| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up
Admissions in both January and February were up 7% and the great start to the year continues as Beauty and the Beast opened with an astonishing £19.7m. That’s the fifth highest Friday to Sunday opening of all time, behind only SPECTRE, Skyfall, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
For further context, of Disney’s recent live-action adaptations, it’s almost double the £9.9m The Jungle Book opened with last April and over five times the £3.8m that Cinderella opened with in 2015. The Jungle Book finished on £46.2m, so Beauty and the Beast will be looking to finish well north of that.
Last week’s number one, Kong: Skull Island, fell to second but added another £2.7m for a new cume of £11.1m. It’s tracking just behind 2014’s Godzilla, which finished on £17.2m.
It was another great story in third spot, as Get Out opened with an impressive £2.2m. After a couple of lacklustre years for the horror genre at the box office (The Conjuring 2 aside), it’s back in a big way with Split currently on £11.3m and now Get Out opening strongly. It was made for just $4.5m too.
Logan took fourth spot, adding another £1.8m, which brings its total to £20.3m. It’s the fifth film this year to cross the £20m mark and is now the third highest grossing X-Men film, behind X2 (£20.7m), which it should overtake imminently.
The LEGO Batman Movie completed the top five, adding £516k, which brings its total to £26.6m.
Outside of the top five, Gurinder Chadha’s Viceroy’s House crossed the £3m mark in sixth and now sits on £3.1m. See Gurinder Chadha in conversation at Advertising Week Europe, this Thursday at 3pm down at Picturhouse Central for an insight into her thoughts on cinematic storytelling.
Overall the box office was up 92% from last weekend and up an incredible 233% from the same weekend last year, when the top four films were Kung Fu Panda 3, 10 Cloverfield Lane, London Has Fallen, and The Divergent Series: Allegiant.
Next Weekend
Life is a sci-fi horror with a big name cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Ryan Reynolds. An international space crew discovers life on Mars, and as expected, it’s not entirely friendly.
Power Rangers is the new big screen version of the popular kids’ television show. A group of high-school kids, who are infused with unique superpowers, harness their abilities in order to save the world. The cast includes Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Banks.
CHiPs: Law and Disorder is the big screen update of the US TV drama series that ran from 1977 to 1983. It follows the adventures of two California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers as they make their rounds on the freeways of Los Angeles. Michael Pena plays one of the officers, so there should be a few laughs.
The Lost City of Z is a true-life drama, centring on British explorer Col. Percival Fawcett, who disappeared while searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s. Charlie Hunnam plays Fawcett and the film has received some glowing reviews, with The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin calling it ‘a film as transporting, profound and staggering in its emotional power as anything I’ve seen in the cinema in years’.
The Buzz
Atomic Blonde is a new action film from John Wick co-director, David Leitch. Charlize Theron stars as an undercover MI6 agent who is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents. It premiered at SXSW festival a couple of weeks ago and has received some solid reviews. ScreenCrush said ‘Charlize Theron is the hero we need right now: As devilishly self-serving and smooth as Bond, as physically dynamic and stoic as Wick, Lorraine (Theron) is confidently equipped to join the legacy of great movie action heroes and she doesn’t need your permission to do it.’ It’s out on 11 August.
Across The Pond
With $170m, Beauty and the Beast broke the record for the biggest ever March opening, eclipsing last year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($166m). It’s also the seventh biggest opening weekend ever. Last week’s number one, Kong: Skull Island, came in second, falling 53% to $28.9m and a new cume of $110.1m. In third, Logan clawed its way to another $17.5m, which brings its total to $184m. Get Out again had the best hold in the top 10, falling just 36% to $13.2m, and it has now grossed a sensational $133.1m. The Shack completed the top five, adding $6.1m for a new cume of $42.6m.