| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinema |
The Weekend Round-up
The closing night film of the 58th BFI London Film Festival proved a hit with the public as Fury opened with £2.7m (including £698k from previews) and knocked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the top of the box office. That’s a better start than the £1.6m The Monuments Men managed in February and that film topped out at £6.2m, so Fury will be looking at getting close to £8m at least.
Despite being knocked from the top spot, the heroes in a half shell experienced a very respectable hold, falling 40% to £1.9m and to date TMNT has earned £7.9m. With half term this week, it looks like the film that will be the biggest draw for bored students. Gone Girl had yet another strong hold, falling 32% to 1.6m and has now grossed £17.1m. That makes it the sixth highest grossing 18-cert film of all time, ahead of Bruno and behind The Silence Of The Lambs.
Another film looking to capitalise on the half term crowd, The Book Of Life, opened in fourth with £981k. Hotel Transylvania opened with £1.7m in October 2012 and finished its run with £8.3m, so that figure should be out of reach of the Guillermo Del Toro produced animation. The Maze Runner completed the top five, adding £907k for a cume of £5.9m.
On a weekend with a number of new entries, a few landed in the lower reaches of the top 10. Disney’s Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day went on nationwide release, after previewing in Scotland and landed in seventh with £572k. Romantic comedy, Love, Rosie opened on Wednesday and grossed ninth with £483k, which included £109k from previews. One of the best horror films of the year, The Babadook, could only open in tenth with £348k but with Halloween next Friday, it should hold up well.
The box office was down 15% from last weekend, which was boosted by TMNT’s preview figures and for the first time in four weekends the box office was down from the same weekend last year. The 12% drop is attributable to over £2m in previews last year for new entries, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 and Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.
Next Weekend
The calm before the Interstellar storm, next weekend features a couple of the best reviewed films of recent months. Mike Leigh’s Mr.Turner earned Timothy Spall the best actor prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and Jake Gyllenhaal’s terrific performance in Nightcrawler is being talked about as an outside contender for Oscar recognition. Also in cinemas are a couple of films looking to capitalise on the thirst for scary movies at Halloween, in Horns and Ouija.
The Buzz
Two smaller films are going up against the behemoth that is Interstellar on 7 November. The Skeleton Twins is a moving comedy drama, featuring stand-out performances from Saturday Night Live alumni, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. Say When is a sparky comedy from director Lynn Shelton (Your Sister’s Sister, Humpday). Speaking of Interstellar, the first reviews are in. Time Out and Little White Lies both award it five stars, while The Telegraph gave it four but still said it was ‘close to a masterpiece’. The Guardian and The Times weren’t quite as complimentary, both giving it three stars.
Across The Pond
Based on a popular board game, Ouija took first place this weekend with $20m. The audience was 75% under the age of 25 and 61% female. Keanu Reeves was back in action man mode as John Wick took second place with $14.2m. The audience was 60% male and 77% over 25. Fury dropped to third, falling 45% to $13m and after ten days has grossed $46.1m. Gone Girl added a further $11.1m and to date has earned $124.1m. In the next couple of days it will pass The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($127.5m) to become David Fincher's highest-grossing movie ever. The top five was completed by The Book of Life, which added $9.8m for a cume of $29.9m.