| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinema |
The Weekend Round-up
The popularity of live event cinema was once again confirmed as Billy Elliot The Musical Live became the first ever live event cinema title to top the UK box office, opening with a fantastic £1.9m, despite only being in cinemas on Sunday. Denzel Washington was the star who missed out on the top spot as his latest action-thriller, The Equalizer also opened with £1.9m but just £14k less than Billy Elliot. That total figure compares favourably with his recent star vehicles, 2 Guns, Flight (both £1.4m) and Unstoppable (£1.7m), and only two of his films this century have opened higher, Safe House (£2.1m) in 2012 and American Gangster (£2.6m) in 2007. Safe House finished on £7.2m, so that’s a decent target for The Equalizer to aim for.
The Boxtrolls may have fallen to third but its total of £1.1m was just 15% off from last weekend. ParaNorman also grossed £1.1m on its third weekend, so The Boxtrolls is still tracking ahead of that title and to date the Laika animation has grossed £4.9m. Another new entry in fourth with £811k (including £17k from previews) was What We Did On Our Holiday, the new big screen comedy from the makers of television show Outnumbered. That’s a solid start and above both other recent British comedies, Pride and The Riot Club. A Walk Among The Tombstones completed the top five after falling a chunky 54% to £603k and after ten days in cinemas has banked £2.7m.
One other new entry, Maps To The Stars, landed in fifteenth place with £131k. Despite a big name cast, including Julianne Moore, Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska, it continues director David Cronenberg’s (A History Of Violence, Eastern Promises) recent run of poor performers, with his last two films, Cosmopolis and A Dangerous Method both opening with less than £200k.
Overall the box office was up 22% from last weekend and up 17% from the same weekend last year when Prisoners and Blue Jasmine were the two highest new entries.
Next Weekend
One of the year’s most anticipated films hits cinemas on Thursday. Gone Girl has a terrific pedigree, directed by one of America’s greatest directors, David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, adapting her own novel. Having seen the film, I can confirm that it fully lives up to its promise and is a startling, twisting thriller that grips from the off. DCM’s Alex Grounds even proclaimed that ‘it’s better than the book’. Also in cinemas is horror-comedy, Life After Beth, gothic action-thriller, Dracula Untold and fish drama, Dolphin Tale 2.
The Buzz
Rising star Jack O’Connell plays the lead in upcoming thriller ’71. It’s playing in the first feature competition at the London Film Festival and is a diamond-hard thriller set in Northern Ireland during a particularly turbulent period in 1971 (hence the title). Later in the month Jake Gyllenhaal puts in a potentially awards bothering performance in stylish thriller, Nightcrawler (31 October). Having seen it, it’s sure to be compared to Nicolas Winding Refn’s, Drive.
Across The Pond
The Equalizer topped the box office, opening with $34.1m, the fourth highest September opening of all time. It’s also Denzel Washington’s third highest opening, after American Gangster and Safe House. The audience was 52% men 65% over the age of 30. The Maze Runner dropped one place to second, adding $17.4m and after 10 days has earned $58m. Third spot was taken by The Boxtrolls which opened with $17.3m. That's higher than both Coraline ($16.8m) and ParaNorman ($14.1m). This is Where I Leave You fell 40% to $6.9m in fourth and after 10 days has grossed $22.4m. Dolphin Tale 2 completed the top five, falling 46% to $4.8m for a cume of $33.6m. One other notable new entry, Pride opened to $82k from six locations. The wonderful comedy will expand to more cities on 10 October.
