Top 5 Breakdown

1. Incredibles 2 – £9,650,000 – NE  

Incredibles 2 had the second biggest opening for Pixar film in the UK behind Toy Story 3 which took £11,493,824 of its £21,187,264 Fri-Sun; opening was close to 2004’s opening of £9,753,035 which took £3,493,896 from previews.

All summer Pixar films since Toy Story 3 opened in July 2010 have not had weekend previews to inflate their opening as opening at the start of the summer holidays they will then play strongly throughout the summer holidays. Incredibles 2 does face competition from Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation but will be the biggest family film of the summer if not the year.

Incredibles 2 had the 81^st biggest opening in the UK between Incredibles (opening included £3.49m from previews) and Hancock;

59^th biggest Fri-Sun opening between Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace;

145^th biggest inflation inflated opening between Logan and Bad Neighbours

While Incredibles 2 opened with almost 160% more than 2004’s Incredibles in the US taking $182.67m Vs $70.46m Incredibles 2 opened with 55% more than 2004’s Incredibles (has been over 70% ticket inflation since the release in 2004 in the UK and 47.5% in the US); 2004’s Incredibles took £6,259,139 Fri-Sun inflation inflated total would be £10,692,115.

Ahead of Incredibles 2 opening had thought its opening would be similar to Despicable Me sequels and Incredibles 2 opened close to 2013’s Despicable Me 2 Fri-Sun opening of £9,954,104 (with previews opened £14,822,427) but less than 2017’s Despicable Me 3 £11,154,904 and 2015’s Minions opened with £11,558,946.

Showing that despite the World Cup and the hot weather people still wanted to go to the cinema and do believe had a distributor released the right film as Universal Pictures and 20^th Century Fox did in 2014 with Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie and The Fault in Our Stars to quote Field of Dreams “people will come”.

Toy Story 4 next year will be the first Pixar film to open in the UK day and date with the US on June 21^st as Disney release their reimagination of The Lion King on July 19^th; this also means it will be the first two Pixar and Illumination Animation face off directly with The Secret Life of Pets 2 opening two weeks earlier. Disney is currently batting with Illumination Animation owners Comcast in acquiring both 20^th Century Fox and Sky TV.

The seven Pixar summer films released over the last 10 years have taken an average of £33.27m but removing the two Cars sequels that increase to £43.35m. Toy Story 3 is Pixar’s biggest film to date in the UK taking £73.4m and Incredibles 2 is likely to be their biggest since.

Five years ago, Monsters University opened with only £3,463,917 due to hot sunny weather but still managed to take almost £30m at the box office.

The 19 Pixar film has taken over £560m over the last 22 years with an average box office is £29.6m; Pixar was always seen as a studio of originality but in the last five years have released seven films four of them were sequels, with Toy Story 4 released next summer it won’t be until March 2020 until they release another original animated film.

2. Skyscraper – £1,829,830  – NE   

Including £356,188 from previews; Dwayne Johnson’s recent action adventure films Rampage opened with £4,109,247 (including £953,659 from previews) in April and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle £8,154,548 (including £4,114,058 from previews) in December and San Andreas with £4,628,394 (including £740,464 from previews). While Dwyane Johnson’s last film directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber opened with opened with £3,050,261 in June 2016 (including £775,122 previews) taking £8,459,045.

As TV viewing figures for England’s last game at the World Cup against Belgium was seen by 8.4m less than half who watched England lose to Croatia last Wednesday and the final was watched by 13.7m (8m on BBC1 and 2.5m ITV) both games were in the afternoon so wouldn’t have much impact on cinemagoers going to see Skyscraper. 

Universal Pictures recently acquired Red Notice which will be the third Dwyane Johnson’s film with director Rawson Marshall Thurber, earlier this year Rampage was his third film with Brad Peyton.  

Skyscraper had Rotten Tomatoes score of 51% which was similar to Rampage 52% and San Andreas 50% (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle received 76%) and audiences know what to expect from a Dwayne Johnson film they are popcorn movies targetting teens, so reviews have little impact.

The inquest started on why Skyscraper underwhelmed some said it was possible too much of Dwayne Johnson after appearing in five films over the last 14 months and four more opening next year (2019 films Fighting with My Family in March, Fast and Furious spinoff Hobbs and Shaw in August, Disney’s Jungle Cruise in October and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle 2 in December) and average reviews, but it was probably the film felt too much as a remake of Die Hard it didn’t help Skyscraper opening almost 30 years to the day Die Har opened in the US (opened in the UK six months later in February 1989 after premiering  at the London Film Festival).

The problem Skyscraper had in the UK was opening against Incredibles 2 as it was targetting the similar male tween and teen audience along with the addition of both Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The First Purge which helped cannibalize it. With Mission Impossible: Fallout opening next weekend and Ant-Man and the Wasp in two weeks’ time Skyscraper won’t last long in the charts. Skyscraper is a dumb silly action film, but it is still far more enjoyable than Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Critics have highlighted the scenes in Skyscraper were Dwayne Johnson crawls across the building, using only duct tape wrapped around his hands. “This is stupid,” he sighs, sums up the film.

In the trailers Dwyane Johnson jumps from a crane to the building generated much discussion over if he could possibly survive with the jump, mathematicians have calculated he would have had to be running at 23mph to do the jump as Usain Bolt runs 27.8 mph it is technically possible but still highly unlikely. But the trailer did its job as it got people talking about it generating much social media coverage and while many might question the logic others will say it’s the Rock, of course, its possible.

Die Hard opened February 1989 with £612,125 taking 2,975,086; Die Hard 2: Fie Harder opened with £1,982,023 in August 1992 taking £5,536,813; Die Hard with a Vengeance opened August 1995 with £3,279,180 taking £10,183,239; Die Hard 4.0 opened July 2007 with £5,084,641 taking £13,644,640; A Good Day to Die Hard opened in February 2013 with £4,551,116 taking £10,686,411

3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – £824,705 – £38,480,573 

Down 37.43% on its sixth weekend; 35.3% less than Jurassic World took in its sixth weekend which took £1,136,220 down 39% and £59,484,716 92.47% of £64,322,933 total;

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the fourth biggest film of the year after Avengers Infinity Wars, Black Panther and Peter Rabbit; in 2015 Jurassic World was the biggest film of the year until Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened later in the year.

Fallen Kingdom is the 63^rd biggest film in the UK between Inside Out and Fast & Furious 7 and is 10th biggest Universal Pictures film in the UK and will shortly overtake Les Miserables.

After Jurassic World took £64.3m in 2015 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom should have easily taken over £50m especially opening two weeks ahead of the US and after Solo: A Star Wars Story underwhelmed.

Since December many expected hits have not matched the success of previous instalments underperformed including Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The performance of Peter Rabbit, Darkest Hour, Three Billboards, A Quiet Place and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Greatest Showman have shown audiences want more from their cinema experience.

Fallen Kingdom take about £41m 30%+ less than Jurassic World £64.32m in 2015 and 6% less of Jurassic Park and 61%+ than its inflation inflated £47.79m took in 1993. While Fallen Kingdom has overtaken The Lost World: Jurassic Park £25.79m total will also come short of its inflation inflated total £48.62m. The only inflation inflated  Jurassic Park film it will overtake is the third film is seen as the worst film of the series it took £18.1m in 2001 which would be £33.54m.

Jurassic Park took 9.75x opening (£4.9m); The Lost World: Jurassic Park 4.53x (£5,700,000); Jurassic Park 3 3.8x (£4,762,155): Jurassic World 3.32x (£19,350,727): Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (£14,334,894) will be about 2.86x opening.

4. The First Purge – £798,455 – £3,367,946

Down 55.1% in its second weekend holding surprisingly well with the arrival of Skyscraper as previous films have been front-loaded possibly the anti-Trump marches and media coverage of him coming to the US last weekend helped the film hold in its second weekend.

While the first three films were made while Barack Obama was president the third film Election Year was released a few months before the election using the tagline “Keep America Great” which was used by Trump, earlier this year to launch his 2020 campaign. The First Purge was the first of the series to be written and made under Trump and uses his red cap again using the tagline “Make America Great Again”.

Second weekends

2013’s The Purge dropped 47% taking £541,859 and £2.23m of £3.36m total

2014’s The Purge: Anarchy dropped 30% taking £811,444 and £3.1m of £4.43m total.

2016’s The Purge: Election Year dropped 46% taking £440,178 and £1.9m of £1.91m total.  It took far less than the previous two films probably due to it being set to open on 15th July but only a few weeks before release was delayed 6 weeks for some unknown reason.

5. Ocean’s Eight – £529,697 – £9,731,255

Down 36.75% in its fourth weekend; overtaken Rampage to become Warner Bros second biggest film of 2018 after Ready Player One; it is also the 14^th biggest film of 2018 behind Avengers Infinity Wars, Black Panther, Peter Rabbit, Jurassic World 2, Deadpool 2, Darkest Hour, Star Wars  Solo, Coco, Fifty Shades Freed, Ready Player One, Three Billboards Outside, A Quiet Place and Early Man.

2018 hasn’t been a good year so far for Warner Bros their first 6 months was almost 40% down from last year taking £48.1m (7.6%) compared with £79.53m. While their action films have disappointed Tomb Raider and Rampage (but compared to Skyscraper its done well) but have had better success with Game Night went under the radar when it opened a few weeks after Black Panther.

While Ocean’s Eight has shown it has strong legs as despite having a 7-day opening weekend it has held much stronger than other films that have inflated opening weekend with its extended opening taking about 42% of final box office of £11m.

Ocean’s Eight opened on June 18^th the same day as England’s first game at the World Cup and was released as an alternative but its real competition was from Love Island which was targeted the same 16-34 female audience getting up to 4m viewers daily on ITV2.

In the US Ocean’s Eight has overtaken total box office of both Ocean’s Thirteen and Ocean’s Twelve taking $132.2m to date but will come short of overtaking Ocean’s Eleven $183.41m but the UK will come short of matching the totals of any of the totals of the previous films Ocean’s Eleven £24,877,642, 2005’s Ocean’s Twelve £12,030,148 and 2007’s Ocean’s Thirteen £12,998,107.

As the film opened 11 years after Ocean’s Thirteen and has a female cast can’t be compared to the previous films while Ocean’s Eight does have a strong female cast including Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway. Its five years now since Sandra Bullock’s last big hit coincidentally starring alongside George Clooney in Gravity. Ocean’s Eleven (and sequels) had a much stronger cast including  George Clooney (coming off 2000’s The Perfect Storm and 1998’s Out of Sight also directed by Steven Soderbergh), Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts (was probably the biggest star coming off 2000’s Erin Brockovich also directed by Steven Soderbergh) The Mexican and America’s Sweethearts.

Ocean’s Eight should overtake the total box office of 2016’s female reboot of Ghostbusters. While the Ghostbusters female reboot received a lot of misogyny in the build up to its release Ocean’s Eight had very little. It was helped that it was always conceived as a female reboot while any fears people had about it disappeared in December when the first trailer was released and received positive buzz.

Warner Bros have 12 films remaining for 2018 including The Meg (Jason Statham Vs prehistoric shark), The Nun the latest Conjuring spinoff and  A Star Is Born remake starring Lady Gaga and directed by Bradley Cooper. Two years after Disney released their Jungle Book reimagination also Mowgli opens and the sixth film in the DC Extended Universe Aquaman opens at Christmas.

But of course, their key film is Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald the first sequel to Fantastic Beasts and 10th film of the Harry Potter Extended Universe opened with £15,333,146 two years ago taking £54,703,625. The sequel is expected to open bigger, but it did face some backlash when it was revealed Johnny Depp was cast in the sequel.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £14,198,893 up 154.9% from last weekend £5,570,317;

The weekend admissions xx up xx% from last weekend 753,551; 2018 average ticket price is probably up about 3% from last year’s £7.49 to £7.67 for 2018;   

16 films opened at weekend taking £11,837,703; Incredibles 2 81.51% (£9,650,000); Skyscraper 15.45% (£1,829,830); remaining 14 films shared 3.02% (£357,873):  

The weekend was down 26.06% from last year (£19,205,602); War for the Planet of the Apes £7,195,773; Cars 3 £2,625,000; The Beguiled £414,924;

Down 11.51% from 2016: (£16,046,904); Ghostbusters £4,388,944; Ice Age: Collision Course £3,780,694; Dirty Dancing (Secret Cinema 2016) £946,086; Keanu £13,736;

Up 4.71% from 2015; (£13,559,349); Ted 2 £3,867,723; Song of The Sea £105,718; Mr. Holmes £72,172;

Down 38.29% from 2014: (£23,011,852); Transformers: Age of Extinction £11,751,427; How to Train Your Dragon 2 £7,779,040; Begin Again £456,438; Boyhood £332,834

Up 36.11% from 2013: (£10,431,833); Monsters University £3,463,917; Pacific Rim £2,193,500; We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks £19,309

Down 22.28% from 2012 (£18,271,575); Ice Age: Continental Drift £10,087,052; Magic Mike £2,651,015; Seeking a Friend for the End of the World £357,200; Chariots of Fire (Re: 2012) £63,857

Down 51.63% from 2011 (£29,355,666): Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 £23,753,171;

Down 6.06% from 2010: (£15,116,235): Inception £5,912,814;

Down 3.33% from 2009 (£14,688,163); Bruno £5,000,229; The Private Lives of Pippa Lee £44,511; Fired Up £30,691;

Down 14.58% from 2008 (£16,622,538); Mamma Mia! £6,594,058; Journey to the Centre of the Earth £953,878; Forbidden Kingdom £676,217

Down 35.77% from 2007 (£22,106,427); Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix £16,493,305; Moliere £76,061;

Up 18.95% from 2006; (£11,936,216) Superman Returns £4,337,637;

Up 28.82% from 2005 (£11,195,244; Madagascar £5,431,639; Wedding Crashers £2,182,597;

Down 2.93% from 2004 (£14,628,009): Spider-Man 2 £8,766,902; The Prince and Me £366,942;

Up 190.42% from 2003 (£4,889,023); Daddy Day Care £796,259; Veronica Guerin £271,996; Whale Rider £121,610; The In-Laws £108,031;

Up36.44% from 2002 (£10,406,087): Scooby-Doo £5,129,109; Resident Evil £801,628; Bad Company £382,949

Next weekend in 2017: (£22,066,254): Dunkirk £10,023,720; Andre Rieu’s 2017 Maastricht Concert £1,439,604;

Also opened

The Secret of Marrowbone – eOne £171,161 from 383 screens

Other News

When England played Sweden in the World Cup two weeks ago UK had one of its lowest Saturdays in its box office history; the total box office for Saturday July 7 was only £2.06m the lowest grossing Saturday for over 7.5 years since Christmas Day in 2010 taking only £68,000, but most UK cinemas are closed on Christmas Day. Saturday’s box office was 28.3% down from the Saturday (June 30) and 68.1% down from Saturday (July 8) in 2017; the biggest Saturday box office of 2018 Saturday, April 28 took £12.14 million with £9.4m from the opening of Avengers: Infinity War. In 2014 the first Saturday in July (July 5) took £6.4m with previews for Transformers: Age of Extinction the biggest seller.  

 

UK Box Office Top 10

US Box office

• Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation – Sony Pictures

Opens with $44.07m: received 59% Rotten Tomatoes score (similar to the sequel 55% and better than first 44%) and A- CinemaScore (the first two films also received A- CinemaScore) 

2012’s Hotel Transylvania $42.5m taking $148.3m

2015’s Hotel Transylvania 2 $48.56m taking $169.7m. The first film took $358 million at the worldwide and the sequel $473 million worldwide.

On June 30th Amazon Prime hosted exclusive preview screenings in about 1,000 screens across the US (taking $1.3m) they also held previews for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle last December.

Took $46.8m from 44 territories internationally $54.8m total and $100.12m globally; Hotel Transylvania took $358.37m globally and Hotel Transylvania 2 took $473.22m but both films opened in September/October with far less competition Hotel Transylvania 3 has far tougher competition with Incredibles 2.

• Ant-Man and the Wasp – Disney

Down 61.6% in its second weekend taking $29.09m and $134.08m; after opening 33% bigger than the first film it took only 12,.8% more (has been 8.65% ticket inflation since the Ant-Man opened)

Ant-Man dropped 56.5% in its second weekend in July 2015 taking $24.9m and $106.21m holding #1 against the inferior competition of  Pixels, Southpaw and Paper Towns opening with $21.01m, $16.7m and $12.65m.

After the Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War Ant-Man and the Wasp has a much lighter family film tone so would have thought would play to a wider non-comic book audience, but the opposite has happened. Ant-Man was a far more enjoyable Marvel comic-book film.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is only the fifth Marvel Cinematic Universe film not to stay at #1 for more than one week the others were Guardians of the Galaxy, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Captain America: The First Avenger.

The 20 Marvel Cinematic Universe films have taken $6.72bn in the US and $17.05bn worldwide; Captain Marvel opens March 2019, Untitled Avengers 4 in May 2019 and Spider-Man: Far from Home in July 2019 with three more untitled MCU films set for release in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The 2020 Marvel films will likely see X-Men join the Avengers after Disney incorporate 20^th Century Fox as a label within the studio as Marvel is currently.

Ant-Man and the Wasp took $35.3m from 44 territories $150.9m total and $283.7m worldwide; opens in UK August 3^rd a month after its US opening and a week after Mission Impossible: Fallout which has received very positive reviews.  

• Skyscraper – Universal Pictures

Opens with $24.9m; received 51% Rotten Tomatoes score and B+ CinemaScore

After taking only $1.95m from previews on Thursday took only $9.3m on Friday Dwayne Johnson’s last film Rampage took $11.55m from Friday including $2.4m from Thursday previews.

After Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle opened with $36.16m in December and took $404.51m expectations were much higher for Rampage and Skyscraper but Rampage opened with $35.75m and Skyscraper even less which made many ask if we can have too much of Dwayne Johnson? Or was it more that with Ant Man and the  Wasp, Incredibles 2, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The First Purge they just cannibalized its box office.

Skyscraper was Dwayne Johnson’s 17^th biggest opening in the US and worst since Baywatch last May opening with $18.5m but as Swayne Johnson wrote after many said Rampage opening was disappointing Skyscraper was made for Chinese audiences (opens this week) produced by Legendary Pictures and partly shot in China so Universal Pictures will keep much more than the normal 25% foreign films take from China.

Internationally Skyscraper hasn’t done much better opening with $40.4m from 57 markets a third of Rampage opening which took $114.1m including $55m from China; and took $65.9m worldwide.

Ahead of its opening most expected Skyscraper to open to Rampage $35.7m which took $99.04m and $425.13m worldwide and the first film Rawson Marshall Thurber directed starring Dwayne Johnson the first was 2016’s Central Intelligence opened with $35.53m taking $127.44m and $217m worldwide

Rawson Marshall Thurber third film starring Dwayne Johnson was acquired by Universal Pictures Red Notice has been dated for June 2020. Dwayne Johnson will star in three films next year Fighting with My Family, Jungle Cruise and Jumanji 2

Opened almost 30 years to the day Die Hard opened in the US which opened first on a limited release of 21 screens taking $601,851 before opening wide 1,276 screens taking $7,105,514 (Skyscraper opened in three times the number of screens as Die Hard inflation inflated opening $15,836,133).

• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – Universal Pictures

Down 43.4% in its fourth weekend taking $16.19m and $363.98m; 43^rd biggest film in the US between Deadpool and 2016’s The Jungle Book.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had the 70^th biggest fourth weekend between The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Wedding Crashers; Jurassic Park was #43 taking $18,969,605 and Jurassic World #6 taking $29,242,025

Fallen Kingdom had the worst third-weekend drop of the franchise even bigger than 2001’s Jurassic Park 3 seen as the worst film of the franchise (46.5%) 

2015’s Jurassic World took $29.24m down 46.4% taking $556.42m of $652.27m total

2001’s Jurassic Park 3 took $7.52m down 36.7% taking $160.39m of $190.69m total

1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park took $12.47m down 32.8% taking $171.1m of $229.08m total

1993’s Jurassic Park took $18.96m down 31.5% taking $205.73m of $357.06m

(for The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park ticket inflation is more than 100% since so their totals need to be more than doubled  does highlight how Fallen Kingdom really performed).

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom took $26.7m from 69 territories (including $256.1m from China; Jurassic World opened with $99.15m taking $228.74m) and $771.4m total and $1.134bn worldwide.

Fallen Kingdom is the 18^th biggest film worldwide between Captain America: Civil War and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Its likely to end with about $1.2bn which will be 31% less than Jurassic World in 2015 with Chinese box office again being responsible for the film taking over $1bn globally; 25 years ago, Jurassic Park took $1.029bn without China.

• Incredibles 2 – Disney

Down 42.7% in its fifth weekend taking $16.26m and $535.86m; #9 biggest film in the US overtaking Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Dark Knight.

2004’s Incredibles took $261.44m was then fifth biggest animated film after Shrek 2, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and Shrek, so, the success of Incredibles 2 14 years later shouldn’t have been a surprise especially after Finding Dory became the biggest animated film in the US 13 years after Finding Nemo.

Had the seventeenth biggest fifth weekend between The Dark Knight and Wonder Woman  

The Incredibles dropped 61.6% in its fifth weekend taking $9.01m and $225.85m ($331.8m inflation inflated) 86.38% of its $261.44m total ($385.63m inflation inflated);

In 2003 Finding Nemo dropped 33.9% in its fifth weekend taking $13.96m and $259.99m of $339.71m total ($516.05m inflation inflated total); In 2016 Finding Dory dropped 45.8% taking $11.28m in its fifth weekend taking $445.74m of $386.29

Internationally took $33.3m from 43 territories and $321.1m total and $856.9m globally (#63  biggest film worldwide between Inside Out and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2) globally it has already overtaken the original’s $633m 2004 global total.

• The First Purge – Universal Pictures

Down 46.4% in its second weekend taking $9.31m and $49.69m having a smaller drop than the previous instalments but taking slightly less.

Second weekends

2013’s The Purge dropped 75.6% taking $6.31m and $51.96m of $64.47m total.

2014’s The Purge: Anarchy dropped 64.8% taking $10.48m and $51.85m of $71.96m total.

2016’s The Purge: Election Year dropped 60.7% taking $12.38m and $58.79m of $79.21m total.

The film has 92 million followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube views.. The First Purge trailer, released in April, has been viewed over 50m times.

The First Purge took $6.2m and $32.1m internationally from 27 territories

UK Box Office Predictions

10 years ago, Mamma Mia! opened with £6,594,058 including £1,373,487 and despite being cheesy and poorly acted became cinemagoers favourite holding strongly playing for months in cinemas. 10 years later Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again does what it says in its title tries to repeat what came before while reviews have been similarly mixed audience reaction is likely to be similarly positive.

Will, of course, be boosted by the success earlier this ear of The Greatest Showman with trailers played before it and similarly, while reviews highlighted the cheesiness it’s the perfect popcorn movie and antidote to all those men in spandex.

Previews have become a mainstay of film openings over the last decade so it’s surprising Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again doesn’t have Thursday previews to inflate its opening. 10 years ago, Mamma Mia! took £5,220,571 would £7,700,342 inflation inflated.

Mamma Mia is the 11th biggest film in the UK opened with £6,594,058 taking 10.49x opening taking £69,166,087 and staying in the top 10 for over 20 weeks in 2008. Dropped 30% in its second and third weekends but then increased in its fourth and then small drops for its fifth to the ninth weekend by which time took £57.68m of its final box office of £69.13m.

With school summer holidays starting on Friday Incredibles 2 will likely drop about 35% taking about £6.25m with Skyscraper dropping over 50% which will see Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Incredibles 2 sharing over 80% of the top 10 box office.

Opening in the UK

• Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – Universal Pictures

Romantic musical comedy sequel to the 2008 film Mamma Mia! starring Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper, Andy Garcia, Cher and Meryl Streep and directed by Ol Parker.

The original films shockingly poor acting and terrible singing alienated Odeon bookers but cinema audiences loved it and played strongly in cinemas for months; opened July 10th with £6,594,058 taking £1,373,487 from previews dropping 30% in its second and third weekends but then increased in its fourth and then small drops for its fifth to ninth weekend by which time took £57.68m of its final box office of £69.13m.

Over the last 25 years Mamma Mia! had the seventh smallest opening percentage to final box office total behind The Full Monty, The Greatest Showman, Slumdog Millionaire, Titanic, The Kings Speech and Avatar and slightly ahead of Jurassic Park. Mamma Mia! was also the fourth biggest opening and total box office after Titanic, The Kings Speech and Avatar.

Mamma Mia! was #1 for two weeks in the top 3 for 11 weeks, top 5 for 13 weeks and top 10 for 17 weeks

In comparison took The Greatest Showman 6 weeks to become #1 and was in the top 10 for 18 weeks

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is likely to be much more front-loaded and will stay #1 for only one week with Mission Impossible: Fallout opening next weekend and then Ant-Man and the Wasp the following weekends

Ten years later will audiences feel similarly about the sequel If it’s as fun silly and feels good as the original then it could be as the theatre show is still running in London and whenever the film is shown on TV gets good ratings.

The first trailer was released in December attached to Pitch Perfect 3; the absence of Meryl Streep’s character Donna in the trailer made many worries that she might be dead especially Julie Walters tells Amanda Seyfried: “Your mother was the bravest person we ever met.” Meryl Streep does appear in the cast list so surely Mamma Mia! fans have little to worry about.

• Hotel Artemis – Warner Bros

Neo-noir crime film starring Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Dave Bautista, and Zachary Quinto and directed by Drew Pearce. Received mixed reviews opening with only $3.2m after its third weekend was pulled from most of its screens taking only $72,151 having the 28^th largest third-weekend drop

Lionsgate acquired international rights at the Berlin Film Festival in 2017 but then Warner Bros acquired UK rights as they did with John Wick and its sequel. Will have a limited release in the UK.

Opening in US

• Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – Universal Pictures

Opening exactly 10 years after Mamma Mia! The first film opened with $27,751,240 taking $144,130,063 performing far stronger internationally taking 76.4% $465,711,574 of its worldwide $609,841,637 total internationally. It became the biggest love-action musically internationally until Beauty and the Beast overtook it last year.

Mamma Mia! received 54% Rotten Tomatoes score 10 years ago, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! Currently has 91% Rotten Tomatoes despite many of the reviews being three stars.

In the US Mamma Mia! opened second behind The Dark Knight which opened with $158.41m.

The sequel is expected to open close to Mamma Mia! opening but will perform far stronger as the original in the 32 international territories it opens day and date.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! Is expected to open with about $35m

 

• The Equalizer 2 – Sony Pictures

Sequel to the 2014 film The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Melissa Leo, and Bill Pullman and directed by Antoine Fuqua. It is the first sequel  Denzel Washington has ever starred in (while he has starred in several remakes)

It’s the fourth film Antoine Fuqua has directed starring Denzel Washington Training Day (won Washington his second Oscar), The Equalizer and western remake The Magnificent Seven.

While Denzel Washington hasn’t had the box office success of similar actors of his stature his biggest film to date at the US box office was 2007’s American Gangster his films have taken almost $2.4bn at the US box office and $3.72bn globally. Also directing three films Fences, The Great Debaters and Antwone Fisher

Denzel Washington has won two Best Actor Oscars but like Tom Hanks has given many more memorable acting performances including one of his first 1987’s Cry Freedom directed by Richard Attenborough.

Before the release of the first film, Sony Pictures announced plans for a sequel the director said at the time would be a sequel if audiences and Denzel Washington wanted it.

The sequel was originally set for September 29^th, 2017 release then pushed back a year to September 14^th, 2018 and then moved forward to August 3^rd and then finally July 20^th.  Those last two date switches were to do with 20^th Century Fox moving The Predator reboot and The Meg opening in September and August.

As with the recent Sicario: Day of the Soldado it was surprising Sony Pictures moved The Equalizer 2 away from the less crowded September into a busy July only a week before Mission Impossible: Fallout and a week after Skyscraper.

The Equalizer opened with $34.13m receiving mixed reviews taking $101.53m having a $55m budget and taking $192.33m worldwide it was surprising a sequel was made. As with Sicario: Day of the Soldado the trailers for The Equalizer 2 looks much more a straight action film.

Early tracking expects it to open with upwards of $30m;

It is the third year running studios have opened three action films over three weeks last year Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes and Dunkirk and the year before Star Trek Beyond, Jason Bourne and Suicide Squad.

• Unfriended: Dark Web – BH Tilt

Sequel to the 2014 horror film Unfriended starring Colin Woodell, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Betty Gabriel, and Andrew Lees and directed by Stephen Susco;  had the world premiere at SXSW in March receiving positive reviews.

Unfriended opened April 2015 with $15.84m taking $32.48m

The film will be released with two different versions in cinemas across the US.

• Blindspotting – Lionsgate

Comedy-drama directed by Carlos López Estrada; had its world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival receiving positive reviews 93% Rotten Tomatoes score.