| Date | |
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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
The Secret Life of Pets has been highly anticipated ever since the ingenious first trailer was released over a year ago and it duly delivered, debuting with the biggest opening weekend for an animated film this year. With £9.5m, which included £3.8m from previews, it’s well on track to be one of the biggest family films of the year.
Independence Day: Resurgence opened on Thursday, and after four days in cinemas has banked £5.1m (including £944k from previews). The Friday to Sunday total of £4.1m is the eighth highest opening weekend of the year. The original Independence Day opened with a hefty £7m 20 years ago.
The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case had a strong second weekend, adding £1.6m. That’s a drop of just 44% once previews are removed and is extremely impressive for a horror film. It has now grossed £7.7m, making it the biggest horror film since the first The Conjuring.
Me Before You continued its terrific run, having the strongest hold in the top 10, falling 32% to £670k. That brings its total to £8m. The Nice Guys completed the top five, adding £203k for a new total of £3.5m.
Outside of the top five, the only other new entries were down in 14th and 15th, with Elvis & Nixon opening with £57k and Bollywood title Sardaaji 2 opening with £56k. Overall the box office was up 96% from last weekend.
Next Weekend
Central Intelligence opens on Wednesday 29 June and unites Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart in an action comedy from We’re The Millers director, Rawson Marshall Thurber. After he reunites with an old school pal through Facebook, a mild-mannered accountant (Hart) is lured into the world of international espionage. It’s proved a hit in the US, where it has grossed $69m in 10 days.
Absolutely Fabulous is the big screen debut of the hit sitcom, which pulled in over 9m viewers for its Christmas special in 2011. This time around Patsy (Joanna Lumley) and Edina (Jennifer Saunders) flee to Cannes after they are accused of killing Kate Moss. It opens on Friday 1 July.
The Buzz
The Shallows is a thriller starring Blake Lively as a surfer who, a mere 200 yards from shore, is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills. It’s directed by Jaume Collet Serra (Non-Stop, Unknown) and opened in the US this past weekend to an impressive $16.7m, considering its production budget was just $17m. Reviews were positive, too, with IndieWire saying “the action is visceral and immediate”, Time Out New York calling it “a tremendously entertaining bit of fluff” and The Guardian calling it “one of the more cleverly constructed B-movies in quite some time”. It’s out on 12 August.
Across The Pond
Finding Dory held on to the top spot, adding $73.2m, for a huge new cume of $286.6m. That’s the largest second weekend of all time for an animated film and the eighth largest second weekend of all time. It’s already the 13th highest-grossing animated film ever, after just 10 days in cinemas.
Independence Day: Resurgence opened in second with $41.6m. Central Intelligence added $18.4m in third and after 10 days in cinemas has now banked $69.3m. Blake Lively vs a shark thriller, The Shallows has a solid opening, kicking off its run with $16.7m in fourth and The Free State of Jones completed the top five, opening with $7.8m.