| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mia Blakeney |
Box Office Round-up
Illumination Entertainment have firmly established themselves as the premier animation studio at the box office and Migration continues their hot streak, opening with £3.6m. Illumation’s incredible run of hits includes Despicable Me, Minions, Sing 2 and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Whilst Migration hasn’t opened quite as strongly as those films, it’s their first original title in a while, and with half-term starting next week there should be plenty more to come. As for another recent original title from a big animation studio, Pixar’s Elemental opened with £2.9m in July 2023 and finished its run with £18.6m, so Migration has to be aiming for a similar total.
Making it a Universal one-two in the box office, Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle opened with £2m, which includes £232k from previews after opening on Thursday. This is the third Apple TV title to hit cinemas and the first two (Killers Of The Flower Moon, Napoleon) cleared £10m. Vaughn tends to make commercial films, with his lowest grossing film in almost 20 years being The King’s Man, which finished with £8m and was released in challenging circumstances in December 2021. It looks like Argylle is going to finish with a similar total.
Mean Girls fell to third but posted a solid hold, adding £844k, down 44% from last weekend. That takes its total after 19 days in cinemas to £6.8m and it has now overtaken the final total of the original Mean Girls (£5.7m). With half-term starting next week, Mean Girls should be one of the main beneficiaries of the schools being out.
All Of Us Strangers continues its strong run, adding £797k, a drop of just 23% from last weekend. That takes its total to £2.8m and it’s only a matter of time before it overtakes last year’s British awards season hopeful Empire Of Light which finished its run with £3.9m.
The Zone Of Interest was a new entry in fifth, opening with £586k, which includes £233k from previews. Director Jonathan Glazer is Oscar-nominated for Best Director and whilst he makes critically adored films, they haven’t been huge commercial hits, with his last film, 2014’s Under The Skin, the most successful with £1.2m. The Zone Of Interest looks like it might set a new benchmark for Glazer.
Anyone But You continued its great run in sixth, falling just 30% to £573k and a new total of £9.3m. With half-term and Valentine’s Day next week, it’s going to have the legs to get over the £10m mark, something Ticket To Paradise couldn’t manage in 2019. Then it might even get enough to get past The Lost City, which finished on £10.7m. What a performance!
While it has finally dropped out of the top five on its ninth weekend, Wonka has now crossed the £60m mark, making it only the 26th film to do so. The latest Film Monitor data suggests that Wonka has to date delivered 14 16-34 adult TVRs across the industry.
American Fiction opened in 10th with £389k, which includes £101k from previews. This is another Best Picture Oscar-nominee so hopefully it will stick around until the Oscars on 10 March.
Next Weekend
The Iron Claw is the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Zac Efron, Harris Dickinson, Jeremy Allen White and Lily James star.
Gassed Up is a London-set thriller about Ash, who is trying to earn money to raise his 14-year-old sister and send his mother to rehab, but gets caught up with an organized crime ring led by a young and charismatic Albanian immigrant.
Turning Red is the first of three Pixar films that premiered on Disney+ and are now finally coming to cinemas. A thirteen-year-old girl named Mei Lee is torn between staying her mother's dutiful daughter and the changes of adolescence. And as if the challenges were not enough, whenever she gets overly excited she transforms into a giant red panda. It’s quite wonderful. Soul follows on 8 March and Luca on 5 April.
Jungle Bunch World Tour is a sequel to the 2017 animation Jungle Bunch. A vicious beaver blankets the jungle with a dangerous pink substance that explodes when coming into contact with water. With the rainy season approaching, the miscellaneous team of animals must hurry to find the antidote.
The Buzz
Monkey Man has seemingly come out of nowhere and looks like a knockout. It’s Dev Patel’s directorial debut and stars Patel as an anonymous young man who unleashes a campaign of vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systemically victimize the poor and powerless. It looks similar to a John Wick film but set in Mumbai. The film was reportedly financed by Netflix, but Jordan Peele saw the film and thought it demanded a cinema release. As part of his production company’s deal with Universal, Universal paid Netflix $30m and the film will now be seen in cinemas from 5 April.
Across The Pond
Argylle topped the box office in the US with $18m. Second place was taken by a special presentation of episodes 1-3 of the new season of faith-based television series The Chosen. They can only be seen at the cinema at the moment and have grossed $7.5m to date. The Beekeeper came in third, adding $5.3m, down just 21% from last weekend. That takes its total to $49.4m. Wonka added $4.8m in fourth, which takes it over the $200m mark to $201.1m. Migration rounded out the top five, adding $4.1m for a new total of $106.2m.