| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mia Blakeney |
Box Office Round-up
John Krasinski’s all-star IF opened in the top spot with £2.4m, which includes £643k from previews from the previous weekend. We don’t get that many wholly original live action all-ages films so there’s no obvious comparison, but a recent live-action film that came out prior to a half-term holiday was Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (although that’s based on a book). Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile opened with £2.7m, which included £1.1m in previews in October 2022, so while the previews are lower, IF’s Friday to Sunday total is slightly superior. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile finished its run with £13.1m, so that’s a good target for IF.
Last weekend’s top film, Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes fell to second thanks to IF’s previews. The post-apocalyptic blockbuster added £2.2m, a drop of 31% from last weekend. That takes its total to £7.7m.
The Fall Guy fell to third adding £874k, which is down just 7% from last weekend. After last weekend’s hefty drop (74%) that’s a decent recovery. After three weekends in cinemas it’s up to £8.2m and while it still has some way to go to reach the final totals of The Lost City (£10.7m) and Bullet Train (£11m) it’s now looking increasingly likely it will get there.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 is the latest horror film to hit cinemas and opened with £452k, a very similar total to other recent horror titles Tarot (£433k), Immaculate (£491k) and The First Omen (£522k). Immaculate is currently the highest grossing of those films with £1.7m, so that’s a good target for The Strangers: Chapter 1. Chapters 2 and 3 have reportedly already been filmed, and Chapter 2 is expected before the end of the year.
Challengers rounded out the top five adding £291k across the weekend, a drop of just 13% from last weekend (last weekend it fell 66% for comparison). That takes its total after four weekends in cinemas to £5.3m. The last tennis film in cinemas was Battle Of The Sexes, starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell in 2017, which finished its run with £1.5m so Challengers is beating that one in straight sets.
Outside of the top five, Guruvayoorambala Nadayil is the latest South Asian release to crack the top 10, opening in sixth with £218k, which includes £51k from previews. Event cinema is back in the top 10 too as 42nd Street – The Musical came in eighth with £120k and a total of £253k.
Next Weekend
Furiosa is a prequel to one of the best action films of all-time, Mad Max: Fury Road. Anya Taylor-Joy stars as the character made famous by Charlize Theron in Fury Road.
The Garfield Movie is a new animated film featuring the famously lazy cat. After Garfield's unexpected reunion with his long-lost father, ragged alley cat Vic, he and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered lives to join Vic on a risky heist.
The Buzz
Kinds Of Kindness is the second film of 2024 from Yorgos Lanthimos, after January’s Oscar-winning Poor Things, and like Poor Things, this also stars Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. It’s an anthology film featuring three loosely connected stories - a man seeks to break free from his predetermined path, a cop questions his wife's demeanour after her return from a supposed drowning, and a woman searches for an extraordinary individual prophesied to become a renowned spiritual guide. The cast also includes Jesse Plemons and Margaret Qualley and it’s set to be one of the best films for reaching a premium ABC1 audience this summer.
It received its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday and has been very well received. Both The Guardian and The Telegraph gave it four stars, while Screen International said Lanthimos ‘has produced a profoundly puzzling, dizzyingly disturbing and dark-hearted set of loosely-connected stories which manage to be discordantly amusing and strangely exhilarating’. It’s in cinemas from 28 June.
Across The Pond
IF opened in the top spot with $35m, which is a great start for a wholly original film. Last weekend’s top film Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes fell to second adding $26m for a new total of $101.2m. The Strangers: Chapter 1 opened in third with $12m, which is great for a film with a reported budget of $8.5m. The Fall Guy fell to fourth adding $8.5m for a 17 day total of $63m. Challengers rounded out the top five, adding $2.9m for a new total of $43.5m.