1. Two by Two: Overboard! – £190,761 – £955,370

Down 42.1% from last weekend’s preview inflated opening, but only 0.3% not including £137,822 from previews due to half-term week.

The October half-term is one of the most lucrative weeks for cinema in the year, over the years it has seen MCU (Thor: Ragnarok and Doctor Strange), James Bond (Skyfall), Bohemian Rhapsody open strongly along with many family films (including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, High School Musical, Book of Life, Nanny McPhee), many horror films for Halloween and would also have films that premiered during the London Film Festival open. It was a weekend for films for all demographics.

Children’s films have been the genre of films that have found their audience since cinemas reopened in July with Cats & Dogs: Paws United opened 5 weeks ago with £456,531 taking £1,360,312 to date.

The original film Two by Two dropped 48% in its second weekend in May 2015 #10 taking £293,915 and £1,190,297 going on to take £2.21m

The one genre of films that have performed well over the last 18 weeks has been children’s films.  Disney re-released Onward despite being released on digital and DVD (and in the last month Disney+), it has performed well over the last 18 weeks taking over £2m. Similarly, Universal Pictures released Trolls World Tour in cinemas and again despite it being released on digital and DVD during lockdown still taken £900k+ since cinemas reopened.

The first new children’s film Dreambuilders opened July 17 taking £12,407 from 51 cinemas released by Signature Entertainment went on to take £358,188 over 8 weeks. Followed by 100% Wolf opening two weeks later with £33,130 from 146 screens from Vertigo taking £1.4m after 10 weeks. Pinocchio opened 2 weeks later with £108,626 from 272 screens also released by Vertigo taking £852,909 after 11 weeks.

The rebuilding of confidence with people going to the cinema will be long as while exhibitors have talked a lot about the safety measures they come short of the far stricter safety measures seen in Asian countries that helped boost confidence with cinemagoers much quicker and with a mix of local films and smaller releases admissions in many of those countries are slowly getting back to normal.

Over the last 18 weeks, it has been films released by independent distributors including Vertigo, Signature Entertainment, Trafalgar, and Altitude have released most of the new releases. They took the gamble to release films ahead of the major studios and many of the films have been steady performers with films like 100% Wolf in the top 10 for 10 weeks. In normal circumstances, Vertigo would be lucky if it lasted more than a week in the top 10.

Last Monday Warner Bros released The Witches on PVOD in the UK and on HBO Max in the US but released it in 17 territories internationally taking $4.8m as Roald Dahl film adaptions are hugely popular in the UK and with it being half-term and Halloween was surprising they didn’t open it in cinemas along with PVOD.

2. Hocus Pocus – £186,063 – £446,286

Up 247.5% in its fourth weekend of the re-release

Hocus Focus re-release started in 88 screens #14 on October 9^th taking £20,491; increased 106% in its second-weekend #7 adding 3 screens taking £42,135 and £78,353; increased 26% in its third weekend taking £53,547 #8 adding 7 more screens to 108 screens taking £155,642.

Hocus Pocus added almost 200 screens in its fourth weekend over Halloween weekend.

The Kenny Ortega 1993 comedy was re-released in the US opening #2 behind Tenet taking $1.92m from 2,570 screens.

Hocus Pocus originally opened in October 1993 (one of the first films Disney released in the UK by BVI after their long distribution deal through Warner Bros) with £1,317,157 taking £3,209,085; over the years since received a cult following on video. Earlier this year it was announced Disney will make a sequel for Disney+ with the original cast (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) expected to star directed by Adam Shankman (previously directed musicals Hairspray and Rock of Ages).

Park Circus released Hocus Pocus on behalf of Disney in the UK as they do with most studios re-releases.

The strong performance of Hocus Pocus shows what the industry could have done had they used their catalogues properly. While studios have exhibitors’ access to over 450 films the vast majority of the films major exhibitors booked were from the past year, there was no imagination over the programming of cinemas.  

3. Honest Thief – £152,555 – £573,598

Down 40% in its second weekend including previews but only 27.5% without (£43,779) previews

Had the 5th biggest second weekend since cinemas reopened in July between The New Mutants and Unhinged and the 24th biggest second weekend this year between Brahms: The Boy II and Fantasy Island

the comparison was always going to be made with Unhinged which has taken £1.96m since July.

Liam Neeson’s recent action films since Taken 3 in 2015 2019’s Cold Pursuit took £366,278 in the second weekend and £1,393,720 taking £1,743,561; 2018’s The Commuter took £660,094 and £3,029,898 taking £3,643,253 and 2015’s Run All Night took £348,638 and £1,680,666 taking £2,037,542

Signature Entertainment acquired UK rights in February, and it is their widest release in the UK opening in over 300 cinemas including several IMAX screens and has become their biggest film in the UK.

Will cinemas closing on Thursday for at least a month will probably see Signature Entertainment released the film on VOD within a few weeks as it won’t be worthwhile for it to wait for the lockdown and then return to cinemas.

4. The Secret Garden – £142,101 – £615,981

Down 7.8% in its second weekend; holding very strongly in its second weekend due to half-term weekend and having the second-lowest drop in the top 10 after Cats & Dogs: Paws Unite! (down 5.2%), Two by Two: Overboard! Had the lowest drop, not including previews, but as all films box office now includes previews within their openings, they need to be also included in their second-weekend drops.

The Secret Garden had the best screen average of the top 10 playing in a third fewer screen as it wasn’t playing in Odeon and Vue cinemas so helping out independent cinemas.

The previous version of The Secret Garden was released in 1993 opening with £273,000 from 135 screens taking £3.82m (£8.5m+ inflation inflated).

Studiocanal originally dated it for release in April, but its release date was delayed to August after cinema lockdown and US rights which previously were sold to Global Road Entertainment was sold on to STX who then released it on VOD in August. Had The Secret Garden opened as originally planned in April it would have opened in more than double the number of screens and opened with about £1m.

Sky Cinema acquired UK rights in August and set an October 23rd for their hybrid Sky Cinema and theatrical release, major exhibitors refuse to book these releases similar to Netflix, but this never  makes any sense as only a quarter of the country subscribe to Sky Cinema, so they are just biting off their nose to smite their face refusing to book it especially while they are crying out for studio content. The major exhibitors who refuse to book Sky Cinema and Netflix content will still book Event Cinema screenings of Doctor Who, Sherlock and They Shall Not Grow Old which was broadcast live at the same time on the BBC. 

The whole relaunch of cinema was poorly handled, and cinema is predictably suffering now for this mismanagement. As soon as cinemas went dark on March 17th exhibitors and studios should have planned the reopening of cinema as it gave them a once in a lifetime chance to relaunch cinema and it likely to get huge free media coverage.

Would hope that industry would learn from their mistakes and start their plans for the reopening of cinemas immediately after they close for a second time for at least a month on November 2^nd, but they will make the same mistakes. This time won’t have a massive film like Tenet opening a few weeks later as it’s almost certain Warner will delay Wonder Woman 1984 from Christmas Day in the coming weeks.

On Monday AMC CEO said he believed Warner will still open Wonder Woman 1984 at Christmas, he also said other exhibitors should get behind their plans of shorter theatrical windows. But he does have a history of suggesting things like this, talking about mobile-friendly screens in 2016 and in June said he would wear a mask in a cinema but they weren’t mandatory and then backtracks on these comments a few days later after a negative response

Cinemas should have reopened with classics over the last 50 years with all seats £5 and the Meerkat Movies 2for1 should have run 7 days a week from July to the end of the year.

Despite Christopher Nolan and exhibitors belief Tenet was never going to be the film that was right to relaunch cinema on its own, studios should have worked together all putting up one or more high-profile release to open during a mega-movie month having films like Free Guy and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie comedies, popcorn movies and feel-good films not a pretentious film about people wearing masks.

5. Blumhouse’s The Craft Legacy – £119,680 – NE

supernatural horror sequel to 1996’s The Craft received mixed reviews saying it was only for fans of the original film, the problem is they will now be in their late 30s and not so interested in a teen horror and more interested to see the original Halloween (opening £71,263) or The Rocky Horror Picture Show (opening £39,978) in cinemas.

While having a theatrical release in the UK it was released on VOD in the same day as in the UD, with lockdown 2 from Thursday will surely be released on VOD within a few weeks.  

1996’s The Craft was a surprise hit in 1996 starring Neve Campbell was one of her first films starred in whilst starring in the Party of Five, she is better known as Sidney Prescott in the Scream films.

The Craft opened in November 1996 with £1,160,915 taking £2.97m; has since become a cult favourite on video. 

The problem with teen horrors as the film was rated 15 it means its target audience can’t legally see it in the cinema as was the case recently with After We Collided so people would buy a ticket for children’s films and then sneak into seeing The Craft Legacy. That said its unlikely teens would be that interested in the film.

Sony Pictures released Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island in March opening with £750,257

Other female-led teen horror Blumhouse Productions openings

2019’s Black Christmas opened £283,507 taking £475,617

2017’s Happy Death Day opened with £998,388 taking £2,678,427

2018’s Truth or Dare opened with £931,250 taking £2,400,490

2019’s Happy Death Day 2U opened with £735,454 taking £1,318,935

2014’s Ouija opened with £1,373,907 taking £3,207,638

2016’s Ouija: Origin of Evil opened with £779,626 taking £2,524,013

While The Invisible Man opened in February with £2,163,797 taking £6,841,147 (it’s BO was harmed by the first lockdown three weeks after opening).

Upcoming Blumhouse Productions include Freaky, The Forever Purge and Halloween Kills all being released through their output deal with Universal Pictures.

After 9 weeks in the top 5 and 8 weeks, #1 Tenet dropped down to #6 in its 10^th weekend

Christopher Nolan 10th weekends

Batman Begins £13,474 #21 dropped 44% 16 screens (13 films took more than Tenet) #1 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (£1,691,431); Bewitched (£1,053,432); The Island (£778,269); Crash (£736,288); Herbie: Fully Loaded (£499,804); Unleashed (£498,058); Madagascar (£410,722); Wedding Crashers (£383,073); Fantastic Four (£348,826); War of the Worlds (£189,626); The Perfect Man (£186,460); Barsaat (£141,504); The Perfect Catch (£103,703).

The Dark Knight £88,230 #15 dropped 58% in 94 screens; (13 films took more than Tenet) #1 Tropic Thunder (£1,345,392); Taken (£1,165,986); Righteous Kill (£768,803); Death Race (£683,038); Mamma Mia! (£609,278); The Women (£405,396); The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (£403,965); The Duchess (£349,976); Pineapple Express (£300,402); Disaster Movie (£269,840); Rocknrolla (£200,487); Step Brothers (£131,502); I’ve Loved You So Long (£116,990).

Inception £201,162 #12 dropping 26% in 132 screens; (15 films took more than Tenet) #1 The Other Guys (£1,980,601); Devil (£807,292); Resident Evil: Afterlife (£727,908); Toy Story 3 (£583,013); Grown Ups (£513,881); Tamara Drewe (£432,337); The Last Exorcism (£321,585); Marmaduke (£279,392); Diary of a Wimpy Kid (£241,390); Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (£233,228); Going the Distance (£220,359); Inception (£201,162); Salt (£190,011); Cyrus (£172,584); The Expendables (£160,147).

The Dark Knight Rises £231,156 #11 34% drop in 140 screens; (14 films took more than Tenet); #1 The Sweeney (£1,545,294); ParaNorman (£1,393,123); Anna Karenina (£813,395); Lawless (£790,378); Dredd (£769,381); Hope Springs (£728,689); Brave (£584,321); Total Recall (£472,232); The Possession (£346,642); Ted (£317,035); The Dark Knight Rises (£231,156); Barfi! (£229,882); The Watch (£180,099); To Rome with Love (£141,008). 

Interstellar n/a

Dunkirk #9 £185,321 dropped 45% in 290 screens (13 films took more than Tenet); #1 Kingsman: The Golden Circle (£8,525,664); It (£2,852,965); Victoria and Abdul (£1,239,085); mother! (£364,301); The Emoji Movie (£359,793); The Jungle Bunch (£288,417); American Assassin (£262,647); Despicable Me 3 (£195,960); Dunkirk (£185,321); American Made (£151,960); Maze (£123,985); Wind River (£118,206); Borg vs. McEnroe (£101,918).

10 biggest 10th weekends in the UK; Avatar (£2,260,319); Titanic (£2,223,046); The Greatest Showman (£1,239,069); Skyfall (£890,022); Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (£807,836); Slumdog Millionaire (£755,379); Mamma Mia! (£708,489); The Kings Speech (£689,809); Bohemian Rhapsody (£656,641); The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (£651,900).

Had similar 10th weekend close to A Star Is Born (£115,224); The Dark Knight Rises (£109,850); 1917 (£108,947); Rocketman (£95,680); The Dark Knight (£88,230); Avenger Infinity War (£77,596); Joker (£71,945)

Had the 2^nd biggest 10^th weekend of 2020 after Jumanji: The Next Level (£326,564 #9); 1917* (£108,947 #13); ahead of Little Women (£42,566 #22); Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (£24,902 #33)

*1917 10th weekend was March 13th the weekend before lockdown; in normal circumstance would expect Tenet to take £300k+ in its 10th weekend

317th biggest film in the UK between Goldeneye and Ant-Man and The Wasp (close to Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, I, Robot, Mission: Impossible II and The Matrix) and 509th biggest inflation inflated between Hairspray and Ant-Man and The Wasp (close to Django Unchained, The Truman Show, Waterworld and Gangs of New York). 

51st biggest Warner Bros film between Justice League and The Matrix (close to The Matrix Revolutions, It Chapter 2, Mad Max: Fury Road and Batman Begins) 78th biggest inflation inflated between Miss Congeniality and The Great Gatsby (close to The Last Samurai, Ocean’s Twelve, The Final Destination (opened the same day as Tenet in 2009) and Disclosure).

First, 12 days took 57.64% of its current box office comparable to Focus, War of the Worlds, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason; Tenet has currently taken 3.25x opening similar to Kill Bill – Volume 2, Trainspotting 2, iT and Straight Outta Compton.

Always compared Tenet to Blade Runner 2049 as both were critical darlings but regularly cinemagoers would see Tenet as they did Blade Runner 2049 pretentious style over substance film, while positive reviews often help films find their audience as soon as critics called Tenet the film for Nolan fans this probably turned off many; Blade Runner 2049 took £18,820,009 and Tenet will take slightly less. Both films performed far stronger internationally than in the US.

Tenet is the 3rd biggest film of the year after 1917 and Sonic the Hedgehog; at the start of the year, most people would have expected Tenet to be one of the biggest films of the year which it still will be but taking less than half many expected, about £18m less than Interstellar.

The 9 Christopher Nolan films have taken £260m at the UK box office (£302m inflation inflated).

Guardian live-stream an interview with Christopher Nolan on November 5th hopefully answering the question why Tenet had to open in the middle of a pandemic and is he happy with the performance of the film, as Tenet will surely take about half of what Inception took a decade ago. 

Also released

With it being Halloween weekend cinemas were full of classic horrors (comedy and scary) including John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween (taking £71,300); Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (£43,200); The Rocky Horror Picture Show (£40,000) and also The Addams Family, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Exorcist, Beetlejuice. The Last Boys, The Evil Dead, Scream, The Shining, Hotel Transylvania, ParaNorman, The Silence of the Lambs, Alien and Psycho.

It just shows what could have been if exhibitor bookers were much more imaginative with their booking of films from July as cinephiles always love to see their favourite classic films on the big screen and all of the biggest films released over the last 50+ years should have been available for cinemas to book. With all exhibitors offering tickets at £5 or 2for1 Via Meerkat Movies.  

Would hope the industry will learn from how they reopened cinemas without any plan beyond Tenet and no strategy beyond Tenet as if cinemas were to reopen in December it would be the 125^th anniversary of the first commercial cinema in Paris, in February London and May in New York, always thought the reopening of cinema should be part of a national campaign to get people back into the cinemagoing habit.   

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £1,169,273 down 10.3% from last weekend (£1,303,829)

The weekend admissions 164,455 down 10,3% from last week (183,380); admissions last year this week was 1,584,108 (89.6% down)

The latest estimate for 2020 box office is £300m about a third of last year’s £1.227bn; UK BO was only £294m after 37 weeks and is likely to be the lowest annual box office since 1995 (£383m)

Top 3 took £529,379 45.3% of £1,303,829; Two by Two: Overboard! 16.3% (£190,761); Hocus Pocus 15.9% (£186,063); Honest Thief 13.1% (£152,555).

Down 90.3% from 2019 took £12,078,831; top three took 54.3% (£6,563,938) of the top 10; Joker 20.2% (£2,446,199); The Addams Family 18.5% (£2,234,172); Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil 15.6% (£1,883,567); #1 Joker £2,446,199 29.4% drop (20.2% of top 10) 5^th weekend #1

Down 91.8% from 2018: (£14,405,189); The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (£1,733,235); Slaughterhouse Rulez (£397,792); Peterloo (£348,697); Juliet, Naked (£51,813); #1 Bohemian Rhapsody £5,750,267 2nd week 681 screens 40% drop (39.9% of top 10)

Down 91.9% from 2017: (£14,453,653); Murder on the Orient Express (£4,985,600); A Bad Moms Christmas (£1,781,738); The Killing of a Sacred Deer (£286,448); The Son of Bigfoot (£23,213); The Silence of the Lambs (Re: 2017) (£8,383); #1 Murder on the Orient Express £4,985,600 1st week 618 screens 1st week 611 screens (34.5% of the top 10)

Down 89.8% from 2016: (£11,430,004); The Accountant (£1,623,866); A Street Cat Named Bob (£985,557); Nocturnal Animals (£755,427); The Light Between Oceans (£733,421); #1 Doctor Strange £3,445,203 2nd week 599 screens 63% drop (30.1% of the top 10)

Down 97.6% from 2015; (£47,258,977); SPECTRE (£41,299,090); Tannhauser – Met Opera 2015 (£162,876); #1 SPECTRE £41,299,090 1st week 651 screens (87.4% of top 10)

Down 88% from 2014: (£9,722,282); Ouija (£1,373,907); Nightcrawler (£1,003,822); Mr. Turner (£904,947); Horns (£396,042); Carmen – Met Opera 2014 (£326,430); Aliens (Re: 2014) (£27,134); The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman (£12,180); The Woman in Black (Re: 2014) (£4,743); #1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3rd week 2nd #1 over 3 weeks 514 screens 26% drop (14.7% of top 10)

Down 93.6% from 2013: (£17,605,847); Thor: The Dark World (£8,668,172); Philomena (£1,509,726); Haunting in Connecticut 2: The Ghosts of Georgia (£102,955); Drinking Buddies (£18,379); #1 Thor: The Dark World £8,668,172 1st week 510 screens (49.2% of top 10)

Down 94.9% from 2012 (£22,991,689); Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (£1,043,068); Fun Size (£410,028); Rust and Bone (£252,099); The Shining (Re: 2012) (£132,470); The Master (£65,701); For a Good Time, Call… (£43,882); #1 Skyfall £16,107,687 2nd week 593 screens 20% drop (70.1% of top 10)

Down 92.6% from 2011 (£15,727,396); The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (£6,758,724); The Help (£896,597); The Ides Of March (£665,387); Anonymous (£183,194); Ghostbusters (Re: 2011) (£55,934); #1 The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn £6,758,724 1st week 512 screens (42.9% of top 10)

Down 90.9% from 2010: (£12,911,776); Saw 3D (£3,600,083); Burke and Hare (£942,894); The Kids Are All Right (£411,960); #1 Saw 3D £3,600,083 1st week 382 screens (27.8% of top 10)

Down 91.2% from 2009; (£13,240,462); Michael Jackson’s This Is It (£4,877,255); 9 (£468,455); An Education (£399,122); Dead Man Running (£198,442); An American Werewolf in London (re) (£35,151); #1 Up Michael Jackson’s This Is It £4,877,255 1st week 498 screens (36.8% of top 10)

Down 94.5% from 2008; (£21,398,860); Quantum of Solace (£15,384,217); Hunger (£136,413); Midnight Meat Train (£20,444); #1 Quantum of Solace £15,384,217 1st week 540 screens (71.9% of top 10)

Down 85.6% from 2007: (£8,089,452); 30 Days of Night (£1,532,976); Elizabeth: The Golden Age (£1,348,440); Death at a Funeral (£357,212); The Lookout (£33,833); Brothers Solomon (£21,231); Man of the Year (£2,391); #1 Ratatouille £3,056,938 4th week 498 screens 57% drop (19.2% of top 10)

Down 87% from 2006; (£8,965,508); Saw III (£2,522,521); Step Up (£1,212,725); A Good Year (£376,962); #1 Saw III £2,522,521 1st week 373 screens (28.1% of top 10)

Down 91.1% from 2005 (£13,142,985); Saw II (£2,189,212); The Legend of Zorro (£1,899,689); #1 Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit £3,593,266 3rd week 495 screens 23% drop (27.3% of top 10)

Up 84.5% from 2004 (£7,550,271); Finding Neverland (£776,124); Exorcist: The Beginning (577,128); House of the Dead (£107,045); Saved! (£80,772); #1 Shark Tale £2,435,188 3rd week 503 screens 24% drop (32.2% of top 10)

Down 87.2% from 2003 (£9,161,054); The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (£1,357,534); In America (£284,259); In the Cut (£279,068); Alien – Director’s Cut (£208,081); #1 Finding Nemo £3,393,575 5rd week 4rd #1 501 screens 13% drop (37.1% of top 10)

Down 83.2% from 2002 (£7,135,820); 28 Days Later (£1,500,079); Mr Deeds (£879,441); Changing Lanes (£808,268); They (£225,867); #1 28 Days Later £1,500,079 1st week 318 screens (21.1% of top 10)

Down 83.5% from 2001 (£7,083,187); The Others (£2,259,538); The Animal (£345,651); #1 The Others £2,259,538 1st week 385 screens (31.9% of top 10).

Next weekend in 2019 (£8,534,914); Top three took 43.7% (£3,735,846) of the top 10; Joker 19.5% (£1,668,466); The Aeronauts 12.2% (£1,042,337); Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil 12 (£1,025,043); 18 films opened taking (£4,040,043); The Aeronauts 25.8% (£1,042,337); The Good Liar 23.7% (£960,536); Midway 18.7% (£755,181); remaining 15 films shared 31.7% (£1,281,989);

UK Box Office since restart

Before lockdown in March were 848 cinemas open, with the closure of 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse cinemas (1,180+ screens), ROI, Northern Ireland and Wales there are now 469 cinemas open.

UK cinemas have now been open for 18 weeks with box office from a low of £189,000 to high when Tenet opened £6,224,288; first weekend (from 42 cinemas+ drive-ins (460 screens) to 670 cinemas+ drive-ins 6,372 screens.

Week 1 £189,000 from 460 screens (73 cinemas) 141 films on release; top 5 took £81,880

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); top 5 £148,675.

Week 3: Down 7.5% £308,154 (191 films) from 151 cinemas and 1,286 screens up 21.4%; top 5 took £136,559; top 5 took £169,911

Week 4: Up 30.7% £402,752 (214 films) from 185 cinemas and 1,734 screens Up 34.8%; top 5 took £328,783

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); top 5 took £328,783

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; top 5 took £262,058

Week 7: Up 85.2% £997,837 (269 films) from 366 cinemas; Inception: 10th Anniversary opened £207,675 from 313 screens; top 5 took £628,678

Week 8: Up 10.9% £1,107,153 (264 films) from 3,889 screens (491 cinemas) up 21.5%; top 5 took £643,139

Week 9: Up 462.2% £6,224,288 (204 films) from 3, 856 (629 cinemas); Tenet opened with 85.7% (£5,335,654); top 5 took £5,868,018

Week 10:  Down 39.8% £3,746,637 (198 films) 658 cinemas 4,607 screens (198 films on release; 487 England); top 5 £3,167,757

Week 11: Down 25% £2,812,496 from 5,522 screens; top 5 took £2,223,661; top 5 took £2,086,954

Week 12: Down 7.4% £2,603,624 from 5,401 screens; 613 cinemas; top 5 took £1,598,935

Week 13: Down 18.9% £2,112,443 from 5,564 screens 620 cinemas; top 5 took £1,598,935

Week 14: Up 24.6% £2,633,473 from 6,372 screens; top 5 took £1,753,045

Week 15: Down 36.5% £2,425,745 from 4,527 screens (closure of 1,180+ Cineworld screens); top 5 took £1,139,278

Week 16 Down 59.3% £1.2m from 4,031 screens in 488 cinemas (closure of Northern Ireland cinemas); The top five took £570,127 down 38.7% from £1,139,278 last week

Week 17 Up 54.2% £1.85m from 4,124 screens in 461 cinemas (Wales cinemas closed); 20 new releases taking almost £1m between them.  

Week 18 Up 9.7% £2.03m from 469 cinemas; box office has risen well over the last two weeks, but they were boosted by over 30 films being released and being half-term and Halloween. If cinemas had remained open next week as often happens after school holidays end would see heavy drops for most films. While the films due to be released on Friday Horizon Line, A Christmas Gift from Bob, Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula and Words on Bathroom Walls were unlikely to see a dramatic boost of the box office.

This weekend’s box office was 83.2% down on the same weekend last year taking £12,078,831; Top three took 54.3% (£6,563,938) of the top 10; Joker 20.2% (£2,446,199); The Addams Family 18.5% (£2,234,172); Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil 15.6% (£1,883,567);   

UK cinema admissions will drop to between 40m which will be the lowest since 53.8m in 1984, this would see 2020 box office drop almost 75% from £1.25bn to £334m, the lowest total since 1992, but with 150% ticket inflation since really have to go back to 1984 box office levels of £102.22m (£382.52m inflation inflated).  

Ever since cinemas closed in March should have been a similar reopening sized event as British Film Year in 1985 (started the renaissance of cinema in the UK and the launch of the first multiplex cinemas in the UK) and National Cinema Day in 1996 (repeated the following year) when all cinemas across the UK were £1 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of cinema.

Over the years that followed from 1985 to 2002 admissions grew steadily in the UK, they were boosted in 1996 with admissions increasing 226% from 54m to 175.9m (between 2003-2019 admissions only increased by 0.6%). A similar sized event was needed to relaunch cinema and get people back into the cinema habit again, it is the 125th anniversary next year and this could have been part of a celebration of British cinema.

The US box office is expected to drop over 80% from $11.3bn last year to $2.4bn this year; dropping 95% in the third quarter and 85% in the fourth quarter.

The UK cinema industry said 93% of current cinemagoers feel safe going to the cinema now, what the industry fails to understand is that is 93% of the 20% who have been comfortable returning to cinemas sine they reopened in July, but cinema should be for the many, not the few, and is still 80%+ who aren’t comfortable and won’t return anytime soon.

While US exhibitors talk a lot about CinemaSafe measures if they were really working would see admissions increasing but they do not go far enough for the majority to feel safe going back to the cinema anytime soon. After exhibitors blamed Andrew Cuomo for not allowing New York movie theatres to reopen should see a dramatic rise in admissions this weekend with many reopening on Friday, but of course they did not.

Exhibitors behaved like a bull in a china shop rushing to reopen far too soon and didn’t think of the consequences targeting the pent-up demand of 20% of cinemagoers (who would have continued going to the cinema if they were open between March and June had they stayed open) rather than the 80% who have always said it would take 6 months or more to return 

That’s because Asia handled Coronavirus far better than the West, had the West followed in their footsteps this pent-up demand would now be released over a very lucrative half-term week but while China and Japan are breaking BO records will be a long time till the same happens in the West. 

UK cinemas reopened 109 days after lockdown compared to 189 days in China and only 61 days in Japan. In Asia, they brought in stricter safety measures when they reopened, as people felt confident, they have loosened them. Many of these safety measures the industry talked about but never implemented like checkboard seating and temperature scanners (might not be effective but are fully a visual placebo, as when you go to hairdressers or beauty salons) and mandatory masks.

As soon as lockdown happened exhibitors and distributors should have worked together on a restart plan, would hope to think this is what they are currently doing now and looking at how cinemas reopened in July and learn from that, but fear it will be the same again when cinemas reopen in December, but this time exhibitors won’t have a massive film like Tenet opening on their horizon.    

UK cinemas should have extended Meerkat Movies to 7 days and offered 2for1 to everyone or as some exhibitors did in July all seats £5 all the time until November. As the key part of this was to get people back to the cinema feeling safe and get them into the cinemagoing habit again as once they do they will be back many times over those months for £5 people will take a chance on seeing films they might not normally see at the cinema.

Major exhibitors have complained about the lack of studio releases but we are in a chicken and egg situation as after the soft performance of Tenet it’s now down to exhibitors to show studios that there is the audience going to cinemas now that will justify them risking another tentpole release, this was always likely to happen if the first film failed to be as big as expected.  

The current 10 biggest films of the year are 1917 (£43.94m); Sonic the Hedgehog (£19.28m); Tenet (£17.36m); Bad Boys For Life (£15.95m); Dolittle (£15.93m); Parasite (£12.03m); The Gentlemen (£11.53m); Birds of Prey (£8.82m); Onward (£7.55m); Jojo Rabbit (£7.54m).

At the start of the year only 1917 and Tenet would have been expected to still ne in the top 10 in November, the one positive is the £160m box office is shared out much more evenly through 9 distributors rather than one or two, while there is only one sequel, one remake and one comic-book film and its not Marvel.

US Box Office

• Come Play – Focus Features

Opened with $3.11m; received mixed reviews (57% Rotten Tomatoes) and B+ CinemaScore; This time last year Terminator: Dark Fate opened with $29.1m.

The film opened ahead of expectations but that is not saying much as expectations over the last few months have been extremely low and they will likely be for the rest of the year and into early next year.

Director Jacob Chase said in a statement “Moviegoers all across the country have had a chance to see this film that I, along with the entire cast and crew, put so much heart and empathy into,”… “While it isn’t exactly how we pictured the movie coming out when we made it, I’ve been remarkably impressed with Focus getting it into so many theatres safely during COVID. Wear your masks and keep your fellow humans safe!”

The horror produced by Amblin Partners was due to be released in July was delayed in March due to cinema lockdown, the film will be released on VOD after 17 days as Kajillionaire has been.

Kevin Costner thriller Let Him Go opening on Friday could become his first film in a lead to be #1 since 1999’s Message in a Bottle (opening with $4.22m) he had small roles in Hidden Figures and Man of Steel that have since been #1.

The film took $574.800 from 12 territories internationally; eOne has UK rights but will probably go straight to VOD.

• Honest Thief – Open Road

Dropped 42.7% in its third weekend taking $1.37m and $9.58m total

Hard to make direct comparisons with Unhinged as it took four weeks to get to the same number of screens Honest Thief opened with dropping 30.5% in its fourth weekend (2^nd wide) taking similar $1.8m and $11.43m total. Honest Thief had the benefit of playing in 180+ IMAX theatres and has taken $20.43m to date in the US and $41.13m worldwide.

Honest Thief is Liam Neeson’s 49^th biggest film in the US between Kinsey and Before and After

Since Taken 3 was released in 2015 his action films have seen him take on similar characters in different positions and were far less successful (Taken 3 took $89.25m and $327.65m) of course at the time in 2008 20^th Century Fox didn’t know they had a global hit on their hands with Taken as they dumped it out in smaller territories in 2008 where it became a huge hit and despite being widely available illegally online was still a massive hit in the US taking $145m and $226 worldwide.

2015’s Run All Night took $26.46m and $66.96m worldwide

2018’s The Commuter took $36.34m and $118.5m worldwide

2019’s Cold Pursuit took $32.13m and $62.59m worldwide

Honest Thief has taken $6.38m internationally and $16.9m worldwide, in normal circumstances would have received a theatrical release.

• The Empty Man – 20th Century Studios

Dropped 56% in its second weekend taking $577k and $2.28m total

Despite its second weekend being over Halloween had a heavy second weekend drop

The trailer and poster were released only a week before its release date, Disney continue to dump 20th Century Fox’s remaining films having either delayed or moved to Disney+ all of their 2020 releases but are still currently releasing Nomadland, Free Guy and Death on the Nile in December. While will be a complete year of no new releases from Disney until Raya And the Last Dragon currently dated for March a year after their last (Onward).

• Tenet – Warner Bros

Down 31.9% in its ninth weekend taking $885,000 and $53.8m total (15.5% of total worldwide box office) Tenet is expected to take about $60m.

9th weekends

2017’s Dunkirk took $1.31m and $184.14m 98% of $188m

2014’s Interstellar took $2.46m and $182.8m 97.3% of $188m total

2010’s Inception took $2.8m and $282.21m 96.5% of $292.6m total

2017’s Bladerunner 2049 took $401k and $90.78m 98.7% of $92m total

8th biggest film of 2020 between Onward and The Gentlemen; 1,604^th biggest film in the US between Tin Cup and Paycheck; 262^nd biggest Warner Bros film between Tin Cup and P.S., I Love You; 2,507th biggest inflation inflated between Jeepers Creepers 2 and Confessions of a Shopaholic.

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 $3.3m from 62 territories $283.3m total and $347.1m worldwide (41m admissions worldwide); Top 5 China ($66.5m), Japan ($24.1m), UK ($22.7m), France ($22.5m) and Germany ($19.3m).

Normally the UK is the third biggest territory for Christopher Nolan films , but Japan is ahead of it and other European countries are much closer to the UK showing that it has taken at least a third less than it should have done. Warner are still considering if they will release Wonder Woman: 1984 on Christmas Day shows they haven’t learnt from Tenet being half the film it could have been had it been delayed.    

Took $350k from IMAX from 247 screens taking $40m globally worldwide from IMAX 11. % of the total global box office and 32% of its box office came from PLF/Premium Large Formats including IMAX and Dolby Cinema.

Tenet is the 3rd biggest US film of the year in the world between Bad Boys for Life $424.61m and Sonic the Hedgehog $306.76m.

249th biggest international film between Despicable Me and Les Misérables; 3rd biggest film internationally in 2020 between The Eight Hundred and My People, My Homeland (showing how China has taken over the global cinema market over these last few weeks); 43^rd biggest Warner Bros film internationally between The Matrix and Sherlock Holmes.

403rd biggest film worldwide between Pocahontas and Peter Rabbit; 75th biggest Warner Bros film worldwide between The Legend of Tarzan and Batman Forever; (Batman Begins #71; Dunkirk #26; Inception #21; The Dark Knight #6; The Dark Knight Rises

• Spell – Paramount Pictures

Opened with $210,000 from 369 screens

It is the third film Paramount has released in Canada over recent months after The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run opened in August taking $4.76m to date and Love and Monsters taking $645,598 both on limited release.

2020 was meant to be a massive year for Paramount with A Quiet Place Part 2, Top Gun: Maverick and Coming 2 America after their success with Sonic the Hedgehog in February taking $146.1m in the US, but the over 7 films barely managed to take over $30m; Sonic the Hedgehog has held the studio take almost 10% of the box office for 2020 with Sony Pictures #1 with 23%; Universal 19.1%; Disney 12%; Warner Bros 10.5%

Away from the US Demon Slayer continues to perform strongly in Japan taking $150.6m after 17 days in release (10^th biggest ever film in Japan) and down only 17% in its third weekend and became Japan’s 2nd highest grossing IMAX film (taking $8.9m) after Bohemian Rhapsody ($13.4m).

UK Box Office Top 10

UK Coming Soon

UK cinemas closed for a second time in 4 months on Thursday with the lockdown expected to run for at least 4 weeks but  as it could be extended it would be hard for any distributor to date any films for the beginning of December. This leave questions with what Universal Pictures will do with both Freaky and The Croods 2 which are due to be released in the US in November but expected to be released on VOD in the US after 17 days.

Predictable UK Cinema Association are expecting to reopen cinemas immediately after lockdown ends on December 2^nd as they did on July 4^th not learning anything from their bull in a china shop behaviour of reopening cinemas as soon as possible. While the Prime Minster has said that the second lockdown will only be 4 weeks other politicians and medical experts believe it will be much longer due to the colder weather, flu season and schools and universities allowed to stay open.

With cinemas across Europe also being forced closed for a minimum of a month Warner will surely be announcing they will delay Wonder Woman 1984 again and Disney will delay both Free Guy and Death on the Nile into 2021, 20^th Century Fox films are still tied to HBO deal in the US so they can’t go straight to Hulu in the US unless they are sold outright to Netflix as The Woman in the Window, but apart from Avatar sequels  Disney sees little value in the remainder of Fox’s films and aren’t likely to continue either.  

Exhibitors should have used this week to show studios that people are coming back to the cinema October half-term term is one of the most lucrative weeks of the year offering promotions and discounts.

It’s going to take a long time for cinema habits to get back to normal in the West as major exhibitors behaved like a bull in a china shop reopening cinemas far too quickly failing to grasp the majority of cinemagoers didn’t feel comfortable returning to the cinema anytime soon. 

Despite exhibitor’s claims of no Coronavirus cases traced back to the cinema most cinemagoers won’t return for many months to come. All the research has shown since the first lockdown has said this, July said 80% wouldn’t return to the cinema for up to 6 months and a recent poll for Morning Consult said 75% of people aren’t comfortable going back to the cinema anytime soon. Over the last 18 weeks, cinemas have attracted mostly cinephiles and Nolanites.

It has been very different in Asia where they implemented stricter safety measures when cinemas reopened, and consumer confidence built so they loosened the restrictions and China and Japan have had tremendous local film success over the last month. While China and Japan are getting close to pre-lockdown levels it won’t likely be until 2022 before the West does and by that time cinema could be vastly different with a lot more high-profile content going to streaming.

This is the difference between the approaches of Asia and Western exhibitors Asia looked long-term with their far stricter safety measures when cinemas reopened and now reaping the benefits with BO records in China and Japan.

While major Western exhibitors only thought short-term and predictably now suffering from the consequences of trying to run before they could walk with admissions in the US and the UK for most of the last 17 weeks 10% of normal levels (except for week Tenet opened), as all of the research said it would be 6+ months before the majority felt safe to return to the cinema. (5 months later it’s still only 25% of people who feel comfortable returning to the cinema). Asia was first to deal with COVID and was better prepared for it having dealt with SARS so amazed the West didn’t follow in the footsteps of Asia in the way they handled the closure and then the reopening of cinemas.

Chinese cinemas closed for 189 days but the UK reopened after only 109 days. While the West is now in a far worse position than it was in July with a second national lockdown imminent is unlikely to get back to pre-lockdown levels until 2023.

Like most sequels, Lockdown 2 was expected as soon as the original ended its 16-week theatrical window while Lockdown 2 currently has a 4-week limited engagement run exclusively in England it’s likely to extend its run due to popularity.

Hopefully, the UK cinema industry will have learned lessons from reopening cinemas immediately on July 4th when Lockdown 2 ends its run on December 2nd and not plan to reopen immediately the next day.

With lockdown sequel in many European countries including Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Belgium and Coronavirus cases likely to the top over 100k in the US daily soon studios will be delaying Croods and Wonder Woman 1984 along with many more until at least March.

The predictions government showed on Saturday shows cases could still be high in the UK till March, while Lockdown 2 will hopefully be over within month hospitality will have to start again to make customers feel confident returning to the cinema again. Unlike the first lockdown, there are not any films that can’t be delayed as there was with Tenet, so the likelihood will be studios will wait till March at the earliest to release their major releases.

This is of course unfair to Japan and China who are close to pre-lockdown levels and studios won’t release films earlier in those countries ahead of the rest of the world. A trip to the cinema is exceptionally low on the list of priorities for most people in the middle of a pandemic despite the cinema industry believing there was a pent-up demand.

When cinemas closed 33 weeks ago for the first time Warner and Disney were the last studios standing with Tenet and Mulan still dated for summer, now 33 years later both are joined by Universal Pictures with The Croods 2, Wonder Woman 1984, Free Guy, and Death on the Nile. The question is will any of those films still be dated to open this year when cinemas reopen. After Warner gambled with Tenet, they can’t be last studio standing with Wonder Woman 1984 as it won’t have the legs Tenet was expected to have.