Top 5 Breakdown
- Trolls – £5,440,878 – NE
After taking £2.43m from previews last weekend was expected to open in top spot but would have managed this from its weekend box office alone £3.01m.
It’s the fifth animated film to open top at the box office this year and the third-biggest animated opening of the year after The Secret Life of Pets £9.58m and Finding Dory £8.12m.
There have been 10 major animated films released in 2016 to date which has taken almost £150m at the box office; Trolls after its strong opening could take upwards of £20m and December’s Moana is likely to do similar likely to perform strongly across the lucrative Christmas holidays.
| Kung Fu Panda 3 | 20th Century Fox | 18th March 2016 | £4.76m | £13.99m |
| Zootropolis | Disney | 25th March 2016 | £5.30m | £23.61m |
| Angry Birds | Sony Pictures | 13th May 2016 | £2.12m* | £10.31m |
| The Secret Life of Pets | Universal Pictures | 24th June 2016 | £9.58m | £35.31m |
| Ice Age 5 | 20th Century Fox | 15th July 2016 | £3.77m | £7.03m |
| Finding Dory | Disney | 29th July 2016 | £8.12m | £42.25m** |
| Sausage Party | Sony Pictures | 2nd September 2016 | £2.67m | £7.58m |
| Kubo and the Two Strings | Universal Pictures | 9th September 2016 | £0.84m | £2.73m |
| Storks | Warner Bros | 14th October 2016 | £2.24m | £3.43m** |
| Trolls | 20th Century Fox | 21st October 2016 | £5.44m | n/a |
| Moana | Disney | 2nd December 2016 | n/a | n/a |
Its 20th Century Fox third biggest Dreamworks Animation July 2014 opening after How to Train Your Dragon 2 which had 6 days of previews compared to Trolls having two taking £4.4m of its £7.8m opening; Trolls Fri-Sun opening was bigger than How to Train Your Dragon 2 Fri-Sun £2.9m. 2015’s Home is their second biggest which took a similar £2.45m from previews but 15% more than Trolls Fri-Sun £3.56m opening with £6.02m going on to take £24.97m.
Trolls is 20th Century Fox’s eighth Dreamworks Animation film have released; Comcast acquired Dreamworks Animation in August 2016 but 20th Century Fox has a distribution deal with Dreamworks Animation until the end of 2017 releasing The Boss Baby and Captain Underpants in 2017.
| Kung Fu Panda 3 | 18 March 2016 | £4.76m | 34.1% | £13.99m |
| Home | 20 March 2015 | £6.02m | 24.1% | £24.97m |
| Penguins of Madagascar | 5 December 2014 | £1.61m | 20.2% | £7.96m |
| How to Train Your Dragon 2 | 11 July 2014 | £7.81m | 32.2% | £24.25m |
| Mr Peaboy & Sherman | 7 February 2014 | £3.91m | 28.8% | £13.55m |
| Turbo | 17 October 2013 | £3.89m | 34.3% | £11.32m |
| The Croods | 22 March 2013 | £5.37m | 20.5% | £26.15m |
Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick have been heavily promoting Trolls and came to the UK at the end of September for the launch event at the Jubilee Gardens on London’s South Bank to light up the London Eye in Trolls colours but failed to work when Justin and Anna pressed it the button; the following day at BFI Southbank Trolls director Mike Mitchell, co-director Walt Dohrn, producer Gina Shay and co-presidents of feature animation at DreamWorks Animation Bonnie Arnold and Mireille Soria discussing the making of the film all attending its UK premiere a few days later during the London Film Festival and then on Sunday another celebrity media screening with cupcakes.
As with many animation films Trolls marketing started early with the first teaser trailer with Kung Fu Panda 3 in January. Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling was released in May aimed to repeat the success Pharrell Williams’s single Happy taken from the soundtrack of Despicable Me 2 which became the song of summer 2014 after being released in November 2013 7 months before Despicable Me 2 opened his video has been viewed 986 million times on YouTube.
Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling wasn’t as popular as Happy the video has been viewed on YouTube almost 263 million times and has been number 1 in 17 countries didn’t get to #1 in the UK.
Justin Timberlake’s first TV performance of Can’t Stop the Feeling as the interval act of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 watched by 8.8 million viewers on BBC1.
- Jack Reacher: Never Go Back – £2,688,561 – NE
Boosted with £268,000 taken from Thursday previews but its Fri-Sun £2.41m box office would have still opened in second.
Many were surprised when Paramount Pictures announced plans for a Jack Reacher sequel after the first film underwhelmed critically and at the box-office in 2012. But in 2005 Cruise/Wagner Productions acquired the film rights for the whole film series to adapt Lee Child’s then most recent novel One Shot into a film after many years of development in 2010 Christopher McQuarrie came on to rewrite the script and later signed to direct with Tom Cruise signing up the following year.
After the success Paramount Pictures had in 2011 with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol brought the release forward for Jack Reacher to December 21st 2011 and delayed World War Z by six months to June 21st 2013. Saw Jack Reacher open against The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’s second weekend opening with almost 60% less $15.2m.
The problem was over recent years the Tom Cruise brand had lost some of its gloss with films apart from Mission Impossible franchise Valkyrie in 2009 and Knight and Day in 2010 not able to match the heights of previous successes. While Christmas is the perfect release date for an existing Tom Cruise franchise it not to launch a franchise was shown by the strong opening $37.1m of Oblivion which opened four months after Jack Reacher.
The release of a Tom Cruise film used to be an event while he still puts a great deal of effort in the marketing of his movies spending time entertaining his fans on the red carpet at premieres his films are no longer the event films they were being replaced by comic-book movies. This is highlighted by the fact with the exception of Oblivion and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation most of his recent films have had other major films opening against it as the opening of a Tom Cruise film used to be as big as any comic-book movie but the original film was War of the Worlds in 2005. 2014’s
This is highlighted by the fact with the exception of Oblivion and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation most of his recent films have had other major films opening against it as the opening of a Tom Cruise film used to be as big as any comic-book movie but the original film was War of the Worlds in 2005. 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow highlights this despite getting strong reviews and Tom Cruise getting huge publicity doing three premieres in 24 hours had one of his worst openings in the UK opening third behind Maleficent £6.58m and the second weekend of X-Men: Days of Future Past £3.51m. Edge of Tomorrow did hold well over its following weeks but the damage was done.
| Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation | 31 July 2015 | £5.33m | 25.2% | £21.07m |
| Edge of Tomorrow | 30 May 2014 | £1.85m | 23.8% | £7.75m |
| Oblivion | 10 April 2013 | £4.91m | 46.8% | £10.48m |
| Jack Reacher | 26 December 2012 | £3.75m | 41.1% | £9.12m |
| Rock of Ages | 13 June 2012 | £1.01m | 39.4% | £2.56m |
| Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol | 26 December 2011 | £2.71m | 15.4% | £17.53m |
| Knight and Day | 6 August 2010 | £2.40m | 26.4% | £9.07m |
| Valkyrie | 23 January 2009 | £1.85m | 29.1% | £6.34m |
| Tropic Thunder | 19 September 2008 | £2.48m | 29.5% | £8.38m |
| Lions For Lambs | 9 November 2007 | £0.65m | 52.8% | £1.23m |
| Mission Impossible 3 | 4 May 2006 | £5.37m | 35.1% | £15.34m |
| War of the Worlds | 1 July 2005 | £8.64m | 28.4% | £30.36m |
In the UK Jack Reacher suffered similar problem its opening Boxing Day 2012 was artificially inflated with a five-day opening weekend over the lucrative Christmas holidays £3.5m taking £2.3m Fri-Sun. Jack Reacher opened in third after The Hobbit: An unexpected Journey taking £6.8m in its third weekend, Life of Pi £4.1m in its second weekend. Jack Reacher dropped 53% in its second weekend taking £1.68m and £7.1m. With Doctor Strange opening five days after Jack Reacher: Never Go Back it’s likely to have a similar fate and unlikely to match the box office of the first film.
After the success of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation Paramount Pictures were desperate for Mission Impossible 6 along with the long-rumored Top Gun 2 knowing Jack Reacher film series was a favourite of Tom Cruise they probably choose to make the sequel keeping him happy for future projects.
Studios will often make actors vanity projects in the hope they will make other films at the studio this was probably why Universal Pictures acquiring Angelina Jolie’s By the Sea. But vanity projects are rarely successfully have been many over the years including After Earth in 2013, Battlefield Earth in 2000, Beyond the Sea in 2004, Cutthroat Island in 1995, Freddy Got Fingered in 2001, Glitter in 2001, Harlem Nights 1989, The Postman in 1997, Swept Away in 2002 and Toys in 1992. Studios allow filmmakers to make these films as a part a thank you for previous films and the hope that after making their dream film they will then make the film the studio wants them to make.
Tom Cruise’s films have taken over $3.6bn at the US box with his films for Paramount Pictures 50% of the total $1.79bn; five Mission Impossible films $934 million his other 5 films took $860m.
But Tom Cruise as other megastars like Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford and Will Smith are going by historical box office performance in a similar way Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were doing 10 years ago.
Harrison Ford
Apart from his role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens its been 16 years since Harrison Ford had an original film success What Lies Beneath, he did of course start in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008. But his most successful time away from Indiana Jones and Star Wars was 80’s and 90s with Witness, Working Girl, Presumed Innocent, Patriot Games, The Fugitive, Clear and Present Danger and Air Force One. In recent years had moderate successes in Morning Glory and Age of Adaline but many more disappointments.
Will Smith
After a successful TV career starring in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1990- 1996 his first film role was the very underrated 1993 film Six Degrees of Separation. Followed up with Bad Boys in 1995 which was a surprise hit but it was Independence Day which made Will Smith a movie star. Followed it with Men in Black, Enemy of the State and Wild, Wild, West. Bu then tried drama failing with The legend of Bagger Vance but had far better success in Ali which was his vanity project and why he probably made Men in Black 2 and Bad Boys 2 straight after.
Going back to original films with I. Robot, Shark Tale (animation), Hitch, The Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend and Hancock. Before misfiring with Seven Pounds again followed by MIB3 which allowed him to make After Earth another of his vanity projects a massive flop. Winter’s Tale also flopped, Focus did ok but then Concussion disappointed he surprising many to star in Suicide Squad which despite poor reviews hs overtaken Independence Day as his highest grossing film in the US. Next up is Collateral Beauty which looks similar to his 2006 success The Pursuit of Happyness and then Bad Boys for Life in 2018 15 years after Bad Boys 2.
Tom Hanks
Had a similar start to his acting career as Will Smith coming from TV comedy his debut Splash was a massive hit. over the following years had several steady performing films before Dragnet in 1987 and Big in 1988 followed by comedies The Burbs, Turner & Hooch and Joe Vs the Volcano.
He then starred in the massive failure in 1990 The Bonfire of the Vanities which could have easily destroyed his career but didn’t seem to affect any of the actor’s careers who starred in it. Instead had massive hits over the next 10 years with A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Toy Story 3, Saving Private Ryan, You’ve Got Mail, Toy Story 2, The Green Mile, Cast Away, Road to Perdition and Catch Me if You Can.
in 2004 The Ladykiller remake flopped, The Terminal did ok but had massive success in The Polar Express, The Da Vinci Code followed in 2006 is his biggest box office film not including Toy Story 3 since. its sequel Angels & Demons followed. Larry Crowne, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Cloud Atlas all disappointed at the box office. But since has been on a comeback with Captain Philips, Saving Mr. Banks, Bridge of Spies and Sully.
You can look at Tom Cruise’s movie career in blocks between Mission Impossible films. Before the first film, he was king of the world Top Gun, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, The Firm and Interview with the Vampire. The first Mission Impossible followed with Jerry Maguire.
He took several years out to make Eyes Wide Shut with director Stanley Kubrick followed it up with the critical success but not box office Magnolia. Sandwiched between Mission Impossible 2 and Mission Impossible 3 Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Collateral and War of the Worlds. Sandwiched between Mission Impossible 3 and Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol were four original films that apart from Tropic Thunder which was a cameo, Lions for Lambs, Valkyrie and Knight & Day underwhelmed at the box office.
Away from the Mission Impossible films its 11 years ago since Tom Cruise had a massive original movie success. So it makes sense Tom Cruise selected his The Last Samurai director Edward Zwick to direct Jack Reacher: Never Go Back even though he hadn’t directed an action movie before. Next up for Tom Cruise is The Mummy which is the first part of what Universal Pictures are hoping to be an extended universe of monster movies released next June and he starts shooting Mission Impossible 6 early next year for a likely Christmas 2017 release.
Paramount with Tom Cruise now is similar to how they were with Eddie Murphy in 1980’s Paramount had massive success with 48 Hrs, Trading Places, Best Defence, Beverly Hills Cop, The Golden Child, Beverly Hills Cop 2 and Coming to America. Paramount were eager for Another 48 Hrs so they allowed Eddie Murphy to produce and star in his vanity project Harlem Nights.
While Jack Reacher was a much more commercial film than many of the above vanity projects studios made and Paramount might say the first film was successful outside the US it was more made to keep Tom Cruise happy as the Jack Reacher films are a favourite of his. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back had a disappointing opening in China opening behind Mechanic: Resurrection.
The other reason is Paramount have so few franchises compared to other studios and release far fewer films than their rivals in recent years needed sequels to be able to try to compete against the mega-movies and comic-book movies from their rivals.
Between 2007 and 2011 Paramount were amongst the studio elite being either the top or the second biggest studio in the US. In 2011 Paramount celebrated their 100th anniversary as the biggest studio in the US they had Marvel and Dreamworks Animation but their five biggest films all came from Dreamworks, Marvel and Dreamworks Animation. But a year later Paramount were literately half the studio they were a year before going from #1 to #6. In 2011 Dreamworks went to Disney, in 2012 Marvel moved to Disney and then in 2013 Dreamworks Animations moved to 20th Century Fox. What was shocking is studio management knew these were going to happen but didn’t seem to do much about the problem which saw them drop to the sixth biggest studio in the US.
Paramount do have a strong line-up for the next six months in the US, Arrival (not UK), Allied, Office Christmas Party (not UK), Silence (not UK), Fences, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, God Particle, Ghost in the Shell, Baywatch, World War Z 2 and Transformers: The Last Knights.
- The Girl on the Train – £1,996,858 – £17,732,005
Down 41.3% in its third weekend; The Girl on the Train is currently 25% ahead of Gone Girl but its weekend box office is 17% less than Gone Girl’s third weekend of £2.4m dropping only 23% in its third weekend.
The Girl on the Train should overtake Gone Girl’s £22.4m over the coming weeks which will see eOne double its total 2015 box office £39.74m currently at £77.12m that will also top 2014’s £81.36m and with Arrival (if it lives up to the hype to repeat the success of Gravity, Interstellar and The Martian as the grown up autumn sci-fi hit many predict), Bad Santa 2 and Office Christmas Party still to be released this year also have The Light Between Oceans, The Edge of Seventeen and Ballerina will see eOne top their record breaking 2013 total of £105.6m.
eOne are currently lacking the big hitters for 2017 having several Oscar contenders A Monster Calls, Jackie, 20th Century Women and Denial, (as they did this year with Spotlight and Trumbo) and also contenders for 2018 with Suburbicon and Molly’s Game but lacking the mass audience appeal films they had this year of The BFG and The Girl on the Train.
- Inferno – £1,297,970 – £5,755,230
Dropping 56.2% in its second weekend which was always expected after receiving poor reviews and with the opening of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.
Inferno’s second-weekend drop was better than Angels & Demons which dropped 59% but took 47% more than Inferno in its second weekend £2.45m against the opening of against Night at the Museum 2 opening with £4.16m.
With Doctor Strange opening this weekend Inferno will suffer similar drops in its third weekend as The Da Vinci Code 61% and Angels & Demons 57% did in theirs and will likely end up with about half the total box office of Angels & Demons £18.3m.
- Bridget Jones’s Baby – £1,123,971 – £44,531,175
Down 41.2% in its sixth week on release overtaking Finding Dory last week and will overtake The Jungle Book shortly to be the biggest film of 2016 to date; but with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them out next month and Star Wars: Rogue One out in December will push it into third by the end of the year.
The box office performance of Bridget Jones’s Baby matches the performance of both Bridget Jones’s Diary in 2001 and Bridget Jones’s Edge of Reason in 2004 being the third biggest films of their years. In 2001 after Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone £66.07m and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring £63m and in 2004 with Shrek 2 £48.1m and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban £46.08m.
Compare Bridget Jones’s Baby with similar British rom-com shows has performed similar to 2003’s Love Actually dropped 18% w/e 2, 31% w/e 3, 29% w/e 4 and 42% w/e 5.
After receiving far better reviews than Bridget Jones’s Edge of Reason has held far stronger w/e 2 22.9% Vs 29%; w/e 3 25.5% Vs 40%; w/e 4 36.7% Vs 44%; w/e 5 37.6% Vs 49%. In its sixth weekend has evened out down a similar 41.2% Vs 40%.
| O W/E | Total | OWE % | Av P | |||
| Bridget Jones’s Baby | 16th Sept 2016 | £8.11m | £47.1m* | 5.8x* | 17.2%* | £8.24 |
| Bridget Jones: EOR | 12th Nov 2004 | £10.44m | £35.6m | 3.4x | 29.3% | £4.49 |
| Bridget Jones’s Diary | 13th April 2001 | £5.72m | £41.6m | 7.2x | 13.7% | £4.14 |
| 50 Shades of Grey | 13th February 2015 | £13.2m | £35.1m | 2.6x | 37.6% | £7.21 |
| Love Actually | 21st Nov 2003 | £6.65m | £36.2m | 5.4% | 18.3% | £4.44 |
| Notting Hill | 21st May 1999 | £4.57m | £30.4m | 6.6% | 15.1% | £4.21 |
| The Full Monty | 29th August 1997 | n/a | £51.9m | n/a | n/a | £4.07 |
| 4 Weddings and a Funeral | 13th May 1994 | £1.43m | £27.7m | 19.3% | 5.1% | £3.25 |
Bridget Jones’s Baby admissions are 5,440,878 which is still 46% less than Bridget Jones Diary 10,070,675 admissions and 32% less than Edge of Reason 8,017,817.
Similarly, while taking 60% more than 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral at the box office Bridget Jones’s Baby admissions are still 26% less as average ticket prices were £3.25 over 150% less than are now.
Other box office news
Also opened
Queen of Katwe – Disney – £73,754 from 135 screens
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This weekend’s top 10 box office took £15,448,907 3.7% from last weekend £14,897,205; weekend admissions 1,874,869 up 10.5%% from last weekend 1,696,720
The weekend was up 25.1% from same weekend last year (£12,356,303) when Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension £1.47m, The Last Witch Hunter £1.24m opened.
Opened in 2014: Fury £2,679,335, The Book of Life £979,415, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible £570,804, Love, Rosie £481,969 and The Babadook £343,504.
Next weekend in 2015: Spectre £41,213,634 opened. Even with Doctor Strange opening on Tuesday box office will be way down on the same weekend last year=
A recent survey said average ticket price was £8.24 (the same cost as 13 pints of cider) up from Cinema Exhibitors Association average ticket price of £7.21 for 2015 a 7.3% increase from 2014.
Complete UK Box office top 10 – October 21st – 23rd 2016
US Box Office
- Lionsgate – Boo! A Madea Halloween – opens $28.5m; receiving A CinemaScore; Tyler Perry comedies still seem to surprise box office experts after the sixth film over 10 years that all open far stronger than expected; Madea’s Family Reunion opened $30.1m in 2006, Madea’s Goes to Jail $40.1m in 2009, Madea’s Big Happy Family $26.2m in 2011, Madea’s Witness $25.4m in 2012, A Madea Christmas $16.1m in 2013.
- Paramount – Jack Reacher: Never Go Back – opens $22.8m; received B+ CinemaScore; opening was 51.3% more than original which opened with $15.2m in 2012; was tracked to open in the high teens but after taking $1.3m from midnights was expected to top the charts but dropped off over the weekend while Boo! A Madea Halloween held strong; It’s Tom Cruise’s sixteenth biggest opening highlighting the problem opening slightly ahead of his original films Knight & Day, Valkyrie and Eyes Wide Shut but slightly below The Last Samurai, Collateral, Vanilla Sky, Tropic Thunder and Edge of Tomorrow. 23 years ago The Firm opened with $25.4m went on to take $158m was then seen as a strong opening as films would drop 30% of their box office in following weekends now its 45% with films going on to take more than a third less of their box office. Oblivion in 2013 was Tom Cruise’s last non-Mission Impossible film to open with more than $30m for the supposedly biggest Hollywood actor this is very disappointing. Tom Cruise is becoming the Wayne Rooney of movie stars still seen on past success. Which is a shame as Edge of Tomorrow was a fantastic original film but due to poor dating disappointed at the box office. Upcoming he stars in The Mummy and American Made both released in 2017 hopefully and starts shooting Mission Impossible 6 next year
- Universal – Ouija: Origin of Evil – opens $14.1m; received C CinemaScore; its opening was 41% less than original Ouija opened with $19.8m in 2014; sequel received better reviews than original opening was disappointing due to a busy weekend for new releases.
- Warner Bros – The Accountant – drops 44.8% – $13.6m – $47.5m; has become Ben Affleck’s fifteenth biggest film in the US and will overtake Force of Nature, Paycheck and Changing Lanes shortly and should get close to his 2010 drama The Town which took $92.1m
- Universal – The Girl on the Train – drops 40.6% – $7.1m – $58.8m; 45% less than Gone Girl’s box office after 3 weeks which had taken $106.8m.
- 20th Century Fox – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – drops 34.2% – $5.8m – $74.4m; has overtaken Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice to become his eighth biggest film in the US and will overtake Dark Shadows $79.7m shortly.
- 20th Century Fox – Keeping Up with the Joneses – opens $5.4m; received B- CinemaScore; was surprisingly delayed from April 1st could of performed far better sandwiched between Gal Gadot’s roles in Batman Vs Superman and Criminal; last month Zach Galifianakis’s Masterminds opening with $6.5m which was then seen as disappointing while Keeping Up with the Joneses was always expected to open low its opening was similarly much lower than expected.
- Universal – Kevin Hart: What Now? – drops 65% – $4.1m – $18.9m; After Kevin Hart’s very successful year with Ride Along 2, Central Intelligence and vocally in The Secret Life of Pets his stand-up What Now? won’t match the box office of his last stand-up film Let Me Explain in 2013 which had taken $26.1m after 10 days. upcoming Jumanji re-make and vocally in Dreamworks Animation’s Captain Underpants.
- Warner Bros – Storks – drops 29.6% – $4m – $64.6m; has overtaken Ice Age: Collusion Course but both films will be seen as disappointments especially after the success of many animated films in 2016 taking over $1.75bn for the year to date.
- Lionsgate – Deepwater Horizon – drops 46.9% – $3.4m – $55.1m; has become Mark Wahlberg’s nineteenth biggest film in the US ahead of Pain and Gain and will overtake Invincible and Three Kings in coming weeks. Upcoming for Mark Wahlberg are Patriots Day released December 21st, 2016, Transformers: The Last Knight 23rd June 2017 and The Six Billion Dollar Man December 22nd, 2017.
Opening on limited release
A24 – Moonlight – opens $402,075 from 4 screens
On limited release expansion
Bleecker Street – Denial – up 81.9% – adding 65 screens – $972,940 – total $1.9m
Main opening Friday weekend predictions:
Opening UK
- Doctor Strange – Disney
14th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, Scott Adkins, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton and directed by Scott Derrickson.
Doctor Strange had a long development history going back 30 years; first developed by Regency Film in the early 90s would have been released by Warner Bros. Then it was developed by Savoy Pictures with Wes Craven directing to be released in 1995 when Savoy shut project moved to Columbia Pictures in 1997 with Chuck Russell and Stephen Norrington set to direct but moved to Dimension Films in 2001 and the Miramax Films with 2005 release date planned.
In 2005 Paramount Pictures acquired Doctor Strange while promoting Transformers: Dark of the Moon Patrick Dempsey said he was interested in being Doctor Strange. In June 2014 Scott Derrickson was signed to direct in July Joaquin Phoenix was in talks to play Doctor Strange in October he dropped out with several other actors in line to take over including Ryan Gosling but Benedict Cumberbatch was officially announced in December 2014 despite saying at 2014’s Comic-Con he was unable to accept the role due to other projects. Film finally started shooting November 2015.
In August 2015 a concept trailer was shown at D23 Expo; the first teaser was released April 12, 2016; trailer 2 was released in July having over 15 million views.
2016 has had many comic-book adaptions receiving mixed reactions critically and at the box-office adding over £169m to 2016 box office to date with Doctor Strange likely to take upwards of £30m comic-book movies will have taken almost £200m in 2016 which would be about 15% of 2016’s box office totals up from 9% last year taking £124.93m.
| Deadpool | 10 February 2016 | £13.79m | £37.73m |
| Batman Vs Superman | 25 March 2016 | £14.62m | £36.17m |
| Captain America: Civil War | 29 April 2016 | £14.46m | £36.94m |
| X-Men: Apocalypse | 20 May 2016 | £7.35m | £18.34m |
| TMNT2 | 30 May 2016 | £3.49m | £5.82m |
| Suicide Squad | 5 August 2016 | £11.21m | £33.4m |
Previous 13 Marvel Cinematic Universe films have taken £326.85m at the UK box office: Paramount Pictures 18.7% (£61.10m), Disney (78.8%) £257.69m, Universal Pictured 2.4% (£8.06m).
In 2005 Marvel announced plans to make fully finance 10 films which Paramount pictures would release Doctor Strange was one of those movies was planned to be a part of those 10 films the others were Captain America, The Avengers, Nick Fury, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Cloak & Dagger, Hawkeye, Power Pack, and Shang-Chi. But in December 2009 the Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Studios for $4 billion buying back distribution rights from Paramount Pictures for Avengers Assemble and Iron Man 3.
| Iron Man | 2 May 2008 | £5.46m | 31.8% | £17.13m |
| The Incredible Hulk | 13 June 2008 | £3.25m | 40.3% | £8.06m |
| Iron Man 2 | 30 April 2010 | £7.68m | 36.7% | £20.92m |
| Thor | 27 April 2011 | £5.44m | 39.3% | £13.84m |
| Captain America: The First Avenger | 29 July 2011 | £2.98m | 32.3% | £9.21m |
| Avengers Assemble | 26 April 2012 | £15.78m | 30.3% | £51.91m |
| Iron Man 3 | 25 April 2013 | £11.39m | 31.1% | £36.68m |
| Thor: The Dark World | 30 October 2013 | £8.65m | 43.8% | £19.71m |
| Captain America: Winter Soldier | 26 March 2014 | £6.03m | 31.2% | £19.31m |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | 31 July 2014 | £6.35m | 22.3% | £28.53m |
| Avengers Age of Ultron | 23 April 2015 | £17.99m | 37.2% | £48.32m |
| Ant-Man | 17 July 2015 | £4.01m | 24.6% | £16.29m |
| Captain America: Civil War | 29 April 2016 | £14.46m | 39.1% | £36.94m |
Doctor Strange is the second shortest Marvel movie after Thor: The Dark World. Received its world premiere October 20th with its UK premiere on October 24th at Westminster Abbey opening on Tuesday, October 25th to give it a 6-day opening weekend with four days during lucrative half term holidays similar to Spectre last year.
Reviews have been very positive even though many do say it’s an Iron Man remake with Benedict Cumberbatch following up his arrogant genius roles in Sherlock and The Imitation Game. The arrogant saving the world plotline is ever present in all the 14 Marvel films to date but critics seem to be accepting of this maybe it’s all the memberries Disney are feeling the critics before the films.
Audiences and critics say they are bored of remakes and sequels but Universal Pictures success last year Jurassic World and Disney success this year has been due to nostalgic sequels or remakes Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Jungle Book, Finding Dory and now Doctor Strange. But often those memberries have a bitter after taste Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens are seen now at what they are fan remakes of previous films.
With Doctor Strange having a six-day opening weekend which is almost like a double weekend being half-term holidays it will definitely have the biggest opening of the year opening ahead of Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice £14.62m from 3 days and could overtake Avengers Assemble and Avengers Age of Ultron to have the biggest opening for a comic-book movie in the UK. But being a six day weekend compared to for days weeks for both Avengers films can’t be compared as is similar to last years Spectre 6 day opening.
Opening US Friday
- Inferno – Sony Pictures
The second sequel to 2006’s The Da Vinci Code after 2009’s Angels & Demons based on novels by Dan Brown starring Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones and directed by Ron Howard. Sony Pictures originally developed The Lost Symbol as the third part of the film series in March 2012 before announcing in July 2013 they were instead adapt Inferno instead.
Was originally set for release December 18, 2015, but as pushed back to October 28th 2016 to avoid opening against Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Its international release was brought forward two weeks to October 28th to avoid opening against Doctor Strange. In doing so put it in the same position as The Huntsman, Warcraft and X-Men: Apocalypse had negative reviews and two weeks of poor buzz going into its opening weekend.
The Da Vinci Code opened with $77.1m in May 2006 and Angels & Demons opened with $46.2m in May 2009. But tracking for Inferno is expecting an opening of over 40% less about $25m which would be a similar opening to the films that have been released over the last 4 weeks since The Magnificent Seven with the openings of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Girl on the Train, The Accountant and Boo! A Madea Halloween.
Tom Hanks was voted as America’s favorite movie star for the fifth time this year; also held number one spot in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2013. Has portrayed some of America’s characters throughout his career including Philadelphia and Forrest Gump (winning Best Actor Oscars for those films) Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Castaway, Road to Perdition, Catch Me if You Can and Captain Philips.
Last month starred in Clint Eastwood’s Sully, in a year of arrogant comic-book heroes wearing lycra he was the perfect antidote a regular guy with no superhero powers who saves the lives of all the passengers and crew. Sully says, “I don’t feel like a hero. I was just a man doing a job,” Sully opened far stronger than predicted with $35.1m the biggest opening of the Fall so far and held strongly his 19th film to take over $100m at the box office and fourteenth biggest to date;
The Da Vinci Code is his fifth biggest film in the US taking $217.5m and Angels & Demons is his twelfth; not including Toy Story 3 they were his biggest two openings in the US, Sully is currently his third biggest opening. Despite the Inferno’s poor reviews, it should have a decent opening especially as it surprisingly has its weekend to itself. Few films have a weekend to themselves these days The Huntsman in April and Captain America: Civil War in May were the only other two films that had the weekend to themselves.
The Da Vinci Code took $758m worldwide in 2006 and Angels & Demons in 2009, took in $486m.
Tom Hanks hosted Saturday Night Live at the weekend he was recently voted by Esquire America’s Dad so he thought he should reassure the nation and tell us everything will be all right.
On the Late Show Tom Hanks was reunited with the Zoltar fortune teller machine from the film Big asking him to make him 30 again.