Top 5 Breakdown
- Sausage Party – £1,219,371 – total £5,290,312
Dropping 54.6% in its second weekend surprised many holding top spot for a second weekend but this was by more luck as the new releases failed to attract the audiences expected; Sausage Party has overtaken Grimsby’s £5.26m to be Sony Pictures UK’s fourth biggest film of 2016
As Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg films do poorly in the UK it has already overtaken most of them including This is the End, The Green Hornet, Pineapple Express and will overtake 2016’s Bad Neighbours 2 and 2007’s Superbad £6.2m.
It does pay back Sony Pictures a little for the damage caused by the Sony Hacking in 2014 after The Interview and The Night Before both disappointed.
Has overtaken 2005’s Team America: World Police £4.68m and by next weekend becoming the highest grossing adult animated film overtaking 1999’s South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut £6.36m. But impossible to compare either with Sausage Party box office as are 17 and 11 years old and their inflation increased box office will be more than double in today’s price.
- Ben Hur – £1,046,964 – NE
2D took £529,834 with previews £702,401 – 3D took £152,126 – with previews £207,179
IMAX/3D took £99,833 with previews £137,384
After flopping in the US four weeks ago was surprising Paramount Pictures UK choose to delay its release two weeks from August 26th as Ben Hur for months had negative buzz so would make more sense to open it close to its release date; thanks to £265,403 taken Weds/Thurs opened in second rather than fifth.
One positive for Ben Hur was it open to more than double Gods of Egypt opening with £0.48m in June. But was 60% less than Noah opening April 2014 with £2.51m and Exodus: Gods and Kings with £2.6m December 2014.
Had the lowest opening for director Timur Bekmambetov beating his previous low Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter £1,119,117 in June 2012 it dropped 66% in its second weekend Ben Hur is likely to beat that record too.
Russian director Timur Bekmambetov came to Hollywood’s attention after making the visually stunning vampire franchise Night Watch in 2004 and Day Watch in 2006 and then directed Wanted with Angelina Jolie opening with £3.81m in June 2008 taking £9.58m
3. Don’t Breathe – £1,028,659 – NE
After receiving positive reviews and its strong performance in the US and the failure of Morgan last weekend Don’t Breathe opening is disappointing especially with the return of Bridget Jones sorry the Blair Witch out this weekend Don’t Breathe was always going to be front-loaded.
Opening was similar to The Visit £1,031,292 which opened the same weekend last year but as it had much tougher competition of Legend £5,189,074, The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials £2,799,428 would have expected a far stronger debut.
Director Fede Alvarez previous film was Evil Dead remake opened with £1,375,842 in third against Olympus Has Fallen and Oblivion in April 2013
Working against Don’t Breathe is 2016 has already had many horrors including Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (£0.78m), The Forest (£0.92m), The Boy (£2.38m), The Other Side of the Door (£0.6m), Hush, Friends Request (£1.36m), The Darkness, The Conjuring 2 (£10.71m), Nerve (£0.7m) and Morgan £0.2m) with differing levels of success at the box office.
After Blair Witch released this weekend Ouija: Origin of Evil, Rings, The Girl with All the Gifts, The By Bye Man and Keep Watching are still to be released in 2016.
- Bad Moms – £900,076 – £5,737,607
Down 21.9% in its third weekend the lowest of the top 10; will overtake How to Be Single’s £5.87m this weekend and overtake £6.4m Bad Neighbour’s 2 by next weekend.
Will drop heavily this weekend with the arrival of Bridget Jones’s Baby; Bad Moms and Bridget Jones’s Baby highlights the difference between UK and British audiences with comedy Bridget Jones’s Baby feels no different to the first film 15 years ago but US comedy has moved on with comedic actors Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, Rebel Wilson and Melissa McCarthy.
While British comedy feels dated especially in movies with the biggest successes coming from films based on TV shows Dad’s Army and Absolutely Fabulous the Movie and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Grimsby and David Brent: Life on the Road humour is predictable more awkward or uncomfortable humour rather than films set in regular setting which are funny almost like British comedic filmmakers need the safety wheels they provide rather than feeling comfortable to just be funny as Nick Frost and Edgar Wright do so well with their Cornetto trilogy and The Full Monty 19 years ago.
This was similar last year with Spectre with many UK critics giving it five star reviews while receiving average reviews in the US taking 34% less than Skyfall in the US while Spectre beat Skyfall’s box office in the UK. Six months after release most people agree with US critics over British critics for what I prefer to call Dullfinger.
- Kubo and the Two Strings – £841,913 – NE
2D – £731,561 – 3D – £110,352
Despite receiving the best reviews for an animated film this year had the worst opening for Lakia in the UK likely due to Finding Dory in its seventh weekend still holding strong despite dropping 52.6% with the end of the school holidays.
In 2014 The Boxtrolls opened #1 with £2m was the only animated film in the top 10 with the two most recent animated films Planes: Fire & Rescue How to Train Your Dragon 2 played out several weeks before.
Similar in 2012 ParaNorman opened with £1.39m opening in second taking #1 the following weekend dropping only 12% and dropping only 11% in its third weekend up to against seventh weekend of Disney’s Brave taking £584,321.
Coraline in 2009 opened in second behind Star Trek with £2.42m with other animated films Monsters Vs Aliens and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa played out. Due to previews dropped 44% in its second weekend against Angels and Demons dropping 67% in its third weekend against Night at the Museum 2.
Would normally expect Kubo and the Two Strings to hold strongly in its coming weekends as previous Lakia animations have done. But with Finding Dory holding strongly and many high profile films opening over the coming weeks will be limited to weekend afternoon matinees before the arrival of Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Storks and Trolls.
Universal Pictures UK box office is 53% down from last year; in 2015 their big three releases Jurassic World, Minions and Furious 7 had taken £148.94m (all three were delayed from 2014 for different reasons) compared with The Secret Life of Pets, Jason Bourne and Dad’s Army 55.6% less with £66.1m in 2016.
Remaining films of 2016:
Bridget Jones’s Baby is expected to open similar to 2015’s £13.47m 50 Shades of Grey up 30% from Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason £10.4m which would be very impressive if it wasn’t released 12 years ago when tickets were 80%+ less.
Remaining films are unlikely to spark much interest at the box office despite critical acclaim for both American Honey and Nocturnal Animals are unlikely to find mainstream audiences. Ouija: Origins of Evil is likely to do similar to original film £3.2m, Almost Christmas is unlikely to generate much interest while Kevin Hart fans could come out to see his concert video What Now? But it’s unlikely to get anywhere near his comedy movies.
Surprising Universal Pictures delayed Sing from its lucrative Christmas release to half term weekend in February 2017. December 2016 has animated Moana at the start of the month but Christmas is surprisingly light for family films as Star Wars: Rogue One is likely to attract an older audience to The Force Awakens and Passengers an older female audience similar to Gravity.
Delaying Sing to 27th January half term is very crowded for family films A Dogs’ Purpose, Monster Trucks, The Space Between Us and The Lego Batman Movie. Sing received very positive reviews this weekend premiering at Toronto Film Festival seen as many as a sort of sequel to Zootropolis so probably could of held its own against Rogue One and Moana.
Also released
Captain Fantastic – eOne – £280,346 from 106 screens – after receiving rave reviews a slightly disappointing opening was expected with three older audience films opening against each other; opening on similar number of screens as Little Miss Sunshine 114 screens opening the same weekend 10 years ago taking £349,810 in its second weekend added 20 screens increasing its box office by 12% expanding to a maximum 173 screens it took £2.8m over 6 weeks saying in the top 10 for 5 weeks. With The Girl on the Train opening in 3 weeks will eOne stick or expand in the coming weeks?
Anthropoid -Icon – £337,137 from 132 screens; audiences for these films often choose to go mid-week instead of weekends so could hold better, problem is with so many higher profile films opening over the coming weeks will exhibitors keep them in the screens. All three films received critical acclaim and weren’t tied to release dates so strange which distributors would choose to open them against each other as it doesn’t help any of them as they will cannibalize their box office.
While the other Captain Fantastic and Anthropoid opened limited wide giving them room to expand Hell or High Water – Studiocanal opening with £555,771 from 265 screens gives it less chance of expansion. While the trailers showed the strength of the film some of the TV spots were uninspiring which didn’t show what the film was about and just making it look far from what it is. With older audiences more likely to see trailers for films as TV spots rather than watching them online or cinemas it wasn’t what you would want to see compared with the much more exciting TV spots shown on US TV.
Opening in almost double the screens of High-Rise in March which took £542,788 from 153 screens shows Hell Or High Water opening was much lower than expected, But that was expected opening against two other films aimed at same audience.
Other box office news:
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £6,335,370 down 42.1% from last weekend £10,941,125;
Weekend was down 45.1% from same weekend last year (£11,539,308) when Legend £5,189,074, The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials £2,799,428, The Visit £1,031,292, Irrational Man £197,188 opened.
Next weekend 2015: Everest £3,160,154, A Walk in the Woods £252,175, Bill £221,807 opened.
Complete UK Box office top 10 – September 9th – 11th 28th 2016
US Box Office
- Warner Bros – Sully – opens $35.5m; receiving A CinemaScore; after receiving its premiere on September 2nd at Telluride Film Festival Sully received positive reviews but was still tracking to open with about $25m; the second weekend of September in recent years had genre success the last adult drama to open top was 2011’s Contagion. It was always uncertain how a film featuring a plane crash would play at the box office over the anniversary of September 11th; but after a year of American “heroes” wearing tights and lycra Sully is the perfect antidote about a regular guy with no superhero powers who saves the lives of all the passengers and crew on his flight going against protocol. Sully says, “I don’t feel like a hero. I was just a man doing a job,”
- Screen Gems – When the Bough Breaks – opens $15m; received B CinemaScore; in recent years Screen Gems have had success with genre films The perfect Guy last year and No Good deed in 2014 so When the Bough Breaks was expected to open stronger.
- Screen Gems – Don’t Breathe– dropped 48.1% – $8.2m – $66.8m;
- Warner Bros – Suicide Squad – dropped 43% – $5.6m – $307.4m; has now taken over $700m worldwide without China #86 biggest globally; currently #58 biggest film in US;
- Lionsgate – The Wild Life – opens $3.4m; received B- CinemaScore
- Focus Features – Kubo and the Two Strings – dropped $3.2m – $40.8m;
- Disney – Pete’s Dragon – dropped 53.7% – $2.9m – $70.1m
- STX – Bad Moms – dropped 40.6% – $2.8m -$107.5m; will shortly overtake motherly films 1983’s Terms of Endearment and 2003’s Freaky Friday along with last summer’s Trainwreck
- Lionsgate – Hell or High Water – dropped 41.4% – $2.6m – $19.8m;
- Sony Pictures – Sausage Party – dropped 55.7% – $2.3m – $93.1m; will Sony be able to squeeze another $8m from Sausage Party for it to overtake Seth Rogen’s 2011’s The Green Hornet and 2013’s This is The End to be one of his top 10 biggest box office films in the US. The list does include voices in Kung Fu Panda trilogy, Monsters Vs Aliens and Dr Seuss; Horton Hears a Who! His biggest acting role was 2014’s Neighbours $150m.
Also opened
Relativity – The Disappointments Room – opens $1.4m