| Date | |
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| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up
American Sniper is clearly the film everyone is talking about at the moment and it achieved the rare feat of actually improving on its opening weekend, albeit by just £9k, delivering a further £2.5m. After ten days in cinemas it has now grossed £6.6m, with the promise of plenty more to come. After two weekends in the top spot, Taken 3 dropped to second, falling 45% to £1.8m. It’s the biggest film of 2015 to date and has grossed £15.2m.
The Theory Of Everything is not far behind Taken 3, after adding another £1.6m for a cume of £14.7m. With the major awards ceremonies still a few weeks away, I’d expect it to finish its run above Taken 3.
Into The Woods was in fourth, falling 33% to £1.3m and has now grossed £7.3m. It’s still proving the biggest family draw but it will be interesting to see how it holds up with some big family titles on the horizon (Big Hero 6, Shaun The Sheep Movie).
Ex Machina completed the top five and was the highest new entry, kicking off with £1.1m (including £190k from previews). That’s a quietly impressive performance for an intelligent sci-fi title.
Outside of the top five, the new entries didn’t fare so well. Johnny Depp’s latest Mortdecai, perhaps suffering from a terrible critical reception, stumbled to £485k in seventh and Mark Wahlberg’s The Gambler busted with £382k in eighth.
Overall the box office was down 23% from last weekend, and down 8% from the same weekend last year, when the top films were The Wolf Of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
Next Weekend
Big Hero 6 is out on Friday and all set to lay down a marker for other family films to beat in 2015. It has grossed $217.4m to date in the US, so it will be looking for a total north of £20m in the UK.
After several release date changes in the last year, Kingsman: The Secret Service is finally out on Thursday. DCM’s Sophi Hill went to the UK premiere and called it ‘exciting, surprising, thrilling, fun, hilarious. Bond but with a brilliant sense of humour!’ Steve Chambers said it ‘delivers excitement from the first minute, and despite the high levels of violence in the film, delivers it in a humorous, tongue-in-cheek fashion’. Expect it to be a similar hit with audiences.
Inherent Vice is the latest film from the great Paul Thomas Anderson. It’s reportedly equal parts intoxicating and baffling so expect it to divide audiences over the next few weeks.
Trash is a drama written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill) and directed by Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot, The Reader). Surprisingly, it has been nominated for Best Film not in the English language at the BAFTAs.
The Buzz
Shaun The Sheep Movie had its premiere in Leicester Square on Sunday and the first reviews are now in. Robbie Collin in The Telegraph said it was ‘perhaps [Aardman’s] purest, and most purely charming since The Wrong Trousers’ and Screen International called it a ‘stop motion animation delight’. It’s out on 6 February.
Across The Pond
American Sniper continued its remarkable performance adding a huge $64.6m, which is the eighth highest second weekend of all time. It has so far grossed $200.4m and is on course to finish well over $300m. Jennifer Lopez thriller The Boy Next Door opened with $14.9m and the audience was 71% female and 60% over the age of 25. Paddington was in third adding $12.3m, for a cume of $39.9m. The Wedding Ringer fell 45% to $11.3m and after ten days has grossed $39.4m. Taken 3 completed the top five with $7.3m, for a cume of $75.9m.
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