| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up
- Joker’s box office dominance continues into a fourth week, adding £3.4m over the weekend. That takes its total to a huge £46.7m and it’s now the third highest grossing 15-cert film of all time, behind just Bridget Jones’s Baby (£48.2m) and The Full Monty (£52.2m). It has a good chance of overhauling them both before the end of its run. In terms of DC Comics films, it will overtake The Dark Knight (£49.1m) in the next week to become the second biggest of all time, with just The Dark Knight Rises on £56.3m ahead of it. That total looks a bit too out of reach for Joker but maybe it can get a boost next year from Oscar recognition?
- On half-term week, Terminator: Dark Fate made it a 15-cert one-two opening with £2.9m, which includes £800k from previews after opening on Wednesday. The Terminator series has had an up and down history, with Terminator 2: Judgement Day grossing a pretty sensational £18.2m in 1991 and Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines setting a series best of £18.9m in 2003. More recently, Terminator: Genisys posted a new low for the series (outside of the original The Terminator) in 2015 with £11.1m. Terminator: Dark Fate will be hoping it won’t set a new benchmark.
- Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil posted a strong hold, falling 34% to £2.2m, which was enough for third spot. While the first Maleficent’s final total of £19.5m is out of reach, with many of the schools on holiday this week, Mistress of Evil should add a fair bit more to its current total of £7.6m.
- As it’s half-term week there’s plenty on offer for the family audience and this weekend’s second highest new entry was the new animated version of The Addams Family, which opened with £2.1m.
- Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon completed the top five, posting by far the best hold in the chart this week, falling just 6% to £1.1m. That was much needed after a quiet opening weekend and it takes Aardman’s latest charmer to £3.3m.
- Outside of the top five, horror Countdown opened in eight with £391k, Bollywood title Bigil opened in ninth with £375k, whileJudy has now crossed the £7m mark in 12th.
Overall the box office is up 2% from last weekend and down 27% from the same weekend last year when the top films were Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born, Halloween and Smallfoot.
Next Weekend
- Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep is a sequel to The Shining. A now-adult Dan Torrance meets a young girl with similar powers as his and tries to protect her from a cult known as The True Knot who prey on children with powers to remain immortal. It’s in cinemas on Halloween (Thursday).
- Sorry We Missed You is the latest timely piece of social commentary from Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake). A hard-up delivery driver and his wife struggle to get by in modern-day England.
The Buzz
Little Women is an updating of Louisa May Alcott’s novel by Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird). Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson and Eliza Scanlen play four sisters who come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War. It’s not in UK cinemas until Boxing Day but the first online responses suggest it’s a major awards contender in a host of categories. David Jenkins, editor of Little White Lies, tweeted ‘Someone, please, invent a word stronger than “masterpiece” so I can amply describe Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. More-than-a-masterpiece? Masterpiece 2.0? … One of the most pleasurable cinema experiences of my life.’ Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter’s awards columnist tweeted ‘Little Women is charming just like the novel/prior versions. Each role perfectly cast. Rousing score. Timely as ever. Hard not to cheer.’ It’s shaping up as one of the big films of awards season.
Across The Pond
Joker returned to the top of the box office in the US, falling 35% to $18.9m, which takes its total to $277.5m. Last week’s top film, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, fell to second, dropping 50% to $18.5m and a new total of $65.4m. The Addams Family posted a strong hold, falling just 28% to $11.7m three-day, which takes its total to $72.8m. Zombieland: Double Tap came in marginally behind in fourth, adding $11.6m, for a new total of $47m. Countdown completed the top five, opening with $9m.