| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
The Weekend Round-up
The Girl on the Train stayed in the top spot for a second week, holding off the challenge from a host of literary adaptations. The Emily Blunt thriller fell just 34% to £3.4m and after its second weekend has now banked £13.7m. If it continues on its current trajectory, it will beat Gone Girl’s final total of £22.6m.
Inferno opened in second with £3m. It’s the third adaptation from Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series and while the last one, Angels & Demons, opened with £5.1m in 2009, it’s still a solid result for Inferno.
Animated comedy Storks, opened in third with £2.2m, which included £974k from previews last weekend. It will be expecting to have its busiest period during the half term week, starting next Monday.
Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary Performance was in cinemas for one night only on Sunday and it was enough to land in fourth with £2m.
Bridget Jones’s Baby fell to fifth but continued its remarkable run. This weekend it fell just 37% to £1.9m which brings its total to £42m. Later this week it will overtake Finding Dory to become the second biggest film of 2016 and it looks like it could overtake The Jungle Book’s £46.2m to become the biggest film of 2016 to date. A sensational result.
Outside of the top five, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children had a strong hold in sixth, adding £1.3m. It has now grossed £8.8m.
One new entry landed in the lower reaches of the top 10. American Honey opened with £175k from 101 locations, which included £30k from previews.
Overall the box office was up 2% from last weekend and down 16% from the same weekend last year, when the top four films were Hotel Transylvania 2, Suffragette, Pan and The Martian.
Next Weekend
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back sees Tom Cruise return as the enigmatic former marine who must uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy in order to clear his name. On the run as a fugitive from the law, Reacher uncovers a potential secret from his past that could change his life forever. The last Reacher film grossed £9.5m in 2012.
Trolls is a brand new animation about trolls. It has music and lots of colour and should prove a hit with half term audiences. It also performed well in previews on Saturday and Sunday, grossing just over £2m.
Ouija: Origin Of Evil is a sequel to the 2014 horror that banked £3.5m in the UK. The sequel is set in 1967 Los Angeles, where a widowed mother and her two daughters add a new stunt to bolster their seance scam business and unwittingly invite authentic evil into their home. It’s the major horror title scheduled for Halloween, so hopefully it can outperform its predecessor.
Queen of Katwe is the tale of Phiona, a Ugandan girl who sees her world rapidly change after being introduced to the game of chess. Also starring David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong’o, it was well received when it played as the Virgin Atlantic Gala at the London Film Festival.
Keeping Up with The Joneses stars Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher as a suburban couple who become embroiled in an international espionage plot when they discover that their seemingly perfect new neighbours (Jon Hamm, Gal Gadot) are government spies. It’s directed by Greg Mottola, who directed Superbad and Paul.
I, Daniel Blake is the latest drama from British filmmaking legend Ken Loach. Dave Johns stars as Daniel Blake, a middle aged carpenter who requires state welfare after injuring himself, and is joined by a single mother in a similar scenario. It won the most prestigious award on the festival circuit, the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The Buzz
One of the most anticipated films of awards season made its festival bow at the New York Film Festival on Friday night. Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk has been the source of much excitement, thanks to its eclectic cast, big name director and potentially ground-breaking use of higher frame rate technology.
Ang Lee is no stranger to technical boundary pushing with his last release, Life Of Pi, being one of the films to utilise 3D most effectively on its way to grossing £30m in the UK. It’s out in the UK on 6 January and the trailer looks great.
Across The Pond
The Accountant opened in the top spot with $24.7m and the audience was 58% male and 86% was over the age of 25. Kevin Hart: What Now is a stand-up comedy concert film from one of the most popular and hardworking comedians in the US. It opened in second with $12m, which is the highest opening ever for a stand-up comedy film. Last week’s number one, The Girl on the Train, fell 51% to $12m in third, and after 10 days in cinemas has now banked $46.6m. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children opened in fourth with $8.9m, which brings its total to $65.8m and Deepwater Horizon completed the top five, adding $6.4m for a new cume of $49.3m.