Top 5 Breakdown
- Coco – £5,209,214 – NE
After taking £1.88m from previews last weekend took £3.3m over its opening weekend; 18 Pixar films in the UK have now taken over £520m with Coco expected to take £20m+ and Incredibles 2 £40m+ Toy Story 4 will see the 20 films top £650m. apart from Cars trilogy and The Good Dinosaur, they have all taken more than £20m at the box office.
Impossible to compare Coco with previous Pixar films as most of them were released either during school holidays or close by. While Coco might have a Mexican theme, it is 100% Pixar that plays as strongly to children and adults as films like Up, Toy Story 3 and Inside Out the adults need a moment before walking out at the end of the film to not seen as a blubbering mess.
Coco opening was bigger than Walt Disney’s last animated film Moana opening December 2016 with £2.21m (no previews) and took £20.4m but Moana opened only three weeks after Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which was #1 in its third weekend while Zootropolis opened in March 2016 with £5.3m (including £1,733,638 from previews) with Kung Fu Panda 3 in its third weekend far tougher competition. Coco opened in Paddington 2’s 11th weekend after dropping out of the top 10 having no competition but this weekend Early Man opens but will likely be targeting a younger audience. Both films will be limited to weekend matinees for the next two weeks seen by Coco dropping out of the top 5 on Monday.
Similar themed 2014’s Book of Life opened in October 2014 with £981,432 (with no previews) taking £5,813,909 while received positive reviews the film went under the radar at the UK box office opening two weeks after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; it has since become a children’s favourite on home video.
While Illumination Animation have had tremendous success in recent years with Despicable Me, Minions, The Secret Life of Pets and Sing these films play mostly on one level to children but Disney with their animation and Pixar are able to make their animation films play to generations old and young with both finding something different and special about them.
Disney original dated Coco to open a week after its US release but delayed it to avoid opening to close to Paddington 2. Instead did what Disney used to do with their Thanksgiving animated film in the UK open it for February half-term.
Aardman Animation’s Early Man opens this weekend Coco had to open a week earlier. Last year Universal Pictures opened Sing £10.48m (including £4,201,298 from previews) taking £29.17m with The Lego Batman Movie opening with £7,906,468 (including £2,449,040 from previews) taking £27.43m ahead of the lucrative half term holidays.
Unlikely either Coco or Early Man will take similar box office as Sing or The Lego Batman Movie, but they were never likely to.
Disney release two Pixar films in 2018 for only their second time previously in 2015 with Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur; Inside Out was the fourth biggest Pixar film in the UK and biggest original animated film while The Good Dinosaur was their second lowest performing and lowest performing original animated film; Coco is likely to be one of tier mid earners taking £23m+ similar to Brave, Wall-e and Ratatouille but Incredibles 2 is likely to perform similarly to Finding Dory being a similarly long-awaited sequel to a family favourite.
- Darkest Hour – £3,295,716 – £ 10,155,286
Down 18.79% in its second weekend; taking a strong £2.8m Mon-Thurs will see a boost this weekend after being nominated for 6 Oscar nominations including Best Actor which is the biggest award it will likely win.
Having a second-weekend drop close to Best Actor winners Forrest Whitaker and Daniel Day-Lewis for The Last King of Scotland and Lincoln holding slightly better than many would have expected. I believe many saw Darkest Hour by default as it was booked into the larger auditoriums in multiplexes and many saw it because The Post was sold out as it was screening in much smaller auditoriums.
Darkest Hour is immediately comparable to the last British actor to win Best Actor Oscar Eddie Redmayne for 2015’s The Theory of Everything having second-weekend box office of £2,462,191 while and Colin Firth for 2011’s The King’s Speech increased its box office in its second weekend by 24% to £4,401,926.
With Gary Oldman now favourite to win Best Actor BAFTA and Oscar a £20m+ box office is expected close to The Revenant and The Theory of Everything
The biggest issue many people have with Darkest Hour is the when William Churchill goes on the tube asking members of the public what they thought. Darkest Hour Anthony McCarten admitted the scene didn’t happen in real life. The scene featured the regular issue that happens in films set in London and on the tube when Churchill asks directions going from St. James’ Park to Westminster on the District Line taking to the passengers for five minutes but it’s only one stop that takes less than two minutes. While you expect these kinds of mistakes in London Has Fallen a US-made film shot in London you don’t expect that from a film made by a London based film production company.
While have been extra scenes added including events that didn’t happen at the time purely to make the film more award-worthy. So many films have been criticised for fictionizing events based on historical events, but as the film has received 6 Oscars and 9 BAFTAs they have accepted Joe Wright version of history but saying that while the film was nominated for Best Actor and Film it’s telling that it wasn’t for either director or screenplay for either Oscars or BAFTAs.
While Darkest Hour has received huge media coverage many believe Brian Cox’s Churchill released last June is about the later years of the Second World War and the Normandy landings was a far better film about William Churchill opened June 16th £392,732 taking £1,564,031. Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk also received 8 Oscar nominations and 7 BAFTA nominations opened July 21st £10,023,720 taking £56,650,294.
- The Post – £2,152,977 – NE
Having Steven Spielberg’s third biggest opening for a Best Picture nominee behind 2012’s War Horse £3.94m and 1998’s Saving Private Ryan £2.7m and was bigger than previous the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks collaboration 2015’s Bridge of Spies opening with £1.68m and 2013’s Lincoln £1.65m.
Steven Spielberg announced in Match he would direct The Post announced 45 days after the inauguration of Donald Trump it was fast-tracked to start shooting in May with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep cast shortly after with a December release date. He had currently planned to direct The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara while post=production on Ready Player One as he had done in 1993 with Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List and in 2005 with The War of the Worlds and Munich.
The Post was immediately compared to films like Spotlight, Zero Dark Thirty and Erin Brockovich telling important true-life stories that needed to be told while it was award favourite but over the months since has been overshadowed with the lies of Lady Bird, Three Billboards, The Shape of Water and Darkest Hour. Received six Golden Globe nominations but failed to win any and has been snubbed for many other awards including BAFTAs and SAGs and only received 2 Oscar nominations Best Film and Best Actress for Meryl Streep.
But while The Post has been snubbed by awards it will likely perform much better than most of the film that will likely win BAFTA and likely Oscar awards except for Darkest Hour and Dunkirk.
Was surprising when advance booking opened in December the film was booked into the smaller screens of the cinemas, was then no surprise that it had many sold-out screenings over the weekend. After The Post received strong media coverage after Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep recently came to London to promote the film along with Donald Trump’s Fake News Awards The Post while being a 50-year-old story is as important now as it was when it happened.
The cast of The West Wing including Bradley Whitford, Joshua Malina, Richard Schiff and Ed Begley, Jr will be performing a reading of All the President’s Men in Los Angeles on January 27. All the President’s Men could be almost a prequel to The Post and there are echoes of Watergate with Donald Trump’s current presidency.
The Post is likely to perform well Mon-Thurs climbed up to #2 on Monday and likely hold well in its second weekend down about 20% to £1.8m and should end with £9m+ more than Steven Spielberg’s last three Best Picture nominees 2015’s Bridge of Spies, 2013’s Lincoln and 2006’s Munich but a long way from his two Best Picture winners Saving Private Ryan £18.74m and Schindler’s List £14.15m.
Up next for Steven Spielberg is Ready Player One yet to confirm if the film after will be his long in development West Side Story remake or Indiana Jones 5 set for release July 2020.
- The Greatest Showman – £2,103,605 – £16,865,309
Incredibly down only 1.81% in its fourth weekend showing audiences didn’t agree with the patronising critical reviews describing the film as fake while giving La La Land critical acclaim. But to quote the famous Ronseal advert The Greatest Showman ‘did exactly what it said on the tin” it was a fun enjoyable family popcorn movie that you can watch and don’t need to Google once you have got home to make sense of it.
After Netflix reported an increase in subscribers they called critics disconnected for bashing their recent Will Smith film Bright receiving 27% Rotten Tomatoes score but was watched by over 11 million people on Netflix in its first week which would be the equivalent of a $100m opening weekend. As seen with negative critical reaction for films like The Greatest Showman and Jumanji and then the gushing response to Blade Runner 2049 and Star Wars: The Last Jedi there is a definite divide between what audiences want and enjoy and what critics like.
This is similarly the case with Oscar nominees as apart from the surprising Best Picture nomination for Get Out (probably more to be not so white as they were in 2015) and Dunkirk all are art-house films that won’t likely cross over to mainstream audiences. The only recent award contender released The Post only received two nominations a few months ago it was one of the favourites.
As with the US and Australia the film’s soundtrack is #1 for another week selling over 40,000 copies; while three songs This Is Me #13, Rewrite The Stars #19, The Greatest Show #23 is in the Official Singles Chart; This Is Me won Best Song at the Golden Globes and was nominated for Best Song at the Oscars.
Incredibly The Greatest Showman has overtaken the total box office of 2003’s Chicago and will shortly overtake the final box office of 2001’s Moulin Rouge took £17,047,358; but of course, as Chicago it won’t get anywhere near their 2018 equivalent box office; Moulin Rouge had 4.18m admissions in 2001 be £31.45m (more than last year’s La La Land opened with £6.59m taking £6.59m) today while Chicago had 3.62m admissions in 2003 be £27.72m.
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – £1,840,248 – £32,478,009
Down 24.44 in its fourth weekend; has overtaking Spider-Man Homecoming to Sony Pictures biggest 2017 film in the UK and become Sony Pictures seventh biggest film in the UK by next weekend overtook Spider-Man 3 £33.45m
Will also overtake Men in Black £35.8m to become Sony Pictures biggest film, not James Bond film; Quantum of Solace £51.05m, Casino Royale £55.6m, Spectre £95.2m and Skyfall £103.2m ahead of it; Sony Pictures release Men In Black reboot next year while it’s still unknown if they will release Bond 25.
Jumanji has become the 7th biggest 2017 release recently overtaking It, Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
It will be very hard for Sony Pictures to match their 2017 slate which had Trainspotting 2, Blade Runner 2049, Spider-Man Homecoming, Jumanji, The Emoji Movie and Baby Driver. As 2018 slate includes Peter Rabbit, Hotel Transylvania 3, The Equalizer 2, Goosebumps 2, The Girl In The Spider’s Web and Spider-Man spin-off Venom.
Sony Pictures will shortly announce Jumanji 2 which will likely be released December 18th, 2019 two days before Star Wars IX after the mixed reception for The Last Jedi it will make for a very interesting battle if it was to open two days before.
Also released
The Commuter – Studiocanal £1,602,680 from 472 screens – in a very crowded could only open in seventh; opened bigger than Taken opened September 2008 with £1.16m taking £6.3m and 2011’s Unknown opened March 2011 with £1,356,345 taking £6,432,496 and 2015’s Run All Night opened with £823,833 taking £2,037,542.
Paddington 2 – Studiocanal -£271,836 after 10 weeks in the top 10 dropped out of the chart and has taken £41,406,603 after 11 weeks staying in the top 10 for the same number of weeks as the original film which took £247,569 and £35,826,188.
After Paddington 2 opened with 60% more than first film £8.26m Vs £5.13m the sequel was much more front-loaded as is now taken 15.57% more than the first film.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi – £861,320 after 6 weeks has taken £81,447,605 and could be its final week in the top 10; two years ago, The Force Awakens stayed in the top 10 for 10 weeks in its sixth weekend it was #3 taking £1,997,507 and £117,295,808.
The Last Jedi overtook Titanic to become the fifth biggest film at the UK box office but will not get anywhere near either Avatar or Spectre which it must have been targeting.
.UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £20,087,764 up 19.14% from last weekend £16,859,941
The weekend admissions 2,629,288 up 19.14% from last weekend 2,206,799 (average price £7.62 by UK Cinema Association/BFI for 2017);
9 films opened at weekend taking ££9,205,689; Coco 56.58% (£5,209,214); The Post 23.38% (£2,152,977); The Commuter 17.4% (£1,602,680); remaining 6 films shared 2.61% (£240,818)
The weekend was up 54.85% from last year (£12,971,749): Split £2,548,516, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage £1,620,811, Lion £1,265,282, Jackie £662,900.
Up 47.47% from 2016: (£13,620,775): Ride Along 2 £2,141,341, The Big Short £1,302,205, The 5th Wave £497,568, Our Brand Is Crisis £27,723
Next weekend in 2017: (£25,816,418) Sing £10,487,380, T2 Trainspotting £5,146,791, Hacksaw Ridge £1,490,158, Denial £229,067
UK Box Office Top 10
US Box Office Top 10
US Box office
Sony Pictures – Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle down 30.65% in its fifth weekend taking $19.5m and $316.45m;
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle has overtaken Skyfall to become Sony Pictures fifth biggest film in the US and by next weekend and is now their biggest film that is not a Spider-Man film; Jumanji will overtake Spider-Man: Homecoming $334.2m and Spider-Man 3 $336.53m over the next few weeks.
Jumanji took $32.6m internationally $450.8m total and $767.8m worldwide; Jumanji is now the #80 biggest film globally having overtaken The Da Vinci Code, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Suicide Squad and will shortly overtake Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, Spider-Man 2 and Fast & Furious 6 by next weekend climbing into the top 80;
Jumanji is Sony Pictures 8th biggest film worldwide overtaking The Da Vinci Code, Hancock and MIB 3 and will shortly overtake Spider-Man 1 & 2 over the next week.
Warner Bros – 12 Strong opened with $15.81m; received mixed reviews only 53% Rotten Tomatoes but a 73% audience rating and A CinemaScore was another of recent films that have highlighted the divide of opinion between critics/academy members and cinemagoers as 12 Strong opened bigger than expected.
Early January has been a lucrative time to open true-life stories of soldiers in recent years in 2015 American Sniper, 2016’s 13 Hours, 2013’s Lone Survivor, while 12 Strong is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer which has seen many compare the film to 2001’s Black Hawk Down, opened with $26.61m after three weeks of platform release in January 2002. 12 Strong was a much lower-profile film but will be interesting to see how it holds in the coming weeks.
STX – Den of Thieves opened with $15.2m; received poor reviews with many calling it a poor man’s Heat remake was far too long 2hrs 20mins!!! And received a B+ CinemaScore so unlikely to stay in the charts for long.
Was surprising given that Warner Bros had dated true-life action film 12 Strong rival studios would open three other average action films over two weeks. The Commuter and Proud Mary underperforming last weekend both cannibalizing each other and similar happened this weekend with 12 Strong and Den of Thieves. All four films felt like they were made 20 years too late they all feel like they are filler titles for studio slates made just to fill an empty spot on their release schedule and then all dumped out in January.
Fox – The Post – dropped 39.29% in its fifth weekend taking $11.71m and $44.75m;
Its second expansion weekend was close to 2015’s Bridge of Spies second weekend taking $11.37m previous film Steven Spielberg directed starring Tom Hanks’ it didn’t hold as strong well as Hidden Figures or The Revenant but should take similar box office as Bridge of Spies.
The Post has received critical acclaim 88% Rotten Tomatoes but despite receiving six Golden Globe nominations. The Post was snubbed at the BAFTAs and only received two Oscar nominations for Best Actress Meryl Streep and Best Film was similarly snubbed which is surprising given the subject matter but maybe as 20th Century Fox only had US rights they decided to concentrate their award campaigning for Three Billboards and The Shape of Water.
After the Oscar nominations dust settles and you look at all those many films for months were expected to be nominated or could be nominated so many films fail to make the cut as always think its crazy how studios crowd the marketplace from September to December and then January for their expansions but of 20 or 30 possibilities only a handful will get a nomination.
Of those that will make the cut few will be films that mainstream audiences do always wonder why studios care so much about the opinion of 6,500 private club members few of whom accrual see these films in cinemas and even fewer will actually pay to see any of the films. Always think studios should date films that are best for the audience rather than academy members if a film is liked by them it is a bonus it shouldn’t be central to the film’s release. This was seen last year with Hidden Figures shockingly overlooked by Oscars but taking over $236m worldwide performed far better than 20th Century Fox imagined similarly last year with Murder on the Orient Express taking $347m worldwide. While Warner Bros dated Dunkirk in the middle of the summer taking $525m globally and also received 8 Oscar nominations.
20th Century Fox – The Greatest Showman dropped only 14.84% in its fifth weekend taking $113.12m;
It is now the eighth biggest musical film in the US overtaking Dreamgirls and The Rocky Horror Picture Show and will shortly overtake Hairspray, Enchanted and Into the Woods
It’s holding close to last year’s La La Land but of course hasn’t had the award recognition after 5 weeks of La La Land going wide it took $7.37m and $118.22m; if The Greatest Showman held similarly would overtake its box office and became the fourth biggest musical behind Beauty and the Beast. Grease and Chicago becoming the highest grossing original musical at the US box office.
The soundtrack held #1 for third weekend only the fifth soundtrack in the last 10 years to be number 1 for multiple weeks and the first since Suicide Squad: The Album; its #1 on iTunes in 68 countries, nine songs in the Spotify Top 200 Global chart and last week the soundtrack had over 37 million streams in the US while #1 on the UK, Italian and Australian album charts;
The Greatest Showman took $11m internationally taking over $118m and $231m worldwide
Warner Bros – Paddington 2 – dropped 26.52% in its second weekend taking $8m and $24.81m; after disappointing opening had the second strongest hold in the top 10 and has become the best-reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes with 167 positive reviews ahead of Toy Story 2 with 163 positive reviews. Last November Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird overtook Toy Story 2 but after received one negative review dropped down to 99%.
Lionsgate – The Commuter – drops 51.8% in its second weekend taking $6.6m and $25.62m
Disney – Star Wars: The Last Jedi – down 44.7% in its sixth weekend $6.55m taking $604.23m; in its sixth weekend Star Wars: The Force Awakens climbed up to #2 taking $14.07m down 46.6% and $879.11m taking 93.86% of its final box office of $936.6m
The Last Jedi box office after six weeks is close to Jurassic World $604.23m Vs $611.22m but Jurassic World took 37% more than The Last Jedi in its fifth weekend (taking 93.7% of its final box office) will see The Last Jedi take $642.5m less than Jurassic World’s $652.27m.
The Last Jedi took $9.9m internationally taking total $692m; has now taken $1.296.3bn worldwide (37% less than The Force Awakens and 27% more than versus Rogue One) and 9th biggest film globally overtaking Frozen.
Of course, a film taking $1.3bn worldwide isn’t a flop but taking 35% less than The Force Awakens must be seen for what it is disappointing showing cinemagoers weren’t enamoured by the film as critics were. While the second part of a trilogy often sees a dip it surely wasn’t expecting to drop as much as it did. Being the third Star Wars film after three years must have something to do with it and of course, the film was not as good as critics said it was which was the main reason along with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle overperforming.
Focus Features – Darkest Hour down 38.6% in its ninth weekend dropping 352 screens taking $2.72m and $40.79m; after receiving 6 Oscar nominations including Best Film and Best Actor for Gary Oldman will expand again this weekend.
Fox Searchlight – The Shape of Water down 22.9% taking $2.18m from 853 screens in its eighth weekend and $20.19m total;
After opening on two screens 8 weeks ago it has been expanding slowly over the following weeks always getting close to entering the top 10 but after being nominated for 13 Oscars will expand this weekend and likely enter the top 10.
On limited release
Focus Features – Phantom Thread – up 182.9% with $3.25m from 896 screens adding 56 screens taking $6.05m; after surprisingly nominated for 6 Oscars including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor Daniel Day Lewis and supporting Actress Lesley Manville will expand further this weekend.
Phantom Thread is unlikely to win any major awards so will likely perform similar to Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, Punch-Drunk Love and Magnolia, his films are critical and award darlings but only There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights found a wide audience.
Neon – I, Tonya down 15% taking $2.85m from 799 screens (adding 282 screens) in its sixth weekend and $14.5m; for box office to drop 15% despite adding a third more screen must be a little disappointing but the marketplace is very crowded now with many of these films cannibalizing each other.
A24 – Lady Bird down 32.5% adding 23 screens to 675 screens taking $1.19m and $39.05m in its twelfth weekend; Saoirse Ronan is now favourite to win Best Actress Oscar so will expand further over the next few weeks.
Opening UK
Opened January 26th
- Early Man – Studiocanal UK
The stop-motion animated adventure comedy from Aardman Animations featuring the voices of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, and Timothy Spall and directed by Nick Park; received positive reviews 93% Rotten Tomatoes score and generated strong media coverage ahead of its release being an Aardman Animation film.
It’s Aardman Animations second film to be released by Studiocanal after previously releasing Shaun the Sheep Movie in 2015 and have the sequel dated for 2019. It is the seventh stop-motion animated film made by Aardman after Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Flushed Away, Arthur Christmas and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit opened October 2005 with £9.34m taking £32m
The follow up 2006’s Flushed Away wasn’t so successful opened with £3,106,874 in December 2006 taking £11,095,363 which saw Aardman moved from Dreamworks Pictures to Sony Pictures Arthur Christmas opened November 2011 with £2,112,516 opening #2 taking a very impressive £20,838,301 being Christmas #1 in week 7.
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists opened in March 2012 with £2,176,195 taking £16,007,789.
Shaun the Sheep Movie opened in February 2015 £2,095,061 taking £13,675,389 a similar box office is expected for Early Man as has competition for half-term holidays from Disney’s Coco opening the weekend before.
Early Man doesn’t have weekend previews to boost its opening and also has to compete against the second weekend of coco generating strong word of mouth so will likely open with £2m+
- Maze Runner: The Death Cure – 20th Century Fox
Dystopian sci-fi action thriller film directed by Wes Ball, based on The Death Cure, the final book in The Maze Runner trilogy, written by James Dashner; the sequel to 2015’s Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and the third and final part of the film series.
Was originally set to be released on February 17, 2017, but was delayed to January 26, 2018, after Dylan O’Brien was injured on set in March 2016 filming restarted in March 2017
The Maze Runner opened October 2014 £2,041,229 taking £8,840,387
The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials opened September 2015 £2,799,428 taking £8,669,049
Maze Runner: The Death Cure has received similar reviews as its sequel Scorch Trials but that benefited from opening only a year after the first film teens have very short memories and a three-year gap is a long time for these kinds of films. With trailers played with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Maze Runner: The Death Cure should open with about £1.6m.
- 12 Strong – Entertainment Film Distributors
War drama starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Peña, Navid Negahban, Trevante Rhodes, Geoff Stults, Thad Luckinbill, and William Fichtner and directed by Nicolai Fuglsig based on Doug Stanton’s non-fiction book Horse Soldiers and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Five years ago, Paramount exchanged Indiana Jones rights for Jerry Bruckheimer to move from Disney but Top Gun: Maverick (sequel to the 1986 film) and Gemini Man both released next year will be his first films for the studio since Days of Thunder in 1990. Instead, he produced Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales for Disney and 12 Strong for Alcon.
In the US these true-life stories of soldiers perform strongly at the box office but don’t often perform as well in the UK. While 2015’s American Sniper (opened January 2015 with £2,530,473 taking £13,424,242) and 2001’s Black Hawk Down (opened January 2002 with £1,772,920 taking £5,664,347 but other films including 2016’s 13 Hours and 2013’s Lone Survivor underwhelmed.
- Downsizing – Paramount Pictures
Drama starring Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Jason Sudeikis, and Kristen Wiig and directed by Alexander Payne; premiered at the Venice International Film Festival receiving positive reviews from critics.
Alexander Payne’s first film since 2013’s Nebraska also released by Paramount disappointed at the box office despite critical acclaim that was after his previous two The Descendants and Sideways were critical and box office successes as well as Oscar winners.
Everything seemed to be going positively for Downsizing but then Matt Damon opened his mouth again as he had done in October before the release of Suburbicon taking about Harvey Weinstein and sexual harassment in Hollywood by Matt Damon. Harvey Weinstein produced Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s breakthrough film Good Will Hunting in 1997 it’s very hard for either to avoid being questioned about Harvey Weinstein but it was reported that he tried to kill a Harvey Weinstein story in 2004. Matt Damon recently said, “We’re in this watershed moment and it’s great,” “but I think one thing that’s not being talked about is there are a whole shitload of guys the preponderance of men I’ve worked with who don’t do this kind of thing and whose lives aren’t going to be affected.”
Earlier this month Matt Damon said his going to stop talking about sexual harassment in Hollywood saying, “I think ultimately what it is for me is I don’t want to further anybody’s pain with anything I do or say, so for that, I’m sorry,”
After flopping in the US at Christmas Downsizing is unlikely to find an audience in the UK especially while the marketplace is so crowded with award contenders so likely to perform similarly to Matt Damon’s Suburbicon which opened last November with only £0.23m.
UK Box Office predictions
Opening in the US
- Maze Runner: The Death Cure – 20th Century Fox
The film has been generating strong social media buzz over the past week topping comScore PreAct media measurement service. Young adult films often generate a lot of social media chatter ahead of their release, but this doesn’t always translate into box office.
The first two Maze Runner films opened strongly; The Maze Runner opened with $32.51m in September 20154 taking $102.4m and the sequel Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials opened the year after in September 2015 with $30.31m taking $81.69m.
The fourth film was originally set for release last February but was delayed because of an injury to Dylan O’Brien and the over two-year gap will likely affect its box office. While 2 years for most people is the perfect gap between films it’s a long time for teens which will likely see The Death Cure opening with about 25% less opening with $22m+.
The one thing that could help The Death Cure is that trailers have been played with Jumanji and Pitch Perfect 3 and while the marketplace is very crowded with adult-targeted films there is room for another teen film.