| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinemabox OfficeExhibitor News |
The Weekend Round-up (including Bank Holiday Monday takings)
Two generations of X-Men rolled back the years this weekend and posted a series best opening. X-Men: Days of Future Past’s Friday to Sunday total of £7.5m is even better than the débuts of X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, which opened with £7m and £7.1m respectively. Including Thursday previews and Bank Holiday Monday, Days of Future Past has already grossed £11.6m and is over half-way to overtaking X2’s series best final total of £20.7m.
Godzilla fell to second after adding £2.7m over the weekend and a further £910k on Monday. After 12 days in cinemas, the spectacular monster pic has grossed £12.7m. Bad Neighbours had a great weekend, falling just 13% to £1.2m and it also had a strong Monday, adding £376k. It now has a cume of £13.9m and is setting a strong target for the summer’s other big comedies.
Aside from X-Men, the week’s highest new entry was family offering, Postman Pat. Although it only added £775k over the weekend, a further £325k on Monday bodes well for the rest of half-term. One place below was Adam Sandler comedy, Blended with £689k and £954k including Monday. Sandler’s last family friendly film, Jack and Jill opened with £849k in 2012 and ended on £3.3m, which at this point would be a good result for Blended.
Overall the box office was up 68% from last weekend and down 6% from the same weekend last year, which saw The Hangover Part III and Epic open.
Next Weekend
Three major new releases open this week in Edge of Tomorrow, A Million Ways to Die in the West and Maleficent, which is in cinemas Thursday. Both A Million Ways… and Maleficent are embargoed until day of release, but the word on Edge of Tomorrow is that it’s very good. Four star reviews in both Total Film and Empire, along with positive reviews in most other publications bode well.
The Buzz
Both 22 Jump Street and The Fault In Our Stars are continuing to create strong early buzz. On a longer term note, the closing night film of the 'Directors' Fortnight' in Cannes was Pride, which is out in the UK on 12 September. The reviews were uniformly glowing and it’s reportedly a genuine crowd-pleaser. It’s shaping up to be September’s stand-out film.
The Fault in Our Stars
Across The Pond
X-Men: Days of Future Past opened with $90.8m over the three-day weekend and for the four-day Memorial Day weekend it has grossed $110.6m. That is the fifth highest Memorial Day weekend opening of all time. The audience was 56% male and 59% over the age of 25. In second place, Godzilla plummeted 67% to $30.9m ($38.4m for the four-day weekend) and to date has grossed $155.8m. Blended opened poorly with $14.3m ($17.7m four-day) and the audience was 56% female and 74% over the age of 25. In fourth place, Bad Neighbours fell 44% to $14m ($17.1m four-day) and has now grossed a strong cume of $116.8m. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 completed the top five with $7.8m ($10m four-day) for a cume of $187.1m.
