| Date | |
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| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up – Katniss puts a stop to Bond’s stay at the top
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 finally put a stop to SPECTRE’s stay at the top, opening with a hefty £11.3m, which included £2m from Thursday previews. Whilst that’s not quite as big as Catching Fire (£12.2m) and Mockingjay Part 1 (£12.7m), neither of those films had a Bond to contend with.
SPECTRE fell to second, adding £3.8m for a huge cume of £84.3m. It’s now the third highest grossing film of all time in the UK, which is a terrific achievement but it does looks like Avatar’s £94m in second place may be a little too far out of reach.
The Lady In The Van had another strong weekend, falling just 29% to £1.6m for a terrific cume of £6.4m to date. It has been performing equally as strong during the week, so should add to that total significantly.
Hotel Transylvania 2 fell 41% to £539k, and has now banked £19.2m overall. With The Good Dinosaur released this Saturday, it may experience a bigger drop next weekend. Brooklyn completed the top five, adding £409k, for a healthy total of £3.8m.
Outside of the top five, The Dressmaker opened in seventh with £236k, which adds to a disappointing month for Kate Winslet after the underwhelming performance of Steve Jobs (up to £1.8m in sixth).
Overall, the box office was up 25% from last weekend and down 5% from the same weekend last year, when the top four spots were taken by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The Imitation Game, Interstellar and Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?
Next Weekend
There’s some exciting new releases in the next few days, led by Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies. Tom Hanks stars as an American lawyer recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot. With Hanks and Spielberg, it’s every bit as good as you’d expect it to be.
Johnny Depp is almost unrecognisable as notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger in Black Mass. It’s had a successful run in the US, banking $62.4m to date.
Carol is one of the hot favourites for next year’s awards and stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in a sumptuous 1950s romance. It is one of the best reviewed films of the year and has a remarkable score of 95 on Metacritic.
Pixar’s year has been terrific so far, with Inside Out becoming their biggest non-Toy Story film in the UK. For the first time in their history, they’re releasing two films in a year and The Good Dinosaur, released on Friday, is perfectly placed to reach the family audience this Christmas.
The Buzz
Rocky spin-off Creed opens in the US this Wednesday and the first reviews are coming in. Sylvester Stallone once again plays Rocky Balboa, who serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed. Hitfix gave it full marks saying it ‘manages the difficult trick of looking back with earned nostalgia and standing alone as a genuinely strong dramatic piece’. Variety were also glowing, calling it ‘a smart, kinetic, exhilaratingly well-crafted piece of mainstream filmmaking’. The Hollywood Reporter weren’t quite as convinced but still said it’s ‘far-fetched but likeable’. It’s out in the UK on 15 January.
Across The Pond
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 opened in the top spot with $101m, becoming the fifth release of the year to open above $100m. SPECTRE fell to second, adding $14.6m for a chunky cume of $153.7m. The Peanuts Movie came in third, adding $12.8m for a solid cume of $98.9m. Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt seasonal comedy, The Night Before opened with $10.1m, which was enough for fourth. The top five was completed by another new entry, Secret in Their Eyes, which kicked off its run with $6.6m.