| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mia Blakeney |
Box Office Round-up
Migration held on to the top spot for a second week adding £2.5m, a drop of 31% from last weekend. On this weekend last year, on its second weekend, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish fell 38%, so Migration is currently holding up more strongly. With half-term taking place this week, and next week for some schools, Migration has a good chance of being the biggest animated film in cinemas since Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse last summer.
Making it a Universal one-two for the second weekend in a row, Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle added £995k, which is a drop of 43% from last weekend. That takes its total after 11 days in cinemas to £3.7m and it’s looking like it might fall short of The King’s Man’s final total of £8m, making it Vaughn’s lowest grossing film since his debut, Layer Cake.
The Iron Claw opened in third with £754k, which includes £83k from previews. The last drama film set around the world of wrestling to hit UK cinemas was Foxcatcher, which opened with £880k and finished with £2.2m in 2015. The Iron Claw looks like it might finish with a similar total.
All Of Us Strangers continues its strong run, adding £510k, a drop of 36% from last weekend. That takes its total to £3.8m and in the next couple of days it will overtake last year’s British awards season hopeful Empire Of Light, which finished its run with £3.9m.
Rounding out the top five is Peppa Pig with Peppa’s Cinema Party, which opened with £491k. This is 10 brand new episodes of Peppa Pig (and more, according to the marketing) and tickets are discounted and should prove a hit across half-term.
Outside of the top five, The Zone Of Interest increased on last weekend’s total with £389k, which was enough for ninth. That takes its total to £1.3m and it’s being talked up as a genuine Oscar Best Picture contender, so there could be plenty more to come.
Ahead of the release of Dune Part II on 1 March, Dune was re-released in cinemas this weekend and grossed £336k. There’s further screenings in a couple of weeks for people who want to watch the first film on 29 February and then Part II at midnight on 1 March.
Next Weekend
Bob Marley: One Love is the story of how reggae icon Bob Marley overcame adversity, and the journey behind his revolutionary music. Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch star. It’s in cinemas from Wednesday.
Madame Web is the latest Sony Marvel film set in the Spider-Man universe. Dakota Johnson stars as Cassandra Webb who develops the power to see the future. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women bound for powerful destinies, if they can all survive a deadly present. It’s in cinemas from Wednesday.
The Taste of Things is the story of Eugenie, an esteemed cook, and Dodin, the fine gourmet with whom she has been working for over the last 20 years. Director Anh Hung Tran won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
Les Misérables is a re-release of the 2014 Oscar-winning musical.
The Buzz
A couple of weeks ago, Nielsen released a chart of the top 10 biggest films on streaming platforms in the US in 2023. Perhaps surprisingly, Moana came out on top with 11.6 billion minutes of the film viewed during 2023, this is despite the film coming out in 2016. While Moana wasn’t a huge hit when it was first released in cinemas (it grossed £20.7m in the UK & Ireland and $248.8m in North America), since Disney+ launched it has been consistently one of the most popular films available to watch at home, coming second in Nielsen’s chart in 2021 and fourth in 2022. It should be no major surprise that Disney CEO Bob Iger announced on Thursday that Moana 2 is coming to cinemas, but it’s a surprise that it’s coming so soon, hitting cinemas this year on 27 November. Auli'i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson are in talks to reprise their roles as Moana and Maui and if the popularity of the first film on streaming is anything to go by, Moana 2 could give Despicable Me 4 and Inside Out 2 a run for their money for the title of biggest animated film of 2024.
Across The Pond
On the traditionally quiet Superbowl weekend, Argylle topped the box office with $6.5m, which takes its total after two weekends in cinemas to $28.8m. Lisa Frankenstein opened in second with $3.8m. The Beekeeper came in third adding $3.5m, down just 34% from last weekend, which takes its total to $54.7m. The Chosen: S4 Episodes 1-3 added $3.2m for a new total of $12.6m and Wonka completed the top five, adding $4.8m which takes it to $205.3m.