m and $69.28m of $108.89m and $433.79m worldwide

2010’s Inception dropped 32% $42.75m and $142.88m of $292.58m and $839.03m worldwide

2023’s Oppenheimer dropped 43.4% $46.7m and $174.56m of $329.01m and $957.59m worldwide

2013’s Gravity dropped 22.6% $43.18m and $122.32m of $274.09m and $773.03m worldwide

2014’s Interstellar dropped 40.4% $28.3m and $96.92m of $188.02m and $731.07m worldwide

2015’s The Martian dropped 31.9% $37m and $108.71m of $228.43m and $630.62m worldwide

2016’s Arrival dropped 49.6% $12.13m and $43.7m of $100.54m and $203.38m worldwide

2017’s Blade Runner 2049 dropped 52.7% $15.49m and $60.97m of $92.07m and $267.68m worldwide

2009’s Avatar dropped 1.8% $75.61m and $212.71m of $749.76m and $2.743bn worldwide

Social media had 520.8m across Facebook, X, TikTok, and YouTube, close to Dune: Part 2, 575.7m.

Opened with $60.4m from 82 territories; UK $10.2m; Australia $5m; Germany $4.1m; Mexico $3m; France $2.6m; Japan $2.6m; Italy $1.5m; Brazil $1.3m; IMAX $11.2m internationally; UK 16.4%; Japan 29%; Hong Kong 33%; South Korea 25%; Mexico 16%; Brazil 12%

In 2015, The Martian opened with $44.6m in 46 territories (9,299 screens; UK $10.4m (1,040 screens); Australia $4.5m; Mexico $2.9m; Hong Kong $2.88m; Italy $2.8m; Brazil $1.89m.

Dune Part 2 second weekend $81m from 71 territories $210.5m total and $369.54m worldwide; UK $24.8m; China $20m; France $19.4m; Germany $18.2m; Australia $11.6m; S. Korea $10.9m; Spain $7.4m; Italy $7.3m; Mexico $7.2m; Poland $5.6m; Holland $5m.

$36.7m from IMAX in the US and $29.2m internationally, and $6.5m from China from 1,600 IMAX cinemas

Took $54.1m internationally and $136.5m from 71 territories and $300.8m worldwide; opened in 809 IMAX screens in 81 countries, including 12 cinemas in 70mm taking $32.2m, taking $13.7m internationally from IMAX; China $19m; UK $20.1m; Australia $10.2m; South Korea $8.7m; Germany $8.7m; Mexico $6.6m; France $5.6m; Brazil $3.2m; Japan $5.1m.

• Hoppers – Disney

Dropped 32% in its fourth weekend, $12.15m and $138.51m.

225^th biggest fourth weekend between Hop and Hitch (close to The Greatest Showman, Minions, Bee Movie and Kung Fu Panda)

Hoppers has overtaken Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, $123m.

2023’s Elemental dropped 17.3% $10.03m and $109.62m of $154.42m and $496.44m worldwide

2024’s The Wild Robot dropped 27.9% $10.09m and $101.71m of $143.9m and $334.53m worldwide

2017’s Coco dropped 46.1% $9.94m and $150.73m of $210.46m and $814.64m worldwide

Took $24.8m internationally from 51 territories and $297.66m worldwide; UK $12.7m; Mexico $13m; China $16.8m; Germany $9.6m; France $9.5m; Spain $6.4m; Japan $9m; Italy $5m; Brazil $4.4m; South Korea $4.3m.

• They Will Kill You – Warner Bros

Opened $5m; received positive reviews (67% Rotten Tomatoes) and B- CinemaScore

Took $1m from Thursday previews, similar to last weekend’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come ‘s $1.2m

As with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, They Will Kill You premiered at SXSW and received positive reviews, but both similarly themed horrors struggled to find an audience. Ahead of opening, it was expected to open with $20m+ worldwide.

It was yet another film; the trailer showed too much, and there was no need to pay $20, as much of the film was revealed for free in the two-minute trailer.

As with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, They Will Kill You will drop about 60% in its second weekend.

Opened $2.9m from 30 territories; France $598k; UK $418k; Germany $270k; Mexico $218k; Italy $215k.

• Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come

Dropped 54% in its second weekend, $4.13m and $16.4m

2019’s Ready Or Not dropped 26.2% $5.91m and $20.38m of $28.71m and $57.61m

Ready or Not became the surprise hit of the late summer in 2019. It had a $6m budget and opened with $8.01m and held strongly in its second weekend. It was also a huge hit on streaming and had strong buzz building up to its world premiere at SXSW, where it received positive reviews. But then Sarah Michelle Gellar revealed on Instagram that Hulu had cancelled Buffy: New Sunnydale.

Sarah Michelle Gellar of course is best known for playing Buffy Summer in Buffy the Vampire Slayer for 7 series, but apart from 1999’s Cruel Intentions, Scooby-Doo and I Know What You Did Last Summer hasn’t been able to repeat that success with films having cameo roles in many films like Scream 2, Small Soldiers and last year in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Took $2.9m internationally from 30 territories; UK $1.8m; Australia $700k; Brazil $400k.

• Reminders of Him – Universal Pictures

Dropped 41% in in its third weekend, $4.7m and $40.07m

The third Colleen Hoover adaptation after

2025’s Regretting You dropped 14.9% $6.65m and $38.12m of $48.85m and $90.45m worldwide

2024’s It Ends with Us dropped 51.1% $111.64m and $120.61m of $148.51m and $351.44m worldwide

2022’s Ticket to Paradise dropped 13.2% $8.54m and $46.77m of $68.27m and $168.77m worldwide

2022’s Don’t Worry Darling dropped 48.9% $3.5m and $38.47m of $45.3m and $87.6m worldwide

2025’s Materialist dropped 48% $2.99m and $30.4m of $36.52m and $107.94m worldwide

2022’s Where the Crawdads Sing dropped 26.9% $7.56m and $53.56m of $90.23m and $144.35m worldwide

After the success of 2024’s It Ends with Us studios have been quick to adapt other Colleen Hoover novels this is similar to a decade ago when there were many John Green adaptations (The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns and Let It Snow) and Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, The Longest Ride, Dear John, Safe Haven, The Lucky Ones, Nights in Rodanthe and A Walk to Remember and Message in a Bottle).

Over the years that followed, Netflix became the home of these female-targeted films, including Jenny Han’s To All the Boys trilogy, Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation, and Amazon made Anne Hathaway star in The Idea of You. Anna Todd’s After We Collided performed well in autumn 2020 as it was one of a few new releases after cinemas reopened after COVID, but the sequels struggled to find an audience.

The next adaptation is Verity, opening in October, starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett for MGM.

Sony has wanted to make the sequel to It Ends with Us, It Starts With Us, but the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, ever since the film opened, has delayed any potential sequel until the result of the court case.

Took $4.9m internationally from 65 territories (5,091 screens) and $69.5m worldwide; Germany $6.7m; UK $4.5m; Australia $2.4m

UK Box Office Top 10

Box Office Preview

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie opened on Wednesday. While reviews have been poor, far worse than the first film, it will play to the fans who saw the original and will have a similar-sized £15m+ over its five-day weekend. It takes over cinemas with Vue Westfield and Stratford having 37 shows each on opening day. Films like Super Mario Galaxy Movie don’t open in cinemas; they consume, cannibalising the marketplace, sucking up all the oxygen for a massive opening and then a massive second‑weekend drop when it still has the market to itself, because rival studios won’t risk opening against it.

This is the complete opposite of exhibitors wanting films to have a much longer theatrical window. This is about taking as much money as possible in the first three weeks, playing directly into the logic of shorter windows. In three weeks, FOMO will have moved on to the next shiny film. Exhibitors are doing the very thing they accuse studios of, shortening the weeks a film can play.

It’s also the opposite of how Bohemian Rhapsody and The Devil Wears Prada played. Both had long legs. Michael and The Devil Wears Prada 2, by contrast, will rely on hype and FOMO; audiences will rush to their opening weekends and then move on to the next release.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will open similarly to the first: 2023’s Super Mario Bros. opened to £15.7m (including previews), with its biggest day on Easter Monday (£4.1m). Last year’s A Minecraft Movie followed a similar pattern. Like both, the sequel opens at the start of the Easter holidays. It will be the biggest UK opening since Wicked: For Good (£18.9m), and with no competition over the holidays, it should take £50m+. It will be more front‑loaded than the first, which was #1 for four weeks; this one will hold #1 for three weeks until Michael opens.

After a minimal second‑weekend drop, Project Hail Mary will have a bigger third‑weekend drop as it loses IMAX/PLF and other premium screens, down 40–50%, taking £2.3–2.8m.

The second weekend of The Magic Faraway Tree is hard to predict. It will lose screens and showtimes, though its audience is very different from Mario’s.

Hoppers will drop 30–40% in its fourth weekend.

Entertainment Films has been heavily promoting The Drama for weeks; the advert has been on the back of The Sunday Times Culture for months. Starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, it has sparked interest with its trailer: friends are asked what the worst thing they’ve done is; they reveal it, but we don’t hear what Zendaya says. That line has since been revealed and has generated considerable controversy. Reviews are positive. It’s an unusual film to open during the Easter school holidays.

It’s the first of three films Zendaya and Robert Pattinson will star in this year, alongside The Odyssey in the summer and Dune: Part Three in December.

British crime thriller Fuze, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Sam Worthington and directed by David Mackenzie, is a Sky Cinema film. It’s unlikely to find the same audience as Ferrari, Lee, Nuremberg or The Beekeeper, but like The Drama, it will offer an alternative to Mario 2.

Coming Soon

• Lee Cronin’s The Mummy – Warner Bros

Supernatural horror starring Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, and Verónica Falcón and directed by Lee Cronin and produced by Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Productions.

It’s the third reboot of The Mummy after the 1999 reboot starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz (The Mummy 4 is set for release in May 2028) and the 2017 Tom Cruise reboot that was to be part of Universal’s Dark Universe.

Test screenings have said the film is terrible and has pushed gore to the extreme with vile scenes, making it very different to The Mummy, which features in Universal’s monsters’ films. It is more Evil Dead, Lee Cronin previously directed 2023’s Evil Dead Rise (opened £1,477,840, taking £5,288,972).

Of course, the most recent monster horror, The Bride, opened poorly in March, but The Mummy doesn’t have the same baggage apart from people thinking it’s a reboot of the family adventure starring Brendan Fraser despite having a 15/18 compared to a 12A. It’s likely to be front-loaded as recent horror films have been.

• Kiss Of The Spider Woman – Sony Pictures

Musical drama based on the 1992 stage musical, based on Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel, which was previously adapted in the award-winning 1985 film, starring Diego Luna and Jennifer Lopez and directed by Bill Condon.

Had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, receiving positive reviews, and it was acquired by Lionsgate Films, Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment, but flopped in the cinema, taking only $2m with a $30m budget. It’s one of the many films that premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, getting lots of buzz and excitement, and studios are desperate to acquire it, but then months later, they struggle to find an audience.

Sony Pictures is dumping it in cinemas 6 months after its US opening.

• Glenrothan – Lionsgate

Comedy-drama starring Alan Cumming, Brian Cox, Shirley Henderson and Alexandra Shipp and directed by Brian Cox, the Scottish whiskey drama he called a “love letter to Scotland”, had its premiere at the 50th Toronto Film Festival.

Ahead of making the film, Brian Cox said at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2024, “Cinema is in a very bad way” … “What’s happened is that television is doing what cinema used to do, ”.. “I think cinema is in a very bad way. I think it’s lost its place because of, partly, the grandiose element between Marvel, DC and all of that. And I think it’s beginning to implode, actually. You’re losing the plot.” He talked about Deadpool and Wolverine, saying, “making a lot of money that’ll make everybody happy, but in terms of the work, it becomes diluted afterwards. You’re getting the same old … I mean, I’ve done that kind of [projects]. ”.. “So, it’s just become a party time for certain actors to do this stuff,” … “When you know that Hugh Jackman can do a bit more, Ryan Reynolds … but it’s because they go down that road and its box office. They make a lot of money. You can’t knock it.”

The film premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in September and opening in April over the last quiet weekend before summer tells you everything as do the reviews, while it might act like a love letter to Scotland there’s little other to it to get audiences to see it in the cinema, Variety review said “the film itself is more like a bottom-shelf blend: easily drinkable, highly forgettable, bland. Worse still, it won’t get you even mildly buzzed.”