UK/US Box Office June 16th – 18th 2017 Week 25

Top 5 Breakdown

1. Wonder Woman – £1,868,607 – £16,297,127

Staying #1 for a third weekend down 46.5% Wonder Woman is the first film since Beauty and the Beast to stay number one for three weeks and The Lego Batman Movie.  Will lose top spot this weekend with the arrival of Transformers: The Last Knight.

Given the very positive reviews and strong word of mouth, Warner Bros must be slightly disappointed with Wonder Woman’s UK box office performance compared to the US. But its box office performance was affected by several non-film related events included the hot sunny weather for the past 10 days. While in the US Wonder Woman is close to overtaking Man of Steel’s total box office

Wonder Woman has overtaken the box office of recent DC films Green Lantern, Superman Returns and Batman Begins and Marvel comic-book movies The Incredible Hulk £8.2m, Thor £13.84m, Captain America: The First Avenger £9.21m,

Ant-Man £16.29m and will shortly overtake Iron Man £17.13m and depending on how it holds against Transformers: The Last Knight should also overtake Iron Man 2 £20.92m, Thor: The Dark World £19.71m, Captain America: The Winter Soldier £19.31m. Which would see the four DC Extended Universe films taking almost £100m at the UK box office.

Wonder Woman is currently the twelfth biggest film of 2017 and should become the tenth biggest by next weekend. But unlike in the US where Wonder Woman will overtake Man of Steel and probably Suicide Squad and Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice its slightly disappointing UK opening and then the weather since has stopped any chance of getting close to their UK totals.

Director Patty Jenkins shared a shared a note from a class of kindergartener’s reaction to watching Wonder Woman.

 

After the massive success both critically and at the box office, Warner Bros are eager to get a sequel into development as soon as possible. Sequels will always cost more to make but Wonder Woman 2 will be a lot more as Patty Jenkins hasn’t a deal for a sequel while Gal Gadot’s three picture deal runs out with Justice League; she received only getting paid $300,000 per film.

In 2006 Joss Whedon wrote a screenplay for Wonder Woman which was recently leaked to reveal that it was sexist and cringe-worthy which is surprising as he wrote the scripts for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and he has recently signed to write and direct the Batgirl film.

In Japan Hello Kitty is teaming up with Wonder Woman in its marketing campaign.

Wonder Woman was the most tweeted film of the year so far (up to June 8th) with 2.19 million tweets overtaking La La Land and Beauty and the Beast.

2. The Mummy £1,175,952 – £6,110,834

Dropping 66.5% in its second weekend which was expected after the film received negative reviews and poor word of mouth those two along with the hot weather over the weekend The Mummy was always going to drop heavily.

Much has been written about why The Mummy disappointed at the box office many pointing the finger at Tom Cruise being a control freak and were reports that he took control of the film’s production. But the problem with The Mummy was similar to so many films studios are far too busy setting up future installments of the films as with King Arthur they forget that they need a strong first film.

After Universal Pictures, previous attempt with 2014’s Dracula Untold to launch their Monster Extended Universe flopped Dracula Untold (opened October 2014 with £1.71m taking £4.5m) was massive pressure on The Mummy to launch their Dark Universe. Before the release of The Mummy, Universal Pictures had already announced the casting of several of the other characters that will be part of the series along with announcing the release date for their next film Bride of Frankenstein set for Valentine’s Day 2019.

The Mummy will overtake 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow and should overtake Tom Cruise’s last film Jack Reacher: Never Go Back £8.01m and 2012’s Jack Reacher £9.12m to become his bigger non-Mission Impossible film in the UK since 2013’s Oblivion.

The Mummy has overtaken final box office of The Scorpion King and Dracula Untold but its final total of about £9.5m will be 45% less than 1999’s The Mummy, 53% less than 2002’s The Mummy Returns and 37% less than 2004’s Van Helsing. But as average ticket prices have almost doubled since those three films were released must compare their admissions which are almost three times more than 2017’s The Mummy. 

As with Wonder Woman, its UK premiere was canceled after the terrorist attack at the end of Ariana Grande concert last month in Manchester both premieres would have generated much media coverage so would both opened stronger had they had a premiere?

Of course, after the terrorist attack in Manchester and then in London canceling the events made sense but were London premieres for Hampstead and Transformers: The Last Knight last week with the European premiere of Baby Driver this week. So, there is the thought that they should have still happened in solidarity for the victims of the attacks similar to Ariana Grande organizing her One Love Manchester charity concert two weeks after the terrorist attack at the end of her Manchester concert.

3. Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge – £737,391 – £17,389,506

Down 49.7% in its fourth weekend close to double the fourth-weekend drops of the other sequels taking over 50% less than At World’s End and On Stranger Tides, 71% less than Dead Man’s Chest and 63% less than The Curse of the Black Pearl took in their fourth weekends.

After four weeks Salazar’s Revenge total is 41% less than On Stranger Tides, 52% less than At World’s End, 55% less than Dead Man’s Chest and 3% less than The Curse of the Black Pearl but as it was released 14 years ago Salazar’s Revenge box office cannot be compared to it as it went on to take £28.1m which would be the equivalent of £48.1m today.

Salazar’s Revenge has taken $650m worldwide with only 23% of the box office coming from US which is close to many others this year including The Fate of the Furious and The Mummy which have underperformed in US and UK but thanks mostly to China the franchises will live to tell another story.

Salazar’s Revenge will shortly overtake the global box office of The Curse of the Black Pearl $654.3m but won’t become the $1 billion-grossing film many expected earlier this year. Salazar’s Revenge ending was set up for a sixth film but it’s unlikely to happen as it had a $230m budget and another $200m marketing taking $700m+ globally won’t be enough for Disney to make another.

Transformers: The Last Knight will likely be similar while it is likely to open close to the first film in the US $70m and £8m in the UK will likely take a third of its global box office from China which is why three Chinese companies have now taken a state in the film.

Disney’s next release is Thor: Ragnarok being more of an Avengers movie as Captain America: Civil War will likely perform far stronger than the previous two films. Disney has surprisingly delayed their Pixar Coco film to January to avoid Paddington 2 which leaves them with just Star Wars: The Last Jedi as their other remaining film for 2017.

4. Baywatch £514,301  – £8,073,582    

Down 55.1% in its third weekend is currently Paramount Pictures biggest film of the year but Transformers: The Last Knight if not sun affected could overtake Baywatch within 4 days on release.

Baywatch will end with £9m+ taking 51% of its total box office in its 7-day opening weekend which is slightly better than the 60% Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Warcraft did last year after also having 7-day openings. Despite receiving similar negative reviews Baywatch held far better than those two films which took £6m.

But 21 Jump Street the self-aware comedy Baywatch it was trying to take £9.9m in 2012 with the sequel taking £18.4m in June 2014. Baywatch will take more than Dwayne Johnson’s last comedy Central Intelligence £8.32m and Zac Efron’s Bad Neighbours 2 £6.22m.

5. Churchill -£392,732 – NE

After last week’s alternative content from the summer movies My Cousin Rachel, this weekend was shared between two films Churchill and Gifted both received mixed reviews and cannibalized each other over the weekend.

Had it not been for the weather Churchill would have probably had an opening similar to Viceroy’s House £0.92m and Their Finest £0.82m but instead it was similar to The Sense of Ending £0.32m.

In recent years, it’s become much harder for these types of films to find audiences in cinemas as they are often pulled from cinemas far too quickly by exhibitors which is probably why distributors now open films like Churchill so wide on 345 screens which gives it a very low screen average similarly Gifted opened on 323 screens and My Cousin Rachel is now on 501 screens would probably earn similar box office opening on a third fewer screens. Why so many of these types of films are being acquired by Netflix and Amazon as they can give them access to a much wider potential audience.

Both will be hoping to build over weekdays which these films normally perform better as My Cousin Rachel last weekend after opening with £0.63m took £1.29m for its week. But both films will likely suffer from the hottest temperatures of the year this week and then the arrival of Hampstead opening on Friday which will be looking to target a similar audience.

After Lionsgate started the year with the Oscar winner La La Land taking £30.4m and Hacksaw Ridge taking £5.48m while Their Finest did an ok £3.94m their other 2017 films to date have underperformed including Patriot’s Day and Power Rangers. Upcoming films include All Eyez on Me, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, American Assassin, My Little Pony, Saw: Legacy, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool and Wonder.

Other box office news

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £5,745,646 down 53.1% from last weekend £12,227,826

The weekend admissions 775,391 down 50.4% from last weekend 1,564,808  

The weekend was the worst of the last year and the lowest top 10 since September 30^th, 2011 when Abduction, The Debt and Shark Night 3D opened with top 10 total of £5,198,264;

11 films opened at weekend taking £942,382; Churchill took 41.6% (£392,732), Gifted 32.3% (£305,323) with the remaining 9 films sharing £244,327 (26.1%)

Wonder Woman took 32.5% of the top 10 box office

The weekend was down 33.1% from last year (£8,589,370): Conjuring 2 – £4.64m, Gods of Egypt £481,536, Barbershop 3: A Fresh Cut £91,502, The Keeping Room £25,839.

Down 63.8% from 2015: (£15,864,188): Take That Live £943,100, Mr Holmes £741,000, Entourage £603,000, The Longest Ride £418,086 opened.

Next weekend in 2016 (£17,743,825): The Secret Life of Pets £9,529,446, Independence Day: Resurgence £5,046,573, Elvis & Nixon £97,441, The Meddler £18,000.

 

UK Box Office Top 10

 

US Box Office Top 10

 

 

US Box Office

Disney – Cars 3 opened with $53.68m with the lowest opening of the film series; after taking $2.8m from Thursday previews many were expecting Cars 3 to open closer to $60m which would have been close to the first film released in 2006 opening with $60.1m while its sequel released 2011 opened with $66.1m; while receiving mixed reviews Cars 3 got A CinemaScore which all bar Cars 2 have received it got an A-.

It is the 16^th Pixar film to open #1 but Toy Story 2 and A Bug’s Life opened on limited release for one week and then opened wide as #1 in its second weekend.

Cars opening was 24.6% of its final box office Vs 34% for Cars 2; in 2006 Cars had limited competition from rival family films opening weeks after while Cars 2 opened three weeks before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallos Part 2 and Cars 3 opened two weeks before Despicable Me 3; Cars took $244.1m and Cars 2 took $191.4m.

As Cars 2 was replaced after a week #1 by Transformers: Dark of the Moon Cars 3 will similarly be replaced by Transformers: The Last Knights.

Cars 3 will be Pixar’s lowest grossing sequel currently Cars 2 but should gross more than its current lowest 2015’s The Good Dinosaur. Having the 14^th biggest opening for a Pixar film with Ratatouille, The Good Dinosaur, Toy Story and A Bug’s Life the four that had similar openings but of course three of them released over 10 years ago.

Next, for Pixar is original animation Coco followed by two sequels The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4 set for release in 2018 and 2019.

As with most Pixar summer films opens in the UK on July 14^th to open at the start of the summer holidays will be repeated again next year with The Incredibles 2 but i2019 Toy Story 4 will open same day in the UK as have dated The Lion King for July 19^th, 2019.

Warner Bros – Wonder Woman drops 29.5% taking $41.26m and $275.09m;

After three weeks on release has become 18^th biggest comic-book movie in the US overtaking Logan, Doctor Strange, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man and will overtake Man of Steel by next weekend with Iron Man 2, Iron Man, Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Guardians of the Galaxy in its sights. Will almost certainly become Warner Bros third biggest comic-book movie in the US behind The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight.

While Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opened 37.8% and Suicide Squad 22.8% bigger than Wonder Woman both were much more front-loaded as most comic-book movies are in recent years.

Has now taken $570m worldwide with $297.2m internationally; international box office is now bigger than The Wolverine $282.2m, Thor $268.2m and Iron Man $266.7m. Currently, #137 biggest film in the world and Warner Bros #20 should overtake Logan’s $617.4m climbing into the top 100 is a possibility depending on how it holds against Transformers: The Last Knight.

Lionsgate – All Eyez On Me – opens with $26.43m far stronger than expected after receiving very poor reviews but received A- CinemaScore; opening was lower than Friday estimates of $31.2m but still managed to open far bigger than tracking predicted but these films are so hard to predict as 2015’s Straight Outta Compton proved opening with $60.2m.

Universal Pictures – The Mummy – dropped 56.1% taking $14.51m and $57.12m total; after poor reviews and poor word of mouth the big drop was expected but it has taken almost $300m worldwide. Is #1 international film showing despite the negativity surrounding Tom Cruise he still a box office power globally and could the international performance save another franchise?

Entertainment Studios – 47 Meter Down – opens $11.2m opening slightly bigger than expected this shark movie had a decent debut but with a C CinemaScore won’t last that long in the chart.

Sony Pictures – Rough Night – opens with $8.04m; a very disappointing opening for the R-rated female comedy which tries very hard to be a female The Hangover instead it’s more Weekend at Bernie’s meets Very Bad Things. The script was on The Black List as Move That Body but studio but studio involvement turned it into generic titled Rough Night.

After dreadful trailers and poor reviews, Rough Night was always likely to have a disappointing opening but opening was still almost half it was being tracked to open with. In a strange coincidence Cars 2 opened same weekend as female comedy Bad Teacher in 2011 opening with $31.6m.

Universal Pictures release next month a similar themed Girl Trip which sees a group of women on a road trip to the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans which is expected to perform far stronger.

In a strange move, like 2014’s Sex Tape Sony Pictures moved its UK release from June to August a few weeks ago was likely done to avoid having two comedies opening over two weeks with Baby Driver opening June 28^th but killed its chance at the box office.

Focus Features – The Book of Henry opens with $1.42m from 579 screens; after receiving probably the worse reviews for a major film release this year. 

Opened June 23^rd

Opening UK

• Transformers: The Last Knight – Paramount Pictures

The fifth installment of the film series starring Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Turturro and directed by Michael Bay; having a fan event last Friday in London with its world premiere on June 18^th at the Odeon Leicester Square.

Much of the film was shot in the UK generating controversy when in September a scene was shot at Blenheim Palace dressed in Nazi swastika-draped to be Adolf Hitler headquarters.

Transformers: The Last Knight was 98% shot in IMAX 3D unlikely many 3D films which are retrofitted but with 3D admissions dropping off in recent years it’s unlikely to match the 57% of Transformers Age of Extinction opening weekend took in 3D/3D IMAX.

Paramount planning to have an extended Universe with sequels, prequels and spinoffs the first being released in 2018 with Transformers 6 dated for 2019 but Mark Wahlberg and director Michael Bay won’t return. He has said before previous Transformers films would be his last so he could still return but if he doesn’t will be interesting to see like Zack Snyder with DC films how a new director will take the film series. The first film apart from the misogynistic scenes featuring Megan Fox was an enjoyable film but the sequels were exhausting noise).

The first teaser was released on December 5th within 24 hours had been viewed 93.6 million views the third highest-viewed trailer of 2016, behind Beauty and the Beast 127.6 million and Fifty Shades Darker 114 million views in 24 hours. Superbowl trailer followed released February 5^th, 2017 and then a “female friendly” trailer was released in March with Beauty and the Beast.

Transformers opened with £8.7m (with £3.82m in previews).

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opened with £8.3m. 

Transformers: Dark of the Moon opened with £10.7m (with £4.2m in previews)

Transformers Age of Extinction opened with £11.7m in July 2014 (which was the biggest opening of the year up to July 2014) taking £8m from preview having a 9-day opening weekend only taking £3,689,312 from its official Fri-Sun.

The four Transformers films have taken over £115m at the UK box office Transformers: The Last Knight is expected to open with about £7m-£8m might be lower if the weather holds.

• Hampstead – eOne

Drama starring Diane Keaton, Brendan Gleeson, James Norton, Lesley Manville, Jason Watkins and Simon Callow and directed by Joel Hopkins. The film was received positive reviews and will be hoping to target older cinemagoers telling a similar true story as 2015’s The Lady in the Van which took £14.7m at the UK box office with trailers played with films like Viceroy’s House, Their Finest, My Cousin Rachel and Churchill will be looking to open with similarly £0.6-0.9m and close to those films will likely play stronger mid-week.

• The Book of Henry – Universal Pictures

Drama starring Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher, Jacob Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Lee Pace, Maddie Ziegler and Dean Norris and directed by Colin Trevorrow.

Colin Trevorrow was set to direct the film in 2015 but then in a twist of fate for him he was signed to direct Jurassic World and is currently directing the sequel and next year Star Wars Episode IX. After the negative critical response to The Book of Henry had he directed the film in 2015 it’s likely his directing career would have crashed out instead Disney will be more accepting of the failure of The Book of Henry than they were with Josh Trank who was signed to direct a Star Wars spin-off film before his Fantastic Four reboot flopped. 

Often studios would make rival films of rival stories as Disney and Warner have done with The Jungle Book and 20^th Century Fox and Disney will with their two different Winnie the Pooh stories one telling the story about A.A. Milne Goodbye Christopher Robin and the other will be a live-action reimagination.

It’s unusual that three indie directors would make similar films A Monster Calls directed by J. A. Bayona, Gifted by Marc Webb and The Book of Henry by Colin Trevorrow. While both A Monster Calls and The Book of Henry flopped they received completely different reviews A Monster Calls received critical acclaim as was Gifted while The Book of Henry was slated.

• The Graduate 50^th Anniversary

To celebrate the classic 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols and starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross the film has received a 4K restoration and will have a limited theatrical release.

Opening in the US

• Transformers: The Last Knight – Paramount Pictures

Ten years ago, the first Transformers opened which surprised many receiving positive reviews bar the issues of misogyny almost soft porn with some of the scenes featuring Megan Fox.

The sequels were poorly received critically but Paramount weren’t that concerned as the sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took over $80m more than the first film but then Transformers: Dark of the Moon took $50m less and then Transformers: Age of Extinction took $100m less but their international box office more than compensated for the drop in their US box office.

In 2007 the US/international box office split was 45% ($319.2m) Vs $55% ($390.4m) for the first Transformers film. In 2014 for Transformers: Age of Extinction the spit was US 22.2% ($245.4m) Vs 77.8% ($858.6m) internationally with China taking 30% more than the US $320m but of course what many forget with China is the rental is less than half the US so would have still made more from its US release.

Without the Chinese box office, the Transformers franchise would have stopped at the fourth film which would have pleased many as while the first film was enjoyable the sequels were long and exhausting.

The Transformers franchise has taken over $1.3 billion in the US and almost $3.8 billion worldwide; Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon are Paramount Pictures second and third biggest films in the US losing lucrative Marvel Cinematic Universe to Disney and Indiana Jones also to Disney after they brought Lucasfilm and also losing Dreamworks Animation to 20^th Century Fox (since been acquired by Universal Pictures) Paramount a few currently franchises in their library apart from Star Trek and Mission Impossible so it’s no wonder they have plans for an extended Universe for Transformers films with up to 14 films in development.  The first spin-off is set for release next June Bumblebee which will be followed by Transformers 6 in 2019 which Mark Wahlberg and director Michael Bay won’t be part of.

Transformers: The Last Knight is expected to open close to the first film in the US $70m+ and likely to take $180m+ but in China, it’s expected to take almost double $350m+.

With Despicable Me 3, Spider-Man: Homecoming, War for the Planet of the Apes, and Dunkirk opening over next four weeks it will likely drop heavily over the weeks after opening as Transformer films have become very front-loaded.

Since being the #1 studio in the US in 2011 the following five years they have been the lowest ranked studio while currently ahead of Sony Pictures (who have a far stronger remaining slate for 2017) all of Paramount’s films in 2017 have underperformed Baywatch, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, Ghost in the Shell and Rings. Their remaining films aren’t likely to spark up that much interest at the box office mother! Cloverfield 3, Suburbicon, Daddy’s Home 2 and Downsizing.

• The Big Sick – Lionsgate (opening on limited release)

Romantic comedy starring Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Adeel Akhtar and Anupam Kher and directed by Michael Showalter; received world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival where Amazon Studios acquired rights as with other films they have acquired Lionsgate would distribute theatrically; receive critically acclaim with many describing it as a potential summer sleeper being one of only a handful of original films released over the summer; opens on limited before going wide on July 14^th

• The Beguiled – Focus Features (opening on limited release)

Drama starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning and written and directed by Sofia Coppola based on the novel The Beguiled by Thomas P. Cullinan. It’s a remake of 1971 directed by Don Siegel starring Clint Eastwood French critics heralded his best performance of his career but the film underwhelmed at the box office.

The film premiered on May 24, 2017, at the Cannes Film Festival with Coppola winning Best Director award becoming only the second woman to do so the film received positive reviews Sofia Coppola highlighted the female empowerment angle which its social media marketing has also done also.