| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mia Blakeney |
Box Office Round-up
Despicable Me 4 ended Inside Out 2’s four week stay at the top of the box office, but the top two are all blockbuster animation. Despicable Me 4 opened with £8.9m, the third highest opening weekend of the year, behind Inside Out 2 and Dune: Part II. The last release in this series, Minions: The Rise Of Gru, opened with £10.4m in July 2022, but that film did not have to compete with England in the final of a major football tournament on the Sunday. For comparison, Despicable Me 4 grossed £4m on Saturday, while Minions: The Rise Of Gru grossed £4.2m on its first Saturday. On Sunday Despicable Me 4 grossed £2.4m compared to Minions’ £3.4m, showing the impact of the football. Every single Despicable Me sequel and Minions spin-off has grossed between £47m and £48m at the UK & Ireland box office, so that has to be the target for Despicable Me 4.
Inside Out 2 had its first tough weekend, in the face of Despicable Me 4. The Pixar blockbuster added £2.2m this weekend, down a chunky 57% from last weekend, with Sunday down a hefty 71% week-on-week. That takes its total after five weekends in cinemas to £44.5m and it has further cemented its position as the biggest film of 2024. With the school summer holidays still a week away, there’s still plenty more to come.
We have a horror breakout! Longlegs came on to the schedule less than four weeks ago and has opened with the second biggest opening for a horror title of the year, second only to A Quiet Place: Day One. Black Bear have been releasing films for just over a year and this has become their biggest opening to date, kicking off with £1.4m. They released Immaculate back in March and that could only manage £491k in its opening weekend. Black Bear’s biggest film to date is Ferrari, which finished with £4.2m, so that’s the target for Longlegs.
Fly Me To The Moon opened in fourth with £862k, which includes £404k from previews. This is the second Apple title in cinemas this year after Argylle, and that film opened with a Friday to Sunday total of £1.8m. In terms of recent starry romantic comedies, Fly Me To The Moon is not going to repeat the success of Anyone But You (also released by Sony), which finished with £11.7m.
A Quiet Place: Day One rounded out the top five, adding £825k, a drop of 49% from last weekend. That’s the best hold in the top 15, which bodes well for the rest of the week. After three weekends in cinemas the sci-fi prequel is up to £8m, and it still has a shot of joining the previous two A Quiet Place films at over £10m.
Outside of the top five, South Asian release Indian 2 opened in sixth with £213k. This is also in the chart at 12th, entitled Bharateeyudu 2, which is the Telugu language title and grossed £39k.
Next Weekend
Twisters is a follow-up to the 1996 blockbuster. A retired tornado-chaser and meteorologist is persuaded to return to Oklahoma to work with a new team and new technologies. It’s in cinemas from Wednesday.
Thelma is an action comedy starring June Squibb. When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her.
Forrest Gump (30th Anniversary) is a re-release of Robert Zemeckis’ Oscar Best Picture winning drama.
The Buzz
Gladiator II is the feverishly anticipated sequel to the 2000 Oscar Best Picture winner and one of the most beloved films of the 21st century. Ridley Scott returns in the director’s chair and Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington lead the heavyweight cast. Over two decades after the original events of Gladiator, Lucius (Mescal), the grandson of Rome's former emperor Marcus Aurelius and son of Lucilla, lives with his wife and child in Numidia. Roman soldiers led by general Marcus Acacius (Pascal) invade, forcing Lucius into slavery. Inspired by the story of Maximus, Lucius resolves to fight as a gladiator while opposing the rule of the young emperors Caracalla and Geta. Gladiator is number 36 in the IMDB Top 250, and the latest trailer has become Paramount’s biggest trailer launch ever, being viewed over 180 million times in its first 24 hours online. Gladiator II is forecast to deliver over 9 16-34 men TVRs, making it one of the best films for this audience in Q4, and is in cinemas from 15 November.
Across The Pond
Despicable Me 4 held on to the top spot with $44.7m, which is down a healthy 41% from last weekend. That takes its total to $211.1m. Longlegs made a great debut in the US too, opening with $22.6m, the biggest opening for distributor Neon. Inside Out 2 fell to third, adding $20.7m for a huge new total of $572.6m. A Quiet Place: Day One fell to fourth, adding $11.8m for a new total of $116.2m. Finally, Fly Me To The Moon rounded out the top five opening with $10m.