Top 5 Breakdown

1. Black Panther – £2,931,682 – £39,830,023

Down 41% in its fourth weekend becoming the second biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe film in the UK behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Will become the third biggest MCU film in the UK behind Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers Assemble with Avengers: Infinity War opening next month which will likely become the biggest MCU film.

With Black Panther likely take £43m+ the 18 Marvel Cinematic films will have taken almost £500m at the UK box office. By the summer after Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp this will be up to almost £600m for the twenty films averaging £29.2m overtaking the nine-film Harry Potter franchise which has to date taken over £516m with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald opening in November.

With the Oscars now over for another year many are predicting Black Panther will do what Wonder Woman failed to do and get a Best Picture nomination next year after the film has become a cultural phenomenon. Disney has already announced they plan to give Black Panther an Oscar campaign along with Mary Poppins Returns.

While Disney has had huge success with their properties one thing they have been lacking is Oscars. They have had nominations from Dreamworks including Bridge of Spies, Lincoln, War Horse, The Help and Miramax films Finding Neverland, Chocolat, Cider House Rules, Life is Beautiful, Shakespeare in Love (winner), Good Will Hunting, The English Patient (winner), The Postman,

The last time Disney received a Best Picture nomination was 2010 for Toy Story 3 and Up in 2009, Beauty and the Beast 1991 and last live action was The Sixth Sense and The Insider in 1999, Quiz Show in 1994, Dead Poet’s Society 1989.

Of course over the same time, 20^th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight have received many Best Picture nominations and wins. So as with Disney’s purchase of Miramax part of their reasoning to buy 20^th Century Fox is they can add award success to their properties success.  

2. The Greatest Showman – £1,567,366 – £37,336,900

Up 26.5% and up one place in its eleventh weekend has overtaken Independence Day, Die Another Day and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones to become 20th Century Fox’s eighth biggest film in the UK. Was boosted by Mother’s Day and the return of sing-along screenings while singalong screenings work for films like The Sound of Music they don’t really work that well with The Greatest Showman while there are several great songs including This Is Me and The Greatest Show they aren’t enough for a singalong?

The Greatest Showman has now taken over £1m for 11 weeks Avatar took £908,049 in its eleventh weekend with Alice in Wonderland #1 and took more than Titanic in its eleventh weekend £1,504,551; but of course, as it was released 20 years ago when average ticket prices were over 85% cheaper its impossible to compare. But it is unlikely to beat Titanic’s twelfth-weekend box office of £1,373,363 as with both Tomb Raider and Peter Rabbit opening it will start to drop down the charts over the coming weeks.

But does show how fans of The Greatest Showman are seeing it countless times as their parents did with Titanic 20 years ago. While I have watched many films dozens and dozens of times when I was working as a projectionist 20+ years ago are very few films in recent years I have paid to see more than once to see at the cinema did see Crocodile Dundee 2 and Coming to America about 5 times each 30 years ago at the old Plaza Cinema in Lower Regent Street.   

Over the next week will overtake, Deadpool, The Simpsons: Movie and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith to become their fifth biggest film behind Avatar, Titanic, The Full Monty and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and overtake Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle to become the eighth biggest film of 2017; it will also overtake 2012’s Les Miserables to be the second biggest musical in the UK behind Mamma Mia! but surely this will change with the sequel opening in the summer.

Will almost certainly be 20^th Century Fox’s biggest film of the year and biggest film as an independent studio before they are swallowed up by Disney as Deadpool 2 is unlikely to be as successful as the original as has Star Wars Anthology: Solo opening weekend after and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom two week after.

With Peter Rabbit, Tomb Raider, A Wrinkle in Time and Ready Player One opening over the next few weeks The Greatest Showman will start its drop down the charts as films like Avatar and Titanic did after they both lead the chart for weeks compared to one week for The Greatest Showman.

The Greatest Showman soundtrack held #1 for a ninth week now the second longest #1 over the last 20 years the longest since Ed Sheeran’s Divide with Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection, Eurythmics Greatest Hits and 1 The Beatles also #1 for 9 weeks, longest ever was Adele 21 in 2011. While This Is Me might have not won Best Original Song at the Oscars last week continued to sell strongly in the UK single charts up one to #7 with Rewrite the Stars #22 and The Greatest Show #23.

The Greatest Showman is now ahead of Titanic with its opening only 6.9% of its current box office taking 14,5 times its opening this compares to 7.01% for Titanic which was 14.26 times opening. One of a few films that have beaten it was The Full Monty opening was only 3.08% of total box office taking an incredible 32.5 times its £1.6m opening while Mamma Mia! was 10.39x and Moulin Rouge 7.46x.

Showing how unique it is today The Greatest Showman’s box office has become Black Panther which has overtaken it at the box office will be 21.82% of its opening.

While the holdover of The Greatest Showman is a rarity in recent years it was a regular occurrence 20 years ago as films would play for more than three times the number of weeks current films play for, so openings were much smaller The Full Monty opened with £1.6m in August 1997 went on to take £51,992,765 opening with only 3.08% of final box office and taking 32.5x it’s opening. Four Weddings and a Funeral opened with £1.4m in May 1994 with only 5% of its final box office of £28m. While Jurassic Park opened with £4.9m in July 1993 and ran for almost a whole year in cinemas taking £46m compared Jurassic World opened with £19,350,727 in June 2015 taking £63,674,773 after 10 weeks.

These days majority of films will take over 90% of their total box office in the first 6 weeks with many films played out of cinemas within 4 weeks. For years there has been much talk by distributors to try to cut the theatrical window, but exhibitors have refused to budge. The theatrical window needs to be more flexible as once a film is played out in cinemas there is now a limited second-run market so to avoid people seeking the films out illegally they need to be immediately accessible as soon as they play out of cinemas.

Thought perhaps The Greatest Showman would be affected by pirate copies coming from Asian but the fact that box office increased in its 11^th weekend highlights how much audiences have fallen for the film and are coming back and back again to see it.

3. Red Sparrow – £1,166,764 – £4,019,594

Down 36.7% in its second weekend holding surprisingly strongly given the mixed reviews it received but showing yet again the strength of Jennifer Lawrence star power in the UK. Also, of course, helped with no major releases opening last weekend but faces far tougher competition with the other female lead action Tomb Raider.

Red Sparrow is holding close to last year’s Ghost in the Shell which took £4.16m after 11 days but better than Atomic Blonde which took £3.06m.  But is a long way from older female action films including Salt opened August 2010 with £2.16m taking £6.73m, Lucy opened August 2014 with £3.07m taking £14.5m and Wanted opened June 2008 with £3.81m taking £9.58m.

As Jennifer Anniston, Jennifer Lawrence’s films always generate huge media coverage often with the things she says or does which helped the poorly reviewed Passengers opened December 2016 with £2.42m but still manage to take over £10m. But with mother! and Red Sparrow the media circus has overshadowed the films. 

But of course, opening in the shadows of Black Panther didn’t help along with the mixed critical and audience reaction to the film which is much tougher than many might have thought it would be. While the news headlines of Russian agents being poisoned in the UK probably doesn’t help as many who go to the cinema want to escape the headlines rather than live them through a film which is meant to be escapism. While studios try to select the right date for films non-film related issues or overperforming of other films is impossible to predict in the calculations on how a film might perform.  

 With no major releases Red Sparrow held much stronger in the UK than the US but with Tomb Raider opening this weekend it will likely drop much heavier.

4. Game Night – £887,115 – £2,640,693

Down 19% in its second weekend after a snow-affected opening weekend Game Night held strongly in its second weekend.

Comedies as rom-coms used to be hugely popular at the box office over the decades but in recent years few have performed strongly at the box office that weren’t gross-out like American Pie, Bad Neighbours, Borat, Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and more recently Daddy’s Home and Bad Moms. Comedies like Game Night, Shaun of the Dead, Trainwreck, About a Boy, Knocked Up, Silver Linings Playbook, Midnight in Paris and School of Rock.

With New Line Cinema Warner Bros are the one major studio who regularly makes comedies as they are often cheaper so can be very profitable if successful making many comedies over the last few years including The House, Fist Fight, Going in Style, Keanu, Barbershop: The Next Cut, How to Be Single, Vacation, Hot Pursuit, Dumb and Dumber To, Rock of Ages and Hall Pass with few successes including Horrible Bosses, We’re The Millers and Central Intelligence and have Life of the Party, Tag, Isn’t It Romantic and Margie Claus upcoming.

Game Night will be a mid-range comedy while performing much stronger than The House, Keanu, Vacation, Hot Pursuit and Hall Pass despite the positive reviews haven’t managed to get close to Horrible Bosses, We’re The Millers and Central Intelligence or other comedies including Bad Moms and sequel and Daddy’s Home and sequel and likely to perform similarly to Date Night which opened with £1,272,405 in April 2010 taking £3,795,016.

5. Lady Bird – £703,115 – £3,973,500

Down 24.1% in its fourth weekend adding another 125 screens as with any art-house films lately has expanded into far too many screens as the film despite what critics might say is not a mainstream film.

Despite rave reviews, audience reaction has been far more mixed shown by research done by the BBC ahead of the Oscars.

While Lady Bird has a 99% Rotten Tomatoes score it was the most overrated film by cinemagoers while the opposite was the case with The Greatest Showman. No other Oscar-nominated film had a bigger gap between critic reaction and cinemagoers as they probably reacted the same way as I did as I had read many of the rave reviews before I saw it and I was watching and waiting to see this amazing film they had written about staying beyond the end credits in-case there was a post credit scene which explained why critics raved about it so much.

Many of the critics who raved about the film calling it original, but Greta Gerwig admitted that the film was “inspired” by many films the most obvious was Pretty in Pink, Say Anything and Flirting among many others and you can see those films within Lady Bird so far from original as so many claims. Greta Gerwig has recently said Lady Bird will be the first part of a quartet of Sacramento films I wonder what those films will be “inspired” by?

After the mixed audience reaction to Lady Bird it will surely become this year’s Juno which was also a huge hit on the festival circuit after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival receiving critical acclaim and four Oscar nominations winning Best Original Screenplay; opened in February 2007 with £2,002,120 taking £9,240,584 but in the years since has been overrated.

Lady Bird as Get Out is more about the timing of their release rather than the films themselves Get Out opened shortly after Donald Trump become President. While Lady Bird received rave reviews at Venice Film Festivals it was the Me-Too campaign that helped get the film far more visibility as it was a film directed by a woman starring a woman about two strong women. 

Also released

• Studiocanal – You Where Never Really Here

Opens with £287,261 from 77 screens compared to We Need to Talk About Kevin opened in October 2011 with £492,297 from 111 screens taking £2,157,401.

Will expand this weekend but with Mary Magdalene and The Square also opening along with Oscar winners The Shape of Water and Three Billboards having a boost its unlikely You Where Never Really Here will do much better when it expands.

Would have thought Studiocanal would have learnt from Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire which also received its UK premiere at the London Film Festival but then also opened five months later with only £480,644 and taking only £1,004,795.

Studiocanal did have the issue with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which was always likely to overshadowing the film since premiered at the Venice Film Festival and closed the London Film Festival. But had it been released in early November would have had a head start on Three Billboard but instead opening as it did and the week after Three Billboards won several Oscars despite strong reviews it’s unlikely to find an audience.

• STX- Gringo

Opens £215,029 from 423 screens; after having their biggest opening with Den of Thieves in January its followed up by STX International’s worst opening. As with Den of Thieves Gringo feels like it’s a 90s film released 20 years too late. Den of Thieves had Gerald Butler who has had success with many bad films Olympus Has Fallen and its sequel London Has Fallen and last year’s disaster film Geostorm despite poor reviews still had a decent opening weekend.

Gringo was acquired by Amazon Video and it is a film that should go straight to PVoD as these films rarely find an audience in cinemas anymore which is why Alex Garland’s Annihilation was released this week straight to Netflix despite receiving positive reviews and opening in the US.

As cinemagoers have become much more selective in the films they pay to see and those they wait to see a film like Gringo if it is to have a theatrical release needs to be able to have a much shorter theatrical window and be allowed to be released on PVoD within a month of its theatrical release.

• Warner Bros – Wonder Wheel

Opened with £42,700 from 135 screens having the worst opening for a Woody Allen film in the UK for many years closer to 2010’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Strange £112,168 rather than 2013’s Blue Jasmine with £833,798 and 2011’s Midnight in Paris opening with £495,709.

His more recent Magic in the Moonlight as well opened with £270,000 in 2014, Irrational Man with £197,188 in 2015 and Café Society in 2016 with £494,457.

A Rainy Day in New York is Woody Allen’s 2018 project but after the recent resurfacing of the sexual abuse allegations against Woody Allen and many actors saying they would work with him again, there are questions over the release of the film and Amazon’s future involvement with him.

Interesting similar things aren’t being said about the cast of Quentin Tarantino’s latest film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with the possible casting of Roman Polanski who was found guilty of rape over 30 years ago.

• 20^th Century Fox – Walk Like A Panther

Opened with £91,333 from 222 screens

Very disappointing opening for the British comedy received average reviews but over a quiet weekend of new releases would have expected it to open far better.

Ever since The Full Monty opened 21 years ago so many British films have tried to repeat successfully including Calendar Girls, Billy Elliot and Brassed Off but many more have failed to live up to their billing.

But would a Four Weddings and a Funeral or The Fully Monty become the hit they were 20+ years ago today I’m not too sure as both films were helped by non-film related issues for Four Weddings and a Funeral it was the Liz Hurley dress that generated huge media coverage after the premiere.

While for The Full Monty opened the same weekend as Princess Diana died and become that feel-good film people turned to afterwards close to Moulin Rouge opening the weekend before 9/11. With the success of The Greatest Showman, we have seen that this is still possible with an original film as was the case with Mamma Mia! 10 years ago, but that was of course based on a hugely popular music and music loved by millions.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £9,613,318 down 15.67% from last weekend £11,400,043  

The weekend admissions 1,283,636 down 15.6% from last weekend 1,522,035; despite 3% inflation in the UK in 2017 UK Cinema Association/BFI are claiming average ticket prices in 2017 was up only 1% to £7.49; in the US inflation for 2017 was only 2% but their average price increased by 3.6%.

While 15 films opened over the weekend none managed to open in the top 10 You Were Never Really Here opened in #12, Gringo in #13 and Mamma Mia sing-along #15. Was more due to the new releases underperforming more than marketplace cannibalizing as many of those films You Were Never Really Here, Gringo and Walk Like A Panther you would have expected to get into the lower end of the charts; Black Panther took 30.49% of the top 10 box office.

The weekend was down 30.22% from last year (£13,776,935): Kong: Skull Island £6,230,997, La Traviata – Met Opera 2017 (Opera) £323,284, Elle £253,619

Down 19.98% from 2016: (£12,014,397): Kung Fu Panda 3 £4,771,131, The Divergent Series: Allegiant £1,838,019, The Witch £447,626, Anomalisa £223,387, Fifty Shades of Black £82,614

Next weekend in 2017: (£27,866,587) Beauty and the Beast £19,700,000, Get Out £2,160,099, Personal Shopper £116,265, Wolves at the Door £3,542

UK Box Office Top 10

 

US Box Office Top 10

US Box office

• Disney – Black Panther

Down 37.9% in its fourth weekend to $41.13m and $561.8m total;

It’s the first film since Star Wars: The Force Awakens to stay at #1 for 4 weeks and close to The Force Awakens Black Panther has played beyond comic-book fanbase and is currently the biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe films after four weeks

Having the biggest fourth weekend of MCU in the US 2012’s Avengers was $36.88m and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron $21.69m again showing Black Panther is playing beyond comic-book audiences which were always expected to give the media coverage has received becoming a cultural phenomenon.

Black Panther has become the 7^th biggest film of all time in the US and will overtake   Star Wars: The Last Jedi $619. 46m and The Avengers $623.35m over the next couple of weeks with a final box office of $650m+ now expected which will see it come close to Jurassic World and Titanic. Disney has 6 of the biggest 10 films in the US all of which have been released over the last 6 years all either Star Wars, Marvel or reimaginations with Avatar and Titanic the two original films in the top 10 and the oldest.

Black Panther had the third biggest fourth weekend behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens $50.3m and Avatar $42.35m and is expected to take $25m+ in its fifth weekend will see it be the fifth biggest behind Avatar, Titanic, Frozen and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Tomb Raider should overtake Black Panther this weekend with Pacific Rim Uprising and Ready Player One replacing them over the following weeks.

 Took $100m over the weekend internationally including $66.5m from China and $516.6m total internationally and $1.078bn worldwide currently #21 biggest film globally and fifth biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe film international.

Will likely be the first MCU film since Iron Man 2 in 2010 to take less internationally compared to the US. Black Panther will overtake Captain America: Civil War and Iron Man 3 to become the biggest non-Avengers film globally taking $1.3bn+.

Black Panther taking $1bn worldwide has been called “ground-breaking” but being the 18^th MCU film it was always expected to take $1+ billion what would have been really “ground-breaking” was if A Wrinkle in Time had taken that amount but will unlikely take half.

• Disney – A Wrinkle In Time

Opens with $33.3m; received 42% Rotten Tomatoes score and B CinemaScore; after premiere reaction was very mixed and was reported the embargo was going to end only days before its opening unlike 10 days for Black Panther.

For all their successes making properties in recent years, Disney found it very hard making successful original films over the last decade last being The Help in 2011 and The Proposal in 2009 last original $100m+ budget film must be 2004’s National Treasure?

Recent Disney made original films include

2016’s The BFG opened with $18.77m taking $55.48m

2015’s Tomorrowland opened with $33.03m taking $93.43m

2014’s Million Dollar Arm opened with $10.5m taking $36.45m

2013’s The Lone Ranger opened with $29.21m taking $89.3m

2012’s John Carter opened with $30.18m taking $73.07m

Disney had some original film success releasing Dreamworks films including 2012’s Lincoln, 2011’s War Horse, Real Steel and The Help.

Another original film disappointment for Disney which was predictable after the confusing trailers. After the Disney previously tried turning what many have described as “unfilmable novel” into a two-part miniseries but was postponed a year and cut into a 128min TV movie why did they think the second attempt would be any better or were Disney more preoccupied getting the media coverage they were going to make history with Ava DuVernay becoming the first African American female director to make a $100m film.

Last year Warnes Bros did similarly with Patty Jenkins being the first white female director to do so with Wonder Woman both directors went from making independent films to $100m budget films which regularly happens with male directors but rarely happens for a woman.

While Disney has had huge success over the last decade from making properties they haven’t had similar success from original live-action films their last original $100m+ budget film must be 2004’s National Treasure.

Is the problem with A Wrinkle In Time similar to Tomorrowland after concentrating so much making properties for the last decade Disney has forgotten how to market films as both had very confusing marketing campaigns made you unsure who the films were aimed at. This was similar the case with 2015’s Ant-Man was Disney’s most disappointing performing Marvel film because close to Tomorrowland it was marketed as just another comic-book move instead of a family film for which Disney used to be experts making before they got into the comic-book business.  Seen by the difference in styles of the trailers the regular trailer makes it as a typical comic-book movie.

The disappointing performance of A Wrinkle in Time highlights my problem with Disney over the last decade they are buying success with purchases of Marvel, Lucasfilm and shortly 20^th Century Fox instead of nurturing talent as they used to do and still regularly do with their animation films.  

But the Japanese trailer highlights that it’s not the typical arrogant man seeking redemption it’s a dad who wants to take care of his daughter

The most surprising aspect of this is Disney for decades were experts at making films for children and then in the 80s and 90s also have huge success making more grown-up films by Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures. Disney’s solution for their recent failure is to buy in success after seeing how 20^th Century Fox had picked up the mantle from them over the last decade choose to buy success rather than nurture it as they had previously done. While Disney with their purchases of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm have many of the biggest films globally one thing they don’t have are Oscars.

Were reports that screenings of A Wrinkle in Time came with an introduction by director Ava DuVernay talking about how proud she was making the film and thanking them for taking a chance on inclusion which seemed like she was apologising of the casting rather than letting the film stand on its own feet as was the case with Black Panther.

Reese Witherspoon had huge success last year with Big Little Lies on HBO with second series due for broadcast next year but film-wise its now 10 years ago since she had a live-action hit Four Christmases, is surprising as a few years earlier won Best Actress for Walk The Line and had box office hits including Sweet Home Alabama and Legally Blonde. 

• 20^th Century Fox – Red Sparrow

Down 49.6% in its second weekend taking $8.5m and $31.47m

Opened with $16.85m; Received B CinemaScore and only 50% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Ahead of the release, it was tracking to open with $25m+ but that dropped to $20m ahead of its opening as the continued stronghold of Black Panther squeezed its box office.

Dropped slightly less than last year’s Atomic Blonde which dropped 55.4% taking $8.15m and $34.03m and Ghost in the Shell dropped 60.9% taking $7.3m and $31.52m.

The positive for Jennifer Lawrence is that Red Sparrow has taken almost double of her last film mother! but will likely take half 2016’s Passengers took showing that while she might generate huge media coverage she can’t open a film on her own. She next appears in X-Men: Dark Phoenix likely to be her final X-Men movie but has yet to announce what she is doing next three years ago was announced that she was writing a script with Amy Schumer which she recently said had been completed and could be her next film.

Took $15.7m internationally and $51.8m total holding better internationally than the US.

• STX – Gringo

Opens with $2.77m; very poor opening for the ensemble comedy which received mixed reviews 40% Rotten Tomatoes and C- CinemaScore it won’t last for long in theatres.

While Den of Thieves had a decent box office performance thanks to Gerald Butler who somehow can open crap films nothing could save Gringo. It was an Amazon Studios acquisition and should have gone straight to PVOD as these films rarely find audiences anymore.

• Warner Bros – Game Night

Down 24.5% in its third weekend taking $7.86m and $45.24m. despite modest opening, Game Night is holding well thanks to strong word of mouth. 

Took $5.4m from 50 territories $24.7m total with the UK, Australia and Germany the films best markets.

• Sony Pictures – Peter Rabbit

Down 32.3% in its fifth weekend taking $6.77m and $93.43m total;

Peter Rabbit is ahead of last years, The Emoji Movie which took $2.5m in its fifth weekend and $76.49m and Goosebumps taking $4.63m and $73.47m; The Angry Birds Movie took $1.69m and $103.18m going on taking $107.5m;  

Peter Rabbit took £5.8m international total $26.2m opening I many more territories over the next few weeks ahead of Easter. While parents will hate it as Emoji Movie and The Angry Birds Movie the target audience is enjoying it and will surely get sequels for them in the coming years with the already announced The Angry Birds Movie 2 and Goosebumps 2 which is released later this year.

• Sony Pictures – Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Down 38.2% in its twelfth weekend taking $2.74m and $397.25m;

It is 30^th biggest film in the US and will shortly overtake, Frozen, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Jurassic Park and Spider-Man will see it become Sony Pictures biggest film in the US taking over $403.7m. 

Jumanji took $539.4m internationally and $936.7m worldwide; Jumanji is now the #44 biggest film globally having overtaken The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and will likely overtake Finding Nemo, The Jungle Book and The Lion King when it opens in Japan next month.

• 20th Century Fox – The Greatest Showman

Dropped 29.2% in its twelfth weekend taking $1.91m and $167.61m;

Out of the top 10 after 11 weeks getting ever closer to overtaking Chicago’s $170m+ box office; It is #277 biggest film in the US overtaking Fifty Shades of Grey and Meet the Parents and will overtake Gone Girl, Bridesmaids, Hidden Figures and The Help over the next week; it is 20^th Century Fox’s 42^nd biggest film in the US and will likely overtake Gone Girl and Hidden Figures and even The Boss Baby over the next few weeks. 

The Greatest Showman took 50% more in its tenth weekend than La La Land in its tenth week on wide release (14^th overall) taking 8% more $148.44m Vs $160.96m; This Is Me is expected to win Best Song at the Oscars next weekend.

The Greatest Showman took $5.2m over the weekend and $221.1m internationally taking over $388.7m worldwide. (holding strong in Australia and Japan taking $25m dropping only 7%) Has become the 273^th biggest film ever overtaking Happy Feet and Ice Age and could incredibly overtake Grease which of course was released 40 years ago; has become 20^th Century Fox’s 47^th biggest film globally and could squeeze past $400m globally which would be an incredible achievement especially as last year’s La La Land took $446.1m #225 and few could have predicted it would of take half as much three months ago.

Also opened

• Aviron – Strangers: Prey at Night opened with $10.4m from 2,464 screens

• Entertainment Studios – The Hurricane Heist opened with $3.02m from 2,402 screens

• Focus Features – Thoroughbreds opened with $1.22m from 549 screens

• IFC – The Death of Stalin – opened with $184,805 from 4 screens

• Sony Pictures Classics – The Leisure Seeker opened with $113,708 from 28 screens

Oscar Winners

 

• Fox Searchlight – The Shape of Water added 720 screens and increased its box office by 58.8% taking $2.34m and $60.94m

• Fox Searchlight – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri dropped 218 screens down 6% taking $694,643 and $53.33m

• Focus Features – Darkest Hour – dropped 668 screens down 61.9% taking $265,545 and $56.08m

• Disney – Coco – dropped 41 screens down 19.4% taking $258,951 and $208.84m

• Sony Pictures Classics – Call Me By Your Name – dropped 605 screens down 62.5% taking $293,406 and $17.48m

Oscar not winners

• 20^th Century Fox – The Post – dropped 393 screens down 69.2% taking $328,610 and $81.15m

• Neon – I, Tonya dropped 268 screens down 52.4% taking 263,951 and $29.5m

• A24 – Lady Bird dropped 554 screens down 69.5% taking $173,634 and $48.7m

• Focus Features – Phantom Thread – dropped 531screens down 68.7% taking $235,490 and $20.7m

• Sony Pictures – All the Money in the World – added 31 screens up 117.3% taking $31,431 and $25.07m

Opening UK

UK Box Office Predictions

After four weeks being #1 Black Panther is likely to drop down to third behind Peter Rabbit and Tomb Raider. Normally children films have weekend previews, but Peter Rabbit surprisingly didn’t have previews to inflate its opening weekend.

Peter Rabbit is of course based on the beloved Beatrix Potter books (Miss Potter was released in 2007 opening with £1,400,943 taking £6,115,011, but trailers were poorly received and received poor reviews but as seen with Emoji Movie opening with £2.7m and taking £14.94m the target audience are more than happy to watch as they will be for Peter Rabbit. The film opens two weeks before Easter holidays likely play over the next month close to The Emoji Movie and The Angry Birds Movie (Opened May 2016 with £2.12m taking £10.31m)

Tomb Raider has a 5-day opening with the first day limited to 3D screenings as Ready Player One also does in two weeks’ time (so will be interesting to see how they both do in 3D). Warner Bros will be hoping for a 5-day opening similar to original film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider opened July 8th, 2001 with £3,846,592 taking £12,744,662 but with average ticket prices up over 80% since 2001 would be the equivalent of £7.5m opening taking £25m+ which is unlikely.

After having the third week in a row with box office down from last year even with the arrival of Peter Rabbit and Tomb Raider will be much down from same weekend last year which saw Beauty and the Beast and Get Out both open strongly. After the disappointing opening of Wrinkle in Time it’s unlikely to opening strongly in the UK the following weekend against Pacific Rim: Uprising was surprising a sequel was made as the original film released in 2013 underwhelmed at the box office opening with £2.19m and taking £8.5m. Will looks at Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One to lift the box office after receiving very positive reviews at SXSW the nostalgia should be a strong performer for Easter.

Opening March 16^th

Opening UK

• Tomb Raider – Warner Bros

Action-adventure starring Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, and Kristin Scott Thomas and directed by Roar Uthaug based on the 2013 video game and reboot of the Tomb Raider film series.

In an interview, Alicia Vikander spoke about is not enough women in the film despite being the lead while being one of a few female-led action films. After the disappointing opening earlier, this month of Red Sparrow with £1,843,124.

Other female lead action films include Ghost in the Shell opened March 2017 with £2.3m taking £5.75m, Wonder Woman opened in June 2017 with £6.17m taking £23.18m

Atomic Blonde opened August 2017 with £1.69m taking £3.56m, Lucy opened August 2014 with £3.07m taking £14.5m, Salt opened August 2010 with £2.16m taking £6.73m and Wanted opened June 2008 with £3.81m taking £9.58m.

The first poster released in September had some dodgy photoshop work of Alicia Vikander’s neck out of proportion to her body which generated much social media coverage.

While much was again made about Ava DuVernay directing A Wrinkle in Time and Patty Jenkins directing Wonder Woman having only directed independent films before its unlikely the sane will be said about Roar Uthaug having not directed an English language film before.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider opened July 8^th, 2001 with £3,846,592 taking £12,744,662

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life opened August 24^th, 2003 with £1,524,676 taking £5,136,809

Alicia Vikander might have seemed to be an unusual choice to play the Lara Croft but is in a similar position of her career as Angelina Jolie had been. Daisy Ridley was rumoured to also be in the running to play Lara Croft, but Alicia Vikander was signed to play the role in April 2016. While Daisy Ridley might have starred in Star Wars: The Force Awakens previously had small roles in films and TV series so very different to lead a film which she will do next year opposite Tom Holland in sci-fi film Chaos Walking directed by Doug Liman.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider starred Angelina Jolie and was her first leading role having starred previously in The Bone Collector, Girl, Interrupted (won Best Supporting Actress) and Gone in Sixty Seconds

The two films made before the sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003 Life or Something Like It and Original Sin flopped. Angelina Jolie has had her biggest successes after Tomb Raider including Angelina Jolie Mr. & Mrs Smith, Wanted, Salt and Maleficent.

Alicia Vikander breakthrough role was 2014’s Ex Machina starring in the underrated The Man from U.N.C.L.E. the following year before winning Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl and Jason Bourne in 2016 since then starred in flops The Light Between Oceans and Tulip Fever.

A few years ago, Tomb Raider would have been as the previous were a summer film but despite Warner Bros opening Read Player One two weeks later and having a surprisingly soft summer slate opened in March as they did last year with Kong: Skull Island. Warner Bros summer films Ocean’s 8, Tag, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, The Meg and Crazy Rich Asians aren’t likely to be huge hits at the box office with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald being their main film for the year. As all other studios, it seems they are pulling out all the stops for their 2019 slate which includes The LEGO Movie 2, Godzilla 2, Minecraft and Wonder Woman 2.

• Peter Rabbit – Sony Pictures

Live-action/CGI animated adventure comedy features voice roles played by James Corden, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, Sia, and Domhnall Gleeson, Rose Byrne and Sam Neill and directed by Will Gluck based on the stories created by Beatrix Potter.

It was first revealed in the Sony Hack in April 2015 with Sony making an official announcement in December. In August 2016 Will Gluck was announced to direct having previously directed the Annie remake and Friends with Benefits and Easy A seemed strange choice to direct Peter Rabbit.

The first trailer was released in November with negativity response from fans and critics Peter Rabbit is a beloved children’s classic, but the trailer looked as bad as Yogi Bear and shockingly voiced by James Corden.

While Peter Rabbit will be hated by parents taking their children as was the case last year with The Emoji Movie the target audience will lap it up as they have down in the US. Peter Rabbit surprisingly didn’t have previews last weekend being a quiet weekend would of likely boosted its opening by over £1m without previews opening will be close to The Emoji Movie £2.7m and The Angry Birds Movie £2.12m but could have a slight boost being based on classic British children books even if Beatrix Potter would be shocked at what Sony Pictures had done to her books.

With Coco almost played out Peter Rabbit is the only children’s film released for Easter holidays last year The Smurfs: The Lost Village opened with £1.18m taking £6.01m, Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience with £1.05m and £3.62m and The Boss Baby with £8.02m taking £29.11m.

• Mary Magdalene – Universal Pictures

Biblical drama starring Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tahar Rahim and directed by Garth Davis; had its world premiere at the National Gallery on February 26^th receiving average reviews; Garth Davis’s first film since Lion.

In February 2016 it was acquired by Focus Features for most of the world originally set for release November 24^th, 2017 but was switched for Darkest Hour and pushed back to March 2018.

Biblical films have had a mixed performance at the box office in recent years Exodus: Gods and Monsters, The Prince of Egypt, Risen, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Passion of the Christ the most successful biblical film in recent years taking £10,604,723 in 2004 and Noah in 2014 taking £9,953,463

Opening in the US

• Tomb Raider – Warner Bros

While Angelina Jolie has had huge success at the box office with Mr. & Mrs Smith, Wanted, Salt and Maleficent since starring in the Tomb Raider films at the time she as in a similar career with her acting as Alicia Vikander with it being her first leading role.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider opened in 2003 with $47.73m taking $131.1m

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life opened in 2001 with $21.78m taking $102.4m

Despite opening in Asia last weekend there is an embargo in place until Wednesday the day it has preview screenings in the UK which is never a good sign; Warner Bros will be hoping for a $25m+ opening which could see it loose #1 to the fifth weekend of Black Panther which might have been a surprise a few weeks ago but not so much now.

Warner Bros will be hoping Tomb Raider, Ready Player One and Rampage (Minecraft opening next summer) will help break Hollywood’s video game curse. 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is the biggest video game film adaptation but has been many disappointing performing adaptations including 25 years ago this summer probably the most famous Super Mario Bros.

On paper a video game adaptation should work as well as comic-book adaptations, but it never seems to be the case, but studios keep trying to make them in the hope that one of them is with the huge fanbase that is already inbuilt into the video game the film should attract that same fanbase to the film. Two years ago, Nintendo announced plans to make a series of films based on characters from their games and earlier this announced Illumination Entertainment would be making an animated film based on Mario Bros and Universal Pictures will be releasing Detective Pikachu next summer.

• Love, Simon – 20^th Century Fox

Romantic comedy-drama starring Nick Robinson, Josh Duhamel, and Jennifer Garner and directed by Greg Berlanti based on the novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda from the producers of The Fault in Our Stars; having received positive reviews.

Despite many recent young adult adaptions disappointing at the box office studios keep making them as they generate strong media coverage and with low budgets can be very profitable for studios. But for every The Princess Bride, The Fault in Our Stars, Twilight, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Maze Runner there are also Everything, Everything, Paper Towns, The Giver, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Ender’s Game, City of Embers, Jumper, The Golden Compass, The Fifth Wave, A Monster Calls and The Seventh Son.

The film has received strong media coverage as it is the first gay rom-com that has been marketed as a mainstream movie opening in over 2,000 screens. The big question will be how audiences react but have generated very positive buzz over the last few months.

• Entebbe – Focus Features

Thriller starring Rosamund Pike and Daniel Brühl and directed by José Padilha; premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February receiving average reviews; opening on a limited wide release Focus Features don’t expect much from it.

It’s the fourth film about the events of Operation Entebbe, after the US TV films Victory at Entebbe (1976) and Raid on Entebbe (1977), and Israeli film Operation Thunderbolt 1977).