| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinemabox Office |
The Weekend Round-up
Maleficent enchanted the UK public this weekend, comfortably taking the top spot. The Disney fantasy grossed £6.6m, which included £2.7m from previews. Its Friday to Sunday total of £3.8m is bigger than both Oz: The Great and Powerful (£3.7m) and Snow White and the Huntsman’s (£2.6m) opening weekend and both those films went on to cross the £15m mark, which suggests that Maleficent should too.
X-Men: Days of Future Past had a steep drop in second, falling 53% (once previews are removed) to £3.5m and a cume of £19.5m, which already puts it above X-Men: The Last Stand (£19.2m) after just 11 days in cinemas. Tom Cruise sci-fi Edge of Tomorrow opened in third spot with £1.9m, falling short in comparison to last year’s Oblivion which opened with £5m, which included £1.6m from previews. Seth Macfarlane’s A Million Ways To Die In The West took the fourth spot with £1.2m, despite Macfarlane’s previous film Ted opening with £9.3m (including £3.4m from previews) in August 2012 and that Ted had featured very heavily in the marketing of A Million Ways To Die In The West.
Godzilla completed the top five, falling a hefty 64% to £982k for a cume of £15.5m. One other notable new entry was Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall, which opened with £132k, which included £4k from previews. Loach’s last film, Angels Share opened with £256k (including £30k from previews) in June 2012 and went on to gross £2m, so hopefully Jimmy’s Hall has a way to go yet.
Overall the box office up 30% from the same weekend last year, when The Hangover Part III topped the box office and The Purge was the highest new entry.
Next Weekend
22 Jump Street is the major release next weekend and directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller will be looking to cement their reputation as the hottest comedy directors in the world. Also opening is Grace of Monaco, which will be hoping the reviews from its Cannes opening slot won’t have hurt its box office chances.
The Buzz
Oculus opens in two weeks and has received a four star review in this month’s Empire magazine. How To Train Your Dragon 2 previews from the 15th and the early reviews suggest it’s a worthy successor to the original.
Across The Pond
Disney's Maleficent grossed $70m to comfortably top the box office. That’s the biggest debut ever for star Angelina Jolie and the audience was 60% female and 51% over the age of 25. Families accounted for 45% of attendance. In second place, X-Men: Days of Future Past fell 64% to $32.6m and to date, it has grossed $162.1m. In third place, Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West opened with a disappointing $17.1m and the audience was 55% male 72% over 25 years of age. Godzilla was in fourth after falling 61% to $12.2m and to date, has earned $174.7m. Blended completed the top five with $8.4m for a cume of $29.6m.
