- Toy Story 5 £15,361,194 – NE
Includes £947,009 from Thursday previews
Took £14.41m Fri-Sun; £3.19m 20.77% Friday; £5.6m 36.46% Saturday; £5.627m 36.63% Sunday; £1.13m down 80% showing it’s going to take the majority of its BO Sat/Sun
Saturday was the biggest day for a Pixar film in the UK
35th biggest opening between Quantum of Solace and Fantastic Beasts (close to Marvel Avengers Assemble, Super Mario Bros, Frozen 2 and A Minecraft Movie) and
Biggest 2026 opening ahead of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Michael, and the 2nd biggest opening over the last 52 weeks between Wicked Part 2 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
2nd biggest Pixar opening between Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4; (Toy Story opening included £9,693,440 from previews, taking £11,493,824 Fri-Sun) and 4th biggest Pixar opening weekend inflated between Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 2 (close to Incredibles, Toy Story 4, Finding Nemo and Inside Out 2)
Opened in 702 cinemas, the 48th widest opening close to Michael, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, F1 and Hamnet; 52nd 700+ cinema opening since 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi; but while it might have opened in 702 cinemas, it was likely playing in over 2,500 screens as many multiplexes had it in more than 6 screens.
Its 4-day opening was 9.62% of the US opening, and its 3-day opening was 9%
The Inconvenient Truth
This puts Toy Story 5’s opening into perspective: it is close to Toy Story 2’s opening 26 years ago, Monsters, Inc.’s opening 24 years ago, and Finding Nemo’s opening 23 years ago.
But this is ignored. The industry celebrates the nominal number. It does not adjust for inflation. It does not compare to films from two decades ago. It does not ask why a franchise that has grown exponentially in merchandise sales, theme park presence, and global brand awareness is selling roughly the same number of tickets as it did 20+ years ago.
The box office is just the beginning. The real value of Toy Story is not in the cinema seats, but in the merchandise, the theme parks, and the streaming hours that follow. Toy Story has sold over $16bn of merchandising, more than four times its global box office, so the value of the franchise is over four times its cinema value as the films found a far bigger audience after their cinema release over the last 30 years, with tens of millions of VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, TV views and streaming views on Netflix and Disney+ since.
Toy Story 5 opened similarly to Super Mario Bros, Frozen 2, A Minecraft Movie and Despicable Me 2, so opened exactly as it was expected to and what most analysts would have predicted several years ago. If a film opens with its expected opening, is that a successful opening, as it’s like Spain is expected to win the World Cup, rather than draw against Cabo Verde?
It’s 31 years in the US since Toy Story opened, it’s the 30th anniversary as it opened 4 months later in March 1996; the four films have taken over £200m and over £300m inflation-adjusted.
1996’s Toy Story opened £3,387,160/£6,666,131 taking £22,297,733/£43,883,253
2000’s Toy Story 2 opened £7,758,936/£14,623,312 taking £43,491,021/£81,967,783
2010’s Toy Story 3 opened £21,187,264/£28,522,686 taking £73,405,113/£98,819,320
2019’s Toy Story 4 opened £13,300,000/£14,755,263; took £3.1m on Friday, then the biggest ever non-holiday animated film Friday opening; (Toy Story 5 also opened with £3.1m), taking £66,030,065/£73,254,961
Toy Story 5 is released during term-time, similar to Toy Story 4. The difference is that while Toy Story 4 had 31-dayx before The Lion King opened, Toy Story 5 only has Minions and Monsters opening only 13 days afterwards. With both released during term-time and targeting similar audiences, they will surely cannibalise each other, taking the bulk of their box office over the weekend. In 2010, Toy Story 3 was delayed to the start of the summer holidays in July and performed strongly until September. Toy Story 5 will likely be played out before the summer holidays start in a month.
England Vs Ghana their second game of the World Cup had 13.6m watching BBC1 coverage, thier next game is on Saturday and then they will probably play next on Wednesay July 1st the day Minions opens.
This highlights the problem with day and date opening, as films used to be regionally dated, while school holidays in the US start in May and end in August, and they have the long Independence Day weekend in July; UK schools will close mid-July to the end of August. The problem is that the cinema release is now tied to the global streaming release date. It’s impossible to compare it to Toy Story 4 as Disney+ launched in the US in November 2019, so Toy Story 4 had an old fashioned released opened in cinemas in June, home video in October and Disney+ in February. Toy Story 5 will likely be released on PVOD in August and on Disney+ in late September.
It’s the fifth Pixar film Andrew Stanton has directed after A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, WALL-E and 2016’s Finding Dory. He also directed two live-action films for Disney: 2012’s John Carter, a massive flop, and 2026’s In the Blink of an Eye, which Disney released straight to streaming.
Toy Story 5: The Sugary Cereal of Cinema
Toy Story films have always been nostalgic for adults. But the fourth and fifth entries have added elements that are cynically designed to get a reaction from the audience that sobbed like babies at the end of Toy Story 3.
I watched two other films over the weekend. They were corny, cheesy rom-coms, and they knew exactly what they were. Despite that, they both got me more emotionally invested than the manipulative Toy Story 5.
The emotional additions to Toy Story 5 felt like a sugary breakfast cereal that has vitamins added to make it look healthy and good for children. The sugar is still there. The manipulation is still there. The vitamins are just a marketing tactic.
The two films I saw were The Idea of You and Voicemails for Isabelle. They did not pretend to be anything they were not. They did not try to make me cry by triggering memories of my childhood. They just told their stories — and they worked.
That is the difference between a film that trusts its audience and a product that calculates its emotional beats.
The McDonald’s Happy Meal Parallel
As we have said about Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, these films are McDonald’s Happy Meals. Sugary treats that will get children crazy for a few hours and then crash.
The Happy Meal is not about the food. It is about the toy inside the box. The same goes for Toy Story 5. The film is not about the story. It is about the nostalgia inside the packaging.
Disney knows you will cry. Disney knows you will buy the toys. Disney knows you will stream it on Disney+ in a few months. The film is just the packaging.
30 years ago, Disney partnered with McDonald’s. You would buy a Happy Meal, and inside the box was a toy from the latest Disney film. The burger was the main product. The toy was the bonus.
Disney have taken that a step further, and removed the burger.
Now, the film is in the box. The nostalgia is the toy. The emotional manipulation is the sugar rush that keeps you coming back.
The Taylor Swift Factor
As with Toy Story 4, the soundtrack has been strategically designed to generate maximum emotional impact. This time, the weapon of choice is Taylor Swift.
Swift wrote I Knew It, I Knew You from Jessie’s perspective. The song is a country-tinged ballad about reunion and memory, and it is designed to do one thing: make adults cry.
“We’ve seen her have her heart broken. Like, we’ve watched, you know, the car pull away. I get really emotional talking about this.”
The marketing campaign was perfectly orchestrated:
- Mysterious “TS” billboards in the Toy Story font appeared globally
- Pixar posted footage of Jessie dancing on a billboard with the caption referencing Swift’s “Shake It Off”
- Swift’s website displayed a Toy Story-themed countdown
- The song was released on June 5, two weeks before the film
Director Andrew Stanton gushed:
“The song is so deeply connected to Toy Story. So much so that on first listen, it instantly felt like it had always belonged there, like a long-lost family member.”
That is precisely the point. The song is not a creative addition. It is a calculated marketing tool designed to make adults feel nostalgic, emotional, and compelled to see the film.
But here is the crucial difference. In Toy Story 2, Jessie’s flashback — when she realises she has been outgrown by her original owner Emily, was set to When She Loved Me by Sarah McLachlan. That song played during the scene itself. It was woven into the fabric of the story. It was the scene.
In Toy Story 5, Swift’s song does not play during Jessie’s emotional flashback. It plays over the end credits.
The song also replaced You’ve Got a Friend in Me, which played over the end credits of the first three films. The Randy Newman classic was the emotional anchor of the franchise. Swift’s song is a replacement, not an addition.
Adults will sob. The soundtrack will chart. The Oscar campaign will begin. And the cycle will continue.
Days before Toy Story 5 opened, Swift’s song had 51.5 million streams worldwide, selling 87,000 copies (70,000 from downloads, 17,000 from CD singles) in the US.
Compare this to Netflix’s Voicemails from Isabelle (also released last Friday), which uses Taylor Swift’s songs as storytelling devices, woven into the narrative to illuminate character and advance the plot. Toy Story 5 uses a Taylor Swift song as a marketing tactic, designed to sell soundtracks and manipulate emotions.
The director, Leah McKendrick, wrote a personal letter to Taylor Swift to secure the rights, explaining how pivotal the songs were to the story. She said: “I was trying to mirror how a lot of us ladies listen to T. Swift and we’re longing, dreaming, crying, singing, and dancing. At the end of the movie, the script has flipped, and Austin’s the one listening to T. Swift and crying, yearning, regretting, and grieving.”
The songs are not just dropped in. They are earned.
How Toy Story 5 Uses Taylor Swift as Marketing
In Toy Story 5, the song is not woven into the story. It is placed over the end credits — replacing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, and its purpose is clear: sell the soundtrack.
The “Old Taylor” Line: Character Growth vs. Marketing Gimmick
In Voicemails for Isabelle, the line “I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now… ’cause she’s dead” is used to show how Wes has matured his feelings. He has grown. The line is earned.
Taylor Swift talked so passionately about her love of the Toy Story films. She still has the films on video. She dressed as Jessie as a child. She said being welcomed into the franchise “feels very poignant for me and for my family and for me. Her song deserved a far more prominent position in the film. It deserved to be woven into Jessie’s story, not tacked onto the end credits. It deserved to be part of the narrative, not part of the synergy and Best Song Oscar campaign.
It surely highlights the difference between modern Disney and the creativity of the first Disney from 30+ years ago. In 1999, the creative team at Pixar and Disney decided that Jessie’s flashback needed a song. They chose Sarah McLachlan because her voice could carry the emotional weight of a toy being abandoned by her child. The song served the story. The story was the priority.
In 2026, the marketing team at Disney decided that a Taylor Swift song was the best way to sell the film to adults. The song was written from Jessie’s perspective, but it was placed over the end credits, not in the story. The song served the marketing. The marketing was the priority.
Toy Story 5 opening breakdown estimates
Cinemas 702; Screens per cinema (est.) 4
Total screens 3,000; Shows per screen per day (est.) 6
Total shows per day 18,000; Seats per screen (est.) 100
Total seats per day : 1.8 million; 4-day opening: 7.2 million seats available
Attendance Opening gross £15.5m; Average ticket price (UK 2026) £8.61
Estimated tickets sold 1.74 million; Sold 24.2%
These are estimates, as many multiplex it’s playing in 8 screens and with IMAX/PLF/3D and other premium and recliner seating, the real average price will be £12.50+ as EnTelligence’s average in the US is a third more than the industry average.
The UK used to be the biggest international territory after China, but Mexico regularly has bigger openings for Disney films; they still have long legs, but they don’t open as big. Is it because Disney now seem to premiere films in mainland Europe ahead of the UK? For Toy Story 5, they had a meet the cast and footage screening in the UK on May 28, but the European premiere was in Spain on June 12. Disney have done similar with many of their films when they used to have their world/European premiere in the UK. Have been rumours for a long time that Disney would move its European offices from London to mainland Europe.
Is it that Disney take the UK for granted and it’s not a growing market, as other territories like Mexico, they know audiences will always come to see Disney films in the UK, so they are concentrating resources in markets that have growth?
Toy Story 5 will likely drop about 40%-45% in its second weekend, more than Toy Story 4, as it had Thursday previews; Toy Story 4 dropped 37.5% £8,284,437/£9,190,906 and 26,989,023 40.9% of £66,030,065/£73,254,961
Yesterday opened in Toy Story 4’s second weekend opening #2 £2,212,380 and then Spider-Man: Far From Home opened in its third weekend #1 £14,148,624; Toy Story 5 has Supergirl in its second weekend which won’t have any impact on it but then Minions and Monsters opens July 1st having a 5 day opening, Minions films do play younger but it will still likely be badly affected dropping 60% and then the weekend after sees Moana opening all targeting the weekend child audience.
- 2. Disclosure Day £1,722,597 – £9,076,770
Dropped 68.7% in its second weekend (56% drop without previews)
£457k 26% (-62% £1.2m) Fri; £680k 39.5% (-57% £1.57m) Sat; £585k 34% (-47% £1.1m) Sun
599th biggest second weekend between The Pursuit of Happyness and Bend It Like Beckham (close to Sleepy Hollow, Apollo 13, The Fifth Element and What Lies Beneath) and 1,000th biggest inflated second weekend between The Other Woman and Sweet Home Alabama (close to Skyline, The Green Mile, Wrath of the Titans and The Last of the Mohicans).
25th biggest second weekend over the last 52 weeks between The Drama and Weapons (close to Downton Abbey 3, Backrooms, The Roses and Scary Movie).
13th biggest Steven Spielberg second weekend between The Post and A.I. Artificial Intelligence (close to Catch Me If You Can, Saving Private Ryan, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Terminal) and 17th biggest inflated Steven Spielberg second weekend between Lincoln and Munich (close to The Adventures of Tintin, Ready Player One, Bridge of Spies and Amistad).
Why Disclosure Day Dropped Heavily
Disclosure Day was always going to drop heavily in its second weekend. The factors were predictable, and they all hit at once.
1. Losing IMAX and PLF Screens
Disclosure Day lost its premium screens to Toy Story 5. This is the same pattern that hit Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One in 2023.
Oppenheimer and Barbie opened the following weekend, taking all IMAX and PLF screens. Mission: Impossible dropped 72% in its second weekend. The same happened to Disclosure Day, but with Toy Story 5 taking the screens, the drop was slightly less severe (-66.4%).
2. Relegated to Smaller Screens
Toy Story 5 opened in over 2,500 screens in the UK. It relegated Disclosure Day to smaller screens, fewer showtimes, and less prominent placement.
Like all Steven Spielberg films, Disclosure Day is a film to be seen on the biggest screen with the best sound. Losing premium screens is not just a loss of revenue; it is a loss of the experience the film was designed for.
3. The Nostalgic Demographic Overlap
Toy Story 5 targets the same demographic that makes up the core audience for Spielberg’s films: parents and grandparents who grew up with the originals. The audiences overlap significantly. Parents and grandparents who would have seen Disclosure Day in its second weekend were instead taking their children to Toy Story 5.
4. The Hot Weather Effect
The hot weather affected holdovers far more than new releases. Families who might have gone to the cinema chose outdoor activities instead. The weather is the original competitor — and it always wins.
- Toy Story 5 was a new release, so it was less affected.
- Disclosure Day was a holdover, so it felt the full force of the weather.
Steven Spielberg films have taken over £400m at the UK box office for 27 of his films (missing the BO for Jaws and a few of his other smaller releases), taking about £900m inflated, showing how huge his films were in the UK; 2016’s The BFG was his last massive hit in the UK, taking over £30m.
Like Project Hail Mary, Disclosure Day benefits from real‑world space news: ahead of its opening, the Pentagon released declassified UFO files.
Growing up in the 80s, a Steven Spielberg film was always an event. I have seen almost all of the films he has directed, and most of those he produced in cinemas since E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in 1982.
- 3. Obsession £924,571 – £15,366,259
Down 39.1% in its sixth weekend.
£315k 34% (-39% £516k) Fri; £380k 41% (-32.3% £561k) Sat; £230k 24.9% (-48% £440k) Sun
105th biggest sixth weekend between Fantastic Beasts and Monsters, Inc. (close to The Bodyguard, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Dark Knight and Captain Marvel) and 225th biggest inflated sixth weekend between Hot Shots and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (close to A Few Good Men, The Hunger Games, Catch Me If You Can and Men in Black 3).
470th biggest between Robin Hood and Mission: Impossible III (close to Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, Aladdin and Captain Phillips) and 794th biggest inflated between The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Pokémon Detective Pikachu (close to Twilight, Good Will Hunting, Labyrinth and The Panic Room).
Obsession and Voicemails for Isabelle: The Real Horror of the “Nice Guy”
We Have All Been Bear
We have all been Bear. We have all fancied someone that we were too scared to approach. Like Marty McFly in Back to the Future, we have all been scared of failure. There have been women I have liked in the past who barely knew me, and I was too scared to approach them. Others I have liked, but they did not like me back in the same way.
That is the human condition. The desire to be seen. The fear of rejection. The fantasy that if they just knew who you really were, they would love you back.
But the difference between a harmless crush and a dangerous obsession is boundaries. Bear in Obsession does not have them. He believes his desire entitles him to her. He believes his “love” justifies his actions.
The 70-Year Lie: From The Shop Around the Corner to You’ve Got Mail
You’ve Got Mail is a direct remake of The Shop Around the Corner (1940), starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan. In both films, the male lead knows who the female lead is. She does not know who he is. He uses this information asymmetry to manipulate the relationship, all while presenting himself as a charming romantic. We never see the darker side of this behaviour. It is always framed as “he’s doing this because he loves you and wants to keep you safe and protect you.” That is the 70-year lie.
The Pattern: Protection as Control
The language of protection is the language of control. It has been romanticised in popular culture for decades.
Obsession is the first film in this tradition to remove the romantic framing. Bear is not charming. He is not misunderstood. He is a man who believes his love entitles him to control.
The Shift: Voicemails for Isabelle Subverts the Trope
Voicemails for Isabelle knowingly places itself in the “stalker rom-com” tradition, but it subverts the trope in a crucial way that sets it apart.
The film begins with a premise that is essentially a stalker-thriller setup. Wes listens to Jill’s deeply personal voicemails without her knowledge, uses the intimate details to track her down, and inserts himself into her life under false pretences. The film is acutely aware of this. Wes’s friends literally tell him: “This is like a sick, sick reboot of ‘You’ve Got Mail'”.
But then the film does something different. Jill finds out what Wes did, and she takes control of the situation.
Instead of brushing aside the “stalkerisms” and accepting it as “silly glossy gob of unapologetic Hollywood fiction”, the film forces Jill to reckon with what Wes did. She gets “plenty mad”. She does not passively accept the deception. She reacts, she confronts, and she makes a choice. She chooses to rebuild herself before she decides whether to forgive him. That is the difference.
This is not a fantasy. It is a fear that women have been describing for decades. The “nice guy” who offers help. The stranger who seems kind. The protector who is actually the predator. The trust that is exploited. The safety that was never real.
Obsession literalises the fear. The man who seemed kind is the man who destroys her. The trust that was offered is exploited. The safety that was promised is revealed as a trap.
Obsession does not invent this fear. It acknowledges it. It takes the experience that women have been describing for decades — the nice guy who is not nice, the friendly stranger who has an agenda, the trust that is exploited — and shows it without the romantic framing.
The Connection to Obsession and Voicemails for Isabelle
These films are important because they show how the Obsession story is not new; it is a polished, contemporary update of a 90s staple. Both The Crush and Fear rely on the same “bunny boiler” trope that Obsession is often compared to. However, there is a key difference:
- In the 90s, these were often presented as lurid, schlocky thrillers for a teenage audience. They were entertainment.
- In Obsession, the “unhinged” behaviour is reframed through a more contemporary, socially critical lens. Bear is not just a monster; he is the endpoint of a culture that tells men their desires are paramount.
This is precisely why the contrast with Voicemails for Isabelle is so telling. Voicemails sits in the same narrative space as these 90s films; it even has Wes’s friends directly compare his actions to You’ve Got Mail (a spiritual sequel to the 90s obsession film). But unlike The Crush and Fear, where the woman is either a predator or a victim, Voicemails gives Jill the agency to discover the truth, get angry, and make the conscious choice to engage with Wes on her own terms. It shows an evolution from the 90s “bunny boiler” trope to a story where the woman takes back control.
The When Harry Met Sally Line That Predicted Everything
There is a moment in When Harry Met Sally (1989) when Harry, played by Billy Crystal, lays out his theory of male-female friendship: “No man can be friends with a woman he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.”
In 1989, that line was played for laughs. It was a knowing wink from the writer, Nora Ephron, about the inconvenient truths of male desire. The audience laughed because they recognised it, but also because they dismissed it as exaggerated. Harry was a cynic. Sally was a romantic. The film ended with them falling in love. The cynicism was revealed as a mask for vulnerability.
Now watch that scene again in 2026. It is not funny. It is a diagnosis.
Harry is not being honest. He is stating the premise of the “nice guy” entitlement that Obsession literalises. He finds a woman attractive. Therefore, he cannot be her friend. Therefore, his “friendship” is always a strategy. Therefore, her trust is always a trap.
Obsession takes that line and removes the laugh track. Bear is Harry without the redemption arc. He does not fall in love. He does not learn. He just wants. And the horror is that the film gives him everything he wants, and he still cannot be happy.
When Harry Met Sally played the line for laughs. Obsession plays it for horror, because thirty years later, women stopped laughing.
These films have to be seen as the films they were at the time. You cannot judge them by today’s standards. But you can ask what those standards say about us now. And you can see how a film like Obsession could only have emerged after a generation of women grew up watching these “nice guys” and started asking: what if he is not so nice?
A Note on Perspective
Of course, I am wary that, as a man saying this, it might seem like mansplaining. I try to imagine what women really think, but that is impossible for me to do. I have never walked a mile in their shoes. I have never experienced those supposedly friendly glances from a stranger, or felt the weight of not knowing whether a smile is a greeting or a threat.
The Bournemouth Football Club campaign gave me a new perspective. It showed the difference between a man walking home from a match and a woman doing the same. Things men do without thinking — crossing the street, walking a little too close, offering a “friendly” smile- can feel very different to a woman on her own.
I have probably done some of those things without thinking. That is the point. I did not know. The campaign helped me see it.
Obsession does the same thing. It takes the “nice guy” persona, the one I might have thought was harmless, the one Harry in When Harry Met Sally played for laughs, and shows what it looks like from the other side.
I cannot know what it feels like to be Andy. But I can recognise Bear. And that recognition is the first step.
- 4. Scary Movie £556,486 – £8,431,226
Dropped 61.4% in its third weekend
743rd biggest second weekend between The Smurfs and Wish (close to A Haunting In Venice, Scary Movie (2000), Joker: Folie A Deux and Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) and 1,214th biggest inflated second weekend between Horton Hears a Who and Munich (close to Green Lantern, Me Myself and Irene, Freddy’s Dead The Final Nightmare and Groundhog Day).
28th biggest second weekend over the last 52 weeks between The Roses and The Sheep Detectives (close to The Drama, Weapons, Obsession and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple).
Scary Movie had a similar third weekend drop as Scream 7 earlier this year, 57% with previews) Taking £491,350 and £7,133,021, 91.1% of £7,831,514, showing the parody is as front-loaded as the parody, as it has always just been a paradox, while hype gets the audience to see it over opening weekend, they quickly lose interest, that said Paramount will still announce a Scary Movie 2 as they will Scream 8 despite both feeling outdated and tired.
The Dated Jokes: SNL and TikTok Are Faster
Parody films face an existential problem in 2026. When Scary Movie was released in 2000, it took 18 months to get a theatrical parody. That felt fast. Now, weekly comedy shows like Saturday Night Live can parody a film within days. TikTok creators do it within hours.
Third weekends
2000’s Scary Movie dropped 29.7% £1,026,832/£1,935,276 -and £6,270,515 63% of £9,955,478/£18,763,148
2001’s Scary Movie 2 dropped 38.7% £378,640/£732,586 and £3,535,368 81.7% of £4,327,602/£8,372,969
2004’s Scary Movie 3 dropped 58.4% £788,737/£1,407,079 and £7,844,969 88% of £8,907,831/£15,891,253
2006’s Scary Movie 4 dropped 41.4% £544,138/£894,979 and £5,120,071 88.3% of £5,795,802/£9,532,726
2013’s Scary Movie 5 dropped 63.6% £199,363 and £2,426,866 84.6% of £2,584,250
- 5. Backrooms – £445,284 – £11,781,211
Down 54% in its fourth weekend
931st biggest fourth weekend between The Time Traveller’s Wife and Australia (close to Insidious, A Quiet Place: Day One, The X- Files and The Grudge) and 1,213th biggest inflated fourth weekend between Labyrinth and Olympus Has Fallen (close to Paranormal Activity 3, Watchmen, Source Code and Ruthless People).
As Miramax did 30 years ago, A24 over recent years has found its identity within the film industry, and one of the reasons given for seeing Backrooms in post surveys was that it was an A24 film. Independent studios over the decades have had success making certain genres of films, like New Line Cinema making horrors in the 80s and 90s, but then when they try to make other genres of films, they struggle.
Backrooms had a similar third weekend as 2009’s Paranormal Activity dropped 59.7% £305,637/£450,028 and £9,389,581 94.5% of £9,935,165/£14,628,800
1999’s The Blair Witch Project took £14,971,525/£28,485,015; it had a similar marketing campaign, but The Blair Witch Project didn’t have the massive fanbase and was built up over months of build-up, opening in the UK four months after opening in the US and 10 months after it terrified Sundance Film Festival audiences who believed the events were real.
Much has been made about YouTube saving cinema after the success of Backrooms, but Netflix warned in March that YouTube was its biggest competitor, not legacy studios, not other streaming services. YouTube generated $60bn in revenue last year, a third more than Netflix’s $45bn, with $15bn coming from premium content alone.
YouTubers are ‘saving cinema” is a narrative that sounds good but does not survive contact with the numbers. YouTube generated over $60bn last year, twice the global box office. Backrooms, Obsession, and Iron Lung are huge successes for cinema, but they are tiny compared with YouTube’s daily audience. Ted Sarandos was right: “YouTube is not just cat videos anymore. YouTube is TV.” And the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer had a billion views on YouTube within 24 hours, but only 10% of those will pay to see it in the cinema. The attention is there. The conversion is not. That is the real story.
It’s similar to 15+ years ago, when young adult films would get huge social media interactions ahead of their opening, but only a small percentage would go to see the film in the cinema, with most preferring just to talk about it. In 2013 One Direction: This Is Us premiere generated over 2.5m tweets and I thought it would have a massive opening, but only a fraction of One Direction fans went to see it, it was similar to Taylor Swift: Era’s Tour she has hundreds of millions of fans globally and generated massive social media coverage, while it opened big to cinema numbers it was tiny compared with Taylor Swift numbers.
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BO is currently up 14% from 2025.
The weekend’s top 10 box office took £20,219,356, up 64.4% from last weekend’s £12,295,288: 2,348,357 admissions, up 66.4% from 1,410,852 admissions.
3rd biggest weekend of the last 52 weeks between 21 November 2025 #1 Wicked: For Good £18,858,825 (84.59%) and 04 July 2025 #1 Jurassic World: Rebirth £12,493,782 (61.77%)
16th biggest since cinemas reopened out of 292 weeks between 07 April 2023 #1 Super Mario Bros £15,691,810 (74.07%) and 04 July 2025 #1 Jurassic World: Rebirth £12,493,782 (61.77%)
78th biggest top 10 of the last 25 years (out of 1,263) between 20 November 2009 #1 The Twilight Saga: New Moon £11,683,158 (57.45%) and 04 July 2025 #1 Jurassic World: Rebirth £12,493,782 (61.77%) and 273rd biggest inflated between 07 July 2017 #1 Spider-Man: Homecoming £9,369,846 (53.20%) and 04 July 2025 #1 Jurassic World: Rebirth £12,493,782 (61.77%)
The top 3 took £18,008,494 (89.1%) of the top 10; Toy Story 5 x% (£x); Disclosure Day 40.76% (£5,504,987); Obsession 11.23% (£1,517,066);
48th biggest percentage share #1 (75.97%) between 24 April 2026 #1 Micheal £11,574,192 (76.08%) and 26 October 2012 #1 Skyfall £20,180,369 (75.89%)
79th biggest admissions (1,917,752) between 20 May 2011 #1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides £11,634,860 (1,919,944) and 28 December 2001 #1 LOTR: Fellowship of the Rings £7,825,995 (1,890,337)
Up 86.60% from 2025; (£10,835,871); 28 Years Later £4,780,374); Elio (£971,169); #1 28 Years Later £4,780,374 1st week 707 screens (44.12% of top 10)
Up 79.62% from 2024; (£11,256,622); The Bikeriders (£1,085,530); Doctor Who – The Two Episode Finale (£364,353); Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now (£282,961); The Exorcism (£146,046); Something In The Water (£120,341); Waitress: The Musical (Theatre) (£47,571); #1 Inside Out 2 £7,762,903 2nd week 31% drop 700 screens (68.96% of top 10)
Up 146.56% from 2023; (£8,200,506); No Hard Feelings (£1,181,383); Asteroid City (£1,176,972); #1 Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse £1,995,517 dropped 24% 702 screens 3rd week #1 over 4 weeks (24.33%)
Up 40.19% from 2022 (£14,423,033); Lightyear (£3,718,002); Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (£238,640); The Spy Who Loved Me (Re: 2022) (£12,844); #1 Jurassic World: Dominion £5,717,882 2nd week 713 screens 53% drop (39.6% of top 10)
Up 103.59% 2021 from (£9,931,625); Fast & Furious 9 (£6,014,132); Supernova (£245,715); Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (£212,334); #1 Fast & Furious 9 £6,014,132 1st week 594 screens (60.6% of top 10)
2020 Lockdown
Up 10.02% from 2019; (£18,378,720); Toy Story 4 £13,300,000); Bight Burn (£509,030); Childs Play £247,572; #1 Toy Story 4 £13,300,000 1st week (72.37% of top 10)
Up 100.85% from 2018: (£10,066,964); Ocean’s 8 (£4,347,070); In the Fade (£25,963); Overboard (£19,304); #1 Ocean’s 8 £4,347,070 1st week 641 screens (43.2% of the top 10)
Up 111.77% from 2017: (£9,547,804); Transformers: The Last Knight (£4,635,570); Hampstead (£453,522); The Book of Henry (£72,128); The Graduate: 50th Anniversary 4K Restoration (£28,946); #1 Transformers: The Last Knight £4,635,570 1st week 577 screens (48.5% of top 10)
Up 134.83% from 2016: (£8,610,329); The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case (£4,637,862); Gods of Egypt (£484,467); Barbershop: A Fresh Cut (£91,502); The Keeping Room (£26,199); #1 The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case £4,637,862 1st week 504 screens (53.8% of the top 10)
Up 26.01% from 2015; (£16,046,393); Take That Live 2015 (£965,000); Mr Holmes (£741,080); Entourage (£632,754); The Longest Ride (£419,047); #1 Jurassic World £11,133,912 614 screens 2nd week 34% drop (69.4% of top 10)
Up 144.05% from 2014: (£8,284,805); The Fault in Our Stars (£3,434,334); Jersey Boys (£415,608); 3 Days to Kill (£324,560); Chinese Puzzle (£22,617); The Art of the Steal (£7,867); #1 The Fault in Our Stars £3,434,334 1st week 511 screens (41.4% of top 10)
Up 71.20% from 2013: (£11,810,188); World War Z (£4,535,899); Snitch (£268,229); Before Midnight (£244,231); A Haunted House (£153,805); Spike Island (£55,961); #1 Man of Steel £5,073,356 2nd week 575 screens 55% drop (42.9% of top 10)
Up 198.86% from 2012 (£6,765,529); Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (£1,119,117); The Five-Year Engagement (£1,058,897); Chernobyl Diaries (£495,875); Lay the Favourite (£112,706); Think Like a Man (£81,516); #1 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter £1,119,117 1st week 460 screens (16.5% of top 10)
Up 78.43% from 2011; (£11,331,755) Green Lantern (£2,472,969); Bad Teacher (£1,958,656); The Beaver (£55,185); #1 Green Lantern £2,472,969 1st week 478 screens (21.8% of top 10)
Up 383.21% from 2010: (£4,184,382); Killers (£1,053,074); Wild Target (£282,498); Our Family Wedding (£96,385); Please Give (£49,940); MacGruber (£34,367); #1 Killers £1,053,074 1st week 446 screens (25.1% of top 10)
Up 48.09% from 2009; (£13,653,796); Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (£8,349,739); Telstar (£22,343); #1 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen £8,349,739 1st week 516 screens (61.15% of top 10)
Up 158.59% from 2008; (£7,818,976); Adulthood (£1,203,319); Teeth (£235,658); The Edge of Love (£180,837); The Ruins (£123,507); The Escapist (£79,579); #1 The Incredible Hulk £1,870,800 2nd week 483 screens 43% drop (23.9% of top 10)
Up 236.60% from 2007: (£6,006,969); Captivity (£329,193); La Vie En Rose (£205,659); Lucky You (£56,346); #1 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer £2,254,179 2nd week 481 screens 46% drop (37.5% of top 10)
Up 367.79% from 2006; (£4,322,278); Lakehouse (£761,465); The Wind that Shakes the Barley (£390,720); Fearless (£369,947); Ultraviolet (£147,337); Aquamarine (£109,232); Half Light (£23,930); #1 The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift £1,019,854 2nd week 415 screens 44% drop (23.6% of top 10)
Up 202.29% from 2005: (£7,664,880); Batman Begins (£4,427,802); Bombon – El Perro (£33,768); We Don’t Live Here Anymore (£28,954); #1 Batman Begins £4,427,802 1st week 514 screens (57.7% of top 10)
Up 163.31% from 2004 (£7,678,849); Mean Girls (£1,393,494); Jersey Girl (£226,970); The Whole Ten Yards (£61,405); #1 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban £3,374,330 3rd week 534 screens 23% drop (43.9% of top 10)
Up 279.66% from 2003 (£5,325,585); 2 Fast 2 Furious (£2,747,875); Basic (£248,088); I’ll Be There (£14,829); #1 2 Fast 2 Furious £2,747,875 1st week 424 screens (51.6% of top 10)
Up 193.54% from 2002 (£6,888,015); The Musketeer (£131,338); Kissing Jessica Stein (£102,234); Hardball (£79,864); Before You Go (£58,387); #1 Spider-Man: The Movie £4,255,920 2nd week 509 screens 55% drop (61.8% of top 10)
2025 Next week: (£14,072,301); #1 F1 (£7,071,647); M3GAN 2.0 (£508,947); Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful (£69,335); Clueless (30th Anniversary 4K Re-Issue) (£45,850); #1 F1 £7,071,647 1st week 703 screens (50.25% of top 10)
US Box Office
- Toy Story 5 – Walt Disney
Opened $159.67m; received positive reviews (94% Rotten Tomatoes) and A CinemaScore
Toy Story, Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4 all got an A CinemaScore and Toy Story 2 got an A+
Took $17.5m from Thursday previews; Toy Story 4 $12m; Incredibles 2 $18.5m; Toy Story 3 $4m;
24th biggest opening between The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (close to A Minecraft Movie, Barbie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Inside Out 2).
Took 33% from IMAX/PLF; 8% IMAX and 19% PLF; took $18.4m worldwide from IMAX, $11.5m US and $6.9m internationally.
Took 8% from IMAX ahead of Toy Story 4‘s 5%
EntTelligence said it had 11.5m admissions; standard average prices $15.25; $19.03 PLF, $13.12 child and $16.66 child PLF in comparison. Inside Out 2 had 12.2m admissions.
Early tracking was $150m, but it was always expected to open bigger despite Deadline lowering their estimate on Wednesday, despite advance bookings taking $25m more than The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
The industry does this all the time, especially with Disney films, lowball estimates about $20m less than everyone expected them to open, and then it looks like the openings are far more impressive despite opening exactly as expected.
So, it was interesting to see Toy Story 5 opened slightly under $160m as normally Disney find an extra few million between Sunday estimates and Monday’s finals, but for it to come in slightly under must mean it opened lower than expected, as surely it should have opened close to Incredibles 2 $182.68m, especially with Minions & Monsters opening only 13 days afterwards.
The first four Toy Story movies have grossed more than $3bn worldwide
2019’s Toy Story 4’s opened $120.9m/$164.5m taking $434m/$640m and $1.073bn/$1.5bn WW
2010’s Toy Story 3’s opened $110.3m/$175m taking $415m/$667m and $1.067bn/$1.7bn worldwide
1999’s Toy Story 2 opened $70.5m/$164.5m taking $245.8m/$570m and $397.37m//$1.15bn WW
1995’s Toy Story opened $29.1m/$82.5m taking $223.3m/$630.9m and $401.15m/$1.11bn WW
Friday’s audience streaming subscribers 55% Netflix; 52% Disney+; 43% Prime Video; 41% Hulu.
So, Toy Story 5 was always going to open $180m+ between Incredibles 2 $182m and The Lion King $191m.
Toy Story opened 32% more than Toy Story 4, while Toy Story 2 ($97.38m) opened 97% bigger than Toy Story ($29.14m), and Toy Story 3 ($110.3m) opened 92% bigger than Toy Story 2 ($97.38m)
Finding Dory ($70.25m) opened 92% bigger than Finding Nemo ($135.1m)
Incredibles 2 ($70.4m) opened 159% bigger than Incredibles ($182.6m)
Recent Pixar films Hopper opened $45.3m; Lightyear $50.5m; Elemental $29.6m, and Elio $20.8m, while Seeing Red, Luca and Soul all went straight to Disney+
Ahead of opening, Toy Story 5 was expected to open with $275m, but as Toy Story 4 was expected to open with $240m worldwide opened $120m from 37 territories and $244.5m worldwide. Toy Story 5 was always going to open bigger worldwide; The Super Mario Galaxy Movie opened $372.5M WW, including $131.7m in the US.
While the five Toy Story films have taken about $1.2bn in the US and $3bn worldwide, they have sold over $16bn in merchandising and more since 1995. As with everything for Disney, the film is just the start of the journey. Disney’s economic impact study said the franchise has generated nearly $50bn in “overall economic impact” globally. The theatrical release is not the end product. It is the launchpad.
The box office gross is the initial promotional campaign. It creates the cultural event that drives the real revenue streams:
Merchandising: Around $1bn a year in global retail sales for Toy Story products.
Home Entertainment: The original Toy Story sold over 21.5 million VHS copies in its first year. The franchise has generated over $622m from physical media alone in the US.
Streaming: It is the most-watched franchise on Disney+, with over 2 billion hours streamed. All four previous films re-entered the global Disney+ Top 10 during the opening weekend of Toy Story 5, driving even more engagement.
Theme Parks: The franchise has spawned 19 theme park rides, four themed lands, and two hotels.
The theatrical release creates the cultural event that drives the real revenue streams. Without the films, there is no $1 billion-a-year merchandise business, no theme park lands, no streaming dominance. But without those, the films would be vastly less valuable. The films exist to sell the toys, and the toys exist to promote the films. The audience is caught in the middle, paying for both.
Toy Story 5 had the second biggest Pixar opening after 2024’s Inside Out 2 opened $384m WW ($230M int’l, $154m domestic); 2019’s Toy Story 4 ($120.9m US) and worldwide ($249m). Toy Story 4 opened Mexico $23.4m; the UK $15.0m; China $13.4m; Brazil $9.6m; Korea $8.5m; Argentina $6.9m; Australia $6.1m
Opened with $152m international from 48 territories and $312m worldwide; Mexico $26.6m; UK $20m; China $18m; France $7.2m; Australia $6.9m; Brazil $6.1m; Korea $6.1m; Spain $5.5m; Argentina $5.4m; Colombia $4.2m; Italy $3.5m
After opening with $312m worldwide, Toy Story 5 will surely be the 63rd film to take $1bn worldwide, but to paraphrase Sean Parker ‘A billion dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Three billion dollars.” A tentpole taking $1bn worldwide was cool 20+ years ago, but now, billion-dollar films should be taking much more. $1bn film had about 150m admissions worldwide in 2006, now it’s less than half, but in reality it’s less than a third; EntTelligence average for Toy Story 5 was $15.25 and a third more for IMAX/PLF $19.03; with tentpoles taking 30% from IMAX/PLF, it makes a big dent in admissions.
While this record was always expected, the industry keeps falling for Disney’s lowballing estimates, on Wednesday, Deadline predicted a $140m US opening and $275m worldwide, it was always going to open $160m+ US and over $300m worldwide, but analysts falling for Disney’s lowballing makes it look like films have opened bigger than they expected, despite opening exactly as expected. It’s like Deadline also estimated Moana to open with $85m, but will of course open $100m+.
Disney said it was the biggest global opening despite Super Mario Galaxy Movie opening $372.5 m WW, as Obi-Wan said, “many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view”, as studios twist the rules on how they calculate openings with or without extended previews, despite Toy Story 5 also opening with previews in many countries.
- Disclosure Day – Universal Pictures
Dropped 60.2% in its second weekend, $17.7m and $78.98m
Minority Report dropped 40%; A.I. 52%, and War of the Worlds 53%
605th biggest second weekend between Eagle Eye and The Green Hornet (close to Oblivion, Green Lantern, Red Dragon and The Other Guys).
Entelligence’s average price was $14.97
Disclosure Day was always going to drop heavily in its second weekend as it lost the key IMAX/PLF screens after a day, as being a Steven Spielberg it’s a film to see on the biggest screen with the best sound so losing those screens was similar to 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One dropping 64.6% ($19.35m and $118.6m) in its second weekend after losing IMAX/PLF screens to Oppenheimer after a week. This was why Paramount made sure they had two weeks for 2025’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning booking IMAX months before rivals, and also why Warner Bros won’t move Dune Part 3 on December 18 as they have IMAX screens for three weeks.
It’s Steven Spielberg’s popcorn film since 2018’s Ready Player One; since then, he has directed more adult films, including West Side Story, The Post and The Fabelmans.
Spielberg’s films were understated blockbusters. Think of James Donovan in Bridge of Spies. He does not make a big deal of what he is doing. He negotiates the prisoner swap. He does his job. He comes home. He sits down with his family. And only then, watching the news, do his wife and children discover what he has done. He did not need to announce it. He did not need the recognition. The work spoke for itself.
Disclosure Day is not a tentpole. It is a Spielberg film. That is the difference. And that is why the numbers should be read differently.
Social media across YouTube, Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok was 490.9m ahead of opening, higher than other sci-fi films and more than 2018’s Ready Player One (195.4m).
Disclosure Day trailers were seen over 700m worldwide ahead of opening, not including the millions who saw them in cinemas since December and watching the Super Bowl. The first teaser was seen over 300m times.
The 34 films Steven Spielberg has directed have taken $4.6bn over the last 52 years in the US; over 1.1bn admissions and taking almost $14bn, showing how big his successes were over his first 19 years. They took half of the total BO $2.3bn and $10bn, respectively, inflated.
Took $18m internationally from 81 territories and $92.9m worldwide; UK $12m; Mexico $7.4m; France $5.3m; Australia $4.8m; Brazil $4.3m; Spain $5.1m; Italy $3.8m.
- Scary Movie – Paramount Pictures
Dropped 55% in its third $6.38m and $97.24 m
2000’s Scary Movie dropped 42.3% $15.12m and $116.43m of $157.1m/$363.9m and $278.1m/$645m WW
2001’s Scary Movie 2 dropped 52.7% $4.52m and $61.82m of $71.3m/$157.3m and $141.2m/$311.7m WW
2004’s Sary Movie 3 dropped 47.4% $11.1m and $93.4m of $110m/$221.3m and $220.7m/$443.9m WW
2006’s Scary Movie 4 dropped 53.6% $7.8m and $67.48m of $90.7m/$173m and $178.3m/$340m WW
2013’s Scary Movie 5 dropped 44.2% $3.43m and $27.47m of $32.1m/$49.2m and $78.4m/$120.5m WW
Took $9.1m internationally from 58 territories and $220m worldwide; Mexico $12.8m; Germany $9.5m; UK $11.3m, and Brazil $10m
- Obsession – Focus Features
Down 29.5% in its sixth weekend, $13.39m and $215.03m
29th biggest sixth weekend between Juno and Three Men and a Baby (close to Spider-Man: No Way Home, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Project Hail Mary).
It’s hard to make direct comparisons with any other horror, as the only possible one would be The Sixth Sense, taking $16.51m down 27.9% and $179.66m of $293.5m and $672.8m worldwide, but of course it opened 27 years ago and ticket inflation since is 150%.
After extending theatrical window from 17 to 45 days Obsession will be released on VOD on June 30
The Real Story: The Industry Has Undervalued Its Audience
That is not to say Obsession‘s hold is not strong. It is. But it highlights something more important: the industry has undervalued its audience with the films they have made.
Will the Industry Have Learned?
The question is: will the industry have learned anything from this?
The next six months will be a return to tentpole-to-tentpole with Toy Story 5, Minions 4, The Odyssey, Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day all having their predictable huge openings and all taking $1bn, while not being as profitable as many of the films that opened in the first six months of the year.
Took $11m from 59 territories, $117.1m total, and $333.3m worldwide; UK $17.6m; Mexico $6.8m; Australia $5.5m; France $4.3m.
UK Box Office Top 10
Box Office Preview
Toy Story 5 will likely drop about 40%-45% in its second weekend, more than Toy Story 4, as it had Thursday previews; Toy Story 4 dropped 37.5% £8,284,437/£9,190,906 and 26,989,023 40.9% of £66,030,065/£73,254,961
Female-led comic-book films have always struggled to find audiences, while 2017’s Wonder Woman and 2019’s Captain Marvel were critical and box office successes.
Over the last 40 years, there have been many more that failed to match the success of male superhero films, as seen with Supergirl. After the huge success of Superman in the 70s, they made a spinoff, Supergirl, and it was a critical and box office failure.
There is surely some misogyny, as of course it’s Superman vs Supergirl, and as men are the key demographic for comic-book films, men don’t seem to believe women can be as heroic wearing tights and Spandex.
While male comic-book films led the way, female films always accompanied them, not led them. The difference was with Wonder Woman, while she did have a cameo in Batman v. Superman, as often happens in MCU films, the film was always seen to be a standalone film that was part of the universe.
Wonder Woman’s cameo in Batman v Superman was a cameo, a carefully calculated one. Zack Snyder described her role as “super-important” and “the gateway drug to the rest of the Justice League”. The cameo was designed to generate demand for a standalone film, not to set up a spinoff from a failing franchise.
2017’s Wonder Woman opened £6,179,616 (including £1,219,884 previews), taking £22,086,045
Female-led superhero movies have often been set up to fail because they followed male-led entries that had already damaged their franchises. Supergirl (1984) followed Superman III. Catwoman (2004) followed Batman & Robin. Elektra (2005) followed Daredevil. Each time, the studio waited until the franchise was already in decline before greenlighting the female-led spinoff.
Other female-led comic-book films include.
2021’s Black Widow opened £6,889,187 (including £2,250,092 previews) taking £18,841,549
2019’s Captain Marvel opened £12,750,000 (including £4.1m opening day) taking £39,234,293
2020’s Birds of Prey opened £2,833,297 (including £930k opening day) taking £8,705,688 (COVID)
2024’s Madame Web opened £2,273,544 (including £938,543 previews) taking £4,196,294
There have, of course, been some massive female comic-book flops like Catwoman, Elektra and Barb Wire, but there have also been many male comic-book flops too.
It took the MCU 11 years to release a female-led solo film with Captain Marvel in 2019. Black Widow was introduced in 2010’s Iron Man 2 but didn’t get her own film until 2021. Even then, it was a prequel released after her character’s death. The pattern is similar: female-led films are always the ones that get delayed, deprioritised, or positioned as afterthoughts.
Supergirl’s early tracking in the US was $55m, but after mixed reactions, its dropped to $40m, but female-focused films have been hugely successful since The Housemaid.
Reviews have compared it as more Mad Max than Supergirl and that went so well previously with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, why is it so hard to make a good female superhero film?..
Supergirl will probably open £3m-£3.5m #2
Jackass: Best and Last, it’s being marketed as last, but last has meant different things to the Jackass team over the years. But with the cast now in their 50s, this one might actually stick.
2003’s Jackass; The Movie opened £1,314,740 (£2,137,933 inflation inflated) taking £3,860,921 (£6,278,345 inflation inflated)
2006’s Jackass: Number Two opened £735,274, taking £1,684,673 (lasted only 2 weeks in the top 10)
2010’s Jackass 3D opened #2 £1,696,909 taking £5,576,683
2013’s Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa opened £1,940,476 including £546,025 previews taking £6,343,622
2022’s Jackass Forever opened £2,091,017, taking £6,112,992
Slapstick toilet comedy never gets old for teens and 20-something males, so Jackass: Best and Last attracted the children of the parents who saw the original 20 years ago and will be very front-loaded.
As with Scary Movie, Jackass: Best and Last will not reinvent the wheel. It will just set it on fire, jump over it on a tricycle, and land in a pile of something unspeakable. The fans know what they are paying for. So will likely open third with about £1.5m-£2m;
And while younger teens will be claiming to be 14 to get cheaper 5% VAT tickets until September, they will also be claiming to be 18 to sneak into Jackass: Best and Last. The same teenager, the same weekend, two different ages. That is not hypocrisy. That is just surviving the system.
Coming Soon
- Moana – Walt Disney
Musical adventure live-action reimagination of Disney’s 2016 animated film, featuring the voices of Dwayne Johnson, Rena Owen, Catherine Laga’aia, Frankie Adams and Jemaine Clement and directed by Thomas Kail.
When Disney first announced plans to create live-action remakes of their animated films, there were several animated films Disney said they wouldn’t remake. They included Snow White and Moana, as they said, wouldn’t remake an animated film made over the previous decade. So remaking Moana a decade after the original film and two years after the sequel is purely cynical cash-grabbing, along with Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and Toy Story 5, all about merchandising.
Disney remaking their animated classics is just following on from what Disney did between the 40s and 00s re-releasing a classic animated film every seven years to the next generation in cinemas. From the 80s, the re-release was followed by a limited video release. It’s also similar to the straight-to-DVD sequels Disney made in the 90s and 00s.
Interesting to see that Moana’s early tracking was far lower than recent major Disney re-imaginations, as it’s surely far too soon for a live-action remake, especially coming two years after the animated sequel. Surely it would have made more sense to release the reimagination of the original before the sequel. By opening it afterwards its seen even more as a cynical money-grabbing exercise as Disney know despite the early hostility to the remake, their love of the original will still make them go to see it in the cinema.
Disney made their first reimagination in 1996 with 101 Dalmatians and followed it with 102 Dalmatians in 2000, which underperformed, so it took until 2010 for Disney to make another reimagination, Alice in Wonderland (opened £10,555,220/£14,209,632 taking £42,169,542/£56,769,417
Cinderella and Maleficent followed, but then remade two of their most beloved animated films, The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast. They were huge successes, and they were followed in 2019 with two more remakes of their most popular animated films, The Lion King and Aladdin. Since then, had again predictable huge success with The Little Mermaid and Lilo & Stitch, but not with, Cruella spinoff of 101 Dalmatians and Snow White which was one of those animated films that other studios could remake like 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman and 2017’s Sydney White but was on the don’t remake list at Disney, Walt Disney and many other studio bosses saw it as untouchable and on the “do not remake” list.
Early tracking in the US is surprisingly low, $85m bur this could be the normal lowballing for Disney or that audiences just aren’t embracing another Moana film, only 10 years after the original film was released and two years after the animated sequel.
- Evil Dead Burn – Studiocanal
Supernatural horror and sequel to 2013’s Evil Dead and 2023’s Evil Dead Rise starring Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan and Maude Davey and directed by Sébastien Vaniček.
The fifth movie in the Evil Dead film series started in 1981 with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead starring Bruce Campbell; It’s the sixth film of the series, with the seventh film, Evil Dead Wrath, already dated for April 2028.
2023’s Evil Dead Rises opened £1,477,840; £504k Friday 34%; £574k Saturday 39%; £400k Sunday 27% taking £5,288,972
2013’s Evil Dead £1,375,842 #3 from 394 screens taking £3,355,676.
1993’s Army of Darkness opened £161,150 from 93 screens taking £430,146 and 1987’s Evil Dead II opened £142,757 taking £1,180,250 (£4,435,544 inflated).
It will be interesting to see how Evil Dead Burn performs, as it’s the first horror after Obsession and Backrooms, attracting a wider audience to horror.