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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
Family friendly Jack Black scare-fest, Goosebumps, opened in the top spot with £2.7m. Its Friday to Sunday total of £1.7m would have been enough for second, behind Dad’s Army, but the £1m it banked from previews last weekend was enough to see it chart above the geriatric soldiers.
Dad’s Army kicked off its run with £2.1m, which was the highest Friday to Sunday total of the weekend, but Goosebumps sneaked ahead thanks to previews. It should perform strongly during the week, as the older audience head out to see it.
The Revenant fell to third, but another £1.2m sees it up to £18.4m, and with Leonardo DiCaprio likely to pick up the BAFTA next weekend, it should comfortably clear £20m. I’ve been using The Wolf Of Wall Street as a comparison over the last few weeks and at the same stage, it was on £17.8m.
One of the surprises this weekend is that Dirty Grandpa had one of the strongest holds in the chart, falling just 35% once previews are removed (which is light for this kind of film), to £944k and a new cume of £3.7m
The only film in the top ten to have a better hold than Dirty Grandpa was Spotlight, which saw its location count go up, resulting in a shallow drop of just 19% to £864k. It now sits on £2.6m, and like The Revenant, will be hoping for a boost from some awards recognition next weekend.
Outside of the top five, Star Wars: The Force Awakens in sixth, is up to £120.7m after adding £760k.
Two new entries landed in the lower end of the chart. Point Break could only manage £422k in ninth and Trumbo, despite Bryan Cranston’s Oscar-nomination in the lead role, could only manage £146k in fifteenth.
Overall, the box office was 14% from last weekend and down 15% from the same weekend last year, when the top four films were Big Hero 6, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Shaun The Sheep Movie and Jupiter Ascending.
Next Weekend
Deadpool opens on Wednesday and the advance word suggests it’s going to be a hit. Ryan Reynolds plays the ‘merc with a mouth’, a former Special Forces operative turned mercenary who is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopting the alter ego Deadpool. It’s very different to the usual superhero fare and has been given a 15-cert by the BBFC. It has also had surprisingly strong reviews, with four stars from The Guardian, and Variety calling it a ‘cheerfully demented origin story’.
Zoolander 2 stars Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell and opens nationwide on Friday after previewing on Saturday and Sunday. The previews will be added to next weekend's box office total.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is an adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s unique take on Jane Austen's classic tale, set in 19th century England, about the tangled relationship between lovers who must face an army of undead zombies. It’s in cinemas from Thursday.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip is the fourth film starring the squeaky voiced rodents and will be looking to capitalise on the half-term audience.
Concussion stars Will Smith as pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, who uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players who suffer repeated concussions in the course of normal play.
A Bigger Splash is the latest from Italian director, Luca Guadagnino and stars Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson and Matthias Schoenaerts. Swinton plays a famous rock star, whose vacation is disrupted by the unexpected visit of an old friend and his daughter.
Jem And The Holograms is loosely based on the 1980s animated series about a small-town girl singer who is catapulted from underground video sensation to global superstar.
The Buzz
Hail, Caesar! opened in the US this past weekend and has had some terrific reviews, with top marks from The New Yorker, The Chicago Sun-Times and Salon. The Guardian gave it four stars in their first look review too. It grossed a solid $11m, but it should play strongly with an upmarket, 25+ audience when it opens in the UK on 4 March.
Across The Pond
Kung Fu Panda 3 topped Super Bowl weekend, adding $21.2m for a new cume of $69.3m. Hail, Caesar! was the highest new entry in second, opening with $11.4m. After becoming the first film in history to gross more than $800m in the US, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has become the first film to cross the $900m mark, after adding $7m for a new cume of $906m. The Revenant fell to third but added $6.9m for a new cume of $149.5m. New entry, The Choice completed the top five with $6.1m.
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