| Date | |
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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 held on to the top spot for a second straight weekend, falling 51% (once previews are removed) to £4.5m, for a new cume of £19.3m. Last year, Mockingjay Part 1 fell 52% on its second weekend, so this second instalment is holding up slightly better.
Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur opened in second with £2.9m. While that’s Pixar’s second lowest start ever, behind Cars’ £2.7m, it should have a lengthy run up to and after Christmas.
SPECTRE fell to third, adding another £2.2m for a huge cume of £88.4m. It is closing in on Avatar’s £94m on the list of biggest films of all time in the UK.
Bridge Of Spies opened in fourth with £1.7m, which included £206k from previews. In terms of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks collaborations, that’s the third best opening, behind Catch Me If You Can (£3.7m) and Saving Private Ryan (£2.7m) and in front of 2004’s The Terminal (£1.5m).
Johnny Depp thriller Black Mass completed the top five, opening with £1.2m, which included £367k from previews.
Outside of the top five, one of the best reviewed films of the year, Carol opened in seventh with £541k (including £61k from previews). That’s a modest opening for an awards hopeful but it should stick around in the arthouses for a while as awards season gets into gear.
Overall, the box office was down 22% from last weekend and down 4% from the same weekend last year, when the top four spots were taken by Paddington, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The Imitation Game and Horrible Bosses 2.
Next Weekend
Christmas With The Coopers opens on Tuesday and is a seasonal family comedy with an all-star cast, including Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Ed Helms, Olivia Wilde and Amanda Seyfried. It has so far grossed $20.5m in the US, after opening on 13 November.
Victor Frankenstein opens on Thursday and stars Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy as Igor and the titular doctor.
The Night Before is the latest stoner comedy starring Seth Rogen and co-stars Joseph Gordon Levitt and Antony Mackie as three lifelong friends, who spend the night in New York City looking for the Holy Grail of Christmas parties. It has received strong reviews from both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter and has banked $24.1m in the US to date, with the promise of more to come in the run up to Christmas.
Krampus is a seasonal horror about a boy who has a bad Christmas and ends up accidentally summoning a Christmas demon to his family home. It has a likeable cast, including Toni Collette, Allison Tolman (from TV’s Fargo) and Adam Scott.
The Buzz
David O. Russell’s Joy had its first public screenings in New York and LA on Saturday night and while reviews are embargoed until 12 December, some early tweets indicate that it was well received. Sasha Stone of Awards Daily said she loved it and implored Hollywood to ‘keep making movies around women like this. They are so worth it.’ Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere tweeted ‘Joy doesn’t quite sing dazzling arias or ascend to stratospheric heights but it’s real and direct and very touching and nicely inventive.’ It’s out in the West End on Boxing Day and the rest of the country on 1 January.
Across The Pond
On a bumper Thanksgiving weekend, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 topped the box office with $52m from Friday to Sunday, which is a 49.3% drop and the best second week hold in the series. It has now banked a strong $198.5m. The Good Dinosaur opened in second with $39.2m and, having opened on Wednesday it has grossed $55.5m to date. Third place was taken by another new entry, Rocky spin-off, Creed. Over the weekend it took in $29.6m, and after opening on Wednesday, it has taken in an impressive $42.1m. Spectre brought in a further $12.9m and has now reached $176.1m. The Peanuts Movie completed the top five, adding $9.7m for a cume of $116.8m.
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