1. Frozen 2 – £15,088,012  – NE

Opened with £3.1m on Friday having the biggest opening for Disney Animation in the UK similar to Toy Story 4 while The Lion King opened with £5.2m and Fantastic Beasts £4.3m

Had the 27^th biggest opening In the UK between Fantastic Beasts and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Disney’s 12^th biggest opening between Marvel Avengers Assemble and Captain America: Civil War and 3^rd biggest 2019 opening after Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King.

16^th biggest Fri-Sun opening between Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Had the 4^th biggest animation opening in the UK including previews after Toy Story 3, Shrek The Third and Shrek 2 and the biggest Fri-Sun opening for an animated film ahead of 2007’s The Simpsons (£13,626,853) but with 50% ticket inflation took 23% less (£19,482,352).

Opened 221% bigger than 2013’s Frozen (£4,704,940)

After 3 days Frozen 2 is already the 17^th biggest film of 2019 between The Lego Movie 2 and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and by next weekend will become one of the top 10 biggest films of 2019 showing how the biggest films are taking a higher percentage of the box office.

Disney Animations previous biggest opening in the UK was 2008’s Bolt with £5,457,438 taking £17,745,776 and 2016’s Zootropolis £5,306,726 (had previews of £1,733,638) taking £23,461,047

Toy Story 3 (£21,187,264) is the biggest animation opening in the UK but was inflated with £9,693,440 from previews; 2007’s Shrek The Third (£16,671,727) The Simpsons (£13,626,853) including £6.34m previews and Toy Story 4 (£13,300,000) third.

2013’s Frozen (£4,704,940) is 50^th biggest animated opening in the UK in 2013 Frozen had the 29th biggest animated opening between How to Train Your Dragon and Shrek.

2013’s Frozen was beloved by young girls who saw the film countless times in cinemas

Let It Go video has been seen on YouTube over 1bn times on YouTube and the singalong over 1.8bn times since December 2013

Disney released two Frozen shorts Frozen Fever with 2015’s Cinderella

2017’s Olaf’s Frozen Adventure was released with Coco in the US but as Coco UK release was moved to January in the UK Disney released the short with Frozen in November 2017 with tickets only £1 opening with £1,115,689

Frozen took £42,976,318 was the 10th biggest animated film; in 2013 Frozen was the 5th biggest animated film after Toy Story 3, Shrek 2, Despicable Me 2 and Toy Story 2.

Frozen is currently the 284th biggest opening in the UK between Star Trek Beyond and Batman Forever; in 2013 Frozen was the 164th biggest opening between I, Robot and Batman Forever.

Hard to make comparisons with other animated films with their sequels as many were inflated with previews and opened during school holidays while also none of them was as beloved as Frozen became as soon as it was released.

Despicable Me 3 took 12% more (not including previews than Despicable Me 2 while Toy Story 3 took 48% more than Toy Story 3 which would see Frozen 2 open with £7m-£8m. In the US Frozen 2 was tracking to open with $100m+ which would be a similar 48% increase from original.

Another comparison would be 2017’s Paddington 2 opening 61% more (£8,260,160) than 2014’s Paddington (£5,125,519).

Frozen became a cultural phenomenon when it was released in 2013 as The Greatest Showman become two years ago, the difference between the two was Frozen had the Disney brand attached and mostly positive reviews while The Greatest Showman was purely audience-driven. Six months after Frozen was released the name Elsa climbed into 88th place up 243 slots on the UK baby name list.

Frozen captured the heart of pre-teen girls in 2013 with many watching it countless times in cinema and then on video to known almost every word, if a film, TV show, musical connects with preteens they will watch it again and again as adults we will often get bored watching on repeat but they seem to enjoy them even more as they sing along to the songs.

One thing Disney miscalculated was the demand for merchandising for the film (probably the reason they have gone over the top with merchandising ever since) with a shortage of merchandising for the film until after its DVD release, Disney sold half a million Anna and Elsa dolls

Frozen took $1.2bn worldwide, at the time was 5th highest-grossing film of all time and the highest-grossing animation. Won two Oscars, a BATFA and a Golden Globe The soundtrack sold more than 10m worldwide in 2014 (1m+ in the UK), 7m Spotify streams and official YouTube videos of trailers and Let It Go in the hundreds of millions. Many of the music records were beaten by The Greatest Showman two years ago, after almost two years on the UK album chart it is still in the top 20 Despite its huge success Idina Menzel’s Let It Go only got to #11 in the UK singles chart.

Reviews for Frozen 2 say its darker and more grown-up than the original (probably targeting the children who loved the original but now are 6 years older) so it’s then surprising to see BBFC have given it a U compared with PG original had. While also critics surprising mentioned the running time as being too long of the sequel despite it being 5 minutes shorter than the original, that says much  about their enjoyment of the sequel as long films can go in a blink of an eye if an audience is watching, but I’ve watched many 90 minutes films that feel they are three times as long.

Six years ago Frozen opened with £4,704,940 taking 9.13x opening, its opening weekend was only 10.95% its total box office of £42,976,318 compared to 20.1% for Toy Story 4 and 21.9% for The Lion King, while Paddington was 13.5% and Paddington 19.3%.

2. Last Christmas – £2,251,947   – £6,736,745  

Down only 15.1% in its second weekend

Had a similar second weekend hold to 2011’s Arthur Christmas (£2,317,963)

329^th biggest second weekend between Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Charlie’s Angels (close to Elf, Enchanted, Hitch and About A Boy) and 471^st biggest inflation inflated between Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie and The Hulk (close to Mrs. Brown’s Boys d’Movie, The Greatest Showman, Pitch Perfect 3 and Run, Fat Boy, Run).

43^rd biggest Universal Pictures second weekend between Bruno and The Addams Family (close to Mr Beans Holiday, Nanny McPhee & the Big Bang, Bridesmaids and Yesterday) and 49th biggest inflation inflated opening between Mrs. Brown’s Boys d’Movie and Pitch Perfect 3.

94^th biggest Universal Pictures film in the UK between Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and Public Enemies (close to Get Him to the Greek, About Time, Bad Neighbours 2 and The Boat that Rocked) and 102^nd biggest Universal Pictures film between The Danish Girl and Green Zone.

While we might speak the same language in the UK as the US the opening of Last Christmas shows how different British cinemagoers taste in comedy is different to the US with UK audiences falling for the award twee humour again as it has done so many times with Richard Curtis scripts. While cinemagoers might be more grownup with adult targeted films British cinema comedy hasn’t changed since Four Weddings and a Funeral 25 years ago.

As soon as trailer was released comparisons were made with Love Actually and The Holiday and Last Christmas opened similar to The Holiday which similarly received poor reviews, but British audiences fell for it far more than US audiences.

2^nd weekends

2003’s Love Actually dropped 18% (without previews) £4,660,595 taking £15,122,593 42% of £36,026,147 (£58,583,059 inflation inflated)

2006’s The Holiday dropped 32% (without previews) £1,597,633 taking £5,951,793 49.2% of £12,097,597

2008’s Four Christmases dropped 34% £1,498,592 taking £4,713,869 46% of £10,222,998

2001’s Serendipity dropped 7% (without previews) £429,683 taking £1,409,069 71% of £1,986,773 (£3,464,855 inflation inflated)

2011’s Bridesmaid dropped 41.7% taking £2,007,171 and £7,915,726 35.5% of £22,318,130

The rom-com genre has underperformed over the last decade with audiences going to Netflix for their rom-com fix

1989 is the 30th anniversary of the classic rom-com When Harry Met Sally and the 25th anniversary of Miracle on 34th Street remake.

Emilia Clarke was upset that spoilers were being revealed on social media about the film, but the title Last Christmas is the films biggest spoiler once you know the film features George Michael songs, as the next line is “I gave you my heat”… as the twist is Tom gave Kate her heart.

This spoiler was also in the trailer, so surely if filmmakers were concerned over spoilers they didn’t need to put them into trailers.

While film fans hate spoilers in trailers has been research in the past that many cinemagoers like having spoilers in the trailers as the trailers are made for the undecided audience rather than those who were always going to see it.

3. Blue Story – £1,324,510   – NE

Strong opening for the film which didn’t receive much media coverage before the film was released apart from Sadiq Khan not allowing the film set in London to be filmed in London.

Blue Story received positive reviews (86% Rotten Tomatoes) and was performing strongly in cinemas on Friday (small screens within multiplexes) but then on Saturday evening a fight in a Birmingham cinema generated huge media coverage and on Sunday morning Vue Cinemas had pulled the film from all of their cinemas and then Showcase Cinemas also pulled it on Sunday night.

Two months ago ahead of the release of Joker there were major concerns that the film might cause violence in cinemas and cinemas took precautions with extra security, Producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff said “I know it’s very controversial, I’m not trying to get into that but I was very moved by that script and have a lot of empathy for the themes going on in that film. I think that it’s important to really look at those individuals who are suffering from mental illness and really try to find some love and empathy for these people. For me, the themes in that movie were empathy and feeling sad and empathetic for that character.”

These comments were repeated by the filmmakers of Blue Story, the film received certificate by the BBFC due to very strong language, strong violence, threat, sex, drug misuse, but the subject matter of the film was always going to attract under 12s and despite it being a 15 12+ would always go to see it either paying for it or buying tickets for Frozen 2 and sneaking in. Do believe BBFC should take some responsibility as surely the film should have been given and 18 but the same could be said for Joker last month.

Even if content-wise the film was a 15 they should know that the film would attract a younger audience, but the BBFC got themselves in trouble doing this before with The Woman In Black giving it a 12A certificate as it was Daniel Radcliffe’s first film after Harry Potter and caused many complaints, as surely will the 15 for Blue Story.

Blue Story played in 310 screens in half as many screens as the other films in the top 5 showing again that films don’t need to open I 600+ cinema and are opening in far too many screens.

After Vue pulled the film on Sunday Showcase Cinemas shortly followed pulling the film but after the ban generated much media coverage globally Showcase Cinemas reinstated the film on Monday. Vue said the reason why they pulled the film was due to 25 incidences in their cinemas over the first two days and it wasn’t a tear jerk over reaction to the violence in Birmingham.

While cinemas prepared for the arrival of Joker they were probably too busy thinking about Frozen 2 to possibly think Blue Story might find an audience, but as some compared the film to Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society when both were released in US violence broke out in cinemas, there should have been similar concerns that Blue Story could do too.

Comparisons were also made to the trilogy of films made by Noel Clarke; 2008’s Adulthood opened with £1.20m taking £3.35m; 2016’s Brotherhood opened with £1.98m (including £971,000 previews) taking £3.70m. 

4. Le Man’s 66 – £1,174,553  – £4,234,327

Down 41.2% in its 2^nd weekend

Holding similar to action films rather than drama films that would normally hold stronger due to strong word of mouth as while Frozen 2, Blue Story and 21 Bridges opened over the weekend none of them was targeting the demographic of Le Man’s 66 or would be had it been Ford Vs Ferrari.

This is highlighted by Le Man’s 66 taking similar box office to Terminator: Dark Fate in its second weekend, while Le Man’s 66 did take similar box office as Walk The Line second weekend Le Man’s 66 opened with almost 50% more last weekend.

Likewise Le Man’s 66 second weekend was similar to several of 20^th Century Fox’s Oscar nominees including The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Descendants, Master and Commander, Bridge of Spies, Road to Perdition, Joy, and Hidden Figures but their opening weekends were much lower than Le Man’s 66 and held much stronger.

The only 20th Century Fox Oscar nominee that opened similar to Le Man’s 66 and held similar in its second weekend was 2008’s Juno after opening with £2,002,120 took £1,344,284 in its second weekend down 33% going on to take £9,240,584.

721^st biggest second weekend between The Mummy (2017) and The Polar Express (close to Miami Vice, RED, Red Sparrow and Walk the Line) and 921st biggest inflation inflated between The Equalizer and Salt (close to Executive Decision, Angel Has Fallen, John Carter and The Expendables 2)

119^th biggest 20^th Century Fox second weekend between Terminator: Dark Fate and Red Sparrow (close to Ad Astra, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Descendants and The Monuments Men) and 153^rd biggest inflation inflated between Terminator: Dark Fate and Stuck On You (close to The Monuments Men, Entrapment, Unstoppable and X-Men: Dark Phoenix)

Direct comparisons

Ron Howard’s Rush (took £1,336,449 36% drop and £4,673,315 taking £9,793,677)

Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies (took £1,084,468 35% drop and £3,891,395 taking £7,434,272)

Clint Eastwood’s Sully (took £1,222,683 31% drop and £4,308,008 taking £7,386,195)

James Mangold’s Walk the Line (took £1,150,472 up 3.5% and £3,024,681 taking £9,737,493)

Ben Affleck’s Argo (took £807,457 dropped 37% and £2,828,888 taking £5,299,799

The two titles make the film sound like different films Ford v Ferrari, tells you immediately it’s the battle between Ford and Ferrari but Le Man’s 66 makes you think it’s a racing film more like Days of Thunder or Fast and Furious. What confuses the change, even more, is the adverts say it’s the incredible true story between Ford and Ferrari, and mentions Ford and Ferrari twice

20th Century Fox has had a very disappointing 2019 with their 12 releases taking only £43m to date; last year had huge success with Deadpool 2 and Bohemian Rhapsody but then many of their others failed to find an audience as is the case today for all studios apart from Disney one film can make or break the studio.

20^th Century Fox originally dated the film foe June 2019 but delayed it in February to November (previously had The King’s Man dated which has since moved to September 2020) as it was seen as an award contender for the studio. Almost all of 20^th Century Fox slate for 2019 has been moved due to the acquisition by Disney which harmed the performance of all of their films this year.

After 20th Century Fox have had strong success making these adult dramas over the years it’s unlikely they will continue to make them as one of the first moves by Disney after they acquired the studio was shut down their development slate which saw many films they had developed acquired by rival studio (including News of the World starring Tom Hanks and directed by Paul Greengrass acquired by Universal and dated for next Christmas). With The Woman in The Window and Death on the Nile and West Side Story next year all set up before Disney acquired the studio.

5. 21 Bridges – £655,213   – NE

Opening as counter-programming to Frozen the action-thriller opened similar to previous similar films released by STX but was overshadowed by Blue Story despite Chadwick Boseman promoting the film in the UK.

Was STX’s 7^th biggest opening in the UK between The Upside and Breathe and 3^rd biggest opening in 20129 after Hustlers and The Upside.

2018’s Den of Thieves opened £1.08m taking £2.79m; 2018’s Mile 22 opened £0.79m taking £1.6m.

2019 was the third year of STX UK they have released 16 films taking £31m Hustlers was their biggest film of 2019 taking £7.6m and their biggest film to date.

Its hard to pick out any of their 2020 films at the moment that could match the success of Hustlers but a few months before Hustlers opened didn’t expect much from it so never really can tell how these smaller films play out at festivals and how audience responds As ahead of the release of Hustlers it was being compared to Showgirls and Striptease.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £21,913,354 up 146.6% from last weekend £8,886,414

The weekend admissions 2,906,560 up 145.6% from last weekend 1,183,277

19 films opened at weekend taking (£17,603,315; Frozen 2 85.7% (£15,088,012); Blue Story 7.5% (£1,324,510); 21 Bridges 3.7% (£655,213); remaining 16 films shared 3.1% (££535,580);

Top three took 85.2% (£18,664,469) of the top 10; Frozen 2 68.8% (£15,088,012); Last Christmas 10.3% (£2,251,947); Blue Story 6.1%  (£1,324,510)

Up 43.8% from 2018: (£15,238,186); Robin Hood (£1,330,387); Nativity Rocks! (£834,414); The Girl in the Spider’s Web (£557,403); Shoplifters (£117,555); Assassination Nation (£70,891); Nobody’s Fool (£70,703); #1 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald £5,622,755 2nd week 679 screens 54% drop (36.9% of top 10)

Up 28% from 2017: (£17,120,343); Daddy’s Home 2 (£4,919,051); Frozen (£1,115,689); Battle of the Sexes (£552,521); Suburbicon (£231,412); The Star (£204,497); #1 Daddy’s Home 2 £4,919,051 1^st week 505 screens (28.7% of the top 10)

Up 52.6% from 2016: (£14,354,042); Allied (£1,331,919); Bad Santa 2 (£799,156); A United Kingdom (£618,652); Paterson (£169,911); Almost Christmas (£60,991); #1 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them £8,892,489 2^nd week 666 screens 42% drop (62% of the top 10)

Up 16.4% from 2015; (£18,825,730); The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 (£11,255,566); The Dressmaker (£235,968); The Perfect Guy (£102,924); Lulu – Met Opera 2015 (£92,708); True Romance (Re: 2015) (£19,066); #1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 £11,255,566 1^st week 576 screens (59.8% of top 10)

Up 11.4% from 2014: (£19,671,148); The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (£12,654,109); Il Barbiere di Siviglia – Met Opera 2014 (£211,402); What We Do in the Shadows (£127,765); Get on Up (£110,417); The Homesman (£62,384); No Good Deed (£40,583); #1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 £12,654,109 1^st week 565 screens (64.3% of top 10)

Up 11.1% from 2013: (£19,719,142); The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (£12,189,733); Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (£1,798,629); The Family (£444,659); Andre Rieu: Home for Christmas (£290,173); Blue is the Warmest Colour (£142,077); Parkland (£114,321); #1 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire £12,189,733 1^st week 554 screens (61.8% of top 10)

Down 47.3% from 2012 (£14,870,977); Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger! (£1,614,675); Silver Linings Playbook (£1,260,979); Gambit (£689,042); End of Watch (£618,546); Lawrence of Arabia (re: 2012) (£18,431); #1 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 £5,344,508 2^nd week 559 screens 66% drop (36% of top 10)

Up 9.7% from 2011 (£19,978,237); The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (£13,910,877); Justice (£276,483); #1 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 £13,910,877 1^st week 543 screens (69.6% of top 10)

Down 0.2% from 2010: (£21,967,470); Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 (£18,319,721); Peeping Tom: 50th Anniversary (Re) (£4,729); #1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 £18,319,721  1^st week 579 screens (83.4% of top 10)

Up 7.7% from 2009; (£20,336,403); The Twilight Saga: New Moon (£11,683,158); A Serious Man (£321,114); The Informant! (£179,612); Glorious 39 (£7,654); #1 The Twilight Saga: New Moon £11,683,158 1^st week 497 screens (57.4% of top 10)

Up 195.4% from 2008; (£7,416,989); Body of Lies (£991,979); My Best Friend’s Girl (£911,355); Quarantine (£387,994); Waltz with Bashir (£113,087); Choke (£59,330); #1 Quantum of Solace £2,884,789 4^th week 527 screens 44% drop (38.9% of top 10)

Up 225.4% from 2007: (£6,731,904); The Darjeeling Limited (£435,198); August Rush (£359,564); Shrooms (£313,758); Sleuth (£165,788); Rescue Dawn (£89,988); Blade Runner – Director’s Cut (£15,580); #1 American Gangster £1,817,691 2^nd week 416 screens 29% drop (27% of top 10)

Up 20.1% from 2006; (£18,237,708); Casino Royale (£13,370,969); #1 Casino Royale £13,370,969 1^st week 505 screens (73.3% of top 10)

Up 16.6% from 2005 (£18,792,982); Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (£14,933,901); The Libertine (£278,482); Separate Lies (£14,568); #1 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire £14,933,901 1^st week 535 screens (79.4% of top 10)

Up 143.1% from 2004 (£9,011,036); After the Sunset (£664,214); The Manchurian Candidate (£624,441); Taxi (£540,581); The Incredibles (limited) (£81,307); #1 Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason £5,047,315 2^nd week 506 screens (56.1% of top 10)

Up 117.5% from 2003 (£10,075,451); Love Actually (£6,657,479); Master and Commander (limited) (£61,056);  #1 Love Actually £6,657,479 1^st week 477 screens (66.1% of top 10)

Up 20.3% from 2002 (£18,217,586); Die Another Day (£9,122,344); Anita & Me (£453,613); #1 Die Another Day £9,122,344 1^st week 430 screens (50.1% of top 10)

Up 89.2% from 2001 (£11,583,257); Spy Game (£1,019,847);; The Heist (£100,229); Baby Boy (£47,144); Me Without You (£45,532); #1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone £8,362,749 2^nd week 507 screens 49% drop (72.2% of top 10);

Next weekend in 2018: (£15,392,277); Ralph Breaks the Internet (£4,032,775); Creed 2 (£2,991,509); Disobedience (£193,907); Pokemon the Movie: The Power of Us (£177,750); The Possession of Hannah Grace (£113,537); #1 Ralph Breaks the Internet £4,032,775 1^st week 613 screens (26.2% of top 10)

Also Opened

• Harriet – Universal Pictures

Opened with £115,120 from 180 screens

While opened well two weeks ago was always unlikely to find an audience in the UK despite positive reviews and strong TV advertising.

• Them That Follow – Sony Pictures

Opened with £5,454 from 92 screens

Its Olivia Colman’s first film released since winning Best Actress Oscar for The Favourite earlier this year; Olivia Colman is currently appearing on the small screen in series three of The Crown and Sony probably were hoping that might help it find an audience.

The film opened in the US in August on limited release taking $158,973 and will have a limited release in the UK.

Had its world premiere in at the Sundance Film Festival receiving mixed reviews and were Sony Pictures acquired international rights.

UK Box Office Top 10

US Box office

• Frozen 2 – Disney

Opened with $130.26m; received mixed reviews (77% Rotten Tomatoes)  and A- CinemaScore compared with A+ for Frozen

Took $8.5m from Thursday midnights similar to Aladdin ($7m); Finding Dory ($9m); Toy Story 4  ($12m) and close to November openers Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ($8.75m); Twilight ($7.5m); and Thor: The Dark World‘s ($7.1m)

The fifth highest opening for November of all-time after The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($158M), Twilight Saga: New Moon ($142.8m), Twilight Breaking Dawn 2 ($141m), Breaking Dawn 1 ($138.1m) and ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 ($125m)

The biggest ever November opening for an animated film overtaking 2004’s The Incredibles opened with $70.4m and 2018’s The Grinch with $67.5m.

33^rd biggest opening weekend in the US between Iron Man 2 and Deadpool 2; 18^th biggest Disney opening between Finding Dory and Thor: Ragnarok

-The 10^th animation film to open with over $100m+

Disney has been releasing an animation film close to Thanksgiving since Oliver & Company in 1988 (the film that relaunched their animation brand) since then Frozen 2 will be the24th time Disney has released an animated film in November. Frozen 2 will be the 8th year running they have released an animated film in November. Many of those films were released internationally much later.

Frozen captured the heart of pre-teen girls in 2013 with many watching it countless times in cinema and then on video to known almost every word, if a film, TV show, musical connects with preteens they will watch it again and again as adults we will often get bored watching on repeat but they seem to enjoy them even more as they sing along to the songs.

One thing Disney miscalculated was the demand for merchandising for the film (probably the reason they have gone over the top with merchandising ever since) with a shortage of merchandising for the film until after its DVD release, Disney sold half a million Anna and Elsa dolls

Frozen opened in one screen in November 2013 taking $243,390 (as many Disney animated films used to do open at El Capitan Theatre exclusively for a week) taking $67.39m I its expansion going on to take $400.73m in the US and $1.274bn worldwide; in 2013 Frozen overtook Toy Story 3 to become the highest grossing animated film of all time but was surpassed this year by The Lion King reimagination.

Frozen opened second behind The Hunger Games: Catching Fire moving #1 in its second weekend having far less competition only The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opening two weeks later but that targeted an older male audience; held in #1 and #2 for 7 weeks of its release.

Animated sequels have underperformed this year including The LEGO Movie 2, The Secret Life of Pets 2, and The Angry Birds Movie 2 while Disney releases The Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, and Ralph Breaks the Internet did better but not vastly more than previous instalments.

Disney had been developing a film based The Snow Queen since the 1930s after many false starts finally started production in 2011 but in 2012 they weren’t happy with how the film was turning out and started production again only 17 months before release.

After the first film was released there were no immediate plans for a sequel as the studio said in 2014 their priority was the stage show, but a year later they announced the sequel> This was the same with Toy Story 4 immediately after Toy Story 3 opened and was a huge success they had no plans for a sequel, but a year later it was announced.

For the third time, Disney has taken over $3bn at the US box office (last year Disney took $3.09bn). With a slate of films including Avengers: Endgame ($858.3m), The Lion King ($543.6m), Toy Story 4 ($434m), Captain Marvel ($426.8m and Aladdin ($355.6m) it was always going to be a record breaking year for Disney and take vastly more than rivals, but it will likely be a much more closely fought battle next year with Universal and Warner Bros having much stronger slates.

This total doesn’t include BO from 20^th Century Fox or Fox Searchlight (about $463.9m) double Warner Bros in second taking $1.5bn;

Frozen 2 is unlikely to have the legs of the first film and faces much tougher competition with Jumanji: The Next Level, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Spies In Disguise opening over the next few weeks. Frozen 2 will open up to 50% bigger than Frozen but will drop off much heavier.

Previous Disney worldwide openings

Toy Story 4 $240.9m; Incredibles 2‘s $235.8m; The Lion King $467m

Opened with $222.3m from 37 territories and $350.2m worldwide; China $53m; Korea $31.5m; Japan $18.2m; UK $17.8m; Germany $14.9m; France $13.4m; Mexico $9.3m; Indonesia $6.2m; Philippines $6.1m; Spain $5.8m

• Ford v Ferrari – 20th Century Fox

Dropped 50% in its second weekend taking $15.73m and $57.72m

41^st biggest 2019 film between Terminator: Dark Fate and Escape Room; 178^th biggest 20^th Century Fox film in the US between Maze Runner: The Death Cure and The Cannonball Run and 1,462^nd biggest inflation inflated between Takers and The Chronicles of Riddick

Ford v Ferrari was always the diamond in a rough of 20^th Century Fox 2019 slate and the one likely to be their biggest film of the year as it is the genre of films the studio has had much success this century targetting older demographics including

2^nd weekends

2005’s Walk the Line dropped 14% taking $19.21m and $54.1m taking $119.51m total and $186.43m worldwide

2013’s Rush increased 5,247.3% +2,292 screens taking $10.01m and $10.27m taking $26.94m and $90.24m worldwide

2015’s Bridge of Spies dropped 26% taking $11.37m and $32.59m and $72.31m and $165.47m worldwide

2016’s Sully dropped 38% taking $21.65m and $70.19m and $125.07m and $240.79m worldwide

2012’s Argo dropped 15.5% taking $16.44m and $43.901m and $136.02m and $232.32m worldwide

Ford v Ferrari is James Mangold’s first film since 2017’s Logan and 5th film he has directed for 20th Century Fox (Walk the Line, Knight and Day, The Wolverine and Logan) and Matt Damon’s 9th (1996’s Courage Under Fire was one of his first major roles) and is his first major role since Downsizing, Suburbicon and The Great Wall).

2005’s Walk The Line (took $129.51m and $187.7m worldwide) and went on to Oscar success; his biggest 2017’s Logan (took $226.27m and $615.46m worldwide) and 2013’s The Wolverine (took  $132.55m and $416.45m worldwide).

Took $14.7m from 43 territories $30.7m and $103.8m worldwide; Russia $6.8m; UK $5.3m; France $4.7m; Australia $3.7m; Mexico $3.1m; Italy $2.5m; Germany $2.1m; Spain $1.7m;

111^th biggest 2019 international film between Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon and Charlie’s Angels and 63^rd biggest 2019 film worldwide between Pet Sematary and                Midway; 205^th biggest 20^th Century Fox film international between The Transporter 2 and Just Married and 184^th biggest 20^th Century Fox film worldwide between Don’t Say a Word and Nine to Five.

• A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood – Sony Pictures

Opened with $13.25m; received critical acclaim (97% Rotten Tomatoes) and A- CinemaScore

Lower than expected similar to Tom Hanks films 2011’s Larry Crowne ($13.09m); 2004’s The Ladykillers ($12.63m); 1992’sA league of Their Own ($13.73m); 2015’s Bridge of Spies ($15.37m) a long way from 2016’s Sully ($35.2m); 2013’s Captain Philipps ($25.71m); was tracking to open with $25m+.

With Thanksgiving, this weekend and strong word of mouth should hold strongly over the coming weeks.

Had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival receiving critical acclaim (96% Rotten Tomatoes) and praise for Hanks and Rhys performance, which could see Tom Hanks win his third Best Actor Oscar finally after so many attempts since winning two in two years with Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.

It’s incredible that performances for Jim Lovell (Apollo 13), Captain Miller (Saving Private Ryan), Chuck Noland (Cast Away), Michael Sullivan (Road to Perdition); Carl Hanratty (Catch Me If You Can), Captain Richard Phillips (Captain Phillips), Walt Disney (Saving Mr. Banks), James B. Donovan (Bridge of Spies), Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger (Sully) and Ben Bradlee (The Post) didn’t win him his third Oscar. While Tom Hanks will get nominated for A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood he will likely have to wait for stars next in News of the World directed by Paul Greengrass and Elvis Presley film directed by Baz Luhrmann to get his third Oscar?

Documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbour? about Fred Rogers performed strongly taking $22.84m last year. 

• 21 Bridges – STX

Opened with $9.25m; received poor reviews (35% Rotten Tomatoes) and B+ CinemaScore

Also opened lower than expected, was tracking to open low teens but poor reviews and a dated thriller that feels better placed now on streaming.

STX have had success recently with action thrillers including Mile 22 opening with $13.71m taking $36.1m; Den of Thieves opening $15.2m taking $44.97m; Peppermint opening $13.42m taking $35.41m; The Foreigner opening $13.11m taking $34.39m.

Opened with $2.73m from 24 territories and $12m worldwide

• Charlie’s Angels – Sony Pictures

Dropped 61% in its second weekend taking $3.23m and $14m

Charlie’s Angels reboot always seemed like a poor idea and was always likely to fail, but the biggest disappointment was it’s a film with three leading ladies and directed by a woman. Elizabeth Banks and Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska came to the UK to promote the film but after flopping in the US its unlikely to find an audience in the UK.

Sony Pictures made the same mistakes they did with Men in Black International as they attempted to relaunch Charlie’s Angels but without similar sized stars that featured in the previous films as Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska are no match for Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu all far more successful actresses in 2000.

Charlie’s Angels joins the long list of underperforming sequels this year including Doctor Sleep, Terminator Dark Fate, Men In Black international, MIB International, The Lego Movie 2, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Angry Birds 2 and even Disney weren’t immune Toy Story 4 barely took more than Toy Story 3 despite 10-year gap and Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil will take much less than the first film.

This does leave massive questions for 2020 slate including Bad Boys For Life opening 17 years after Bad Boy 2 and 25 years after the first film. While Will Smith had huge success with Aladdin Gemini Man failed to find an audience and Martin Lawrence hasn’t had a box office hit for 13 years since Wild Hogs.

While the other massive question mark is over Top Gun: Maverick opening 34 years after original as so many of similar long gap sequels have failed to find the balance between old and young teens who saw original in cinema or millennials. Only Disney has managed to do this with Star Wars and Universal Pictures with Jurassic World but that was by basically remaking original films.

2^nd weekends

2000’s Charlie’s Angels took $24.6m down 38.7% and $75.01m taking $125.4m and $264.1m worldwide

2003’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle took $14.01m down 62.8% and $67.08m taking $100.83m and $259.17m worldwide

Took $4.6m from 30 territories and $29.6m total and $43.5m worldwide; has a staggered international release between the UK this weekend to South Korea 26^th February. Which was surprising given the negativity surrounding its production and trailers would have thought Sony would have opted to go globally day and date but as with Terminator: Dark Fate and Doctor Sleep slip international release will cannibalize its global box office.

• Last Christmas – Universal Pictures

Dropped 52% in its third weekend taking $3.09m and $27.85m

Third weekends

2003’s Love Actually took $8.64m down 0.6% taking $30.43m of $59.69m and $244.93m worldwide

2006’s The Holiday took $4.83m down 39.6% taking $34.93m of $63.22m and $205.13m worldwide

2008’s Four Christmases took $13.07m down 22% taking $87.77m of $120.14m and $163.73m  worldwide

2001’s Serendipity took $5.44m down 37.9% taking $34.42m of $50.29m and $77.51m worldwide

2000’s The Family Man took $9.12m 28.6% drop taking $56.25m of $75.79m and $124.74m worldwide

1989 is the 30th anniversary of the classic rom-com When Harry Met Sally took $7.85m in its third weekend down 11.2% taking $24.15m of $92.82m and the 25th anniversary of Miracle on 34th Street remake took $2.01m down 46.9% and $10.73m taking $17,320,136).

Director Paul Feig third weekends

2018’s A Simple Favour took $6.54m 36.2% drop and $43.01m of $53.54m and $97.62m worldwide

2017’s Snatched took $3.97m 49.2% drop and $40.25m of $45.85m and $57.85m worldwide

2015’s Spy took $11.22m 28.1% drop and $75.09m of $110.82m and $232.58m worldwide

2013’s The Heat took $14m 43.5% drop and $112.36m of $159.58m and $229.72m worldwide

2011’s Bridesmaids took $16.55m 20.7% drop and $85.15m $169.21m and $289.63m worldwide

Took $6.7m from 26 territories internationally and $24m total and $51.8m worldwide; 309^th biggest Universal Pictures film worldwide between Big Fat Liar and Biloxi Blues; 92^nd biggest film worldwide of 2019 between Long Shot and Song of Youth and 268^th biggest Universal Pictures internationally between The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas and Definitely, Maybe

• Joker – Warner Bros

Dropped 48.3% in its eighth weekend taking $2.74m and $326.85m;

66th biggest film in the US between It Chapter One and Suicide Squad and 177^th biggest inflation inflated between It Chapter One and True Lies; 9^th biggest Warner Bros film in the US between It Chapter One and Suicide Squad.

38^th biggest film worldwide between Zootopia and Despicable Me 3; 12^th biggest comic-book film worldwide between The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight.

4^th biggest Warner Bros film worldwide between The Dark Knight Rises and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; 4^th biggest Warner Bros film internationally between The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

3^rd biggest DC film worldwide after Aquaman and The Dark Knight Rises and 12^th biggest comic-book film worldwide between The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight

Took $7.6m internationally from 77 territories and $708.8m internationally and $1.036bn worldwide

UK: $71.3m; France: $45.1m; Japan: $44.5m; Mexico: $43.6m; Germany: $39.2m; Korea: $37.9m; Brazil: $37.2m; Italy: $32.5m; Spain: $31.7m; Russia: $30.1m; Australia: $26.5m; Indonesia: $13.5m; 7^th biggest 2019 film worldwide between Aladdin and Hobbs & Shaw and 36^th biggest film worldwide between Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Despicable Me 3

• Playing with Fire – Paramount Pictures

Dropped 45% in its third weekend taking $4.51m and $31.52m

Paramount Pictures have had success opening family comedies early November over the last two years that play through Thanksgiving and into Christmas with Daddy’s Home 2 (taking $103.99m) and last year Instant Family (taking $67.3m)

John Cena has been slowly following in Dwayne Johnson footsteps starring in comedies Daddy’s Home, Daddy’s Home 2, Blockers and Fighting with My Family and then Transformers prequel Bumblebee. Next year stars in Dolittle and Fast & Furious 9 next year and then The Suicide Squad in 2021 which will see him crossover into possibly similar action star was Dwayne Johnson.

Took $1.3m from 11 territories and $4.5m total; slowly expanding internationally Australia and UK in December with the rest of Europe in January and February.

• Jojo Rabbit – Fox Searchlight

Dropped 208 screens down to 787 screens in its sixth weekend 42% drop taking $1.58m and $16.14m

JoJo Rabbit is holding similar to last years The Favourite but after four strong weekends dropped for a second weekend, there was always the concern that JoJo Rabbit would repeat similar mistakes of expanding for too wide too quickly and then lose those screens as it has done. Will be interesting to see if JoJo Rabbit continues to expand this weekend or Fox Searchlight will wait until after Thanksgiving.

Since then Fox Searchlight has won Best Picture Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, and The Shape of Water and won 15 other Oscars and The Full Monty, Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Black Swan, 127 Hours, The Tree of Life, The Descendants, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Brooklyn, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Favourite have also been nominated for Best Picture.

49thn biggest Fox Searchlight film between Roll Bounce and A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ 92^nd biggest 2029 film in the US between Parasite and Late Night and 5^th biggest limited release film of 2029 between Parasite and The Lighthouse

Over the last 25 years, Fox Searchlight has released 186 films taking $2.66bn in the US.

Jojo Rabbit had a similar platform as previous Fox Searchlight award winners

6th-weekend expansions

2018’s The Favourite added 20 screens to 810 taking $2,428,285 #12 up 16.5% and $15,249,307; took 11 weeks to expand into its widest 1,554 screens going on to take $34,366,783 and played in cinemas for over 16 weeks.

2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri dropped 676 screens to 944 screens taking $1,587,087 #13 down 44.5% and $21,336,065; took 5 weeks to expand into widest 1,620 screens going on to take $54,513,740 and played in cinemas for over 20 weeks.

2017’s The Shape of Water added 48screens to 804 taking $3,139,084 #11 down 11.1% and $21,692,548; took 10 weeks to expand into widest 2,341 screens going on to take $63,859,435 and played in cinemas for over 18 weeks.

2015’s Brooklyn added 41 screens to 957 taking $1,995,502 #10 18.2% drop and $14,350,925; taking 6 weeks to expand into 947 screens going on to take $38,322,743 and played in cinemas for over 20 weeks.

2014’s Birdman added 5 screens to 862 taking $1,853,664 #9 down 25% and $14,405,771; took 8 weeks to expand into 738 screens (expanded into 1,213 screens after Oscar win) going on to take $42,340,598 and played in cinemas for over 20 weeks.

2013’s 12 Years A Slave added 63 screens to 1,474 taking $2,833,635 #9 38.5% drop and $29,426,947p; took 6 weeks to expand into widest 1,474 screens going on to take $56,671,993 and played in cinemas for over 25 weeks.

Fox Searchlight has had much successful Oscar winners that also started on a platform, but they had a much wider target demographic before opening (Juno, Slumdog Millionaire, Black Swan, The Descendants, Sideways and The Full Monty) JoJo Rabbit’s not yet that must-see Oscar contender receiving a polarised critical reaction.

• Dark Waters – Focus Features

Opened with $102,606 from 4 screens

UK Box Office Predictions

After opening with £15,088,012 last weekend Frozen 2 will drop much more heavily than 2013’s Frozen dropping only 10.4%  in its second weekend (£4,212,920) comparisons are to Minions dropping 46.03%; 52.71% Despicable Me 3 and 37.71% Toy Story 4. Would see Frozen 2 taking £8m+  similar to Toy Story 4 (£8,284,437); Toy Story 3 (£8,115,193); Shrek 2 (£7,097,154); Incredibles 2 (£6,803,384); Toy Story 2 (£6,521,187); Minions (£6,238,498).

Knives Out has been generating strong buzz since premiering at Toronto and London Film Festivals the film was inspired by Agatha Christie all-star adaptations like Murder on the Orient Express have a similar star ensemble cast

2017’s Murder on the Orient Express opened with £4,985,600 taking £24,140,635 but can’t be compared directly as Agatha Christie is one of the biggest selling novelists in the UK and while it might be inspired by her Knives Out is a new story and has been compared to Clue, Gosford Park, Gone Girl, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Get Out; Knives Out has a 6 day opening

Away from James Bond Daniel Craig has had limited success at the box office apart from 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Knives Out is his first film since 2017’s Lucky Logan opened with £705,087 taking £3,207,543; Daniel Craig announced last week that No Time to Die will be his final James Bond film but he also said that SPECTRE would be his final Bond film.

Knives Out is Rhian Johnson’s first film since the polarised Star Wars: The Last Jedi which saw him being dropped from further Star Wars films; previously directed 2012’s Looper opened with £2,427,994 taking £9,706,738.

After flopping in the US two weeks ago its unlikely Charlie’s Angels will do much better in the UK despite Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, Ella Balinska and Elizabeth Banks coming to promote the film in the UK last week.  Surprising Charlie’s Angels didn’t open globally day and date as the film received poor buzz since trailer launched,

2000’s Charlie’s Angels opened with £3,182,114 (£5,221,560 inflation inflated) taking £12,695,593 (£20,832,314 inflation inflated); $125.4m in the US and $264.1m worldwide

2003’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle opened with £3,273,078 (£5,322,438 inflation inflated) taking £12,109,789 (£19,692,044 inflation inflated); taking $100.83m in the US and $259.17m worldwide

Also being re-released for its 20^th anniversary is Stanley Kubrick’s classic erotic drama Eyes Wide Shut; received positive reviews (75% Rotten Tomatoes); in 2015 BBC called it 61st greatest American film of all time.

Eyes Wide Shut opened in the UK in September 1999 opening #1 with £1,189,672 taking £5,065,520

Opening in UK Next Week

• Motherless Brooklyn – Warner Bros

Crime drama starring Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Alec Baldwin, and Willem Dafoe and written, produced and directed by Edward Norton, based on the 1999 novel by Jonathan Lethem; had world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival receiving mixed reviews.

Edward Norton challenged Steven Spielberg’s comments that Netflix was killing cinema but instead the issue is with exhibitors “A lot of filmmakers and cinematographers that I know that have really started to look into this say that more than 60% US cinemas are running their projector at almost half the luminosity that they’re required by contract to run it at,”… “They are delivering crappy sound and a dim picture, and no one is calling them on it.” “If cinemas were delivering what they’re supposed to be delivering, people would be going, ‘Wow, this is amazing, I do not get this at home’…Well, I want people to literally walk into their cinema and find the manager and say, ‘If this looks dark, you’re giving me my money back. Because I’m paying, I’m paying a premium, for a premium experience.’”

Edward Norton said he personally saw this when he test screened Motherless Brooklyn in a cinema screening Captain Marvel, “14 is the quality control spec the Marvel film should be running at, but the cinema was running the movie at a 6.2 spec.” … “That means it was literally running at less than half the light that was supposed to be on there,”… “You want to train people. Like, go get your money back. If the movie looks dark — it was go, get your money back! I think we should rally around that. I really do.”

Edward Norton also said, “If I disagreed with anybody, with great respect, it was Steven Spielberg,”…  “Netflix invested more in ‘Roma’ theatrically than any boutique label at any studio would have by a factor of five. They put a Spanish-language black-and-white film all over the world in cinemas. Hundreds of cinemas, not just a few; as many as Sony Pictures Classics would have done. They put more money behind it, in a theatrical context, than anybody would have. You can’t tell me there’s a whole lot of people making black-and-white Spanish-language films and putting that investment behind them.”… There’s a lot going on because of Netflix, and what it was the vanguard of, that represents an unprecedented period of ripe opportunity for many more types of stories and voices to be heard, and told, and celebrated. It’s incredible, what’s going on.”

The cinema audience has shrunk over the last decade for films like these why The Irishman went to Netflix, Motherless Brooklyn opened in the US with $3.5m in November taking £8.61m losing half of its screens in its third weekend. It was another original film from Warner Bros that failed to find an audience over recent months after The Kitchen and The Goldfinch. With Warner Bros launching steaming service next year as Disney and Universal are will likely move films made as theatrical releases to their streaming platform, Warner Bros recently announced they moved the comedy Superintelligence to their streaming service which had been dated for Christmas. It id crazy that these films are being pulled out of cinemas within weeks but still are forced to playout the antiquated theatrical window, even though the film isn’t playing in cinemas. Have suggested for ages a flexible theatrical window for flops, so a film like Motherless Brooklyn could be on VoD within a month of opening, as the film is out of cinemas within three weeks exhibitors wouldn’t lose from this.

Edward Norton was over in the UK to promote the film last week but after flopping in the US a few weeks ago unlikely Motherless Brooklyn will find an audience in the UK.

• Lucy in the Sky – 20^th Century Fox

Drama starring Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens, Colman Domingo, and Ellen Burstyn and directed by Noah Hawley; had world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival receiving negative reviews.

The film opened on limited release in October taking $54,058 from 37 screens expanding to 198 screens in its second weekend taking $78,451 and $314,999; the film will have a very limited theatrical release in the UK.

• Ordinary Love – Universal Pictures

Romantic drama starring Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville and directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa; had world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival receiving positive reviews ad praise for the acting performances of the two leads.

Focus Features acquired international rights in June with US rights acquired by Bleecker Street who release it next February.

Despite positive reviews films like Ordinary Love rarely find an audience in cinemas and opening this weekend feels like Universal Pictures are dumping it with all the other films that will also not find an audience. Being the middle weekend between Frozen 2 and Jumanji: The Next Level it’s a dumping week for distributors as they clear their shelves before the new year.

• Honey Boy – Sony Pictures

Drama starring Shia LaBeouf, Lucas Hedges, Noah Jupe and FKA Twigs and directed by Alma Har’el and screenplay by Shia LaBeouf based on his childhood and his relationship with his father.

Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where Sony Pictures and Amazon acquired rights receiving positive reviews 97% Rotten Tomatoes.

2019 has been Shia LaBeouf’s comeback year with Honey Boy following the critical acclaim The Peanut Butter Falcon.

Shia LaBeouf’s career had many twists and turns since starring in Holes in 2003, starring in the Transformers franchise and prestigious films and then some controversies (wearing a paper bag on his head on the red carpet at the 2014’s Cannes Film Festival for the Nymphomaniac premiere saying “I am not famous anymore”)l and legal snags and political protest and two years ago his thriller Man Down opened in the UK with only £7 playing in one screen.

Peanut Butter Falcon opened in October shortly after its London Film Festival premiere taking £40,306 from 65 screens despite critical acclaim also for Honey Boy unlikely it will open wider or take similar.

• Friends 25th: The One with the Anniversary – Warner

Celebrating Friends 25^th anniversary 12 episodes over 3 dates in December will be screened in cinemas on Sunday 8^th, Wednesday 11th and Sunday 18^th.

As with all Event Cinemas exhibitors have added surcharges to the regular prices which will limit its box office as being a 25-year-old TV show which has its episodes shown daily on terrestrial TV surely the prices need to be lower than regular prices to get people away from the TV.

But as with other anniversary screenings of films this year including The Matrix and Batman the higher prices will limit the appeal to see the episodes in cinemas as was the case when the episodes were shown in US cinemas.

Opening in US Next Week

• Playmobile: The Movie – STX

Animated adventure based on the German building toy Playmobil featuring voices of Anya Taylor-Joy, Jim Gaffigan, Gabriel Bateman, Adam Lambert, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor, and Daniel Radcliffe and directed by Lino DiSalvo.

Was originally due to be released in January 2019 I the US by Open Road Films and was delayed to April 2019 but then delayed to August after the studio went bankrupt and STX acquired it. In August 4 weeks before Playmobil was due to be released STX delayed the film to December they were also having money troubles.

Playmobil: The Movie received negative reviews describing it as a poor version of The Lego Movie as Uglydolls was also to Trolls; has taken only $12.3m from 52 international territories so surprising  STX are even giving it a theatrical release unless they were forced to do so when they acquired the film. Sandwiched between Frozen 2 and Jumanji: The Next Level it will open lower than Uglydolls $8.6m.

STX have had strong success this year with Hustlers and previously with action thrillers, female comedies and horrors moving into the crowded animated market with low quality animation feels like they are trying to run before they can jump.  STX three years ago made a big statement of intent acquiring international rights to Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (as other independent studios have done in the past) they lost rights when world rights were sold on later to Netflix, which they did themselves with The Red Sea Diving Resort (STX acquired rights in October 2017 and then sold it to Netflix in February 2018).

STX have released 37 films since 2015 taking over $800m in the US and $1.87bn worldwide

• The Aeronauts – Amazon Studios

Biographical adventure starring Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne and written and directed by Tom Harper; had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and also screened at the Toronto and London Film Festivals receiving positive reviews (90% Rotten Tomatoes).

The film reunites Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne who previously starred in awards nominee The Theory of Everything

It was shot using IMAX cameras and was originally planned to be released in IMAX but then in August Amazon changed releasing plans for the film pushing back its US release from October 25th to December 6th two weeks before its streaming release date. This is after Amazon theatrical releases including Late Night underperformed at the box office.  

When Amazon first acquired films for theatrical release they agreed to release films theatrically maintaining the theatrical window, first releasing the films through Lionsgate and since 2017 by themselves.

After their 12 theatrical releases have taken $47.5m in the US they released the theatrical window doesn’t work for these kinds of films and opted for a similar strategy as Netflix having a limited three-week theatrical release and then go to streaming. Of course, this angered major exhibitors who will probably refuse to book Amazon films as they have Netflix. Exhibitors need to change and realise the theatrical widow as it currently is doesn’t work and it needs to be more flexible, as they can pull out films like The Kitchen and The Goldfinch within weeks on release so a studio should then be allowed to cut theatrical window. It doesn’t benefit anyone if a film isn’t available either theatrically or on home entertainment as people will just seek it out illegally.

The Aeronauts had a full theatrical release in the UK opening in October taking £1,535,358 but will have a limited theatrical release in the US being released on Amazon after two weeks.