| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
It opened in the top spot, and then held on to it over the Christmas weekend, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story comfortably stayed on top for a third successive weekend. It added £6m from Friday to Sunday and another £1.9m on Bank Holiday Monday, for a new total of £54m.
On Saturday, the final day of 2016, it became the biggest film of the year with £50.7m, holding off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by just £18k. It’s currently the 18th biggest film of all time at the UK box office and will climb a few more places up that list before it’s through.
James Franco and Bryan Cranston comedy, Why Him?, opened in second with £2.2m, which included £1.4m from previews. It was the biggest film of Boxing Day new releases, but couldn’t match last year’s Daddy’s Home. Including Monday, it’s now on £2.5m.
Passengers fell to third, with £1.9m across the weekend, and adding another £653k on Monday, which brings its total to £8.1m.
Monster Trucks opened in fourth with £1.7m, which includes £979k from previews after opening on Boxing Day. Including Monday, it has now banked £2m.
Moana completed the top five, adding £1.6m across the weekend, and a further £610k on Monday. It has now grossed £14.3m.
Outside of the top five, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has had an impressive resurgence over the holiday period and added £1.5m across the weekend and £491k on Monday, for a new total of £51.5m. It was the second biggest film of 2016, just behind Rogue One.
There was one other new entry in the top 10 as Will Smith drama Collateral Beauty kicked off its run with £1.2m across the weekend (including £686k from previews) and including Bank Holiday Monday has now grossed £1.3m.
Overall the box office was up 39% from last weekend and down 14% from the same weekend last year, when the top four films were Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Daddy’s Home, Joy and The Danish Girl.
Next Weekend
There are no major new releases next weekend. Assassin’s Creed, A Monster Calls and Silence all opened around the UK on New Year’s Day.
The Buzz
Sing is the latest animation from Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets) and is based around an X-Factor style talent show for singing animals. It’s out in the UK on 27 January and was looking like it would play second fiddle to The LEGO Batman Movie for the February half-term crowd, but after it opened in the US on Christmas Day, it has been performing terrifically, grossing over $180m already.
Across The Pond
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story added $49.5m over the three-day weekend and $64.3m over the four-day weekend, which brings its total to an impressive $439.7m. Illumination Entertainment’s latest animated comedy, Sing, added $56.4m for the four-day weekend, and has now grossed a terrific $180m. Passengers, in third, added $20.7m over the four-day weekend, which brings its total to $66m. Moana added $14.3m in fourth, and has now grossed $213.4m. Why Him? completed the top five with $13m for the four-day weekend, for a new total of $37.6m.