| Date | |
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| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up – Solo alone at the top
Just over five months since the release of The Last Jedi, Star Wars is back in cinemas and topping the box office once again. On another weekend of sensational weather, Solo: A Star Wars Story opened in the top spot with £6.1m, which includes £1.2m from Thursday previews. Including another £1.5m on bank holiday Monday, it is now up to £7.6m. This is a very soft opening, especially when you consider that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the last film in the anthology series opened with £17.3m from just four days. Also, The Last Jedi did more than £7.6m on its opening day alone. Hopefully Solo can bounce back during the week when the schools are out and the weather is set to be a bit more typical of a UK spring.
Last week’s top film, Deadpool 2 fell to second adding £3.8m, which is a drop off of 51%. Considering the weather, that’s a pretty solid hold and takes its total to £20.7m. It had a strong bank holiday Monday too, adding £1.1m, so its current total stands at £21.8m and £30m still looks on, even if the original’s £38m is out of reach.
Avengers: Infinity War added £1.2m in third, and another £460k on Monday which takes its total to £66.7m. It’s now the 11th biggest film in UK history, having just overtaken Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (£66m) and it has the 10th placed film, Mamma Mia! On £68.2m in its sights.
Sherlock Gnomes posted a great hold, falling 3% to £690k across the weekend and then added another £276k on Monday for a new total of £4.6m. As the biggest family film currently on release, it will be hoping to have a strong midweek too.
Another new entry landed in fifth as Show Dogs kicked off its run with £546k from Friday to Sunday and added another £185k on Monday for a four-day total of £731k.
Outside of the top five, after opening on limited release last weekend, the Saoirse Ronan starring On Chesil Beach went up to eighth, adding £171k from Friday to Sunday, and £48k on Monday for a new total of £288k.
Overall, the box office was down 22% from last weekend and up 35% from the same weekend last year, when the top films were Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 and Alien: Covenant.
Next Weekend
Book Club is a comedy featuring some legendary actors, including Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen. Four lifelong friends have their lives forever changed after reading 50 Shades of Grey in their monthly book club.
The Buzz
Incredibles 2 is still over six weeks away in the UK but it’s out in just over two weeks in the US, where the film press are reporting it’s on track for a huge opening weekend. The Hollywood Reporter are reporting that it has a chance of delivering the biggest opening weekend of all time for an animated film, with tracking suggesting it could hit $140m+. The full article is here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/incredibles-2-tracking-140m-box-office-debut-1114590. It’s out in the UK on 13 July and is set to be one of the best family films of the year.
Across The Pond
On the Memorial Day weekend, Solo: A Star Wars Story topped the box with $83.3m from Friday to Sunday, including Monday it could hit $101m. For comparison, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opened with $155m Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom isn’t released until June 22 in the US, so the landscape is relatively clear for Solo for the next few weeks. Deadpool 2 came in second, adding $42.7m over the three days and potentially $53.5m for the four-day weekend. That takes its total to $219.7m. Avengers: Infinity War fell to third, adding $17m from Friday to Sunday and $21m including Monday, which takes its total to $626.4m. Book Club added $9.4m for the three-day weekend and $12m for the four-day weekend, which takes its total to $34.5m. Life of the Party completed the top five, adding $5.1m from Friday to Sunday and $6.5m including Monday, which takes its total to $40.9m.