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The Weekend Round-up
Once again Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey have come first, Fifty Shades Freed opened on top with £6.1m. While that’s a strong start, it’s a bit of a way short of the £7.6m that Fifty Shades Darker opened with almost exactly a year ago. That figure wasn’t enough to top the box office though, with The LEGO Batman Movie coming out on top. Fifty Shades Darker finished its run with £23.2m, so Freed will be looking at a total close to £20m.
After finally taking the top spot last weekend, The Greatest Showman dropped to second, falling 13% to £1.9m. Although that’s the biggest drop the blockbuster musical has experienced in any of its seven weeks on release, it’s still an extremely strong hold and takes its total to £26.1m. It has now overtaken Darkest Hour to be the biggest film of 2018 to date, having grossed £21.3m since 1 January.
Coco came in third, falling 27% to £1.2m. That takes its total to £11.7m and with the schools out for the next five days, it should be looking to have added to that total substantially by this time next week.
Early Man will also be looking for a decent half term week, after posting a stronger hold than Coco across the weekend. The Aardman charmer fell 25% to £1.1m, which takes its total to £5.3m.
Darkest Hour completed the top five, falling 41% to £980k. That takes its total across the £20m mark and it now sits on £20.6m. This time next week Gary Oldman may well be celebrating a Best Actor BAFTA win, so the film will be hoping for another boost over the coming couple of weeks.
Outside of the top five, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri came in eighth with £592k and it has now crossed the £10m mark, sitting on £10.6m. It too will be hoping for a boost from next weekend’s BAFTAs.
Two films opened in the lower reaches of the top 15, Colin Firth drama, The Mercy opened in 13th with £301k and Clint Eastwood’s The 15:17 To Paris could only open in 14th with £291k.
Next Weekend
Black Panther is the first of Marvel’s three films this year and if advance word is anything to go by it will be huge. Chadwick Boseman plays T'Challa, who after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king. It’s in cinemas on Tuesday.
The Shape Of Water is the multi Oscar and BAFTA-nominated fantasy-drama from Guillermo Del Toro. At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor (Sally Hawkins) forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity. It leads the way at the Oscars with 13 nominations.
Lady Bird is another multi-Oscar nominee, starring Saoirse Ronan as an artistically inclined seventeen-year-old girl who comes of age in Sacramento, California. It opens in limited screens this Friday before going nationwide the following weekend (23 Feb).
I, Tonya is the remarkable true-story of ice skater Tonya Harding, who rises amongst the ranks at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, but her future in the activity is thrown into doubt when her ex-husband intervenes. It also opens on limited screens this Friday before going nationwide the following weekend (23 Feb).
Father Figures is a comedy starring Owen Wilson and Ed Helms as brothers who, upon learning that their mother has been lying to them for years about their allegedly deceased father, hit the road in order to find him..
The Buzz
Ghost Stories started life as a terrifying stage show created by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, and now the pair are bringing it to the big screen. Arch skeptic Professor Phillip Goodman (Nyman) embarks upon a terror-filled quest when he stumbles across a long-lost file containing details of three cases of inexplicable 'hauntings'. It premiered at the London Film Festival to strong reviews. The Guardian gave it four stars calling it ‘a barnstormer of an entertainment, a fairground ride with dodgy brakes.’ Screen International said it is ‘an exhilarating and entertaining experience’ and The Hollywood Reporter called it ‘a witty and well-crafted love letter to old-school horror tropes’. It’s in cinemas on 13 April.
Across The Pond
Fifty Shades Freed topped the box office in the US with $38.6m That’s a bit short of the $46.6m Fifty Shades Darker debuted with a year ago and by the end of its run, had grossed $114.5m. Peter Rabbit opened in second with a solid $25m and the audience was 58% female and 63% over the age of 25. The 15:17 to Paris arrived in third place with $12.6 and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle fell just 8% in fourth, to $10m and a new cume of $366m. The Greatest Showman completed the top five, adding $6.4m which takes its total to $146.6m.