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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Box Office Round-up
In the face of some long overdue glorious sunny weather, cinema put up a strong showing with The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It topping the box office with £2.7m, which includes £760k from previews after opening on Wednesday. Including bank holiday Monday, the horror sequel has already banked £3.1m. The first Conjuring film opened with £2.2m in 2013, so this is at a similar level to that, which is a great result. Both previous Conjuring films have crossed the £10m mark, a rare achievement for horror films.
Peter Rabbit 2 came in second, despite posting the best weekend total. From Friday to Sunday the family blockbuster added £2m, a drop of 46% from last week, which is impressive considering the weather. It then added a further £737k on Monday for a new total of £8.2m. With schools out this week for half-term, it should perform well from Tuesday to Friday too.
Disney’s Cruella came in third opening with £1.5m from Friday to Sunday and then adding £423k on Monday. That takes its total after four days in cinemas to £1.9m, which is a solid number considering it’s available at home to audiences on Disney+ too.
Anime hit the top five as Demon Slayer: Mugen Train followed its terrific US box office performance by opening in fourth. It was released around the UK on Wednesday and added £389k on Wednesday and Thursday, before adding £303k across the weekend. Including Monday it is now up to £744k. The last anime title to cross the £1m mark in the UK was Dragon Ball Super: Broly, released in January 2019, and Demon Slayer: Mugen Train has a great chance of reaching that milestone too. Godzilla Vs Kong rounded out the top five, adding £254k for a new total of £1.7m. It should be another title that has a half-term bounce.
Outside of the top five, both Nomadland and Spiral: From The Book Of Saw have grossed over £1m in sixth and seventh. Overall, the box office was down 14% from last weekend, although that’s because last weekend was heavily boosted by previews, with every film opening on the previous Monday.
Comscore isreporting that there were 652 cinemas open across the UK at the weekend, up from 579 last week.
Next Weekend
A Quiet Place Part II is the sequel to the dynamite 2018 thriller. Following the events at home, the Abbott family now face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats lurking beyond the sand path. It previewed on bank holiday Monday and is in cinemas on Thursday.
Dream Horse is a heart-warming British drama about an unlikely race horse bred by small-town Welsh bartender Jan Vokes. With no experience, Jan convinces her neighbors to chip in their earnings to help raise the horse in the hopes he can compete with the racing elites.
Land is the feature directorial debut of Robin Wright, who also stars. She plays a bereaved woman seeks out a new life, off the grid in Wyoming.
Across The Pond
On a great Memorial Day weekend, the box office in the US crossed the $100m mark for the first time in over a year. A Quiet Place Part II was the big winner, opening with a terrific $48.4m from Friday to Sunday and $57m for the four-day weekend. That’s the biggest opening for well over a year, beating Godzilla Vs. Kong’s $32m opening in March. After just four days it has almost overtaken Tenet’s US box office total. It’s performance is even more impressive when you consider most of Canada’s cinemas are still closed and US cinemas have capacity restrictions. Cruella came in second, opening with $21.3m from Friday to Sunday, and $26.5m including Monday. Spiral came in third, adding $2.3m from Friday to Sunday, and $2.9m for the four-day weekend. That takes its total to $19.8m. Guy Ritchie’s Wrath of Man came in fourth, adding $2.8m for the four-day weekend for a new total of $22.8m, and Raya and the Last Dragon rounded out the top five, adding $2.8m for a new total of $51.6m.