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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
Kingsman: The Golden Circle opened in the top spot with £8.5m, which includes £2.3m from previews, after opening on Wednesday. The first film, Kingsman: The Secret Service, opened with £4.2m (including £679k from previews) in 2015, so this sequel has more than doubled the first film’s opening weekend. Although The Secret Service held up strongly, The Golden Circle will comfortably beat the first film’s final total of £16.6m.
After taking the top spot for the last two weekends, blockbuster horror It fell to second but added another £2.9m to its already huge total, taking it to £26.5m. It’s now the highest grossing horror film of all time in the UK, overtaking The Woman In Black (£21.3m) and I Am Legend (£25.9m). It will soon become the sixth 2017 release to cross the £30m mark.
Victoria and Abdul had a solid hold in third, falling 33% to £1.2m. That takes its total to £4.8m and it will need to hold up strongly over the coming weeks to reach the final total of Judi Dench and Stephen Frears’ last collaboration, Philomena which finished on £11.4m.
mother! took a bit of a tumble in fourth, falling 56% to £364k, which takes its total to £1.7m. Director, Darren Aronofsky’s last two films, Black Swan and Noah, both grossed over £10m and mother! will sadly fall well short of that benchmark.
Completing the top five is The Emoji Movie, which had yet another strong hold, falling just 8% to £360k. That was enough to take it past the £14m mark and it now has a good chance of reaching £15m, which seemed a long way off when it opened with £2.7m (including previews) in early-August.
Outside of the top five, Irish drama, Maze opened in 11th with £124k, thanks solely to screenings in Ireland, while Borg Vs. McEnroe opened in 13th with £102k (including £2k from previews).
Overall the box office was up 23% from last weekend and up 20% from the same weekend last year, when the top films were Bridget Jones’s Baby, The Magnificent Seven, Kubo and the Two Strings and Finding Dory.
Next Weekend
Goodbye Christopher Robin is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of author A.A. Milne and the creation of the Winnie the Pooh stories inspired by his son C.R. Milne. DCM’s Amy Davies, Summer Baxter and Korinne Eshun all saw the film at the premiere last week and loved it.
Home Again is a romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon as a single mom in Los Angeles whose life takes an unexpected turn when she allows three young guys to move in with her.
Flatliners is a sequel to the 1990 film of the same name. Five medical students, obsessed by what lies beyond the confines of life, embark on a daring experiment: by stopping their hearts for short periods, each triggers a near-death experience - giving them a first-hand account of the afterlife. It stars Ellen Page, Diego Luna and Nina Dobrev.
The Buzz
The Shape Of Water is the latest other-worldly fairy tale from Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak). Set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation at the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works but her life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. One of the big awards contenders to emerge from the festival season so far, this has received rave reviews and picked up the coveted Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. It plays at the London Film Festival as the American Airlines gala and is released in the UK on Valentine’s day 2018.
Across The Pond
Kingsman: The Golden Circle did the double and topped the box office in the US too, opening with $39m That’s an increase on the first film’s $36m debut. It fell to second but added another $30m, which takes its total to $266.3m, making it the highest grossing R-rated horror of all-time. The LEGO Ninjago Movie opened in third with a slightly disappointing $21.2m, which is way down on the openings for The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Movie. American Assassin added $6.3m in fourth, which takes its total to $26.2m. Reese Witherspoon rom-com Home Again added $3.3m in fifth, for a new cume of $22.3m.