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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
Pitch Perfect 2 opened with a huge £5m, the fifth biggest opening weekend of the year. To put that into further context, the first Pitch Perfect finished its entire run with £6.5m, and the sequel is set to top that in the next few days.
Mad Max: Fury Road opened just behind in second with £4.5m, which included £639k from Thursday previews. For a film that has had a troubled history, that’s a great result and 15.2% of that take was from IMAX, once again confirming the popularity of the format.
The Avengers: Age Of Ultron fell to third, taking a hit, falling 53% to £1.7k in third and extended its status as the biggest film of the year to date. It has now banked £43.3m.
Spooks: The Greater Good fell to fourth but added another £534k and after ten days in cinemas has grossed a respectable £2.1m.
Far From The Madding Crowd completed the top five, falling a chunky 53% to £401k and to date has grossed an impressive £4.7m.
Outside of the top five, A Royal Night Out was in sixth with £301k, which included £27k from previews.
Despite the sunny weather, the box office was up 53% from last weekend and up 42% from the same weekend last year, when the biggest films were Godzilla, Bad Neighbours, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and The Other Woman.
Next Weekend
Ahead of the half term week, the biggest new release this week is Disney’s sci-fi epic, Tomorrowland: A World Beyond. Directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol), hopes are high for this title.
A brand new remake of horror classic Poltergeist is also out on Friday and hoping to target the 15+ half term crowd. The classy cast features Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt as the parents who have to rescue their daughter after she’s taken captive by apparitions.
Moomins On The Riviera is the only straight family release this half term and will be looking to emulate the success of Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots in February.
The Buzz
Inside Out had its premiere in Cannes this week and the first responses are overwhelmingly positive. Robbie Collin of The Telegraph said it ‘is Pixar's Spirited Away, and one of their very, very best.’ Jonathan Romney of The Observer said it’s the ‘best Pixar in years’, Kate Muir of The Times called it ‘fantastic’ and Hitfix said it’s ‘simply one of Pixar's most creative films ever’. Can it top Minions at the summer’s box office?
Lake Bell and Simon Pegg star in romantic comedy Man Up, out on 29 May. Prime-time television titan, Dermot O’Leary tweeted last week that it was a ‘brilliant, life affirming movie’ and I’ve seen a few tweets corroborating this viewpoint, so hopefully we’ll have a decent hit on the horizon.
Across The Pond
Pitch Perfect 2 had an even more impressive weekend in the US, opening with a huge $69.2m. That’s more than the entire run of the first Pitch Perfect, and director, Elizabeth Banks now holds the title of highest debut ever for a first time filmmaker. Mad Max: Fury Road opened in second with $45.4m. Avengers: Age of Ultron fell to third but still banked an impressive $38.8m on its third weekend in cinemas. It now has a cume of $372m, which makes it the biggest film of the year to date. Hot Pursuit fell a chunky 59% in fourth to $5.7m and after ten days in cinemas has banked $23.4m. Paul Blart: Mall Cop completed the top five, adding $3.5m and has now grossed $62.9m.
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