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Pixar have two films out this year and the first of those, Coco opened in the top spot this weekend with £5.2m, which includes £1.9m from previews. In terms of recent original Pixar titles that’s an improvement over The Good Dinosaur’s £2.9m debut and some way behind Inside Out’s £7.4m, both in 2015. The Good Dinosaur finished on £15.2m and with February half term to come, Coco should be looking at topping that.
Last week’s top film, Darkest Hour, fell to second but delivered a strong hold, falling just 18% to £3.3m. That takes its total to £10.2m and with the Oscar nominations announced tomorrow and with Gary Oldman expected to feature, it should get another boost. £20m is looking likely.
Another big awards contender opened in third. The Post is from Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg and kicked off its run with £2.2m. Compared to Spielberg’s other recent awards contenders, that’s better than Bridge of Spies and Lincoln, which both opened with £1.7m. They both finished on over £8m, so The Post will be aiming to get north of there.
Continuing its remarkable run, The Greatest Showman had another sensational hold in fourth, falling just 2% to £2.1m. That takes its total to £16.9m and it now looks nailed on to finish on over £20m, a total that looked a long way away when it grossed £653k on its opening day (Boxing Day).
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle completed the top five and delivered another decent hold, falling 25% to £1.8m. That takes its total to £32.5m and it is now the seventh biggest film released in 2017.
Outside of the top five, Liam Neeson thriller The Commuter opened in sixth with £1.6m, which is an unusually large total for a film coming in sixth. The last time Neeson and director, Jaume Collet-Serra collaborated was on the 2015 thriller Run All Night and that film could only open with £827k.
Overall, the box office was up 20% from last weekend and up 49% from the same weekend last year, when the top films were La La Land, Split, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage and Lion.
Next Weekend
Downsizing is a social satire in which a man realizes he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself to five inches tall, allowing him to live in wealth and splendour. Matt Damon stars alongside Kristen Wiig and Christoph Waltz and it’s directed by Alexander Payne (Nebraska, The Descendents, Sideways). It’s in cinemas on Wednesday.
Early Man is the latest film from four-time Oscar winner Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit) and legendary animation studio Aardman. Set at the dawn of time, when prehistoric creatures and woolly mammoths roamed the earth, it tells the story of Dug, along with sidekick Hognob as they unite his tribe against a mighty enemy Lord Nooth and his Bronze Age City to save their home.
12 Strong is the true story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11 who, under the leadership of a new captain, must work with an Afghan warlord to take down the Taliban. It stars Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon and Michael Peña.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure is the final part of the trilogy of young adult action films. Hero Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) embarks on a mission to find a cure for a deadly disease known as the "Flare". The first two films in the series grossed almost £9m each.
Last Flag Flying is the latest film from Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Before Sunrise). Thirty years after they served together in Vietnam, a former Navy Corpsman Larry "Doc" Shepherd re-unites with his old buddies, former Marines Sal Nealon and Reverend Richard Mueller, to bury his son, a young Marine killed in the Iraq War. The cast includes Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell and Laurence Fishburne.
The Buzz
Den Of Thieves is a gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank. It stars Gerard Butler, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Pablo Schreiber and Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson. It opened in the US this past weekend with a solid performance, delivering over $15m. It opens in the UK on 2 February.
Across The Pond
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle topped the box office for a third straight weekend, adding $20m which takes the film’s total to $316m. 12 Strong opened in second with a decent $15.8m, which was just ahead of Den Of Thieves, which kicked off its run with $15.2m in third. The Post fell to fourth, adding $11.7m for a new total of $44.8m. The Greatest Showman completed the top five, falling just 15% to $11m and a new total of $113.1m.