| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | box OfficeExhibitor News |
After Earth didn’t quite crash land but definitely struggled to take off this weekend as it debuted in the top spot with £2.2m. Although that’s relatively low for the former undisputed box office king, Will Smith, in terms of director M. Night Shyamalan’s recent output it’s his biggest opening since The Village in 2004 (£2.9m).
The Hangover Part III dropped a place and 61% to second, perhaps suffering due to the sunny weather. Despite that, a further £1.1m takes the comedy blockbuster to £16.2m. It is now almost certain to be the lowest performing film in the series but it’s still a respectable performance.
Fast & Furious 6 also experienced a big drop this weekend, falling 59% to £847k, however it crossed the £23m mark in the process and has already grossed almost £5m more than the previous entry in the series.
Epic was in fourth spot with £665k. The family animation now has a cume of £11.2m and has one more weekend before the blockbuster behemoth that is Despicable Me 2 is released and hoovers up most of the family admissions.
The Great Gatsby completed the top 5, experiencing the best hold of the big films, falling 49% to £658k and a cume of £13.6m. Although Moulin Rouge’s final total of £18.5m is out of reach, Gatsby is comfortably Baz Luhrmann’s second biggest film in the UK.
A few new entries made their bow in the lower end of the top 10, with Liberace biopic, Behind The Candelabra performing the best of them in eighth spot with £513k. The weekend’s biggest disappointment was The Last Exorcism: Part II, which could only manage a £116k opening, almost a tenth of the original Last Exorcism’s £1.1m opening in 2010.
Overall on a weekend of mostly sunny weather, the box office was down 32% from last weekend and 30% from the same weekend last year when Prometheus and Snow White And The Huntsman continued to perform strongly. With Man of Steel flying into cinemas on Friday, expect the box office to see a significant upturn from next weekend.
In the US, low budget horror The Purge debuted to an amazing $36.4m, which is an incredible result from a reported $3m production budget. In second place, Fast & Furious 6 dropped 44% to $19.8m and to date has grossed $202.9m. By next weekend it will have become the highest grossing film in the franchise.
Third spot was taken by Now You See Me, which fell 34% to $19.5m and now has a cume of $61.4m.
Big name comedy The Internship opened in fourth place with $18.1m and the audience was split evenly between men and women and 61% 25 and over. Epic completed the top five with $12.1m and after three weekends has grossed $84.2m.
