| Date | |
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| Author | Mia Blakeney |
Box Office Round-up
On a quiet weekend with a major World Cup game and the weekend before Avatar: The Way Of Water launches, the top five was exactly the same as last weekend. Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical held on to the top spot for the third successive weekend, posting a terrific hold, falling just 17% to £2.1m. That takes its total after 17 days in cinemas to £10.8m and this hold bodes well for when the schools are off from next week. £20m is still not out of the question.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever stayed in second, falling 47% to £804k, which isn’t a bad hold considering the competition from the football on Friday and particularly Saturday evening. That takes it over the £30m mark to £30.8m. In terms of this year’s Marvel titles, it’s still some way behind Thor: Love And Thunder (£37.5m) and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (£42.1m), despite being much better than both.
Violent Night stayed in third adding £567k, a drop of 31% from last weekend. That takes its total after 10 days in cinemas to £1.9m and it has already overtaken 2015’s 15-cert Christmas horror-thriller, Krampus, which finished with £1.2m.
Disney’s Strange World stayed in fourth, adding £306k, a drop of 31% from last weekend. That takes its total after 19 days in cinemas to £1.8m. At the same stage of its run last year, Disney’s Encanto, with a similar release strategy, was on £4.2m. The Menu was again in fifth, adding £193k, which takes its total over the £3m mark.
Outside of the top five, the rest of the top 10 was filled with festive-themed offerings, from Elf, The Nutcracker (ballet), Home Alone, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and The Polar Express.
The box office is down 26% from last weekend and down 14% from the same weekend last year.
Next Weekend
Avatar: The Way Of Water is finally here on Friday. The sequel to the biggest film of all-time worldwide, and previously the biggest film in the UK & Ireland, it’s set years after the first Avatar and Jake Sully now lives with his newfound family formed on the planet of Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their planet.
The Buzz
A Man Called Otto is making a late break to be part of the Oscar race. Tom Hanks stars as Otto, who has given up on life following the loss of his wife and wants to end it all. When a young family moves in nearby, he meets his match in quick-witted Marisol, leading to a friendship that will turn his world around. It has started to be screened to critics in the US and many of them are calling it one of the year’s best surprises. In their story on its arrival in the awards conversation, Variety said it ‘could strongly appeal to the older demographic of the Academy, sure to bring joyous moments and a few tears.’ It’s not just Tom Hanks getting the plaudits either, Yahoo Entertainment writer Kevin Polowy tweeted Hanks’ co-star, Mariana Trevino, ‘gives one of my favorite performances I've seen in a long, long time. Her energy is radiant. Just pops off the screen.’ It’s in cinemas on 6 January.
Across The Pond
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever topped the box office for the fifth straight weekend, falling 37% to $11.1m taking its total to $409.8m. Over this week it will overtake Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness ($411m) to become the highest grossing MCU film of 2022. Violent Night came in second, adding $8.7m for a new total of $26.7m. Strange World is in third adding $3.6m for a new total of $30.5m. The Menu in fourth added $2.7m for a new total of $29m, while Devotion in fifth added $2m for a new total of $17m.