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The Weekend Round-Up
After a stunning opening last weekend, Black Panther duly delivered a terrific second weekend too. A total of £6.9m is a drop of just 35%, which is unusually strong for a superhero film. For comparison, of recent Marvel films, Thor: Ragnarok fell 36% on its second weekend, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 fell 54%, and Captain America: Civil War fell 67%. Black Panther is now up to £29.5m and the way it is going it is looking likely to overtake the biggest of those three films, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which finished on £41m. It’s also the biggest film released so far in 2018.
What more to say about the incredible The Greatest Showman? On its ninth weekend it again increased on last weekend, this time by 4% to £2m, thanks in part to sing-a-long showings. That takes its total to a huge £33.6m and it now looks like Les Misérables’ final total of £40.8m is in danger, something that looked impossible eight weeks ago.
After previewing on limited screens last weekend, Lady Bird expanded around the country and delivered £942k across the weekend, which added to the preview figures (£291k) totals £1.2m. With the potential for Oscar success next weekend, hopefully it will have a fruitful next few weeks.
Fifty Shades Freed came in third, falling 56% to £1.2m. That’s exactly the same drop that Fifty Shades Darker fell on its third weekend last year and takes its total to £16.2m. At the same point, Fifty Shades Darker had already crossed £20m, and it looks like that might be just out of reach for this final instalment.
I, Tonya completed the top five and, like Lady Bird, previewed last week on limited screen numbers and expanded nationwide on Friday. It added £835k across the weekend to add to the £215k from previews, for a total of £1m. Allison Janney’s expected Oscar win on Sunday for Best Supporting Actress will hopefully give it a boost next week.
Outside of the top five, Finding Your Feet kicked off its run with £923k. In terms of comparisons, Song For Marion was released on the same weekend in 2013 and also had a musical theme and that opened with £457k on its way to £2.1m.
Overall, the box office was down 43% from last weekend and up 33% from the same weekend last year, when the top films were The LEGO Batman Movie, Fifty Shades Darker, Sing and John Wick: Chapter 2.
Next Weekend
Red Sparrow is a thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence as ballerina Dominika Egorova, who is recruited to 'Sparrow School' a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. But her first mission, targeting a CIA agent, threatens to unravel the security of both nations. It’s in cinemas on Thursday.
Game Night is a comedy starring Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman and Kyle Chandler. A group of friends who meet regularly for game nights find themselves trying to solve a murder mystery. It opened in the US this past weekend to solid results (see below).
Monster Family is an animated comedy about the Wishbone family, who are far from happy. In an attempt to reconnect as a family, Mum and Emma plan a fun night out. However, her plan backfires when an evil witch curses them, and they're all turned into Monsters. The voice cast includes Emily Watson, Jason Isaacs and Nick Frost.
The Buzz
Isle Of Dogs is the latest film from Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Fantastic Mr. Fox). It’s a stop motion animation set in Japan, and follows a boy's odyssey in search of his dog. It was recently the opening night film at both the Berlin and Glasgow Film Festivals and the first reviews are now online. The Hollywood Reporter were particularly glowing in their praise, saying ‘the unique charm of Isle of Dogs is its bottomless vault of curios, its sly humor, playful graphic inserts and dexterous narrative detours’, Screen International said it’s ‘so lush with gorgeous detail it’s like a piece of highly-textured haute couture, there’s also a sharp social message behind the elaborate seams’ and The Guardian said ‘there is so much detail in the breakneck race from image to image that Isle of Dogs will reward multiple viewings as much as any Anderson film’. It’s in UK cinemas on 30 March.
Across The Pond
After an incredible opening weekend last week, Black Panther followed it up with $112m, the second biggest second weekend of all-time. That takes its total to $404m and it’s on the way to being one of the biggest films of all-time in the US. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams comedy, Game Night opened in second with a solid $17m and Peter Rabbit came in third with $12.8m, which takes its total to $71.5m. Annihilation opened in fourth with $11m and Fifty Shades Freed completed the top five, adding 7.1m for a new cume of $89.8m.