| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
Well, the most hyped film of the century, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was finally released on Thursday and amazingly it has lived up to all expectations. The biggest opening day, the biggest Saturday, the biggest Sunday, the biggest four day opening and the biggest Friday to Sunday opening weekend of all time are just five of the new benchmarks it has set. In just four days it has grossed £34m, which includes £9.7m on Thursday. Its Friday to Sunday total of £24.3m eclipses Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ record of £23.8m to become the biggest of all time. Saturday saw it gross £8.7m, and remarkably, Sunday was almost as big, delivering £8.6m. It’s already the ninth biggest film of 2015.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy Sisters opened in second with £1.2m, which included £734k from previews after opening last Saturday.
Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur dropped to third falling 30% to £890k, and has now banked £8.1m. It will be hoping to reach the younger families this Christmas, while Star Wars: The Force Awakens hoovers up everyone else.
Dilwale is the latest film from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. Christmas is always a popular time for Bollywood films and Dilwale opened in fourth with £728k.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 completed the top five, adding £526k for a new total of £26.7m. It’s now the ninth biggest film of the year but disappointingly, is likely to fall some way short of the last two Hunger Games films.
In seventh, SPECTRE added another £298k and now sits on a huge £92.8m. While it looks like it will be overtaken by Star Wars at some point in the next few weeks, it is closing in on Avatar’s total of £94m.
The box office was up an amazing 512% from last weekend and up 146% from the same weekend last year, when the top four films were The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, Paddington, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Dumb & Dumber To.
Next Weekend
Snoopy and Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie is released today. It has previewed for the past three weekends and has so far banked £1.2m.
Daddy’s Home is released on boxing day and sees Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg reunite for the first time since the excellent The Other Guys. Ferrell plays a mild-mannered radio executive who strives to become the best stepdad to his wife's two children, but complications ensue when their freewheeling and freeloading real father (Wahlberg) arrives, forcing him to compete for the affection of the kids.
In The Heart Of The Sea is also out on boxing day and stars Chris Hemsworth in the tale of a whaling ship's sinking by a giant whale in 1820 that would inspire the great novel, Moby Dick. It was released earlier in the month in the US and has so far banked $18.6m.
The Buzz
Spotlight is an engrossing true-life drama about how the Boston Globe uncovered a massive scandal within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core. A perfectly picked cast (Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams) work with a great screenplay and a gripping story. It’s currently hoovering up the early awards in the US and is currently the clear front-runner for the Best Picture Oscar, with Sky Bet offering odds of 5/6. It’s out on 29 January.
Across The Pond
Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke records in the US too, opening with a massive $238m, the biggest opening weekend of all time, beating Jurassic World’s $208.8m from June this year. It also delivered the biggest opening day and single day in US history. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip opened in second with $14.4m and Sisters opened in third with $13.4m. Last week’s top film, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, fell to fourth with $5.7m and has now banked $254.4m. Creed completed the top five with $5.1m for a new cume of $87.9m.
To browse all of these movies and more, visit our Now Booking page.