Paul’s UK Weekend Box Office Summary July 22th -24th

Top 5 Breakdown

The BFG £5,243,193 -NE

2D took £4,038,315 (77.1%)– 3D took £1,110,731 (21.1%) – 3D/IMAX £94,147 (1.7%)

After a massive media campaign which started in May with the world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and culminating with its London premiere in Leicester Square on July 17^th with a BFG Giant’s Land built in the middle of the square for members of the public to explore the day before the premiere. Attracted more than 7,000 people on Saturday and 2,5000 on Sunday as part of the premiere. The opening weekend was also Roald Dahl’s 100th birthday which generated much media coverage.

Was director Steven Spielberg’s third biggest three day opening in the UK behind 2005’s War Of The Worlds £8.64m and 2008’s Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull £12.22m. It is Steven Spielberg’s biggest since The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn in 2011 £6.76m which included £3.25m from previews.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	31^st July 2005	£7,972,168
James and the Giant Peach	18^th Aug 1996	£2,340,204
Matlida	19^th Jan 1997	n/a
Fantastic Mr Fox	23^rd Oct 2009	£1,517,312

Opening was very similar to Studiocanal’s Paddington £5.11m in November 2014 which opened with a similar huge marketing campaign both based on beloved British children’s books read by parents to their children over the last 30 years for The BFG (60 years for Paddington). Paddington went on to take £38m, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory £37.8m, Alice in Wonderland £42.5m, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe £44.4m.

Most people expected Star Trek Beyond to open top in the UK as it did in the US especially after The BFG disappointed in the US but the reason for its failure in the US was nothing to do with the film but due to opening so soon after Disney’s Finding Dory which was far more important to them.

Will be interesting to see how Finding Dory opens this weekend against the second weekend of The BFG. Likely open as with Ice Age: Collusion Course disappointing and The Secret Life of Pets playing out the summer is likely to be shared between The BFG and Finding Dory like lo open similar to last year’s Inside Out £7.3m. With summer holidays now on box office for The BFG and Finding Dory will be shared out across the week. With the arrival of Jason Bourne also will likely drop down to third.

eOne had a huge marketing campaign with promotion-tie ins with Save the Children, Visitlondon.com, The Roald Dahl Literary Estate, Bensons for Beds, Pizza Hut and Parcelforce. With merchandise licenced for apparel, toys, games, home, gift-wares, stationery and FMCG sold online and in-store.

eOne were the first company to make commercial use of Google’s Nearby Notifications placing 50 six-foot dream jars around London landmarks featuring the childhood dreams of celebrities including Steven Spielberg and Mark Rylance some of which were on display at the premiere.

With the school holidays just starting The BFG is likely to perform strongly over the next 6 weeks despite the arrival of Finding Dory this weekend.

Star Trek Beyond £4,718,051 -NE

2D took £3,011,552 (63.8%) – 3D took £1,068,651 (22.6%)-3D/IMAX £637,848 (13.5%)

After generating huge media coverage with its premiere at Comic-Con on July 22^nd along with surprisingly positive reviews as for me it was far inferior to previous instalments as it was silly rather than exciting and similar to Independence Day: Resurgence a popcorn movie which was instantly forgettable as soon as you left the cinema.

Failed to match the openings of the last two reboots; Star Trek £5.95m (including £872,000 from previews) in May 2009 and Star Trek into Darkness £8.43m 9including £1.57m from previews) in May 2013 both were boosted by previews and was surprising that neither The BFG or Star Trek Beyond opened on Thursday with school holidays starting on Thursday which would have increased their openings by £1m+.

Paramount Pictures strangely blamed its lower opening on the hot weather the issue was more the film wasn’t as good as previous films and unlike previous Star Trek films had a major release opening against it. Star Trek Beyond might of opened similar to Star Trek had it had previews. After it has become the norm for blockbusters to inflate their openings especially when there were two major films fighting for top spot neither film opened on Thursday but with Star Trek Beyond having its Comic-Con “world premiere” on Thursday made it impossible for it to open on Thursday.

2009’s Star Trek took £21.4m and its sequel Star Trek into Darkness in 2013 £25.8m Star Trek Beyond should take around £20m as benefits from summer holidays which the first two films didn’t have opening in May. But have to deal with Jason Bourne this weekend and Suicide Squad in two weeks’ time which will be targeting similar audience.

While Star Trek and Star Trek into Darkness and previous films are memorable there is little that will make Star Trek Beyond stand out from any other installment it just felt as so many film are today a remix of previous chapters rather than anything new maybe that’s why audiences enjoyed it as it played into the nostalgia of Star Trek. When I go to the cinema I want to experience something new from film series why was similarly as underwhelmed with Star Wars The Force Awakens. Audiences welcomed Spectre, Jurassic World, The Force Awakens and Star Trek Beyond as remixes but didn’t strangely for Independence Day: Resurgence which was no different than any of those other films.

Even with school holidays the arrival of Jason Bourne on Wednesday and Suicide Squad the following weekend will be tough competition with both aimed at similar male audiences.

For Star Trek in May 2009 and Star Trek into Darkness in May 2013 they were the only major releases opening which was similar to US. Star Trek Beyond had to deal with other major releases which affected its box office even though they weren’t films targeting at the same audience.

The Star Trek opening is still far bigger than Nemesis in January 2003 £2.71m Insurrection January 1999 £1.96m, First Contact December 1996 £2.35m and Generations February 1994 £2.04m.

This weekend will be similar to Star Trek into Darkness second weekend which had to deal with Fast & Furious 6 opening with £8.7m and The Great Gatsby with £4.1m with Jason Bourne and Finding Dory opening. Star Trek into Darkness dropped 56% taking £3.67m and £15.55m total a similar drop would see it take £2.07m in its second weekend.

Paramount Pictures already have plans for a Star Trek 4 featuring Captain Kirk meeting his dad which will likely be released in 2019.

Andre Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert – £1,408,251 – NE

Event Cinema concert screening with two screenings one on Saturday and Sunday nights with ticket prices over 66% at Vue to over 110% Cineworld Cinemas more than regular prices cannot be compared to regular releases. CinemaLive claimed it to be the highest-grossing music concert of all time in the UK with ticket prices of £20+ like Secret Cinema Dirty Dancing of £65 cannot be compared to other releases.

Up 23% from last year’s concert which screened in 460 cinemas but was only shown on one day Saturday 18^th July compared to two this year which will likely be ignored when people claim how Event Cinema is booming.

CinemaLive CEO & director, Peter Skillman, said today: “We are incredibly proud of André Rieu for breaking his own record once again at the UK and Irish box office. His cinema audience around the world continues to grow year on year, proving a fantastic example of how an Artist can form a meaningful, ongoing connection with fans through cinema, as well as being a viable revenue stream.”

André Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert had two screenings showing in 544 cinemas 18% more than last year’s concert which only played for one day along with the higher prices it’s very hard to compare the two but they have done of course.

I have questioned the longevity of Event Cinema comparing it to 3D with audiences happy to pay for 3D in the early years as they thought it added to their movie experience but most of the time they realised all it does is boost their tickets by a third showing again by The BFG and Star Trek Beyond openers 3D box office share far lower than 3D was for films several years ago.

Event Cinema screenings used to be unique special occasions now there are screenings almost every week so how long will audiences still be willing to pay up to double regular tickets to see these events. Of course to watch these events live would cost far more but it must be cheaper to screen these events in cinemas now there are so many being screened. The distributors would say the costs are very high to put these events on but they are similar to costs independent film distributors pay to licence regular films which don’t receive the same level of publicity Event Cinema screenings receive or the wide release.

Ghostbusters £1,316,144 -total £7,190,714

2D took £1,203,061 (91.4%) total – £5,375,475 (74.7%) – 3D took £113,083 (8.6%) – total £1,468,718 (20.4%)

Down 70.1% in its second weekend one positive Sony Pictures UK can have is its drop wasn’t as big as it might have been with Warcraft, The Huntsman and Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles 2 all having bigger second weekend drops but Ghostbusters second Friday was the start of the school holidays but theirs were regular Fridays after opening their Monday openings were during school holidays.

Biggest problem I had with the Ghostbusters reboot was original films played it seriously while reboot was in on the joke. The original films were funny but wasn’t a comedy but reboot just tried too hard. After all the nasty comments about the film which included creating a fake Leslie Jones Twitter account to spread hatred many felt they couldn’t dislike or criticise the film to be seen as they were agreeing with the trolling. But now two weeks after release the film has to be seen for what it is which is very disappointing.

When Ivan Reitman left the project after Harold Ramis death Sony approached Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to write and director who had just made The Lego Movie and 22 Jump Street that humour would have been perfect for Ghostbusters rather than going straight comedy with Paul Feig. Tonally from the start the reboot was wrong while the original Ghostbuster actors were comedians they weren’t in your face comic actors early on Emma Stone was talked about starring but she refused as didn’t want to be tied down to another franchise but the likes of Emma Stone and Anna Kendrick who can play straight comedy.

In December 1989 Ghostbusters 2 took 74% more than the reboot £2,290,516 in its third weekend having taken £3,920,186. It took at Odeon Leicester Square £61,650 in its second weekend when cheapest tickets were £5 the cheapest tickets to see Ghostbusters in 3D today is £18 260% more than 27 years ago. (would be very interesting to see what Ghostbusters did at the Odeon Leicester Square but individual cinema box office data is now very hard to come by). While the regularly average ticket price was £2.50 (UCI Whiteley’s opening price Ghostbusters 2 opened

in 1989 now its £9+ (but it is really nearer a third more) so while Ghostbusters reboot will overtake Ghostbusters 2 £8.3m UK box office by next weekend.

Over the next couple of weeks, it will overtake Paul Feig’s Spy which took £10m last year but won’t get anywhere near 2011’s Bridesmaids £23.02m which should have been the minimum Ghostbusters should have taken in the UK.

The Secret Life of Pets £1,207,712 – total £27,996,218

2D took £1,202,705 (99.6%) – total £25,418,979 (90.8%) – 3D took £5,006 (0.4%) – total £2,577,240 (9.2%)

Down 40.9% in its fifth weekend after five weeks Minions last year had taken £37.1m but The Secret Life of Pets cannot be compared to it as is an original animated film. But its cinema success as with last year’s Cinderella with Frozen Fever was helped by the Minions short that was attached.

No one expected The Secret Life of Pets to be as successful but was likely helped by the success of Zootropolis and the love of Toy Story movies which the film takes its inspiration from.

As with Minions last year being the first animated film out gave it the foundations which was also helped by 20^th Century Fox decision to have two weekends of previews of Ice Age: Collusion Course with the first in The Secret Life of Pets second weekend. The problem 20^th Century Fox had with Ice Age: Collusion Course was being sandwiched between The BFG and Finding Dory but they never expected The Secret Life of Pets to be its real competition.

With school holidays now started even with the arrival of The BFG last weekend and Finding Dory this weekend will likely add more than £5m over the weeks ahead as it drops down the charts.

Other box office news:

Dirty Dancing – Secret Cinema – £953,520 total £1.9m for six performances which was more than the £1.62m Dirty Dancing took in its 1987 original release ad its 20^th anniversary in 2007 £224,000 but of course cannot be compared as tickets were £65 for Secret Cinema compared with about £2 in 1987; the six screens of Secret Cinema had an audience of about 29,000 while about 800,000 would have gone to see Dirty Dancing in cinemas to take similar box office.

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Ice Age Collusion Course dropped a massive 84.8% in its second weekend including preview; writing was on the wall for the film after receiving poor reviews at the Sydney Film Festival on June 19, 2016 over a month before opening. Will almost certainly be the lowest grossing of the film series.

Ice Age	22 March 2002	£3.02m	£14.9m
Ice Age: The Meltdown	7 April 2006	£9.77m	£29.14m
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	1 July 2009	£7.63m	£34.55m
Ice Age: Continental Drift	13 July 2012	£10.08m	£29.11m

Then The Secret Life of pets despite receiving average reviews opened strongly and held far better than expected over the two weekends Ice Age: Collusion Course had which meant it was dead on arrival July 15^th against Ghostbusters. After the success of Zootropolis earlier this year along with the similarity with Toy Story The Secret Life of Pets also had its joker of Minions short. 20^th Century were forced to open it a couple weeks after to avoid going head-to-head with Finding Dory but in doing so opened far too close to The Secret Life of Pets.

After the failure of Independence Day: Resurgence and the disappointment of X-Men: Apocalypse at least had the surprise success of Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie. Remaining films for 2016 are all original films animated Trolls is their stand out autumn release but also have some that could surprise Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Morgan, Keeping Up with the Jones, Assassin’s Creed, Why Him? And Rules Don’t Apply 18 years after Warren Beatty’s last directed film the fabulous Bulworth hope the ensemble is similar and gets a chance at the box office.

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £16,044,946 up 5.1% from last weekend £15,261,672;

Weekend was up 56.5% from same weekend last year (£10,250,850) when Ant-Man – £3,982,785, Andre Rieu’s 2015 Concert £1,034,403, Bajrangi Bhaijaan £758,076 and The Gallows £334,369 opened.

Next weekend 2015: Inside Out £7,342,411 and Southpaw £1,661,543 opened.

June admissions were 19% down from 2015; The Secret Life of Pets, Independence Day: Resurgence, The Conjuring 2, Warcraft: The Beginning and Me Before You couldn’t match the success of last year’s Jurassic World, Minions and Spy in 2015.

After the first 6 months of 2016 admissions are 5% down from 2015 but 5% up from 2014, this weekend Finding Dory is likely to do similar to Inside Out last summer and Jason Bourne similar to Mission Impossible Rogue Nation. August 2016 looks more positive than 2015 with Suicide Squad and Life on the Road with The Shallows, Lights Out and Swallows and Amazons likely to do better than The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Straight Outta Compton.

Autumn 2015 top 10 biggest films in 2015 took over £360m at the box office.

Legend, The Martian, Hotel Transylvania, Everest Spectre, Mockingjay Part 2, The Lady in the Van, The Good Dinosaur, Star Wars The Force Awakens, Snoopy and Daddy’s Home.

Autumn 2016 top 10 biggest films

Bridget Jones Baby, The Girl on the Train, Inferno, Storks, Trolls, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Moana, Rogue One and Passengers.

But are unlikely to match the box office heights of last year even with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Rogue One both likely to do £80m+

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Complete UK Box office top 10 – July 22^nd-24^th 2016

Top 10 US Box Office

Paramount Pictures – Star Trek Beyond opens $59.6m; received A- CinemaScore and surprising positive reviews still failed to match the opening of previous instalments Star Trek $75.2m in 2009 and Star Trek into Darkness $70.1m in 2013; with Jason Bourne and Suicide Squad opening over the next two weeks targeting similar audiences will likely drop 50%+ in its second weekend and won’t get close to their final box office.

Universal – The Secret Life of Pets – dropped 42.3% – $29.3m – $60.7m;

Sony Pictures – Ghostbusters – dropped 53.1% – $21.6m – $86.8m; dropping similar to 1989’s Ghostbusters 2 likely to have a similar final box office of Ghostbusters 2 but the reboot has a budget of more than 500% more and ticket prices are also 250% more.

Warner Bros – Lights Out – opened $21.6m far more than expected; receiving B CinemaScore and positive reviews the $5m budget film has shown alongside The Conjuring 2 and Me Before You low budget films can still be a success.

20^th Century Fox – Ice Age: Collusion Course – opened $21m receiving B+ and mixed reviews suffered from opening so close to Finding Dory and The Secret Life of Pets.