| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | box OfficeExhibitor News |
The Wolverine got his claws into the UK public this weekend, confirming the character’s popularity with audiences. A £4.7m start (including £939k from Thursday previews) may appear less than X-Men: First Class’ £5.6m opening, but that film had the benefit of one extra day and in terms of Friday to Sunday admissions, The Wolverine’s £3.8m comfortably beats First Class’ £3.4m. Over 45% of The Wolverine’s gross was from 3D presentations.
Monsters University fell one spot to second but actually improved on last weekend’s take by 11% to £3.1m. That improvement can be attributed to Friday being a school holiday but it’s still a very strong hold and bodes well for the rest of the summer break. The Pixar animation now has a cume of £15.5m with the promise of plenty more to come.
Despicable Me 2 experienced an even stronger hold, improving by 12% to £2.1m and a cume of £34.7m. Later this week Despicable should overtake Iron Man 3 to become the second biggest film of the year and Les Misérables year’s best total of £40.7m is under threat.
The World’s End fell to fourth, falling a light 33% to £1.4m and a cume of £5.4m. It’s not going to challenge Hot Fuzz’s final total (£21.1m) but it should have passed Shaun Of The Dead’s final total of £6.7m by this time next week.
Now You See Me completed the top five and continued its fantastic performance, easing just 5% to £880k and a cume of £9.1m. It should have the legs to cross the £10m make.
One other notable new entry was charming comedy Frances Ha which scored a hit for small distributor, Metrodome, opening with £151k (including £3.6k from previews). Overall the box office was up 38% from last weekend and 12% from the same weekend last year when the only major new entry was Dr.Seuss’ The Lorax.
In the US, The Wolverine opened with $55m which is about on par with 2011's X-Men: First Class ($55.1m). The audience was 58% male and 58% were 25 years of age or older.
In second place, The Conjuring fell 47% to $22.1m, which is a terrific hold for a horror film.
In third, Despicable Me 2 fell 36% to $16m and in the process became the sixth animated film ever to reach $300m. Turbo also held up well, falling 38% to $13.3m this weekend but has a relatively modest cume of $55.8m.
Grown Ups 2 completed the top 5 with $11.5m and it has become the 14th Adam Sandler film to cross the $100m mark with $101.7m.
