| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up
- Bohemian Rhapsody continued the incredible recent run of music-based films, opening with £9.5m, which includes £3.1m from previews. Its Friday to Sunday total of £6.5m is the eighth highest opening weekend of the year. Recent music based films, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, The Greatest Showman and A Star Is Born, have all held up brilliantly in later weeks, with both A Star Is Born and The Greatest Showman posting single figure drop-off, so if Bohemian Rhapsody does the same, a total north of £25m is on.
- A Star Is Born stayed in second, suffering its biggest drop to date. Still, a drop of 25% to £2.2m is still excellent, especially in the face of Bohemian Rhapsody, and takes the heart-wrenching musical to £19.2m.
- Halloween fell to second but posted a strong hold for a horror film, falling 37% to £1.7m. That takes its total to £5.9m and you would think that its set to have a bumper midweek this week.
- Smallfoot had a terrific hold in fourth, increasing on last weekend by 10% to £1.6m. That takes its total to £7.7m and with some of the schools still on holiday, it has a good chance of cracking £10m, a figure that eluded the May half-term family animation, Sherlock Gnomes (£9.5m)
- Johnny English Strikes Again completed the top five, adding £1.5m, a drop of just 8%. That takes its total to £14.2m, and while it doesn’t look like it will get to the totals of the first two films, Johnny English and Johnny English Reborn, which finished on £19.7m and £20.7m respectively.
- Outside of the top five, The Hate U Give opened in seventh with £911k, which includes £460k from previews.
Overall, the box office was up 40% from last weekend and up 6% from the same weekend last year, when the top films were Thor: Ragnarok, Jigsaw, The LEGO Ninjago Movie and The Death Of Stalin.
Next Weekend
- The Nutcracker And The Four Realms is Disney’s latest lavish fantasy. A young girl is transported into a magical world of gingerbread soldiers and an army of mice. The classy cast includes Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Morgan Freeman and Mackenzie Foy.
- Peterloo is Mike Leigh’s latest historical drama. It’s the story of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre where British forces attacked a peaceful pro-democracy rally in Manchester.
- Juliet, Naked is a comedy-drama about Annie (the long-suffering girlfriend of Duncan) and her unlikely transatlantic romance with once revered, now faded, singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe, who also happens to be the subject of Duncan's musical obsession. It stars Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Chris O’Dowd
The Buzz
If Beale Street Could Talk was the Love Gala at the BFI London Film Festival and has so far played to almost universal acclaim, making it Barry Jenkins’ second major awards contender in a row, after Moonlight. The Guardian said ‘it’s a film with love at its root, both familial and romantic, and Jenkins fills so much of it with a radiating warmth.’ The Telegraph said ‘if proof were needed that Barry Jenkins’s directing achievement was far from a one-off, it pulses and dances through every sequence of his follow-up, If Beale Street Could Talk, in all its gorgeous romantic melancholy and sublimated outrage.’ It’s in UK cinemas on 8 February.
Across The Pond
Halloween topped the box office for the second successive week. The Blumhouse horror fell 59% to $31.4m, which takes its total to $126.1m. A Star is Born stayed in second, adding $14m, for a new total of $148.6m. Venom came in third, adding $10.7m for a new total of $187.1m. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween added $7.3m in fourth, taking its total to $38.1m. Hunter Killer completed the top five, opening with $6.7m.