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| Author | Tom Linay |
It’s summer blockbuster season and Fast & Furious 9 opened like a true summer blockbuster, kicking off its run with £6m. That figure includes £1.2m from previews after opening on Thursday, but the Friday to Sunday total of £4.8m is comfortably the biggest in the pandemic era, surpassing Peter Rabbit 2’s £3.8m opening, and it’s the biggest since 1917 in January 2020. It’s also very nearly on a par with the last Fast & Furious film, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, which opened with a Friday to Sunday total of £4.9m in August 2019.
Second place this week was taken by Peter Rabbit 2, which posted another strong hold, falling just 26% to £828k and a new total of £16.3m. It needs another £1.2m to overtake Tenet to become the biggest film of the last 12 months. In The Heights came in third, falling 34% to £689k. It’s now up to £2.4m after two weekends in cinemas.
A Quiet Place Part II fell to fourth but added another £596k, a drop of 42% from last weekend. That’s a healthy hold, considering the competition from Fast & Furious 9 and two games of football on both Saturday and Sunday. It’s now up to £9.6m and by this time next week it will have crossed the £10m mark, which would be a terrific performance. Cruella completed the top five, adding £463k for a new total of £7.8m.
Outside of the top five, last weekend’s top film The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard fell to sixth, adding £447k for a new total of £2.6m, while The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It added £298k and has crossed the £8m mark and sits on £8.4m. Horror films have been killing it since cinemas re-opened. There was a new entry in eighth as Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci drama, Supernova, opened with £246k, which includes £51k from previews. Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds opened in ninth with £212k, which includes £98k from previews.
Overall the box office was up 42% from last weekend.
Next Weekend
Another Round is the winner of this year’s Oscar and BAFTA for best international film. Four high school teachers consume alcohol on a daily basis to see how it affects their social and professional lives. It stars Mads Mikkelsen and Thomas Bo Larsen.
Freaky is body swap comedy horror. After swapping bodies with a deranged serial killer, a young girl in high school discovers she has less than 24 hours before the change becomes permanent. Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn star.
French Exit is a comedy drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer as an aging Manhattan socialite living on what's barely left of her inheritance who moves to a small apartment in Paris with her son and cat. Lucas Hedges also stars.
Across The Pond
Fast & Furious 9 topped the box office in the US too with a sensational $70m opening weekend. That’s by far the biggest opening weekend of the pandemic-era and the biggest debut since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. It even exceeded the opening weekend of the last Fast & Furious film, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, which opened with $60m in August 2019. A Quiet Place Part II came in second, adding $6.2m, which takes its total to $136.4m. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard came in third, adding $4.9m and after two weekends has now grossed $25.9m. Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway is in fourth, adding $4.9m for a new total of $28.9m. Cruella completed the top five, adding $3.7m for a new total of $71.3m.