Paul’s UK Weekend Box Office Report October 7th -9th 2016

Top 5 Breakdown

1. The Girl on the Train – £6,957,945 – NE

After a huge marketing campaign which was mirrored on Gone Girl’s released two years ago from the look and style of the teaser trailer released in April and the trailer in July. While the novelist Paula Hawkins was unhappy with the comparisons the filmmakers knew by doing so they would be on to a winner as seen by the strength of its opening weekend despite mixed reviews and strong holding performance of Bridget Jones’s Baby in its fourth weekend.

The Girl on the Train was the film that people were talking about be it on the radio or social media the question will be now its opened and hype turns into word of mouth will audiences react to it in the coming weeks as strongly as they did with Gone Girl which had small drops in the weeks after opening.  While Inferno has also received mixed reviews being the third film of The Da Vinci Code is likely to have a £3m+ opening.

After taking £1.78m from previews on Wednesday and Thursday was always going to beat 2014’s Gone Girl opening of £4.1m; it’s interesting that similar to Bridget Jones’s Baby, The Girl on the Train opened far stronger in the UK than US was similar with Spectre last year that reviews were far better in the UK than the US as maybe audiences see them as British but they are as American as apple pie.

The big question will be how it holds over the coming weeks as Gone Girl dropped only 16% in its second weekend against three new arrivals The Maze Runner, Annabelle, and One Direction: Where We Are.

The Girl on the Train has second-weekend competition is Inferno the third film of The Da Vinci Code series previous films opened with £9m and £6m in 2006 and 2009 but Inferno is likely to be closer to £3m. If The Girl on the Train has a similar drop as Gone Girl second weekend would be £4m+ which is unlikely it is more likely to drop about 35% which could see them in a close battle for top spot. Storks also opens but after taking only £640,507 from previews a £2.5m+ opening is likely.

Similar to Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl), Emily Blunt started her acting career in UK TV dramas before her breakthrough role as Emily in The Devil Wears Prada in 2006 memorable roles in in The Young Victoria in 2009, The Adjustment Bureau in 2011, Looper in 2012, Edge of Tomorrow in 2013, Into the Woods in 2014 and Sicario in 2015 and has been cast as Mary Poppin in the Mary Poppins Returns which will be released December 2018 54 years after the original film. 

Director Tate Taylor’s The Help opened with £0.89m in October 2011 taking £3.9m and Get on Up in 2014 £110,000. Last October Emily Blunt starred in Sicario opening with £1.37m taking £4.62m, Into the Woods opened in 2015 with £2.48 taking £9.83m and Edge of Tomorrow opened with £1.88m taking £7.75m.

eOne box office for 2016 is already 75.1% ahead of its total box office for the whole of 2015 which was £37.79m. This year to date their box office is £66.18m with 45.4% from The BFG but Spotlight, Eye in the Sky and The Girl on the Train all have performed well; eOne’s biggest box office success in 2015 was Divergent: Insurgent £7.81m.

remaining films for eOne The Light Between Oceans after flopping last month in the US unlikely to do better in the UK; Arrival has received rave review after adult sci-fi films have been very successful in previous years with Interstellar and The Martian could Arrival do similar? Bad Santa 2 sequel to the cult 2003 film and Office Christmas Party.

For 2017 eOne currently doesn’t have any stand-out titles but do start the year with A Monster Calls which has received rave reviews at film festivals.

2. Bridget Jones’s Baby – £2,997,832 – £37,866,152

Down 36.7% in its fourth weekend similar to Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason in 2004 taking £3.09m down 40% in is third weekend taking £27.07m.

With Inferno opening this weekend is likely to have a similar drop as Edge of Reason did in its fourth weekend down 44% with £1.69m taking £30.57m and in its fifth weekend £863,219 taking £32.47m and in its sixth weekend £517,953 taking £33.6m; with the arrival of over those weekends Blade: Trinity with £2.63m, Phantom of Opera £1.2m and expansion of The Polar Express £2.13m and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events £2.21m. Bridget Jones’s Baby is likely to perform similarly with Inferno week five and Jack Reacher 2 and Doctor Strange in week six.

Has overtaken Suicide Squad, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Captain America: Civil War and will also shortly overtake Deadpool becoming the third biggest film of the year and Universal Pictures biggest film of 2016 overtaking The Secret Life of Pets.

Bridget Jones’s Baby has now overtaken the box office of 2004’s The Edge of Reason and will likely overtake 2001’s Bridget Jones Diary but is impossible to compare the performance of those two films by box office so admissions they compare using £4.14 average ticket price in 2001, £4.49 in 2004 and according to a survey last week £8.24 is the average cinema price for 2016.

Bridget Jones Diary – 6,379,922 (£26.41m)

Bridge Jones: Edge of Reason – 6,808,463 (£30.57m)

Bridget Jones’s Baby – 4,595,406 (£37.8m)

Bridget Jones’s Baby admissions after 24 days are 32% less than Edge of Reason and 27% less than Bridget Jones Diary. For Bridget Jones’s Baby to overtake Bridget Jones Diary would need to take £82.98m or 10,070,675 admissions and while Bridget Jones’s Baby might have overtaken Edge of Reason’s box office needs to take £66.06m or 8,017,817 admissions to match their success.

Universal Pictures UK have released 20 films in 2016 compared with 25 released last year which had taken £273.71m for the year and £268.1m this time last year total box office is down 42.2%. The Secret Life of Pets, Jason Bourne and Bridget Jones’s Baby have taken over 60% of their box office for 2016 to date £95.69m with their remaining releases for 2016 unlikely to spark much success at the box office American Honey, Ouija 2, Nocturnal Animals, Kevin Hart: What Now? and Almost Christmas.

2017 sees sequels to many of their hits from 2015 Fifty Shades Darker, Furious 8, Despicable Me 3 and Pitch Perfect 3 along with what many will think is a sequel to Zootropolis, Sing. 

 

3. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – £2,224,702 – £6,717,045

2D £1,739,688 – total £5,319,779 – 3D £243,879 – total £1,156,502

Down a decent 35.1% from its four-day opening last weekend despite mixed reviews likely to perform well over the coming two weeks and then into the half-term holidays despite the crowded marketplace.

Will shortly overtake Tim Burton’s previous film with Eva Green 2012’s Dark Shadows £7.12; while of course not reaching the heights of 2001’s Planet of the Apes, 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and 2010’s Alice in Wonderland if holds strongly in the coming weeks into half term should beat 1999’s Sleepy Hollow £9.88m and 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street £10.43m. But unlikely to get close to Jane Goldman’s first fantasy adventure screenplay 2007’s Stardust which was a strong perform in UK with £14.65m only taking $38.6m in the US.

20^th Century Fox had had a very mixed year starting so well with Oscar-winning The Revenant and the comic-book surprise Deadpool but then many of their expected hits X-Men: Apocalypse, Independence Day: Resurgence and Ice Age 5 failed to materialise but Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie surprised performing far better than other British  TV to film movies Dad’s Army and Life on the Road.

20th Century Fox box office for the year to date is £169.21m compared with £176.93m for the whole of 2015. The four remaining films should perform well at the box office Keeping Up with the Jones spy comedy, Trolls opening for half term has received positive reviews which should do far better than Storks, A United Kingdom, has received positive reviews after opening the London Film Festival and Why Him? after the success of Daddy’s Home last Christmas, the trailers look like it could appeal to similar audience. 

2017 includes Assassin Creed, Logan Wolverine sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, War of the Planet of the Apes, Alien: Covenant and the last two animated films from Dreamworks Animation before moving to Universal Pictures.

4. Deepwater Horizon – £987,694 – £3,823,467

2D took £706,989 – total £3,206,372 – IMAX took £138,164 – total £474,233

Down 50.2% in its second weekend must be a little disappointing after receiving positive reviews and strong word of mouth. Has become director Peter Berg’s third biggest film in the UK behind Hancock and Battleship.

Would have expected it to hold better with The Girl on the Train as Bridget Jones’s Baby having a high female demographic so Deepwater Horizon and The Magnificent Seven being men’s movies would attract the men.

While the last few years Lionsgate success has been centred around The Hunger Games films with Mockingjay Part 2 last year contributing 62% of their £46.68m box office for the year. Lionsgate films have taken £43.15m so far in 2016 with the box office split over several films including London Has Fallen £10.97m, Eddie the Eagle £8.62m and Dirty Grandpa £5.18m. Family film Molly Moon And The Incredible Book Of Hypnotism is Lionsgate’s last release of the year for Christmas.

2017 starts with film festival favourite La La Land followed by Patriots Day, Power Rangers (teaser trailer released last week), Wonder, Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Granite Mountain, Saw: Legacy and My Little Pony with so many sequels and reboots it’s great to see Lionsgate UK’s slate is original film heavy but does make them much harder to compete with the sequel, reboots and comic-book-heavy 2017 films from their rivals.

 

5. The Magnificent Seven – £511,539 – £5,371,104

2D took £451,254 – total £5,008,837 – IMAX took £2,464 – total £304,381

Dropping a similar 49.1% in its third weekend 27% more than 2014’s The Equalizer which took £620,025 in its third weekend having taken £5. (4.6%) more. After receiving The Magnificent Seven received far better reviews than The Equalizer along with the addition of the magnificent six to Denzel Washington including Chris Pratt would have expected The Magnificent Seven to perform far stronger.

After overtaking 2006’s Déjà Vu £4.94m but now unlikely to overtake his most recent biggest films 2014’s The Equalizer £6.80 and 2012’s Safe House £6.99m in which Denzel Washington starred with an ensemble similar to The Magnificent Seven which it should have beaten as while Ryan Reynolds after Deadpool is now more popular Safe House was shortly after Green Lantern while Chris Pratt is coming off Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World.

Sony Pictures UK remaining films of 2016 are Tom Hank’s Inferno after receiving poor reviews after its world premiere at the weekend unlikely to perform as previous films The Da Vinci Code in 2006 opening £9,501,444 taking £30,249,489 and sequel in 2009 with £6,054,627 taking £18,302,597. A Street Cat Named Bob in November might spark some interest after a busy half term leaving Passengers in December starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt as their big hope to have one big success in 2016 after last year Spectre taking £95m.

Sony Pictures UK has released 18 films to date in 2015 which have taken £56.18m which is only 36% of what their 29 films for the whole of 2015 took £154.82m. Spectre took a massive 61.4% of its box office for 2015 but they also had successes with Hotel Transylvania 2 and The Lady in the Van, their biggest success this year was Ghostbuster with £10.39m and Angry Birds with £10.31m currently the 23^rd and 24^th biggest films of 2016. While Inferno should take £10m+ Passengers is the big unknown the trailer has made it look like Titanic in space and could attract the non-Star Wars fans from Rogue One which opens days before.

2017 looks a more promising year starting with Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and then Trainspotting 2, 20 years after the first film the big question is can it live up to the hype and expectation as so many long in the works sequels have failed to manage. For years’ director Danny Boyle rejected the opportunity to do a sequel he rejected the chance to direct Alien: Resurrection (which was then the lowest grossing film of the Alien film series) in 1997 deciding to direct a Life Less Ordinary instead which flopped at the box office. He did produce 28 Weeks Later sequel to his 28 Days Later in 2007 and also rejected directing a James Bond film.

The Dark Tower, Baby Driver, Life, Spider-Man Homecoming, Jumanji, The Emoji Movie, Flatliners, Blade Runner 2 makes for a slate of films heavy on nostalgia. 

Other box office news:

The BFG – eOne – £68,835 – £30.05m – after 12 weeks becaming the ninth film of 2016 to take over £30m at the box office; It is Steven Spielberg’s fourth film to take over £30m in the UK Jurassic Park in 1993, The Lost World in 1997, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull in 2008, War of the Worlds in 2005 which it is now only £317,791 from overtaking. But of course, as cinema tickets are up over 63% since 2005 impossible to compare the two films box office as admissions are 6,447,514 Vs 3,964,463 The BFG is 38% less. But after many were predicting The BFG to fail as it did in the US and also managing to do it while Finding Dory was taking £42m showed up the importance of opening a film first.

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On Saturday, October 8^th UK box office passed £1 billion barrier 17 days quicker than 2015. Have been 9 £30m+ box office performers in 2016 The Jungle Book, Finding Dory, Bridget Jones’s Baby, Captain America: Civil War, Deadpool, Batman v Superman, The Secret Life Of Pets, Suicide Squad, Bridget Jones’s Baby and The BFG with at least three more likely Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Star Wars: Rogue One. But as those last two aren’t likely to match last year’s Spectre and Star Wars The Force Awakens 2015 Vs 2016 annual box office will be flat again as it has been since 2009; only increases coming from ticket price increases with Cinema Exhibitors Association admitting ticket prices are up 20% over the last 5 years while box office is up only 19%.

Also released

My Scientology Movie – Altitude – £106,720 from 26 screens

Blood Father – Warner Bros – 374,808 from 117 screens

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This weekend’s top 10 box office took £14,587,631 up 11.5% from last weekend £13,075,476; weekend admissions 1,769,978

Weekend was up 68.8% from same weekend last year (£8,641,237) when Sicario £1,374,398, Regression £214,489 and The Walk expanded taking £526,503 opened.

Next weekend in 2015: Hotel Transylvania 2 £6,302,576, Suffragette £2,931,131, Pan £2,730,832, Crimson Peak £964,356, The Lobster £218,214 and The Program £144,181 opened.

A recent survey said average ticket price was £8.24 (the same cost as 13 pints of cider) up from Cinema Exhibitors Association average ticket price of £7.21 for 2015 a 7.3% increase from 2014.   

Complete UK Box office top 10 – October 7^th – 9^th 2016

 

 

 

US Box Office

1. Universal Pictures – The Girl on the Train – opens with $24.6m; received B- CinemaScore; after receiving mixed reviews and being compared to Gone Girl which opened with 34.4% less than Gone Girl two years ago is unlikely to hold as strongly.

2. 20^th Century Fox – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – drops 48% – $15m – $51.1m; holding slightly better than Tim Burton’s previous film 2012’s Dark Shadows dropping 57.6% taking $12.5m and $50.7m and will shortly overtake Edward Scissorhands which took $56m in 1990; has overtaken Jane Goldman’s fantasy Stardust which took $38.6m in 2007.

3. Lionsgate – Deepwater Horizon – drops 41.9% – $11.7m – $38.5m; having a decent second-weekend drop which would be positive but for the huge budget the film has

4. Sony Pictures – Magnificent Seven – drops 41.4% – $9.1m – $75.9m; after opening slightly bigger than Denzel Washington’s last film The Equalizer but has now taken 4.9% less after 17 days.

5. Warner Bros – Storks – drops 37.3% – $8.4m – $50.1m;

6. Fox Searchlight – The Birth of a Nation – opens $7.1m; received A CinemaScore; after receiving its premiere at Sundance in January was in the middle of the Oscars So White storm creating massive hype and expectations building up to Searchlight paying $17.5m. But then in August new of Nate Parker’s rape resurfaced which he was acquitted. Is double standards with Nate Parker against many other famous directors who have had similar trouble and Roman Polanski who was found guilty of rape in 1977 but fled the US to Poland but has still made many films since and won Oscar in 2002 for The Pianist.  But probably the real reason why The Birth of a Nation disappointed was back in January at the time film premiered was the height of the Oscars So White campaign and here was a film Hollywood could show immediately they aren’t racist. Was surprising The Birth of A Nation opened immediately wide after similar films like 12 Years A Slave had a slow platform release but after the negativity surrounding the director not the film Fox Searchlight felt they had to open the film wide immediately. We will of course never known if the film would have performed better had it not been for the controversy surround its director.

7. Lionsgate – Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life– opened with $6.9m;

8. Warner Bros – Sully – drops 36.3% – $5.2m – $113.4m; has overtaken Tom Hanks 1992’s A League of Their Own and will shortly overtake 1988’s Big and 1998’s You’ve Got Mail; depending on how it holds in the coming weeks it could possibly overtake 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle, 2009’s Angels & Demons and 1999’s The Green Mile.

9. Relativity – Masterminds – drops 37.3% – $4.1m – $12.8m;

10. Disney – Queen of Katwe – drops 35.2% – $1.6m – $5.3m

Also opened in limited release

Bleecker Street – Denial – up 145.3% – adding 26 screens – $229,935 – $523,727 

A24 – American Honey – up 24.5% – adding 21 screens – $88,641 – $185,191 

Main opening Friday weekend predictions:

Opening UK

• Inferno – Sony Pictures

The second sequel to 2006’s The Da Vinci Code after 2009’s Angels & Demons based on novels by Dan Brown starring Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones and directed by Ron Howard. Sony Pictures originally developed The Lost Symbol as the third part of the film series in March 2012 before announcing in July 2013 were instead adapt Inferno instead.

The Da Vinci Code opened in May 2006 with £9,501,444 taking £30,249,489

Angels & Demons opened in May 2009 with £6,054,627 taking £18,302,597

The Da Vinci Code took $758m worldwide in 2006 and Angels & Demons in 2009, took in $486m.

Originally set for release December 18th, 2015, but was delayed to October 28th, 2016 to avoid opening against Star Wars: The Force Awakens. UK release date pushed forward two weeks to avoid opening against Doctor Strange but in doing so opens a week after The Girl on the Train which is unlikely to hold as well as Gone Girl did in its second weekend in 2014 dropping only 16% taking £3.058m and only 23% in its third weekend with £2.4m.

Received its world premiere on Saturday, October 8^th in Florence birthplace of Italian poet Dante Alighieri his 14th-century Divine Comedy Trilogy Inferno describes nine circles of suffering in hell which are examined by Langdon within the film.

Received mixed/poor reviews asking the question why Sony Pictures opted to open Inferno internationally first which was done due to Doctor Strange opening October 28^th. In doing so find themselves in the same situation as The Huntsman, Warcraft, and X-Men: Apocalypse with film reviewed three weeks earlier allowing negative buzz to build which will likely affect its US opening. Opening October 28^th in the US it also finds itself the fourth thriller opening in the month after The Girl on the Train, The Accountant, and Jack Reacher Never Go Back.

Last year’s Bridge of Spies as Tom Hanks first film since Captain Philips and Saving Mr. Banks which opened with £1.67m in November 2015 taking £7.79m. Saving Mr. Banks opened November 2013 with £0.79m taking £4.3m and Captain Philips opened October 16^th with £3.48m taking £15.5m Inferno is likely to perform similarly.

Upcoming for Tom Hanks is Clint Eastwood’s directed Sully in which he plays a similar character as James B. Donovan in Bridge of Spies but unlike the lycra wearing superheroes he is a regular guy without any powers who is far more a heroic than they are but as Sully says, “I don’t feel like a hero. I was just a man doing a job,” He then stars in The Circle with Emma Watson and then returns as Woody in Toy Story 4 in summer 2018 after the way Toy Story 3 perfectly ended the film series many were disappointed with the news of a fourth film audiences have to hope that the fourth film adds to the film series as the previous instalments have done.

Tom Hanks not including animation (Toy Story, Cars, The Simpsons Movie and The Polar Express)

Saving Private Ryan	11th September 1998	£2.70m	£18.74m
You’ve Got Mail	28th February 1999	£1.60m	£4.75m
The Green Mile	3rd March 2000	£1.26m	£6.68m
Castaway	12th January 2001	£2.80m	£14.41m
Road to Perdition	29th September 2002	£1.691m	£6.47m
Catch Me If You Can	31st January 2003	£3.72m	£14.62m
The Ladykillers	25th June 2004	£565,137	£2.03m
The Terminal	3rd September 2004	£1.45m	£6.23m
The Da Vinci Code	19th May 2006	£9.50m	£30.24m
Charlie Wilson’s War	11th January 2008	£1.33m	£4.29m
Angels & Demons	14th May 2009	£6.05m	£18.30m
Larry Crowne	1st July 2011	£346,486	£1.22m
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close	17th February 2012	£372,205	n/a
Cloud Atlas	22nd February 2013	£544,725	£1.16m
Captain Philips	16 October 2013	£3.48m	£15.5m
Saving Mr. Banks	29 November 2013	£0.79m	£4.3m
Bridge of Spies	27 November 2015	£1.67m	£7.79m
A Hologram for a King	20 May 2016	£0.37m	£0.78m

• Storks – Warner Bros

Animated adventure buddy comedy featuring voices Andy Samberg, Katie Crown, Kelsey Grammer, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Jennifer Aniston, Ty Burrell and Danny Trejo.

Originally set for release February 10th 2017 brought forward after The Lego Ninjago Movie delayed until next September. Storks will have the short The Master based on the Lego Ninjago.

Received mixed reviews when opened in the US last month having a disappointing opening compared with previous animated films opening late September in recent years. Has the short The Master based on Lego Ninjago was due for release this year but was delayed until next year.

The first of two animated films released for half-term Trolls opening the following weekend both likely to have previews the weekend earlier to inflate their opening weekends. When two similar genre films open close together the first film normally has the advantage but Trolls has had a slight advantage with Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling single released in May is part of the soundtrack the video has been viewed on YouTube over 213 million times.

While most genres of films have underperformed this year animation and original animation has been hugely successful this year with Finding Dory, The Secret Life of Pets, Zootropolis, Kung Fu Panda 3 and Angry Birds and others taking over £150m at the box office; animation will contribute about 15% of the UK box office for 2016 from only 15 films.

As with most animated films had weekend previews October 8^th/9^th which will be added to its opening weekend box office taking a disappointing £642,507 so will likely have a £2.5m opening weekend but also has to deal with Trolls having weekend previews opening the following weekend. Trolls received far better reviews than Storks and had the benefit of Justin Timberlake’s summer hit single Can’t Stop the Feeling which has been viewed almost 226 million times. Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick last month also promoted Trolls part of a promotional tour.

Kung Fu Panda 3	20th Century Fox	18th March 2016	£4.76m	£13.99m
Zootropolis	Disney	25th March 2016	£5.30m	£23.61m
Angry Birds	Sony Pictures	13th May 2016	£2.12m*	£10.31m
The Secret Life of Pets	Universal Pictures	24th June 2016	£9.58m	£34.95m
Ice Age 5	20th Century Fox	15th July 2016	£3.77m	£7.03m
Sausage Party	Sony Pictures	2nd September 2016	£2.67m	£7.58m**
Kubo and the Two Strings	Universal Pictures	9th September 2016	£0.84m	£2.73m**
Storks	Warner Bros	14th October 2016	n/a	n/a
Trolls	20th Century Fox	21st October 2016	n/a	n/a
Moana	Disney	2nd December 2016	n/a	n/a

Opening US Friday

• The Accountant – Warner Bros

Action thriller starring Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow and directed by Gavin O’Connor.

Last weekend was The Accountant had its US junket and reporter Sam Rubin publicly shamed Ben Affleck’s PR team for telling him to keep on topic during his junket interview as he was trying to ask Ben questions not relating to the film Sam said he has been to many junkets before so this shouldn’t be a new experience for him.

Also during the junket the Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick were being interviewed by MTV and the subject of Ben Affleck doing a Batman movie came up…

Removing Ben Affleck’s appearances in Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad it’s his first lead role since 2014’s Gone Girl.

Gone Girl	3rd October 2014	$37.5m	$166.1m
Runner Runner	4th October 2013	$7.7m	$19.3m
Argo	12 October 2012	$19.4m	$136.1m
The Town	17th September 2010	$23.8m	$92.2m
State of Play	17th April 2009	$14.1m	$37.1m
Hollywoodland	8th September 2006	$5.9m	$14.4m
Surviving Christmas	22nd October 2004	$4.4m	$11.6m
Jersey Girl	26th March 2004	$8.3m	$25.2m
Paycheck	25th December 2003	$13.4m	$53.7m
Gigli	1st August 2003	$3.7m	$6.1m
Daredevil	14th February 2003	$40.3m	$102.5m
The Sum of All Fears	31st May 2002	$31.2m	$118.9m

 With The Accountant, Ben Affleck is at a similar point of his acting career he was in 2003 after starring in Pearl Harbour, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Changing Lanes, The Sum of All Fears and Daredevil. In 2016 Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and previous Gone Girl, Runner Runner, To The Wonder, Argo, The Company Men and The Town.  But while Ben Affleck had Gigli failure after his comic-book appearance in Daredevil in 2016 after a cameo in Suicide Squad and starring in Batman Vs Superman The Accountant is will have a far stronger opening similar to the opening of The Town in 2010 of $23.8m.

Warner Bros delayed the release of The Accountant from January 29^th, 2016 to October to avoid Deadpool and autumn is a far better release date for this type of film but does face competition from similar audience demographics Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and Inferno open the next two weeks but first film out of the genre normally has the advantage. Reviews have been mixed 

Next for Ben Affleck is Live By Night which was originally set for October 2017 release being brought forward in June to January 2017 with an Oscar qualifying opening on December 25^th.  

In November 2017 he stars in DC’s Justice League and then is due to star in a remake of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution.

 

• Kevin Hart: What Now? – Universal  

Stand-up comedy film starring comedian Kevin Hart filmed live at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on August 30th, 2015.

After starring in two films (Ride Along 2 and Central Intelligence) and one animated film (The Secret Life of Pets) this year Kevin Hart is one of the biggest stars of 2016 with the three films taken almost $600m. Kevin Hart goes back to stand-up in What Now? With his third stand-up film, his two previous films were released when he was a supporting actor in Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain released in 2011 and Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain in 2013 opening with $1.9m and $10.3m. Kevin Hart has become a much bigger star since gaining many more fans but stand-up comedy films are likely to target his immediate fan-base rather than of his films so an opening of $12-15m is expected but as there have been few comedies released in recent months Kevin Hart: What Now? could be alternative to the all the dramas released in recent weeks

Kevin Hart: What Now? Is being released at Kevin Hart’s high point of his acting career with Central Intelligence, Ride Along 2, Get Hard, The Wedding Ringer. Similar to Eddie Murphy in 1987 with Raw which opened with $9.1m after starring in three of his biggest films of his career 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop, 1986’s The Golden Child and 1987’s Beverly Hills Cop 2 which opened with $15.2m $11.5m and $26.3m going on to take $234m, $79m and $153m. Eddie Murphy’s Raw which opened 29 years ago is still the biggest ever stand-up comedy film released in the US.