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| Author | DCM |
The Weekend Round-up
- Shazam! flew back to the top of the box office over the weekend, adding £980k from Friday to Sunday and £1.3m including Easter Sunday. That takes its total to just over £12m and with Endgame on Thursday, it may not get to £15m.
- Last week’s top film, Dumbo, fell one place to second, dropping 61% over the weekend to £928k. It added another £272k on Monday taking its total to £21.6m. It’s now the second biggest film of 2019 behind only Captain Marvel, although Avengers: Endgame will have overtaken Dumbo by Sunday.
- Captain Marvel defied the sunshine posting by far the best hold in the top 10, probably thanks to people wanting to catch up on the MCU before Avengers: Endgame is released. The Marvel blockbuster fell just 29% over the weekend to £641k and added another £224k on Monday for a new total of £38.1m. It has now overtaken both Captain America: Civil War and Iron Man 3 (both £36.9m).
- Kalank, a two hour 45 minute historical Hindi epic, was this weekend’s highest new entry landing in fourth with £594k, which includes £258k from previews after opening on Wednesday. Including Monday it’s now on £675k.
- Red Joan opened in fourth, kicking off its run with £433k from Friday to Sunday (including £3k from previews) and then adding another £130k on Monday. After its first four days in cinemas it has banked £547k and with Judi Dench in the cast it should play stronger with older audiences at midweek showings. This same weekend last year, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society opened relatively quietly with £826k and still managed to get to over £5.9m.
- Outside of the top five, Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz thriller, Greta opened in sixth with £332k, which includes £65k from previews. Including Easter Monday, it’s now on £405k.
Overall the box office is down 51% from last weekend and down 7% from the same weekend last year when the top films were Rampage, A Quiet Place, The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society and Ready Player One.
Next Weekend
- Avengers: Endgame is in cinemas on Thursday. It’s going to be HUGE.
- Eighth Grade finally arrives on these shores, after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2018. It’s the directorial debut of comedian Bo Burnham and stars Elsie Fisher as an introverted teenage girl tries to survive the last week of her disastrous eighth grade year before leaving to start high school. It’s one of the best reviewed films of the last year and not to be missed.
The Buzz
We are currently in a golden period for horror films. In the last couple of years we have seen Oscar winning horror (Get Out), returning classics (Halloween) and the growth of the hugely popular Conjuring universe, which expands further on 3 May with The Curse Of La Llorona, already a hit in the US (see below). In just over a month we have the brilliant Octavia Spencer in Blumhouse’s Ma and June sees the release of the James Gunn produced Brightburn. Both original titles featuring top talent. July sees Ari Aster’s follow-up to Hereditary, the mysterious Midsommar and September sees the release of the sequel to the biggest horror film of all time, It Chapter Two. Horror fans have never had it so good.
Across The Pond
Continuing the recent strong performance of horror films, The Curse of La Llorona, opened in the top spot with $26.3m. Shazam! took second, adding $16.5m, which takes its total to $120.4m. Faith-based drama Breakthrough opened in third, taking $11.1m over the weekend. Captain Marvel had a great weekend, increasing 6% on last weekend’s total to $9.1m. That is enough to take it over the $400m mark. Little completed the top five, falling 46% to $8.3m and a new total of $29.3m.