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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
On a quiet weekend before The Force Awakens, the top four remained the same as last week. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 held on to the top spot for a third straight weekend, falling 51% to £2.2m, for a new cume of £22.3m. Last year, Mockingjay Part 1 fell 54% on its third weekend, so this second instalment is continuing to hold up better, but it’s still slightly behind the first instalment’s total of £25.2m at the same point.
Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur held on to second with £1.7m. After ten days in cinemas it has so far banked £5.1m and it will need a strong Christmas period if it’s to overtake Cars 2’s £15.7m and avoid the title of Pixar’s lowest grossing film.
SPECTRE stayed in third, falling 44% to £1.2m and now sits on £90.6m. On Saturday it became the first film since Skyfall to cross the £90m mark at the UK box office and only the third film in history.
Bridge Of Spies stayed in fourth, and had the best hold of any film in the top 10, falling 27% to £1.1m (once previews are removed). After ten days in cinemas the Spielberg cold-war thriller has now grossed £3.9m.
On a quiet weekend for new releases, the highest new entry in fifth was seasonal comedy Christmas With The Coopers, which kicked off its run with £683k, including £159k from previews, after opening last Tuesday.
The Lady In The Van added £471k in seventh and has now crossed the £10m mark.
The week’s other new entries all fared poorly, with Victor Frankenstein opening in eighth with £431k, which included £56k from previews, Krampus opened in ninth with £413k and Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt comedy The Night Before opened in eleventh with £273k.
Overall, the box office was down 35% from last weekend and down 19% from the same weekend last year, when the top four spots were taken by Paddington, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Penguins Of Madagascar and The Imitation Game.
Next Weekend
The last weekend before Star Wars: The Force Awakens is unleashed is, unsurprisingly, a bit quiet. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy Sisters is released on Saturday and, while the reviews are still embargoed, I’ve been hearing positive rumblings. Fey and Poehler star as two sisters who decide to throw one last house party before their parents sell their family home.
Grandma is a comedy-drama about a teenager who, facing an unplanned pregnancy seeks help from her acerbic grandmother, a woman who is long estranged from her daughter. It features an apparently awards-worthy performance from Lily Tomlin.
By The Sea is one of those films that looks like a contender when it comes on the schedule but reveals itself to be something else when the marketing is finally released. Angelina Jolie directs this romantic-drama about a couple who seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants. It stars Jolie and Brad Pitt.
The Buzz
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant is one of the most eagerly anticipated films of Q1 2016 and is expected to be a big awards contender. The review embargo was lifted last Friday and the first reviews are in. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave the film the full five stars, saying ‘the movie is as thrilling and painful as a sheet of ice held to the skin.’ Both Empire and Total Film went the full five stars too. Time Out London and Robbie Collin in The Telegraph weren’t quite as sold, giving it, a still impressive four stars but Collin did say ‘there's no question it's an extraordinary, blood-summoning, sinew-stiffening ride.’ It’s out on 15 January.
Across The Pond
Like in the UK, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 held on to the top spot for the third weekend in a row with $18.9m and now has a cume of $227.4m. Krampus came in second with an impressive $16.3m. The Good Dinosaur added $15.3m in third and has now grossed $75.8m. Creed had another good weekend, adding $15m for a strong total of $65m. SPECTRE completed the top five with $5.5 for a cume of $184.6m.
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