| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mia Blakeney |
Box Office Round-up
At the start of the year The Super Mario Bros. Movie looked like being, not just one of the biggest animated films of 2023, but the biggest of all 2023 films, and after six days in cinemas so it has proved. It opened on Wednesday and from Wednesday to Sunday it banked a terrific £15.7m (with £6.9m of that from Wednesday and Thursday). That’s the fourth highest opening for an animated title in history, behind Toy Story 3 (£21.2m), Shrek The Third (£16.6m) and Shrek 2 (£16.2m). Then on Bank Holiday Monday it had its busiest day yet, adding a further £4.1m for a six-day total of £19.8m. That means it has already surpassed Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania to become the third highest grossing film of 2023 to date, behind Avatar: The Way Of Water and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish. Universal Pictures are clearly the new kings of animation, having released in the past 14 months alone Sing 2, Minions 2: The Rise Of Gru, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish and now The Super Mario Bros. Movie. According to the first round of Film Monitor data, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has already delivered 5 16-34 adult TVRs.
Last weekend’s top film Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves fell to second but added £1.6m over the three-day weekend, and a further £761k on Monday for a new total of £8.2m. It’s now the 8th highest grossing film of 2023 to date and should be over £10m after next weekend.
John Wick: Chapter 4 added £1.3m, from Friday to Sunday, a drop of 50% from last weekend. It then added £463k on Monday for a new total of £13.4m. It is now comfortably the biggest film in the John Wick series having grossed £3m more than John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum.
Amazon Studios title, Air opened in fourth with £1.2m, which includes £367k from previews after it opened on Wednesday. It then had its best day to date on Bank Holiday Monday, adding £388k. That takes its total after six days in cinemas to £1.6m and Comscore’s PostTrak survey scored the film 4.5 stars so hopefully it will hold up well. Director Ben Affleck’s last film, 2017’s Live By Night, finished its run with £1.3m so Air has already surpassed that.
New entry, The Pope’s Exorcist opened in fifth with £707k from Friday to Sunday and it then added £214k on Monday for a four-day total of £921k. In October we had the similarly themed Prey For The Devil and that finished its run with £2.5m, and The Pope’s Exorcist looks like it will finish around a similar total.
Outside of the top five, Scream VI is now up to £7.4m in eighth and is new less than £200k behind last year’s Scream.
The box office is up 131% from last weekend and up 80% from the same weekend last year.
Next Weekend
Renfield, hot on the heels of Cocaine Bear, is another comedy-horror from Universal. Nicholas Hoult stars as Renfield, Dracula's henchman, who longs for a life away from the Count, his various demands, and all of the bloodshed that comes with them. Nicolas Cage stars as Dracula.
Suzume is the latest anime hit to launch in UK cinemas. It’s a modern action adventure road story where a 17-year-old girl named Suzume helps a mysterious young man close doors from the other side that are releasing disasters all over Japan.
Assassin Club is an action-thriller starring Henry Golding as an assassin who is given a contract to kill seven people around the world only to discover the targets are also assassins who have been hired to kill him. Daniela Melchior and Sam Neill co-star.
One Fine Morning is the latest film from Mia Hansen-Løve (Bergman Island, Things To Come). With a father suffering from neurodegenerative disease, a young woman lives with her eight-year-old daughter. While struggling to secure a decent nursing home, she runs into an unavailable friend with whom she embarks on an affair. Léa Seydoux stars.
The Buzz
Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny is the fifth film featuring one of cinema’s most iconic heroes. In 1969, Indiana Jones lives against the backdrop of the Space Race. Jones is uneasy over the fact that the U.S. government has recruited former Nazis to help beat the Soviet Union in the competition to make it to space. His goddaughter, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), accompanies him on his journey. Meanwhile, Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), a NASA member and ex-Nazi involved with the moon-landing program, wishes to make the world into a better place as he sees fit. The film has been confirmed to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May, over six weeks ahead of its release on 30 June, and Director, James Mangold has been confirmed to direct an upcoming Star Wars film, so Lucasfilm (who also produce Indiana Jones films) are obviously very pleased with his work on Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny. We’re forecasting it to be one of the biggest films of 2023 and deliver 15 16-34 adult TVRs.
Across The Pond
The Super Mario Bros. Movie smashed it in North America too, opening with a huge five-day total of $204.6m. John Wick Chapter 4 fell to second, adding $14.5m for a new total of $146.9m, while Air opened in third with $14.5m from Friday to Sunday and a five-day total of $20.2m after launching on Wednesday. Last weekend’s top film, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, fell to fourth adding $13.9m for a new total of $61.7m, and Scream VI completed the top five with $3.4m for a new total of $104m, making it the highest grossing film in the Scream series.