| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
The Weekend Round-up
Following in the footsteps of Jaws, Deep Blue Sea and Shark Tale, The Meg chomped through all expectations to top the box office over the weekend, proving the everlasting popularity of muscular men punching and subsequently being eaten by giant sharks. Opening with £3.7m, The Meg took a hefty bite out of the box office. As a comparison, The Shallows opened with 811.5k in 2016 with a similar release date, so it looks like The Megalodon truly is the king of the sharks.
Cinemagoers once again changed their mind on all other films and took a chance on Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again over the weekend, with the extrABBAganza adding another £3.6m to take its total to £48.3m. The original Mamma Mia! film finished on £68.8m, and that total potentially looks doable for the sequel as audiences lay all their love on the masterpiece. In the overall 2018 box office top ten, the name of the game is Black Panther’s number two spot, which Mamma Mia has firmly in its sights. Black Panther finished on £50.5m and so Mamma Mia should be dancing in to the queen position next week. And as your mother knows, if one of us digs deep in the next few weeks, Black Panther could be wondering why did it have to me be as Mamma Mia demonstrates that the winner takes it all.
Incredibles 2 saw a small increase of 3% to come in at third place. The Pixar sequel added £2.4m to reach a new total of £45m. The Parr family have stretched their way into the overall top 5 of 2018 in the UK, a feat which could be described as ‘incredible’ for a year filled with mega blockbusters.
Marvel’s smallest blockbuster of the year, Ant -Man & The Wasp, felt the sting in its second week, crawling three places down in to fourth spot this week. The film added £2.3m to take its total to £10.5m, which is a drop of 56%. The first Ant-Man finished on £16m.
The top five is completed by Tom Cruise’s latest audition tape for Jackass, Mission: Impossible – Fallout. The IMFers added £2m to take the film’s total to £17.4m. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation finished its run on £21.2m, so Fallout is close to hunting that figure down.
Outside of the top five, Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation fell to sixth place, adding £1.6m, and new entry The Darkest Minds opening in seventh with £388k.
Overall the box office is up 12% from last weekend and ranks 15th out of the latest 52 weekends. It is up 45% versus the same weekend last year, when Dunkirk maintained its position at No.1, dominating the chart for four weekends in a row.
Next Weekend
Disney’s Christopher Robin is a live-action take on the iconic children’s character. The young boy who embarked on countless adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood with his band of spirited and lovable stuffed animals, has grown up and lost his way.
The Equalizer 2 sees Denzel Washington return to one of his signature roles in the first sequel of his career. Robert McCall serves an unflinching justice for the exploited and oppressed - but how far will he go when that is someone he loves?
The Buzz
Crazy Rich Asians is a contemporary romantic comedy, based on a global bestseller, which follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's family. The film has been touted as a benchmark for diversity in Hollywood, and the reviews have been very positive, with Peter Travers writing in Rolling Stone “The film makes sure every extravagant detail pops, and some will probably dismiss this as an orgy for shopaholics, consigned to being a guilty pleasure at best. But why feel guilty around such irresistible fun?” Caroline Siede adds to this in her review for the AV Club, stating “Crazy Rich Asians joyously embraces a heightened aesthetic while keeping its story grounded in real emotional truth.” Crazy Rich Asians is released in UK cinemas on 2 November.
Across The Pond
Jason Statham punched his way into the top spot across the Atlantic, with The Meg opening with $45.4m, while Mission: Impossible – Fallout showed real staying power, dropping 45% and adding $19m to a new total of $161m. Disney’s Christopher Robin fell 47%, with $12.9m over the weekend taking its total to $50.5m. The rest of the top five was all made up of new entries, with internet-inspired horror Slender Man debuting at number 4 with $11m, and Spike Lee’s BlacKKKlansman debuting in fifth place with $10.8m