| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
After months of discussion online and in the press, the new Ghostbusters finally opened last Monday and took the top spot at the box office, delivering £4.4m, which included £1.7m from Monday to Thursday previews.
Monday openings are still a relatively new thing, so comparisons are tricky but of recent Monday openings, that’s just behind The Conjuring 2 (£4.6m) and well in front of Now You See Me 2 (£3m). The great weather over the weekend will have affected the box office, so hopefully Ghostbusters can hold up well over the coming weeks.
After previewing the previous two weekends, Ice Age: Collision Course opened in second with £3.8m, which included £2.5m from the aforementioned previews. The last Ice Age film, Continental Drift, opened in early July 2012 with £10.1m, which included £5.3m from previews, and went on to cross the £30m mark, so this fifth instalment is going to need an amazing school holiday run.
After taking the top spot for three straight weeks, The Secret Life of Pets fell to third, adding £2.1m for a terrific cume of £25.7m. It has now overtaken Zootropolis to be the biggest animated film of the year to date, a title it will hold for a few weeks until Finding Dory is well into its run.
The Legend of Tarzan fell 46% in fourth to £1.5m, for a new cume of £6.7m. Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie completed the top five, adding £1.1m and now sits on a very healthy £13.2m.
Outside of the top five, there was a new entry in sixth for the latest Secret Cinema event. This time they’re taking on 80s classic Dirty Dancing and it has already grossed £946k in its first weekend.
The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case continues its terrific run and now sits on £10.7m. The only horror film in the last three years to come close to that total is The Conjuring, which finished on £10.5m.
Overall the box office was down 1% from last weekend and up 17% from the same weekend last year, when the top four films were Ant-Man, Minions, Ted 2 and Jurassic World.
Next Weekend
The BFG is Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the classic Roald Dahl book. Mark Rylance plays the title character and he’s joined by newcomer, Ruby Barnhill. The film will feature at the next DCM Tuesdays on 26 July.
Star Trek Beyond is the third entry in the re-booted series. The USS Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test. It has had some very positive reviews, with Empire and Time Out both giving it four stars.
The Buzz
Suicide Squad is one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the summer. Margot Robbie and Will Smith lead a band of imprisoned supervillains who are recruited by a secret government agency to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency. It has been generating huge buzz online and The Hollywood Reporter are reporting that it is tracking to open with $125m in the US. This would be a huge success, especially when you consider Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy opened with $94.3m in August 2014. Either way it bodes extremely well for its release in the UK on 5 August.
Across The Pond
The Secret Life of Pets finished in the top spot for the second weekend in a row, adding $50.8m for an impressive $203.4m. Ghostbusters came in second with $46m, which is the largest opening for both director Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy. The Legend of Tarzan added $11.5m in third, bringing its total to £103.4m. Finding Dory added $11m in fourth and its new total of $445.7m makes it the biggest grossing animated film of all time in the US. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates completed the top five, adding $7.6m for a new cume of $31.5m.