| Date | |
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| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinema |
The UK public clearly felt the need for Need For Speed this weekend, as it accelerated to the top of the box office. The video game adaptation grossed £2m, including £470k from Wednesday and Thursday previews, and although it was never going to achieve Fast & Furious business, that’s a solid start. It’s also a promising start to Aaron Paul’s (Breaking Bad) career as a big screen leading man and we’ll see him again next weekend in A Long Way Down. With both a 2D and 3D release, 49.3% of Need For Speed’s total was from 3D presentations.
Second spot was taken by The Grand Budapest Hotel, which fell just 9% once previews are removed to £1.3m. Wes Anderson’s previous highest grossing live-action film was The Royal Tenenbaums, with £3.3m in 2002 and The Grand Budapest Hotel has already raced past that and currently sits on £4.1m, with the promise of much more to come.
Last weekend’s top film 300: Rise of an Empire dropped to third, falling a chunky 56% to £1.2m and with a cume of £5.4m, it’s a long way off from the first 300’s final total of £14.5m. In fourth place, The Lego Movie added another £998k and crossed the £30m mark in the process. It’s comfortably the biggest grossing film of the year so far and I’d bet it’ll be a good few months yet before it’s overtaken. Non-Stop rounded out the top five, adding £901k for a cume of £6.9m. That’s more than both the first Taken (£6.4m) and Unknown (£6.5m).
At the lower end of the top 10, remarkable sci-fi thriller Under The Skin posted the weekend’s best location average of £5.1k, with a gross of £239k, including £32k from previews. A couple of other new entries failed to make the top 15, with The Zero Theorem posting one of director Terry Gilliam’s lowest ever openings with £51k (including £3.1k from previews) from 127 locations and Kickstarter funded TV spin-off, Veronica Mars grossing £34k from 11 locations. The weekend was down 24% from last weekend but up 36% from the same weekend last year, when the weather was not quite as pleasant.
Scarlett Johansson in character in Under The Skin
Next Weekend
Next weekend is the calm before the storm with Labor Day and A Long Way Down the biggest titles ahead of the release of the hugely anticipated Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Muppets Most Wanted the following week.
Also out on the 21st is brilliant but brutal British prison drama, Starred Up and Kevin Hart will be looking to see if he can capitalise on the success of Ride Along, with remake of 80s comedy-drama About Last Night.
The Buzz
Hype for Captain America: The Winter Soldier is in overdrive after the film previewed to rapturous audiences last week. DCM’s very own Exhibition Coordinator, Sabrina Parmar is a fully paid up member of the Marvel fan club but she proclaimed that “Marvel are onto another winner with this intriguing, action packed continuation”. It will have no trouble crossing the first Captain America’s £10.4m and will be looking to beat Thor: The Dark World’s final total of £20.1m. Buzz for Muppets Most Wanted is a little more muted but with The Lego Movie on its way out of cinemas, it should have no trouble attracting the family audience.
Across The Pond
Mr. Peabody and Sherman moved up one place to the top spot on its second weekend despite falling 34% to an $21.2m. It has now grossed a healthy $63.2m and it should get to $100m. Last weekend’s top film 300: Rise of an Empire fell a huge 58% to $19.1m and has now grossed $78.3m. The UK’s top film, Need for Speed could only open in third in the US, with $17.8m, which is lower than any Fast & Furious film. The audience was 70% male 55% over the age of 25. In fourth, Non-Stop grossed $10.6m for a cume of $68.8m. The top five was completed by Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club, which disappointed with $8.3m.
