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| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up
Beauty and the Beast made it three weeks in a row at the top of the box office, adding another £6.8m. That was enough for Disney’s live-action romantic extravaganza to cross the £50m mark and it now sits on a huge £51.4m.
It wasn’t until the couple of days of 2016 that any film from last year managed to cross the £50m mark, when both Fantastic Beasts and Rogue One managed it. Beauty and the Beast has also now surpassed The Jungle Book’s final total of £46.2m to become the biggest of Disney’s live-action remakes.
Ghost In The Shell opened in second with £2.3m, which included £354k from Thursday previews. That’s a solid start but Scarlett Johansson has been no stranger to big budget sci-fi in recent years, and Lucy opened to a more impressive £3.1m in August 2014.
Smurfs: The Lost Village made an inauspicious start in third, opening with £1.4m, which included £450k from previews. The last film featuring the squeaky voiced, blue characters, The Smurfs 2, opened with £3.2m (including £1.5m from previews) in August 2013. With the Easter school holidays kicking off, it will be hoping for a strong couple of weeks.
Word is definitely spreading about how terrific Get Out is, because it dropped a puny 20% to £1.1m. That brings its total to £6.8m and it looks likely that it will become the second horror film this year, after Split, to cross the £10m mark.
Power Rangers completed the top five, adding £865k, which brings its total to £3.1m. Pixels is a good comparative for this title, and it was on £4.7m after two weekends, although it was boosted by strong preview figures. Power Rangers is another title that will be hoping for a school holiday boost.
Outside of the top five, Ben Wheatley’s London Film Festival closer, Free Fire, opened in eighth with £481k, which included £162k from previews. Wheatley remains a hit with critics, but he’s not there with audiences yet, as none of his films have grossed over £2m in the UK and it looks like Free Fire won’t get there either.
Overall the box office was down 22% from last weekend and up 8% from the same weekend last year, when the top four films were Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Eddie The Eagle, Zootropolis and Kung Fu Panda 3.
Next Weekend
The Boss Baby opened in the UK on Saturday, but won’t feature in the top 15 until after next weekend. Alec Baldwin stars as a suit-wearing briefcase-carrying baby who pairs up with his seven-year-old brother to stop the dastardly plot of the CEO of Puppy Co. It grossed £2.5m from just Saturday and Sunday this past weekend, so is certain to top the box office next weekend.
Going In Style is a crime comedy from Scrubs’ Zach Braff. Desperate to pay the bills and come through for their loved ones, three lifelong pals risk it all by embarking on a daring bid to knock off the very bank that absconded with their money.
Table 19 is a comedy starring Anna Kendrick as Eloise, who having been relieved of maid of honour duties after being unceremoniously dumped by the best man via text, decides to attend the wedding anyway, only to find herself seated with five fellow unwanted guests at the dreaded Table 19.
Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience is the latest big screen adventure for one of the UK’s most loved children’s television characters. Peppa’s last time on the big screen, Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots grossed over £2.3m in 2015.
The Buzz
Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge is the fifth film in a series where two of the entries have grossed over £40m at the UK box office. This instalment sees Jack Sparrow return and this time he’s searching for the trident of Poseidon. The film had its premiere at CinemaCon in Las Vegas last week and the tweets from critics in attendance were positive. Erik Davis from Fandango said ‘you don't think you need more Jack Sparrow and then you realize you needed more Jack Sparrow’. Steven Weintraub from Collider tweeted ‘I really dug the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Action set pieces are a lot of fun.’ It’s in cinemas on 25 May.
Across The Pond
The Boss Baby dethroned Beauty and the Beast, taking the top spot with $49m. Beauty and the Beast still had a good weekend in second, adding $47.5m, which brings its total to a huge $395.5m. Ghost in the Shell opened in third with a slightly disappointing $19m, which is well below the $43.5m Lucy opened with a couple of years ago. Power Rangers took a tumble, falling 64% to $14.5m. It has now banked $65.1m. Kong: Skull Island completed the top five, falling 40% to $8.8m, for a new total of $147.8m.