| Date | |
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| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinemabox OfficemediaExhibitor News |
The UK box office saw an upturn this weekend with the top 15 up a whopping 97% from last weekend. Two films were responsible for the lion’s share of this increase, family animation Turbo and Tom Hanks' nail-biter, Captain Phillips.
Turbo opened with an impressive £3.9m, although £1.8m of that was from previews. That’s a bit better than Epic, which opened with £3.2m (including £1.4m from previews) in May. With half term week kicking off on Friday, Turbo should have plenty left in the tank.
Captain Phillips opened with a strong £3.5m (including £461k from previews). At a similar time last year another true-life drama, Argo, opened with £1.3m on its way to an £8m final total. Captain Phillips will have no trouble overhauling the Ben Affleck directed Oscar winner.
The film 80s action fans have been waiting for, Escape Plan, opened in third place with £961k. That’s far better than the Stallone and Schwarzenegger solo vehicles kicked off with earlier in the year.
After three strong weeks, acclaimed thriller, Prisoners finally showed signs of slowing down, falling 41% to £571k and a very impressive cume of £6.2m. Sunshine on Leith completed the top five with £470k and a decent cume of £3.2m.
One other particularly notable occurrence was Blue Jasmine, continuing its storming performance, crossing the £4m mark with a further £365k. When you consider Woody Allen’s previously highest grossing film was Midnight in Paris with just £2.8m, that’s a terrific result.
Overall the box office was down 25% from the same weekend last year, when Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted and Paranormal Activity 4 went on general release.
Across the pond, Gravity held on to the top spot with yet another strong hold, easing 28% to $31m. Word of mouth is proving huge for this one and after 17 days it has grossed $170.6m.
Captain Phillips stayed in second place with $17.3m, which is off 33% from last weekend and after 10 days has grossed $53.3m.
The highest new entry was horror remake Carrie, which opened in third place with $17m. In a good year for horror films, that’s a disappointing showing. The audience was 54% female and 56% under the age of 25.
In fourth spot, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 fell 27% to $10.1m and to date has grossed $93.1m.
Escape Plan rounded out the top five with $9.8m and the audience was 55% male and 61% over the age of 30.