| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mia Blakeney |
Box Office Round-up
Kung Fu Panda 4 opened in the top spot with £5m, which includes £1.1m from Thursday previews, and was enough to take it past Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Including Monday, it’s now up to £6.5m. The box office of the Kung Fu Panda films has been in decline, with the first film grossing £20.4m, Kung Fu Panda 2 grossing £16.9m and Kung Fu Panda 3 grossing £14.3m. With the Easter school holidays taking place for the next two weeks, there’s every chance this fourth film goes past the third and film and there’s a good chance it surpasses the second film too.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire opened in second with £4.1m from Friday to Sunday, and including Monday is now up to £5.2m. The last English-language Godzilla / Monster-verse film to open in cinemas was Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which finished its run with £7m in 2019. The New Empire looks like it will be crushing the total of that film and with the Easter school holidays ahead it should be looking at stomping past £10m.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire fell to third after one weekend in the top spot with £2.1m. It added a chunky £835k on Easter Monday which takes its total to £9.1m. The previous film in the series, Ghostbusters: Afterlife finished its run with £11.5m and along with Dune: Part Two, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire it’s another sequel that is going to outperform its previous film.
Dune: Part Two fell to fourth adding £1.7m from Friday to Sunday, and it added £602k on Monday, which takes its total to £34.7m. That would place it sixth in the top 10 films of 2023. The first film finished its run with £22.5m, so this sequel has now grossed more than £12m more than the previous film. This is the most impressive uplift for a sequel since Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse last summer.
Aadujeevitham is the latest South Asian release to crack the top five. It opened with £298k from Friday to Sunday and including previews last week and Easter Monday it’s now up to £573k. There’s quite a few South Asian films out over the next couple of weeks so it will have some competition but this has a chance at cracking £1m.
Outside of the top five, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway drama Mothers’ Instinct opened with £406k, which includes £139k from previews. Including Easter Monday, it’s now up to £500k.
Immaculate in seventh has crossed the £1m mark and is now up to £1.3m, while Migration has crossed the £20m mark.
Next Weekend
Monkey Man is the directorial debut of Dev Patel, who also stars and writes. Patel plays 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.
The First Omen is prequel to the classic horror The Omen. Nell Tiger Free (TV’s Servant) plays a young American woman who is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.
Seize Them! is a new British comedy starring Aimee Lou Wood, Lolly Adefope and Nick Frost. It’s set in dark ages Britain where Queen Dagan (Wood) is toppled by a revolution led by Humble Joan. The Queen becomes a fugitive in her own land, and must face hardship and danger as she embarks on a voyage to win back her throne.
Luca is the third Pixar film that has come to cinema for the first time. On the Italian Riviera, an unlikely but strong friendship grows between a human being and a sea monster disguised as a human.
The Buzz
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is the latest film in one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful film franchises of the 21st century. The last trilogy had an average UK & Ireland box office of £24.8m and the second film, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes delivered over 3m DCM admissions. This new iteration of the story is set many years after the reign of Caesar where a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. The visual effects looks as jaw-dropping as we’ve come to expect and it’s set to be one of the best blockbusters for ABC1 men this summer when it hits cinemas on Thursday 9 May.
Across The Pond
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire opened with a huge $80m, almost matching Dune: Part Two for the title of biggest opening weekend of the year to date. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire fell to second, adding $15.6m, which takes its total to $73.3m. Dune: Part Two came in third, adding $11.4m, which takes its total to $252.6m, more than double the $108m the first film finished on. Kung Fu Panda 4 fell to fourth, adding $10.3m for a new total of $151.8m. Immaculate rounded out the top five, adding $3.3m for a new total of $11.1m.