| Date | |
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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
DC Comics’ latest superhero blockbuster Aquaman opened in the top spot with £5.2m, which includes £1.4m from previews after opening on Wednesday. The last big film from DC Comics was November 2017’s Justice League, which opened with £7.2m and finished on £17.4m. With the Christmas holidays kicking off shortly, Aquaman is expected to hold up more strongly than Justice League and although it opened more quietly, it has a chance of matching its overall total.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse opened in second with £2.3m, which includes £1m from previews. This striking animation is one of the best reviewed superhero films of all-time and picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Film, but it doesn’t appear to be connecting with UK audiences in the same way it has with US audiences (see Across The Pond below).
The Grinch fell to third but posted the best hold of any film in the top 10, falling just 13% to £1.7m. That takes it over the £20m mark and it’s now on £21.7m. Ralph Breaks The Internet is going to need a great Christmas period to topple The Grinch as the biggest family animation this festive season.
Ralph Breaks The Internet came in fourth, falling 43% to £1.4m. That takes its total to £9.3m and the one advantage it has over The Grinch is the lack of a Christmas theme will stand it in good stead after Christmas and into January, and you’d expect The Grinch to drop off significantly after Christmas.
Another new entry, Mortal Engines completed the top five, opening with £1.3m, which includes £958k from previews. It’s Friday to Sunday total was just £311k, so don’t expect too much more from this Peter Jackson produced fantasy adventure.
Outside of the top five, one of the year’s big documentary successes Free Solo opened in ninth with £387k, which includes £251k from previews. This is the remarkable tale of climber Alex Honnold’s successful attempt at climbing the 3000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without any ropes. My palms are sweaty just typing this.
Overall, the box office was up 47% from last weekend and down 52% from the same weekend last year, when the top films were Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Paddington 2, Daddy’s Home 2 and Wonder.
Next Weekend
Mary Poppins Returns is the big film this Christmas, with Emily Blunt playing one of cinema’s most famous characters. Decades after her original visit, the magical nanny returns to help the Banks siblings and Michael's children through a difficult time in their lives.
The Buzz
The Mule is the latest film from 88-year-old Clint Eastwood, who directs, produces and stars. Eastwood plays a 90-year-old horticulturist and Korean War veteran who is caught transporting $3m worth of cocaine through Michigan for a Mexican drug cartel. It opened in the US on Friday and made a solid start (see below) and the critics were mostly kind to it. Indiewire called it a ‘soulful and deeply satisfying film — a fitting swansong, if ever there was one’, while the Los Angeles Times said ‘though the feeling sneaks up on you, The Mule has an unexpected emotional kick.’ In the UK, Little White Lies called it ‘a late-Clint classic’. It’s in cinemas on 25 January.
Across The Pond
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has managed to connect with a US audience, opening in the top spot with $35.4m, which is the largest three-day animated opening of all-time in the month of December. Clint Eastwood's The Mule opened in second with $17.5m, The Grinch came in third, adding $11.8m, which takes its total to $239.4m. Ralph Breaks the Internet fell to fourth, adding $9.7m and a new cume of $154.2m. Mortal Engines completed the top five, opening with $7.6m