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| Author | Tom Linay |
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now the highest grossing film in UK history. On Friday, it surpassed Skyfall and after adding £6m across the weekend, it now sits on, a quite frankly ridiculous, £108.4m. It’s still holding up well from week to week and £120m is quite possible.
Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight opened with an impressive £2.8m. That’s testament to Tarantino’s pulling power and is the same figure that Django Unchained opened with in January 2013. That film finished on £15.7m, which is a stiff target for The Hateful Eight, considering it has competition from The Revenant next weekend.
Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg comedy Daddy’s Home had another great weekend, falling just 22% to £2.3m for a terrific cume of £11.9m. It’s becoming one of Will Ferrell’s most successful live-action comedies, with Elf the current benchmark on £16.6m.
The Danish Girl had comfortably the best hold in the top ten, falling just 6% to £1.3m for a new cume of £3.8m. While it’s not proving quite the draw that The Theory Of Everything did last year, it looks like it was one of the beneficiaries from The Hateful Eight’s distribution issues.
Another film proving that awards season films don’t often perform like other films, Joy, had a decent hold too, falling 26% to £1m and has now banked £3.4m. It will be hoping for a boost from Jennifer Lawrence’s Golden Globe win on Sunday night.
Outside of the top five, Bridge Of Spies and The Lady In The Van made the most of their BAFTA nominations on Friday, increasing their weekend takes by 31% and 50% respectively.
The box office was down 23% from last weekend and down 19% from the same weekend last year, when the top four films were Taken 3, Into The Woods, The Theory Of Everything and The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies.
Next Weekend
The Revenant opens on Friday, fresh from winning Best Film (Drama), Best Actor and Best Director at the Golden Globes on Sunday night. It has already had a strong opening in the US (see below) and Leonardo DiCaprio’s last three films (The Wolf Of Wall Street, The Great Gatsby and Django Unchained) have all grossed over £15m at the UK box office.
Room is another big awards hopeful and lead actress, Brie Larson, picked up. the Best Actress (Drama) prize at the Golden Globes on Sunday. Based on Emma Donoghue’s novel, it’s about a five-year-old boy, Jack, and his mother, who escape from the enclosed surroundings that Jack has known his entire life and their life afterwards. A few in the DCM office saw it at the London Film Festival and all agreed that it was one of the best films they’ve seen in years.
On an exciting weekend for cinema, Creed is also released. Sly Stallone returns as Rocky Balboa, who serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend and former rival Apollo Creed. It’s banked over $100m in the US and Stallone won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.
The Buzz
Game Of Thrones star Natalie Dormer stars in The Forest, a horror about a young woman searching for her twin sister in a Japanese forest only to find herself surrounded by paranormal forces. It opened in the US on Friday and has proven a solid hit with audiences as it opened with $13.1m. It’s out in the UK on 26 February.
Across The Pond
Star Wars: The Force Awakens topped the box office for the fourth straight weekend, adding $42.4m for a new record cume of $812.7m. However, the big story was the success of the Golden Globe winning The Revenant. It opened in second place with an impressive $39.8m and with awards recognition already under its belt, it should have a long and fruitful run. Daddy’s Home added $15m in third and has now banked $116.3m. The Forest opened in fourth with $12.7m, which is impressive for a film with a reported $10m budget. Sisters completed the top five, adding $7.2m for a strong cume of $74.9m.
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