| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up
- Disney continued their 2019 box office domination as Aladdin opened in the top spot with an impressive £7.1m, a figure that includes £1.3m from previews after opening on Thursday. The most encouraging thing is that it added another £2.5m on bank holiday Monday – its biggest day so far. This is the second of Disney’s big live-action adaptations so far this year and Dumbo kicked off its run with £6.1m, so Aladdin’s Friday to Sunday total of £5.7m isn’t too far behind that. Dumbo is currently on £24.9m, a total that may be within Aladdin’s reach.
- Rocketman opened in second with £5.4m, which includes £1.4m from previews after also opening on Wednesday. The Elton John musical added a further £1.4m on bank holiday Monday for a six-day total of £6.8m In October, Bohemian Rhapsody opened with £9.5m, which included £3.1m from previews after opening on a Wednesday too, so Rocketman’s total to Sunday was about 56% of Bohemian Rhapsody’s. It’s been well documented that Bohemian Rhapsody has been a huge hit and is on £55m in the UK, so if Rocketman finishes on 56% of that total, it will get to £31m.
- Making it three new entries in the top three spots, The Secret Life Of Pets 2 kicked off its run with £3.5m. The first Secret Life Of Pets opened with £9.6m in June 2016, which included £3.6m from previews, so the sequel’s Friday to Sunday total is quite a way short of the first film’s £5.9m.
- Last weekend’s top film John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum fell to fourth, adding £1.4m. It added £433k on Monday and is now the biggest film in the series, having overtaken John Wick: Chapter 2’s final total of £6m.
- Pokemon: Detective Pikachu completed the top five, adding £1m from Friday to Sunday, and a further £407k on Monday. It’s now crossed the £10m mark and sits on £11m. It should perform well in midweek half-term showings too.
- Outside of the top five, Avengers: Endgame has crossed the £85m mark in sixth and is now on £85.9m after Monday.
Overall the box office is up 81% from last weekend and up 48% from the same weekend last year when the top films were Solo: A Star Wars Story, Deadpool 2, Avengers: Infinity War and Sherlock Gnomes.
Next Weekend
- Booksmart is reportedly the best teen comedy in years. On the eve of their high school graduation, two academic superstars and best friends realize they should have worked less and played more. Determined not to fall short of their peers, the girls try to cram four years of fun into one night. Olivia Wilde makes her directorial debut and Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein play the two leads. It’s opened yesterday (Monday).
- Godzilla: King Of The Monsters is the sequel to 2014’s Godzilla and leads up to next year’s Godzilla Vs. Kong (apologies if that’s a spoiler). The crypto-zoological agency Monarch faces off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. The terrific cast includes Sally Hawkins, Vera Farmiga, O’Shea Jackson Jr and Kyle Chandler and it’s in cinemas from Wednesday.
- Ma is the latest Blumhouse horror and stars the brilliant Octavia Spencer as a lonely woman who befriends a group of teenagers and decides to let them party at her house. Just when the kids think their luck couldn't get any better, things start happening that make them question the intention of their host.
The Buzzgo
Brightburn is a sci-fi horror that puts a spin on the Superman story, asking what if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister? It opened in the US at the weekend and some reviewers were big fans. The Playlist said ‘the film is a gem, especially for anyone yearning for a superhero film that gleefully torches the familiar “good versus evil” formula and introduces far more sinister sensibilities.’ The Los Angeles Times also praised it and were shocked at the gore saying ‘There’s some truly nasty stuff here — both violence-wise and in its outlook on evil — but it still somehow manages to be fun amid all the carnage.’ It’s in UK cinemas on 19 June.
Across The Pond
On the Memorial Day holiday weekend Aladdin topped the box office with an impressive $86.1m. Including Monday, it is expected to exceed $105m. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum came in second, adding $24.4m for the three-day weekend, which takes its total to $101.2m and it’s now the biggest film in the series. Avengers: Endgame came in third, adding $16.8m from Friday to Sunday and on Monday it will become only the second film in history, after The Force Awakens, to cross the $800m mark. Detective Pikachu came in fourth, adding $13.3m from Friday to Sunday, which takes its total to $116.2m. New entry Brightburn completed the top five, opening with $7.5m from Friday to Sunday. Exit polling suggests the audience was 58% male, while 64% of the audience was aged 25 or older.