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| Author | DCM |
The Weekend Round-up
- Never underestimate the power of Pikachu – Pokémon: Detective Pikachu delivered a super effective thunderbolt strike to the UK box office on its first weekend, opening at the top of the pile with an impressive total of £4.9m. This is higher than all of the previous Pokémon feature-length animations, and more significantly the highest three day opening for a video game adaptation, 56% ahead of last year’s Rampage (£3.1) and 93% ahead of Tomb Raider (£2.5m). Detective Pikachu truly wants to be the very best.
- MAJOR ENDGAME SPOILERS – in the biggest thematic twist in recent cinematic history, the one person powerful enough to defeat Thanos was in fact the humble Pikachu. Avengers: Endgame cowered in Detective Pikachu’s wake, dropping down to second place in its third week with a drop of 69% . However, the film is now the sixth highest-grossing film of all time in the UK, and on course to take the fifth spot from Star Wars: The Last Jedi this week. Endgame has laid down the gauntlet to the 2019 film slate, and it remains to be seen if any of the huge blockbusters will be able to match up to the bar that Avengers has set.
- The Hustle starring Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway opened in third place with £1m. The Steve Martin/Michael Caine original Dirty Rotten Scoundrels finished its run on £4.4m, so The Hustle is unlikely to match up to that. However, Comscore’s PostTrak exit poll title scored a Total Positive rating of 83%; this is five points higher than the average rating (78%) across 24 comedy titles they have tracked so far.
- Long Shot fell to fourth place in its second week, with a new total of £1.8m. This is tracking 15% ahead of comparative 2018 comedy Snatched at the same point of release. Will it beat Endgame’s current total of £80m? It’s definitely a long shot…
- The top five was completed by The Curse of La Llorona, which is now on £1.2m in its second weekend. The last entry in The Conjuring universe, The Nun, finished on £11m, so La Llorona is unlikely to best this.
- Outside of the top five, Amazing Grace opened with a r-e-s-p-e-c-tful £166k in 8th place.
The overall box office is down 31% from last weekend and ranks 31st out of the latest 52 weekends. It is up 14% versus the same weekend last year, when Avengers: Infinity War remained at No.1 in its third weekend with £5.7m dropping 44% from its previous weekend.
Next Weekend
- John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum completes the John Wick trilogy. In this third instalment of the adrenaline-fueled action franchise, super-assassin John Wick returns with a 14 million price tag on his head and an army of bounty-hunting killers on his trail.
- Beats centres around best mates Johnno and Spanner who share a deep bond. Now on the cusp of adulthood, life is destined to take them in different directions - Johnno's family are moving him to a new town and a better life, leaving Spanner behind to face a precarious future. But this summer is going to be different for them, and for the country. The explosion of the free party scene and the largest counter-cultural youth movement in recent history is happening across the UK.
The Buzz
The first reactions to Godzilla: King of the Monsters have landed online, and it sounds like a real treat for kaiju fans. David Crow of Den of Geek commented “Am now free to say #GodzillaMovie King of the Monsters is handily the craziest, most entertaining American kaiju movie in existence. But that doesn’t do justice to just how wild a ride this is, jumping from the majesty of the monsters to the wackiness of the humans.” Erik Davis of CinemaBlend adds “#GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters ups the monster action considerably. The battle scenes are gorgeous & fierce & feel ripped from the pages of a gnarly graphic novel. You want a giant-monster movie throwdown, this is it and then some. Can’t wait for that Godzilla vs Kong movie now.” Godzilla: King of the Monsters is released in UK cinemas on 29 May.
Across The Pond
Avengers: Endgame kept a firm grip atop the US box office despite tough competition, adding $63m to take its total to $723.5. Pokemon: Detective Pikachu debuted in second place with a solid $58m. There was a huge gap between second and third place over the weekend, with The Hustle debuting with a comparatively meagre $13.5m. The Intruder fell down to fourth place in its second week, and now has a running total of $21m. The top five was completed by Long Shot, which added $6m in its third week to take its total to $19.7m.