| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinema |
The Weekend Round-up
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 came roaring out of the traps this weekend, delivering comfortably the biggest opening weekend of the year. A Friday to Sunday gross of £10.3m easily knocks the year’s previous best, The Inbetweeners 2’s £8m debut, into second place. It’s also a series best for The Hunger Games, eclipsing Catching Fire’s £10.1m opening weekend exactly a year ago. Including Thursday, it has now earned £12.7m and is well on the way to matching Catching Fire’s final total of £34.2m.
The Imitation Game had a strong hold in second, falling just 21% once previews are removed to £2.1m and now has a very healthy cume of £6.8m. In the battle of the WWII London Film Festival galas, it’s sure to overtake Fury’s current total of £8.1m and will be looking for a final total comfortably north of £10m. Interstellar fell a chunky 50% to £1.9m and now has a cume of £15.9m. 18.7% (£3m) of that total is from IMAX screenings.
Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey also had a strong hold, falling just 14% to £1.5m, and now has a decent cume of £3.6m. After two weekends on release, Nativity 2, Danger In The Manger had grossed £3.2m. Mr Turner completed the top five, experiencing its first big drop, falling 52% to £357k and to date has earned a very impressive £5.4m.
Lower down the top 15, Gone Girl also had its first serious drop in tenth place, falling 62% to £174k and a cume of £21.9m. It’s now the second highest grossing 18-cert film of all time but still over £750k behind The Wolf Of Wall Street. At its current rate of decline it would fall just short of TWOWS’ final total of £22.7m but you’d think distributor 20th Century Fox will give try and give Gone Girl a shove over the line.
On a strong weekend, the third best in the last 52, the box office was up 60% from last weekend and down 2% from the same weekend last year, which saw the debut of Catching Fire and a strong showing from the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who with Day Of The Doctor.
Next Weekend
Paddington is the big new release next weekend and it has been warmly received almost everywhere. DCM’s Jack Jones is a big fan and it also received five stars in Empire magazine. Comedy sequel, Horrible Bosses 2 is also in cinemas and will be hoping to repeat the first film’s £10.5m final total.
The Buzz
The Theory Of Everything has been performing strongly on limited release in the US and it’s all set to be a strong performer in the UK when it goes on general release on New Year’s Day. It’s a beautifully acted, moving depiction of Stephen Hawking’s relationship with his wife, Jane. Eddie Redmayne puts in a sensational performance as Hawking but he’s matched all the way by Felicity Jones. Expect awards nominations to follow.
Across The Pond
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 topped the box office in the US too, opening with $121.9m, which is the highest opening weekend of the year so far, above Transformers: Age of Extinction ($100m). Despite that, it was down on both the first Hunger Games ($152m) and Catching Fire’s ($158m) debuts. One of the reasons for a lower than expected gross is the fact that the film wasn’t on IMAX screens but it’s still a decent start. Big Hero 6 was well back in second, falling 42% to $20.1m and after three weekends in play has grossed $135.7m. Interstellar was in third, falling 46% to $15.3m and has now grossed $120.9m. Last week’s number one Dumb and Dumber To fell a chunky 61% to $14.1m and after 10 days has grossed $57.7m. Gone Girl completed the top five, adding $2.8m for a terrific cume of $156.8m.