| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up
- As the box office slowed down before it goes berserk for the launch of Avengers: Endgame, Dumbo returned to the top spot. On its third weekend, Disney’s lavish fantasy opened with £2.3m, a healthy drop of 33% from last weekend. That takes its total to £17.7m and it should still have no trouble getting past Cinderella’s final total of £21.3m.
- Last week’s top film, Shazam!, fell one place to second, dropping 45% to £2.2m. That takes its total after 10 days in cinemas to £8.9m and with the schools still off for the next week and the long Easter weekend still to come (sunny weather permitting), it should add a fair bit more and get close to £15m. Justice League’s final total of £17.4m looks out of reach.
- Wonder Park was this week’s highest new entry thanks to four days of previews after opening on Monday. After seven days in cinemas the Paramount Pictures animation is up to £1.6m (including £761k from previews), which for a big studio animation in the Easter holidays is a bit disappointing. All animated films in cinemas at the moment are struggling (see Missing Link and Peppa Pig: Festival Of Fun), which is partly down to Dumbo and Shazam!’s appeal to the family audience.
- Hellboy was this weekend’s second new entry, landing in fourth with £990k, including £172k from previews. This is the third film featuring Mike Mignola’s character and despite coming out 11 years after the last Hellboy film, is the lowest opening for a film featuring the character. 2004’s Hellboy opened with £1.1m and 2008’s Hellboy: The Golden Army opened with £3m.
- Captain Marvel posted a terrific hold to complete the top five, falling 23% to £897k. Now on its sixth weekend the Marvel blockbuster is up to £36.4m and comfortably the biggest film of 2019 to date, a title it will hold for approximately another two weeks when Avengers: Endgame will overtake it on its fifth or sixth day..
- Outside of the top five, two new entries landed in sixth and eighth spot. Wild Rose opened with £772k (including £123k from previews), and this film’s appeal to an older audience should see it play strongly in midweek showings. Body-swap comedy Little opened with £541k.
Overall the box office is down 16% from last weekend and down 16% from the same weekend last year when the top films were Rampage, Peter Rabbit, A Quiet Place and Ready Player One.
Next Weekend
- Greta is a thriller starring cinema legend Isabelle Huppert alongside Chloe Grace Moretz, who plays a young woman who befriends a lonely widow who's harbouring a dark and deadly agenda toward her. It’s in cinemas on Thursday.
- Dench is back! Red Joan stars Dame Judi as Joan Stanley, who was exposed as the KGB's longest-serving British spy. Sophie Cookson plays Stanley as a younger woman.
- Dragged Across Concrete is the latest film from S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk, Brawl In Cell Block 99). Once two overzealous cops get suspended from the force, they must delve into the criminal underworld to get their proper compensation. This ultra-violent button pusher stars Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn.
The Buzz
Star Wars Celebration has been taking place in Chicago this past few days and the highlight of the show so far is the announcement of the title for the upcoming ninth Star Wars film and the launch of the teaser trailer. Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker will see the climax to the Skywalker story and the trailer also teased the surprising return of an old foe. It will no doubt be one of the biggest films of all time and Disney have announced that they are pausing on Star Wars films for the time being, so it will be the last Star Wars film we’ll get to see in cinemas for the foreseeable future. Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker is out on 19 December and the new trailer is here: https://youtu.be/adzYW5DZoWs.
Across The Pond
Unlike in the UK, Shazam! held on to the top spot in the US, adding $25.1m, a drop of 53%, which takes its total to $94.9m. Body-swap comedy Little opened in second with $15.5m, just ahead of Hellboy in third, which kicked off its run with $12m. Pet Sematary fell to fourth, adding $10m for a new cume of $41.1m, and Dumbo completed the top five, adding $9.2m, which takes its total to $89.9m.