| Date | |
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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
The Secret Life of Pets made it three weeks at the top, as it held off a spirited challenge from The Legend of Tarzan. The Illumination animation fell just 24% to £3.6m, taking its total to £22.3m. In the next week it will overtake Zootropolis (£23.8m) to become the biggest animation of 2016 to date, a title it will only hold for a few weeks as Finding Dory is let loose in UK cinemas on 29 July.
The Legend of Tarzan was the highest new entry in second as it kicked off its run with £3.6m, which included £809k from previews.
Now You See Me 2 opened last Monday and after seven days in cinemas it has grossed £3m (including £1.4m from previews), enough to take it to third in this week’s chart. That’s very similar to the £2.9m (including £1.1m from previews) that the first film opened with in 2013 but that film held up extremely well on its way to £11.2m, so this sequel will have to experience similar holds if it wants to get close to that total.
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie had a decent hold in fourth, falling 43% to £2.3m. After ten days in cinemas it has now grossed £9.8m, which is enough to take it past the lifetime total of Dad’s Army (£8.5m).
Central Intelligence completed the top five, adding £1.3m, which brings its total to £5.7m.
Outside of the top five, Bollywood title, Sultan, opened in sixth with £1m (including £445k from previews). That’s the best Friday to Sunday opening for a Bollywood title since Bajrangi Bhaijaan opened with £758k almost a year ago.
There were two other new entries in the lower reaches of the top 15, as Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon opened with £127k in ninth and Maggie’s Plan opened with £103k in 11th.
Overall the box office was up 6% from last weekend and up 21% from the same weekend last year, when the top four films were Minions, Ted 2, Jurassic World and Terminator: Genisys.
Next Weekend
Ghostbusters opened on Monday and we’re pleased to say that the reviews are very positive, with The Telegraph, The Guardian and Time Out all awarding it four stars. Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon are the new team to save New York from a paranormal threat.
Ice Age: Collision Course is the fifth film in Blue Sky Animation’s big franchise. This time around Manny, Diego, and Sid join up with Buck to fend off a meteor strike that would destroy the world. The last two films in the series grossed over £30m in the UK.
Keanu stars US comedy duo Key and Peele (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) as friends who hatch a plot to retrieve a stolen kitten by posing as drug dealers for a street gang.
The Buzz
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates stars Zac Efron and Adam Devine as two hard-partying brothers who place an online ad to find the perfect dates for their sister's Hawaiian wedding. Hoping for a wild getaway, the boys instead find themselves out-hustled by the uncontrollable duo (Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick). It opened in the US this past weekend with a respectable $16.6m and some critics were very positive about it. The Guardian went with four stars, particularly praising Plaza saying she ’has found her Ron Burgundy: the vessel of a true imbecile in which to pour her strange genius’. IndieWire said it ‘may not be the first Apatow-era comedy about twentysomethings coming to grips with the fact that they won’t live forever… but it might just be one of the funniest.’ It’s out in the UK on 10 August.
Across The Pond
The Secret Life of Pets opened in the top spot with $104.4m, the biggest opening ever for an original animation and only the sixth animated film ever to open above $100m. The Legend of Tarzan had a solid hold in second, falling 46% to $21m, bringing its total to $81.8m. Finding Dory fell to third, but after adding $20.8m, it became Pixar’s biggest film of all time in the US, and it sits just $19m behind the biggest animated film Shrek 2 ($441.2m). Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates opened in fourth with $16.6m and The Purge: Election Year completed the top five, adding $12.4m for a new cume of $58.8m.