| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up
- Despite stiff competition from Jordan Peele’s Us, Captain Marvel made it three weeks in the top spot. Marvel’s latest blockbuster behemoth fell 49% to £3.4m and is now up to £29.5m. It will sail past £30m in the next couple of days and then it will overtake Thor: Ragnarok’s final total of £31.1m.
- Jordan Peele created an Oscar-winning sensation with Get Out and it looks like he’s achieved something similar again as Us has opened to great reviews and a terrific £2.8m. The aforementioned Get Out opened with £2.1m in March 2017, and posted strong holds over subsequent weeks to reach £10.4m. While the element of surprise isn’t quite as high with Us, it looks like a total in the region of £10m is likely, making it one of the biggest horror films of the last few years.
- Fisherman’s Friends posted a terrific hold, falling just 16% to £973k and before the sunny weekend on Sunday it looked like that hold was going to be in single figures. After 10 days in cinemas it’s now up to £3.4m and last week it grossed more midweek (£1.23m) than it did over the weekend (£1.16m) demonstrating its appeal to an older audience.
- What Men Want also posted a solid hold, falling 37% to £515k in fourth. That takes its total after 10 days in cinemas to £1.9m and its performing very similarly to another big name comedy that returned over a decade later, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, which opened with £992k in March 2016 on its way to £4m.
- Fighting With My Family completed the top five, adding £389k, a drop of 39%. That takes its total to £5.3m.
- Outside of the top five, two new entries landed in the lower reaches of the top 10. Ralph Fiennes-directed The White Crow opened in seventh with £327k (which includes £105k from previews), and romantic drama Five Feet Apart opened in 10th with £253k.
Overall the box office is down 15% from last weekend and down 17% from the same weekend last year when the top films were Peter Rabbit, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Black Panther and Tomb Raider.
Next Weekend
- Dumbo is the latest live-action update from Disney, but interestingly this one is mostly a new story. A young elephant, whose oversized ears enable him to fly, helps save a struggling circus, but when the circus plans a new venture, Dumbo and his friends discover dark secrets beneath its shiny veneer.
- At Eternity’s Gate is a look at the life of painter Vincent van Gogh during the time he lived in Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise, France, featuring an Oscar-nominated performance from Willem Dafoe as Van Gogh.
The Buzz
A fifteen minute preview of Rocketman was screened to an audience in Los Angeles last week and more details about the film have now been revealed. Variety report that the film features ‘pieces of [Elton] John’s story, from his childhood as a musical prodigy to his rise to international fame as well as his battle with drug, sex and shopping addictions’ and it also includes ‘fantasy bits, including John (Taron Egerton) and the Troubadour crowd floating in the air as he sings Crocodile Rock’. While it’s being compared to Bohemian Rhapsody, Variety said Rocketman features ‘true musical theater numbers with elaborate dance sequences and characters singing John songs to each other rather than just showcasing his music by recreating concerts’. After Rami Malek’s Oscar win for Bohemian Rhapsody, people are already talking up Taron Egerton’s Oscar chances, particularly as he does all his own singing. Rocketman is out on 24 May and is set to be one of the biggest films of Q2.
Across The Pond
Us went crazy in the US opening with $70.3m, which is the third largest opening of all-time for an R-rated horror. Get Out opened with $33.3m in 2017, so Us has almost doubled that. Captain Marvel fell to second, falling 49% to $35m and its now up to $321.5m. Wonder Park added $9m in third, a drop of 43%, which takes its total to $29.5m. Five Feet Apart fell 34% in its second weekend, adding $8.8m for a new total of $26.5m. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World completed the top five, falling 30% to $6.5m and a new total of $145.8m.