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The Weekend Round-up
- One of the 21st century’s biggest television shows Downton Abbey made a successful leap to the big screen this weekend, opening with £5.2m. That’s the tenth biggest opening of 2019 to date and while the sunny weather undoubtedly hit its box office this weekend – unusually Friday was Downton’s biggest day – it should have a long and fruitful run. Murder On The Orient Express opened with just under £5m and went on to gross £24.2m, so Downton Abbey will be hoping for a final total greater than that.
- It Chapter Two floated down to second and took a bit of a hit in the sunshine, falling 54% to £3.2m. That takes its total after 10 days in cinemas to £13.6m and it’s now comfortably the biggest horror film of 2019 to date, having overtaken Us’ final total of £10m. It’s still lagging some way behind the first film, which was on £21.2m at the same stage of its run.
- Hustlers was one of the weekend’s big success stories, opening with £1.4m. Jennifer Lopez has had a quiet time on the big screen recently but Hustlers delivered her second best live-action opening weekend, behind 2003’s Maid In Manhattan(£2.4m). It also marks a major success for distributor STX, who have had something of a tough time recently with their 2019 releases (Uglydolls, Ben Is Back, Second Act, The Upside) failing to make much of an impact with audiences, but Hustlers has just delivered their biggest opening ever in the UK.
- Once Upon A Time In Hollywood fell to fourth but added £558k, which takes its total to £19.8m. It will cross the £20m mark in the next few days and will be Quentin Tarantino’s first film to do so. It’s also now the fifth biggest film of Leonardo DiCaprio’s career, behind The Wolf Of Wall Street, The Revenant, Inception and Titanic.
- The Lion King completed the top five and defied the sun somewhat, falling just 36% to £440k. It is now up to £73.8m and will shortly overtake Toy Story 4 to become the eighth biggest film of all-time in the UK.
- Outside of the top five, Dora & The Lost City Of Gold has cracked the £5m mark in eighth and Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw cracked the £20m mark in 10th.
Overall the box office is down a 0.4% from last weekend and up 21% from the same weekend last year when the top films were The Predator, The Nun, Crazy Rich Asians and King Of Thieves.
Next Weekend
- Ad Astra is a sci-fi drama starring Brad Pitt as astronaut Roy McBride who undertakes a mission across an unforgiving solar system to uncover the truth about his missing father and his doomed expedition that now, 30 years later, threatens the universe. It’s in cinemas on Wednesday.
- Rambo: Last Blood sees Sylvester Stallone reprise one of his most famous roles as Rambo must confront his past and unearth his ruthless combat skills to exact revenge in a final mission. Its in cinemas on Thursday.
- The Kitchen is an action drama starring Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss as the wives of New York gangsters in Hell's Kitchen in the 1970s who continue to operate their husbands' rackets after they're locked up in prison.
- The Farewell is a drama about a Chinese family who discover their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decide to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies. It’s on limited release from Friday and then expands to more cinemas on 4 October.
The Buzz
The Aeronauts is a period adventure reuniting The Theory of Everything stars Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne as pilot Amelia Wren and scientist James Glaisher who find themselves in an epic fight for survival while attempting to make discoveries in a hot air balloon. It has recently played at both the Telluride and Toronto film festivals and it has received some glowing reviews. Screen International called it ‘a thrilling, action-packed, wide-vista yarn’, while The Hollywood Reporter said that it ‘achieves impressive elevation as a bracing and sympathetic account of two early and very different aviators’. It’s in UK cinemas on Wednesday, 6 November.
Across The Pond
It: Chapter Two held on to the top spot with $40.7m, a drop of 55% from last weekend. That takes its total after 10 days in cinemas to $153.8m. Hustlers made a sensational debut in second, kicking off its run with $33.2m. Angel Has Fallen added $4.4m in third, which takes its total to $60.3m, while Good Boys came in just behind, adding $4.3m for a new total of $73.3m. The Lion King completed top five, with $3.5m for a new total of $533.9m, making it the 12th biggest film in US history.