| Date | |
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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
Marvel can do no wrong. Black Panther opened in the top spot with a huge £17.7m, including £7.2m from Tuesday to Thursday previews. The Friday to Sunday total of £10.5m is the fifth highest opening weekend for a Marvel title, behind The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers Assemble, Captain America: Civil War and Iron Man 3. In terms of origin stories, it’s the biggest debut and far exceeds the £5.5m Doctor Strange opened with in October 2016. Black Panther has also already surpassed the final total of 2015’s Ant-Man (£16.3m).
Last week’s top film, Fifty Shades Freed fell to second, adding £2.7m for a new cume of £13.4m. That’s a drop of 56% from last weekend and this time last year, Fifty Shades Darker fell 55%, so almost exactly the same amount.
BAFTA winner for Best Directing, The Shape Of Water opened in third with £2.5m. That figure includes previews, after it opened on Valentine’s Day and they amounted to £919k. Director, Guillermo Del Toro, has had mixed success in the UK with his last film, Crimson Peak only grossing £2.5m and his best performing film, Pacific Rim finishing on £8.4m. If he wins at the Oscars in a couple of weeks, The Shape Of Water could challenge Pacific Rim’s total.
The Greatest Showman still shows no sign of slowing down. It had yet another amazing hold, actually increasing on last weekend’s take by £1,472. That takes its total to £30.4m and this week it will overtake La La Land’s final total of £30.5m. With the sing-a-long version released nationwide this weekend, would anyone bet against it reaching £40m?
Coco completed the top five, increasing on last weekend by 15% to £1.4m. Thanks to a strong half-term week, the beautiful Pixar animation is now on £15.3m and has overtaken The Good Dinosaur’s final total of £15.2m.
Outside of the top five Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle had a good half term week and is now on a huge £37.2m, while BAFTA winners Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri will be looking for a boost to their current totals of £21.9m and £11.4m respectively.
Overall, the box office was up 90% from last weekend and up 53% from the same weekend last year, when the top films were.
Next Weekend
Finding Your Feet is a comedy starring Imelda Staunton, Joanna Lumley, Celia Imrie and Timothy Spall. On the eve of retirement a middle class, judgmental snob (Staunton) discovers her husband has been having an affair with her best friend and is forced into exile with her bohemian sister who lives on an impoverished inner-city council estate.
Both Lady Bird and I, Tonya go nationwide on Friday after limited releases last weekend.
The Buzz
Game Night is a comedy starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams as a couple who regularly meet friends for game nights and find themselves trying to solve a real-life murder mystery. The initial reviews are positive, with The Village Voice saying that it has ‘one of the tightest comedy scripts to make it to be the big screen in ages’, while The Wrap said it’s ‘fast and funny, filled with memorable characters’. It’s in cinemas on 3 March.
Across The Pond
Black Panther delivered an astounding $202m across the three-day weekend, the fifth largest opening weekend of all time. Peter Rabbit came in second, adding $17.5m, which takes its total to $48.5m. Last weekend’s top film, Fifty Shades Freed, fell to third, adding $17.3m for a new cume of $76.5m, while Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle had another great hold, adding $7.9m, which takes its total to a huge $377.6m. The 15:17 to Paris completed the top five, adding $7.6m for a new cume of $25.3m.