UK Box Office November 26th-28th 2021

1. House of Gucci    – £2,425,627   – NE

640^th biggest opening in the UK between Coraline and Maid In Manhattan (close to The Shape of Water, The Social Network, First Man and Apollo 13) and 907^th biggest inflation inflated opening between You, Me and Depree and Slumdog Millionaire (close to Casino, Valkyrie, Jojo Rabbit and Jackie Brown).

77^th biggest Universal Pictures film between Coraline and First Man (close to Straight Outta Compton, American Gangster, Public Enemies and Get Out) and 88^th biggest inflation inflated between Step Up 3 and Couples Retreat.

Its opening has been seen as strong but it’s only when you see the films it shares opening with seeing that its opening isn’t as strong as it looks as in a strange coincidence House of Gucci opened similar to First Man (£2,415,330) which opened disappointingly the week after A Star Is Born in 2018.  

Also opened similar to Annie, Ghost in the Shell, Dark Shadows, The Predator, Knight & Day and Passengers all films that were seen as disappointing when they opened but since cinemas reopened analysts have seemed to have lowered their expectations on what these films should do, but after No Time To Die taking almost what it would have done two years ago why are all other films coming short?

As all of the films that have opened since May have opened about a third less than they should have done and taken a third less. UK BO for 2021 is expected to be about £600m with about 20% from No Time To Die while they are estimating 2022 will take £900m 30% down from 2019 surely after No Time To Die has shown that audiences have returned to cinemas and admissions for October were the highest since 2012 why aren’t audiences returning to pre-pandemic numbers for other films? As exhibitors talk about a “strong and stable film slate” now but if these films don’t perform as they expect they will blame the poor BO on weak content.

It was surprising House of Gucci didn’t open on Wednesday as it would have benefited far more having a five-day opening than Encanto did. The other strange coincidence it opened similar to Maid in Manhattan and The Bodyguard two other films that had female singers in leading roles (Jennifer Lopez and Whitney Huston) and also Moulin Rouge.

House of Gucci is Lady Gaga second-leading film after 2018’s Oscar-winning and box office hit A Star Is Born, but in that film, she was playing a character similar to herself but House of Gucci is a very different iconic role.

A Star Is Born opened third October 5th with £4,100,196 including £1,020,096 previews (Fri-Sun £3,083,089) from 526 screens behind Venom #1 £8,031,342 and #2 Johnny English Strikes Again £4,117,692, but with strong word of mouth was #1 in its second weekend taking £3,083,089 and £9,595,670 in 612 screens dropped 25% (without previews 0% drop) with Venom #2 and Johnny English Strikes Again #3; holding #1 taking £2,883,000 and £14,874,834 down 7% in its third weekend in 663 screens.

Dropped #2 in the fourth weekend with £2,150,987 and £19,238,711 down 25% in 634 screens against Bohemian Rhapsody opening #1 with £9,530,463 from 659 screens (£3,054,530 previews); stayed in top 5 for 7 weeks and top 10 for 9 weeks taking £29,299,129.

It’s hard to find a comparison to House of Gucci as it’s different to true crime dramas American Gangster (£2,564,853 inflation inflated £3,666,978), Casino and Good Fellas. While fashion-based 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada opened £3,267,580 including £1,057,535 previews (£4,844,338 inflation inflated) taking £13,681,185 (£20,282,989 inflation inflated)

2014’s American Hustle opened £3,467,644 (including £1,105,367 previews) taking £13,096,887

Opened similar to Ridley Scott films 2014’s Exodus: Gods and Kings opened £2,607,453 taking £7,529,032; 2007’s American Gangster opened £2,564,853 taking £9,336,495 and 2005’s Kingdom of Heaven opened £2,530,445 taking £7,755,814

Other recent Ridley Scott directed films include

2021’s The Last Duel opened £325,033 taking £859,877

2017’s All the Money in the World opened £1,161,476 taking £3,176,255

2015’s The Martian opened £6,531,734 taking £23,578,878

2014’s Exodus: Gods and Kings opened £2,607,453 taking £7,529,032

2013’s The Counsellor opened £815,051 taking £1,855,158

2010’s Robin Hood opened £5,750,332 taking £15,381,416

2008’s Body of Lies opened £991,979 taking £2,859,641

Had similar opening to 1992’s The Bodyguard £2,348,330 (£5,281,914 inflation inflated) taking £17,001,069 (£38,239,165 inflation inflated); 2018’s Molly’s Game £2,283,420 (including £1,149,871 previews) taking £3,788,031)

And also Oscar contenders Knives Out (£2,937,305); Black Swan (£2,762,429); The Imitation Game (£2,742,725); Bram Stokers Dracula (£2,640,000); Gangs of New York (£2,622,748); 12 Years a Slave (£2,511,349); The Social Network (£2,486,454); Jerry Maguire (£2,481,239); The Shape of Water (£2,466,217); Jojo Rabbit (£2,415,233); Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (£2,361,782); The Departed (£2,298,313); The Truman Show (£2,210,999); 127 Hours (£2,168,570); The Post (£2,152,977); The Iron Lady (£2,151,368); The Fighter (£2,118,140).

But as with A Star Is Born with the film starring Lady Gaga should have opened ahead of these films comparable to The Impossible (£4,034,470); The Favourite (£3,973,975); War Horse (£3,944,746); Braveheart (£3,764,431); The Theory of Everything (£3,749,293); Catch Me If You Can (£3,720,957); Life of Pi (£3,610,604); Little Women (£3,578,877); Gladiator (£3,555,446); The King’s Speech (£3,523,102); Captain Phillips (£3,483,981); American Hustle (£3,467,644).

But older audiences probably didn’t come out to see it, while they came out to see No Time To Die last month and probably saw the trailer for House of Gucci before it they didn’t go to see it over opening weekend, maybe the reason was also as reviews were mixed they didn’t see it as a must-see film in cinemas.

House of Gucci is Succession with even more exotic global locations and based on a true story but as with Spencer and The Crown will audiences come out to see House of Gucci when they can watch Succession and Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story at home?

Ridley Scott also directed The Last Duel opened 6 weeks ago but failed to find an audience in a crowded marketplace. House of Gucci will be Ridley Scott’s 16th film he has directed over the last 20 years and produced many more films and TV shows including The Good Wife, The Good Fight, The Man in the High Castle, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile

Received strong media coverage since had its world premiere in London on November 9^th with Lady Gaga and Adam Driver in attendance and Ridley Scott generated much media coverage after his comments over comic books and his reasons why The Last Duel failed to find an audience in cinemas. In an interview for Deadline, he said “The best films are driven by the characters, and we’ll come to superheroes after this if you want, because I’ll crush it. I’ll fucking crush it. They’re fucking boring as shit,” … “comic-book scripts are not any fucking good.” This predictably generated much anger from MCU fans on social media.

He followed that up by blaming the failure of The Last Duel on millennials saying “I think what it boils down to — what we’ve got today [are] the audiences who were brought up on these fucking cell phones. The millennian do not ever want to be taught anything unless you are told it on the cell phone,” Scott continued. “This is a broad stroke, but I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook. There is a misdirection that has happened where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think.”

Rather than Disney’s marketing or dating, saying “No. Disney did a fantastic promotion job…The bosses loved the movie — because I was concerned it was not for them — but they really liked the movie, so their advertising, publicity, et cetera, was excellent.”

There were multiple reasons why The Last Duel failed to find an audience, the first being the industry failed to deal with what their research told them 18 months ago that older audiences would be much slower to return to cinemas than younger audiences. The US hasn’t had a film that breaks through the demographics as James Bond does in the UK. This is why all tent poles have taken similar BO hasn’t been a breakout hit in the US and won’t for some time.

Why didn’t Disney move The Last Duel in June when Warner moved Dune to October, the problem was they couldn’t as with House of Gucci opening in November and with Dune opening in Europe in September The Last Duel was forced to be sandwiched between No Time To Die and Dune. Premiering The Last Duel at Venice Film Festival also damaged the film (as it did for Dear Evan Hanson at Toronto) as festival critics are far harsher than regular audiences seen by The Last Duel getting far better reviews from local critics, but by then the damage was done.

The last problem was The Last Duel was as all Ridley Scott films one to be seen on the biggest screens but opening on October 15 it was dumped into the small screens of cinemas so audiences didn’t get to experience the film as critics did.

It was a twist of fate for Ridley Scott as all the buzz leading up to the release in September 2015 was for Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk but then The Martian gazumped it after the premiere at Toronto Film Festival. While The Walk premiered at New York Film Festival at the end of September, by then the damage was done when the two films opened the same weekend.

The damage was done for The Last Duel in June when Warner Bros split its global opening of Dune with selected Europe September 17^th after Venice Film Festival World premiere with US and UK opening October 22^nd. As with House of Gucci already dated in November, it meant The Last Duel couldn’t open any earlier or any later and was stuck being sandwiched between No Time To Die and Dune in the US (Venom 2 and Dune in the UK). The final nail in The Last Duel coffin was having its world premiere at Venice Film Festival as film festival critics are much more critical than regular critics gave The Last Duel far worse reviews than it got from local critics but by then the damage was done.

2. Ghostbuster Afterlife – £2,099,374 – £7,413,854

Down 51.3% in the second weekend (44.2% without previews)

384th biggest second weekend between Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and My Best Friend’s Wedding (close to The Meg, Shazam!, Sherlock Holmes and Independence Day: Resurgence) and 559^th biggest inflation second weekend between Music and Lyrics and The Break-Up (close to Jumper, Rush Hour, National Treasure 2 and Pokemon: The First Movie);

Took £779,326 more than 2016’s Ghostbusters (£1,320,048) in its second weekend (Ghostbusters dropped 69.92% (51% not including previews) in its second weekend from 680 screens dropping from #1 to #4 due to new openers The BFG #1 £5,288,529; #2 Star Trek Beyond £4,740,040; #3 Andre Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert £1,414,075.

Jason Reitman directed Oscar-nominated Juno (opened £2,002,120 taking £9,240,584) and Up in the Air (opened £1,298,023 taking £5,580,729) in 2007 and 2009 but his films since have disappointed at the box office 2011’s Young Adult, 2013’s Labor Day, 2014’s Men, Women & Children, 2018’s Tully and The Front Runner. Ghostbuster Afterlife was a very different film for him to direct if it wasn’t for the nepotism Ivan Reitman is his dad he would have probably never been allowed to direct the film.

Ghostbusters Afterlife shares a similar plot as Disney’s Star Wars trilogy with Phoebe’s connection to the past similar to Rey, as she is the granddaughter of Egon Spengler who dies at the start of the film why the film is titled Ghostbuster Afterlife (many felt that was bad taste as Harold Ramis who played Egon Spengler in the first two films died in 2014) and he returns as a ghost in several scenes teaching Phoebe they ways of being a Ghostbuster. The other issue many had with the Ghostbusters was similar to The Last Jedi when Kylo Ren kills Snoke early on in the film and in Ghostbusters Afterlife Ivo Shandor appears but is killed by Gozer before finding anything more about him. As with The Last Jedi with Palpatine bringing back Gozer who died in the first film lessens

1989’s Ghostbusters 2 took £8.3m (£25.71m inflation inflated); while Ghostbusters opened December 1984 taking £12.4m (£48m inflation inflated average ticket price £1.90).

Ghostbusters Afterlife second weekend was similar to 2014’s 22 Jump Street opening with £2,255,100 and £7,516,403 taking £18,322,998

In December 1989 Ghostbusters 2 took 74% more than the reboot of £2,290,516 in its third weekend having taken £3,920,186; took at Odeon Leicester Square £61,650 at its second weekend when tickets were £5 tickets; tickets were 260% more in 2016 for Ghostbusters in 3D (£18) and 350% more for Ghostbusters Afterlife (£22.50). The regularly average ticket price in 1989 was £2.50 (UCI Whiteley’s opening price Ghostbusters 2 opened in 1989).

3. Encanto £1,720,132 – NE

Took £192,018 from previews on Wednesday #4 and Thursday #5; showing it was a poor decision to hold previews on Weds/Thurs Encanto opening was 6.32% of US opening compared to 16.82% for House of Gucci.

932^nd biggest opening between The Dukes of Hazzard and America’s Sweethearts (close to Hotel Transylvania, Monster Trucks, Stuart Little and Happy Feet 2); 950th biggest Fri-Sun between Star Wars:  Phantom Menace 3D and Magic Mike XXL and 1,192^nd biggest inflation inflated opening between The Number 23 and Gemini Man (close to Racing Stripes, Corpse Bride, Penguins of Madagascar and ParaNorman).

131^st biggest animated opening between Hotel Transylvania and Open Season (close to Planes, Dr Seuss’ The Lorax, Rango and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs).

Buzz on Disney’s Encanto has been very soft for weeks likely and reviews have been mixed but did expect it to open similar to 2018’s Coco £2,893,764 Fri-Sun (£5,209,214 including £2,315,450 previews). It was surprising the film opened on Wednesday rather than Friday, opens in the US on Wednesday due to Thanksgiving on Thursday but as Weds/Thurs are normal school days children are unlikely to go to see it until Friday with the weekend the strongest as it will be until school holidays start in three weeks.

Encanto is the first original animated film Disney opened in November 2015 with The Good Dinosaur opening with £2,926,448 taking £14,810,130. While Disney released Ron’s Gone Wrong in October (was made by Locksmith Animation for 20th Century Fox) it’s their first Disney produced animated film since Frozen 2 in 2019 (£15,088,012) and original Disney produced animated film since Onward in March 2020 just before the first lockdown. (opened £3,419,500 including £800,000 previews, one of the lowest openings for Disney in the UK (despite this the industry didn’t believe COVID was affecting BO in March 2020) taking £7,308,920 (it returned to cinemas after they reopened in July 2020).

It used to be Disney would hold back their Thanksgiving animated films to February half-term in the UK or delay them a week so their openings can have a weekend of previews so surprising Disney opted to go day and date especially as while Encanto has a 30-day theatrical window in the US internationally its longer. In the US Encanto is released on Disney+ on December 24th.

Normally November family film openings are slow burners having long legs (Paddington) playing throughout December and into January but Encanto has a 30-day theatrical window released on Disney+ on December 24th. Saying that as seen with other children’s films they still find an audience in cinemas after being released on VOD.

Encanto was the big family film for Christmas the only other Clifford The Big Red Dog opening in two weeks is unlikely to generate much interest beyond tweens.

After Disney’s record-breaking 2019 BO this year’s slate it feels like Disney were focused far more o streaming than theatrical with the majority of their films or this year delayed from last year and all co falling short, with Cruella, Black Widow and Shang-Chi and then Eternals and now Encanto. The only positive coming from 20^th Century Fox with Free Guy, again another film that was delayed.

4. Eternals £586,304 – £13,871,120

Down 51.8% in its fourth weekend; 10th biggest film of the year between The Suicide Squad and Space Jam 2.

Had 21^st biggest MCU fourth weekend in the UK between Thor: The Dark World (£722,811) and Ant-Man (£565,319); similar to Thor (£528,701) and Iron Man 2 (£523,266); the 14^th biggest 4^th-weekend drop between Captain America: Civil War (-52%); Ant-Man (-50%) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (-59.2%) close to Avengers: Endgame (-49%) Captain Marvel (-48%)

439th biggest film in the UK between American Pie and Thor (close to 300, Lucy, True Lies and Mr and Mrs Smith) and 673rd biggest film in the UK between Maverick and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (close to Kick-Ass, Deep Blue Sea, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Wanted).

59^th biggest comic-book movie between The Suicide Squad and Thor (close to Batman and Robin, X-Men, Kick-Ass and Birds of Prey) and 68^th biggest inflation inflated comic-book movie between Kick-Ass and The Hulk (close to Blade 2, Justice League, Superman IV and The Incredible Hulk).

Eternals will be the lowest-grossing Disney MCU and the lowest-grossing MCU since 2011’s Thor. The three MCU films released by Disney this year (Black Widow, Shang-Chi and Eternals) were never likely to match the success of previous films while they were all leading up towards Spider-Man No Way Home.

The three MCU’s for next year also have some risks attached after the news Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is having major reshoots (probably follows events of Spider-Man No Way Home) saw its release date pushed back two months. Thor: Love and Thunder are joined by the Guardians of the Galaxy. While without Chadwick Bosman can Black Panther: Wakanda Forever repeat the success of the first film.

Eternals have seen MCU films take almost £815m at the UK BO (£850m+ inflation inflated) and 2022’s films will see them take over £1 billion since 2008.

5. No Time To Die    £492,635 – £95,491,106

Down 47.7% in its ninth weekend; 8th week took £510k (down 39%) Mon-Thurs and £1,450,075) down 40% Fri-Thurs (7 days)

21^st biggest 9th weekend between Frozen 2 (£514,468) and Mamma Mia 2 (£487,441); 8 films have taken over £1m in their 9th weekend (Avatar, The Greatest Showman, Titanic, Slumdog Millionaire, The Kings Speech, Mamma Mia!, Toy Story 4 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) with Casino Royale taking just under (£839,164).

Avatar, Titanic, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Arthur Christmas, The Greatest Showman, The Kings Speech, Frozen 2, Paddington 2, LOTR: The Fellowship of the Rings, No Time To Die, Slumdog Millionaire, Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets and Mamma Mia!

3rd biggest film in the UK between Skyfall (£102,876,981) and Spectre (£95,179,832) and the 12th biggest inflation inflated film in the UK between Mamma Mia! (£95,559,474) and Spectre (£95,311,843).

While No Time To Die became the third biggest film the BFI did a list of highest historical admissions in 2016 and adding films that have opened since No Time To Die is #33 between The Blue Lamp and Spectre; Gone With the Wind, The Sound of Music and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs all taking £200m+ inflation inflated. again shows how price increases over recent years have dramatically affected BO over the last decade.

After 5 weekends of £15m+, BO the last four have been much lower last weekend was historically down on most weekends over the last 20 years as was the weekend many Harry Potter and Hunger Games films opened. While this weekend took 61% less than the same weekend in 2019 (Frozen 2) and December Spider-Man and Matrix will be no match for Star Wars and Jumanji that played to a much wider demographic.

The problem is over half of the audience who came back to the cinema to see No Time To Die probably won’t return for many more months and while Spider-Man No Way Home will take upwards of £30m won’t be another until March as audiences have become much more selective in the film they see in the cinema and those they wait to see at home.

James Bond ninth weekend drops

2002’s Die Another Day Down 38.7% £392,489 and £35,456,195 98.3% of £36,043,520 (£62,858,506 inflation inflated)

2006’s Casino Royale down 20.5% £839,164 and £53,091,639 95.6% of £55,495,547

2008’s Quantum of Solace n/a total £51,089,938

2012’s Skyfall down 31.4% £554,958 and £99,026,075 96.3% of £102,816,893

2015’s Spectre down 28.7% £212,123 and £93,444,460 98.2% of £95,183,468

2021’s No Time To Die down 47.6% £492,635 and £95,491,106 97.5% of £98m

Had a similar eighth weekend drop as -44.59% Aladdin; -45.44% Harry Potter Chamber Of Secrets; -46.53% Dunkirk; -47.48% A Star Is Born; -47.6% Mary Poppins Returns; -48.79% Alice in Wonderland; -49.8% Star Wars: Episode Revenge of the Sith; -51.88% The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; -54.32%; Joker;-54.84% Avenger Infinity War; -54.91% Nanny McPhee

James Bond film stands above any other film franchise or series in the UK their success and long legs in the UK for 60 years is incomparable to any other with only Star Wars: The Force Awakens taking more than Skyfall and Spectre.

Die Another Day opened on 430 screens on November 20th, 2002

8th w/e £640,382 down 41% #5; stayed in the top 5 for 8 weeks and top 10 for 9 weeks

9th w/e £392,489 down 39% #8 275 screens

10th w/e £190,950 down 51% #11 179 screens

Casino Royale opened in 505 cinemas (988 screens) on 19th November 2006

8th w/e £1,055,546 down 26% #5; Night at the Museum #1 £2,958,093 2nd w/e

9th w/e £839,164 down 20% #6 301 screens £53,091,639; The Pursuit of Happyness #1 £2,527,181

10th w/e £597,983 down 29% #6 270 screens £54,059,239; Rocky Balboa #1 £3,639,339

Stayed in the top 5 for 8 weeks and top 10 for 12 weeks

Quantum of Solace opened on 540 screens on 31st October 2008

8th w/e £204,142 down 38% #9 288 screens; Twilight #1 £2,508,422

9th w/e £188,663 down 7%

10th w/e £164,055 down 15% #13 125 screens; Yes Man #1 £2,223,950

Stayed in the top 5 for 6 weeks and top 10 for 8 weeks

Skyfall opened on 587 screens on 26th October 2012

8th w/e dropped to 4th taking £809,406 (434 screens); The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey #1 £11,601,538.

9th w/e £554,958 down 31% #6 383 screens; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey #1 £5,979,241

10th w/e £890,022 up 60% #7 339 screens; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey #1 £6,850,728

Stayed in the top 5 for 8 weeks and top 10 for 11 weeks

Spectre opened in 651 cinemas and on over 2,500 screens on October 26th, 2015

8th w/e £297,803 #6 dropped 63% 308 screens; Star Wars: The Force Awakens #1 £34,011,849

9th w/e £212,123 #8 dropped 30% 210 screens; Star Wars: The Force Awakens #1 £10,164,805

10th w/e £278,547 #9 up 30% 145 screens; Star Wars: The Force Awakens #1 £10,304,562

Stayed in the top 5 for 7 weeks and top 10 for 10 weeks

In 2019 there were 6 films taking £50m+ Avengers: Endgame (£88,719,051); The Lion King (£76,019,595); Toy Story 4 (£65,802,558); Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (£58,265,708); Joker (£58,166,427); Frozen 2 (£53,549,035) and four taking £30m+ Captain Marvel (£39,234,293); Spider-Man: Far From Home (£37,333,748); Aladdin (£37,236,939) and Jumanji: The Next Level (£36,079,399). This year while No Time To Die has taken £95m+ Spider-Man: No Way Home is probably the only film that will top £30m+ and then won’t be another until Downton Abbey 2 in March 2022.

Also opened

• Anything Goes – Trafalgar Releasing

Opened with £368,691 from 436 screens from one matinee screening on Sunday. The Event Cinema screening of London musical revival played between July and October at the Barbican to rave reviews and was extended several times. Tickets for Anything Goes were at most cinemas between £15-£20 which is expensive for the cinema but a fraction of the price to see the show live.

That said you can’t compare watching a musical in the cinema to watching it live but Event Cinema allows many more people to see these events they would never be able to afford to see live. But as prices are often more than double regular cinema prices to include Event Cinema and Secret Cinema within cinema box office artificially inflates admissions as for every one person who saw Anything Goes it will add 3 admissions, while Secret Cinema adds 12 admissions.

Event Cinema screenings as they target older audiences have struggled to find the audiences they received pre-pandemic.

• A Boy Called Christmas – Sky Cinema

Opened #11 with £120,770 from 174 cinemas

Opened in independent cinemas the same day it’s showing on Sky Cinema, the British film based on the bestselling novel by Matt Haig has received positive reviews and should get a much wider cinema release, but major exhibitors refuse to book the film. Despite Sky Cinema being a subscription-based TV channel with less than a quarter of the population subscribing to the channel. Had it opened in a couple of more cinemas it would have gotten into the top 10 and had it played in major chains could have even opened top 5.

As seen with Trolls World Tour and Onward despite both being available to watch legally at home audiences still came to the cinema to see them when cinemas reopened in July 2020, it is just short-sighted behaviour by exhibitors not to book these films.

What never makes sense with major exhibitors refusal to book Sky Cinema films that get the strong media coverage they do book Event Cinema concerts like Katherine Jenkins and Little Minx that were shown on ITV and Sky One a couple of weeks later last December.

Exhibitors keep saying they are willing to book Netflix films but only on their terms, but the distributor should be able to decide how long they want their films to play in cinemas and give audiences the choice of where they want to see them.

Box Office News

October had 16.4m admissions the highest monthly admissions since January 2020 as No Time To Die brought many cinemagoers back to the cinema for the first time since January 2020. It was the best October since 2012 (Skyfall).

While No Time To Die has taken almost as much as it would have done 2 years ago all other films released have taken about a third less, but after a record-breaking October, November looks like it will be the complete opposite as the millions who went to see No Time To Die haven’t returned to see any other films since.

The UKCA talked about the challenges facing the industry that include the rise in the cost of living, amazed that their research says that it’s only beginning to affect decisions on cinema-going. As this goes back almost 20 years ago when after steady growth from the mid-80s admissions stopped growing in 2003 only increasing again in 2018 by 0.63% despite ticket inflation increasing 68%+ on industry prices but probably double this in real prices. UKCA said, “We would always say that cinema is an affordable experience but that [the rise] will start to factor into ticket prices.”

But going to the cinema was always seen as a cheap night out comparable to having a pint of Guinness in the 30sto 60s and a Big Mac meal from 70s to early 00s, the problem is that now for most it’s the price of a Gastropub dinner, why people have become far more selective with the films they pay to see in the cinema and those they wait to see. No Time To Die is a must-see film the question is beyond comic-book fans and Millennials what will be the next must-see film?

While this weekend felt like déjà vu for March 2020 after Disney’s Encanto had one of their lowest openings for an animated classic (as Onward had the lowest opening for Pixar) while the industry was celebrating October BO, while many are concerned Omicron B is an anagram for No Crimbo. In March industry was celebrating a strong January 2020 while said COVID was having no discernible impact on cinema attendance (March 6^th, 2020, UK had 164 positive COVID cases on Friday, November 26^th were 49,344 cases). This is despite there being panic buying in supermarkets and softer BO that weekend for Onward.

A report published on Monday by Quorum said 59% they don’t feel safe in theatres; 33% said requiring customers to present proof of COVID-19 vaccination would make them more comfortable about seeing a movie in theatres and another 30% said they were “fine” with showing they had been vaccinated. But not everyone agrees. Some 20% of respondents view vaccine requirements as an “infringement.” The problem has been exhibitors for the last 20 months have been far more focused on the 20% rather than the 80%.

Exhibitors need to be proactive learning from their mistakes from March 2020 waiting on guidance from our incompetent government, much of this came from after Health Secretary Matt Hancock saw Contagion in March 2020 as the film opened in cinemas in 2011 the cinema industry should have been ahead of the curve and especially after seeing China close all their cinemas in January. Exhibitors must have noticed how soft November BO was but, of course, they will blame the films rather than COVID.

49% who used to go to the cinema no longer do so due to concerns about safety and price. The report says, “The clock is ticking,”…. “The longer exhibition takes to address these issues, the more likely it is that non-theatre-going behaviour will be set.” Nothing in the report is new as the price aspect of this goes back almost 20 years when admissions stopped growing after almost 20 years of steady growth. The UK will say that admissions were the highest for 50 years in 2018 but that was only a 0.63% increase in 2002 despite 68%+ ticket inflation. After the way admissions grew in the 90s  they should have topped 200m by the mid-00s and be about 225m by now.

70% of avid moviegoers (who have seen multiple films in cinemas during the pandemic) and 66% of infrequent moviegoers (who have seen one or two films in cinemas two during the pandemic) said they would go more often if moviegoing was less expensive and 65% complaining that buying snacks at cinemas is too expensive. None of this research was a surprise but the industry still claims going to the cinema is cheap as they use $9.18/£7.11 as the average ticket price the problem is the majority are paying closer to double.

The Morning Consult Tracking the return to normal has seen comfort going to movie theatres in the US dropping 3% to 47% after news of the new omicron coronavirus variant broke. Gen Zers (64%) and millennials (58%) are the most comfortable while baby boomers dropped 9% to 36%, this could be concerning with the release of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story opening next week, early reviews have been very positive.

Welsh exhibitors have said box office was down 50% since vaccine passports have been required in Wales but the question is from when they are comparing from like a month ago UK weekend BO was £15m+ now it’s 50%+ less. Last weekend was 60% down from 2019 and down on most years over the last 20 years.

Advance sales for Spider-Man No Way Home opened this week and there have been some snide arrogant comments from exhibitors saying look cinema isn’t dead as we have sold out some screenings. Of course, fans will rush out to book for it and being the 27^th MCU the previous 26 films took over £800m since 2008 in the UK and is the 8^th Spider-Man film in 19 years many will rush out immediately. But despite the BO of No Time To Die there are still many people who are still hesitant to return to the cinema especially after news of Omicron COVID as seen by the box office being much softer in November.

Some humility would be good as the industry talks about the £2bn in lost revenue over the last two years much of this was due to them always being reactive and never proactive and being in far too much of a rush to reopen cinemas before the majority felt comfortable to return. As the soft BO was always expected when cinemas reopened in July 2020.

Biggest Films of 2021

The top 10 biggest films of 2021 are currently

No Time To Die £95.49m; Shang-Chi (£21.29m); Dune £20.95m; Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (£20.47m); Black Widow (£18.83m); Venom 2 £17.85m;  Free Guy (£16.78m); F9 (£16.44m); The Suicide Squad (£14.2m); Eternals £13.87m

No Time To Die is the only film that is performing as it would in normal circumstances all others opened about a third less than they would and taken a third less.

The following 10 biggest films from 11-20

Space Jam 2 (£12.85m); Jungle Cruise (£12.55m); A Quiet Place 2 (£11.54m); The Addams Family 2 £10.2m; The Croods 2 (£9.8m); Cruella £9.45m; The Conjuring 3 £9.36m; PAW Patrol: The Movie £8.47m; Ghostbusters Afterlife £7.51m.

UK box office in detail

This weekend’s top 10 box office took £8,620,079 down 3.9% from last weekend E8,973,102; 2020 Lockdown 2 

The weekend admissions 1,184,876 down 6.1% 1,262,040 from last week; 2020 Lockdown 2.

Top 3 took £6,245,133 72.4% of the top 10; House of Gucci 27.9% (£2,425,627); Ghostbusters Afterlife 24.1% (£2,099,374; Encanto 19.8% (£1,720,132);

xx from 2020; Lockdown 2

Down 60.6% from 2019 (£21,913,357); Frozen 2 (£15,088,012); Blue Story (£1,324,510); 21 Bridges (£655,214); Akhnaten – Met Opera 2019 (£170,400); Harriet (£115,120); #1 Frozen 2  £15,088,012 1st week 671 screens 1st week (68.9% of top 10)

Down 43.4% from 2018: (£15,238,186); Robin Hood (£1,330,387); Nativity Rocks! (£834,414); The Girl in the Spider’s Web (£557,403); Shoplifters (£117,555); Assassination Nation (£70,891); Nobody’s Fool (£70,703); #1 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald £5,622,755 2nd week 679 screens 54% drop (36.9% of top 10)

Down 49.6% from 2017: (£17,120,343); Daddy’s Home 2 (£4,919,051); Frozen (£1,115,689); Battle of the Sexes (£552,521); Suburbicon (£231,412); The Star (£204,497); #1 Daddy’s Home 2 £4,919,051 1st week 505 screens (28.7% of the top 10)

Down 39.9% from 2016: (£14,354,042); Allied (£1,331,919); Bad Santa 2 (£799,156); A United Kingdom (£618,652); Paterson (£169,911); Almost Christmas (£60,991); #1 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them £8,892,489 2nd week 666 screens 42% drop (62% of the top 10)

Down 41.5% from 2015; (£14,738,989); The Good Dinosaur (£2,926,448); Bridge of Spies (£1,682,392); Black Mass (£1,272,249); Carol (£540,632); Being A.P. (£49,867); Doctor Zhivago (Re: 2015) (£16,344); #1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 £4,534,464 2nd week 579 screens 60% drop (30.8% of top 10)

Down 43.4% from 2014: (£15,237,651); Paddington (£5,125,519); Horrible Bosses 2 (£1,257,808); 2001: A Space Odyssey (Re: 2014) (£69,567); I Am Ali (£8,131); #1 Paddington £5,125,519 1st week 518 screens (33.6% of top 10)

Down 23.8% from 2013: (£11,314,366); Free Birds (£1,044,074); Saving Mr. Banks (£795,615); Carrie (£662,625); The Best Man Holiday (£128,503); #1 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire £5,525,476 2nd week 55% drop 557 screens (48.8% of top 10)

Down 42.1% from 2012 (£14,870,977); Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger! (£1,614,675); Silver Linings Playbook (£1,260,979); Gambit (£689,042); End of Watch (£618,546); Lawrence of Arabia (re: 2012) (£18,431); #1 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 £5,344,508 2nd week 559 screens 66% drop (36% of top 10)

Down 18.3% from 2011 (£10,545,613); My Week with Marilyn (£749,819); 50/50 (£410,251); Dream House (£304,239); Moneyball (£230,848); The Deep Blue Sea (£108,767); Take Shelter (£83,982); #1 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 £4,574,978 2nd week 546 screens 67% drop (43.4% of top 10)

Down 30.3% from 2010: (£12,372,683); Unstoppable (£1,714,871); London Boulevard (£577,224); The American (£411,707); The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (£219,259); Machete (£90,423); #1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 £8,344,776 2nd week 581 screens 54% drop (67.4% of top 10)

Down 43.1% from 2009; (£15,162,202); Paranormal Activity (£3,593,762); Law Abiding Citizen (£1,488,143); Nativity (£794,314); Bunny and the Bull (£40,801); #1 The Twilight Saga: New Moon £4,303,257 2nd week 504 screens 63% drop (28.4% of top 10)

Up 28.1% from 2008; (£6,730,148); Four Christmases (£2,275,585); Changeling (£1,225,548); What Just Happened? (£178,818); Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (£23,640); #1 Four Christmases £2,275,585 1st week 434 screens (33.8% of top 10)

Up 28% from 2007: (£6,731,904); The Darjeeling Limited (£435,198); August Rush (£359,564); Shrooms (£313,758); Sleuth (£165,788); Rescue Dawn (£89,988); Blade Runner – Director’s Cut (£15,580); #1 American Gangster £1,817,691 2nd week 416 screens 29% drop (27% of top 10)

Down 39.6% from 2006; (£14,267,385); The Santa Clause 3 (£1,274,774); Tenacious D (£922,574); Jackass 2 (£735,274); Pan’s Labyrinth (£298,432); Hollywoodland (£65,735); #1 Casino Royale £8,546,238 36% drop 2^nd week 506 screens (58.9% of top 10)

Down 42.6% from 2005 (£15,013,252); Flight Plan (£1,694,350); Exorcism of Emily Rose (£1,346,732); Mrs. Henderson Presents (£752,394); The Transporter 2 (£414,400); #1 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire £9,275,599 2nd week 536 screens (61.8% of top 10)

Down 44.1% from 2004 (£15,406,511); The Incredibles (£9,753,035); The Forgotten (£653,945); Beyond the Sea (£179,558); Enduring Love (£165,338); I Love Huckabees (£155,592); #1 The Incredibles £9,753,035 1st week 494 screens (63.3% of top 10)

Down 34.2% from 2003 (£13,095,047); Elf (£4,538,440); Master and Commander (£1,845,125); Spin the Bottle (£95,533); #1 Love Actually £4,660,595 2nd week 478 screens 30% drop (35.6% of top 10)

Down 52.7% from 2002 (£18,217,586); Die Another Day (£9,122,344); Anita & Me (£453,613); #1 Die Another Day £9,122,344 1st week 430 screens (50.1% of top 10)

Down 25.6% from 2001 (£11,583,257); Spy Game (£1,019,847);; The Heist (£100,229); Baby Boy (£47,144); Me Without You (£45,532); #1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone £8,362,749 2nd week 507 screens 49% drop (72.2% of top 10);

Next weekend in 2019 (£15,983,967); Knives Out (£2,937,305); Charles Angels (£547,004); #1 Frozen 2 £8,711,498 2^nd weekend 42% drop 674 screens (54.5% of top 10)

US Box Office

• Encanto – Disney

Opened with $27.2m (3 days); $40.56m (5 days); received positive reviews (91% Rotten Tomatoes) and A CinemaScore

Had the 659^th biggest opening in the US (3 days) between Night School and Jack the Giant Killer

Disney has been releasing an animation film close to Thanksgiving ever since Oliver & Company in 1988 (the film that relaunched their animation brand) Encanto will be the 26th time Disney has released an animated film in November.  (Soul was due to be released in cinemas in November 2020 before moving to Disney+ due to COVID).

Disney has had huge success over Thanksgiving weekend in the US has 5 of the 10 biggest Thanksgiving weekends in the US their last and their biggest Frozen 2 with $85.97m. Encanto opened similar to Bolt, Flubber, Toy Story (in 1995 $29.14m was huge), The Muppets, 101 Dalmatians and Enchanted).

Took $7.5m on Wednesday and $5.8m from Thanksgiving (Thursday)

Opened with $29.3m from 47 territories; France $3.5m; Colombia $2.6m; UK $2.4m; Korea $2.2m; Italy $2.1m; Russia $1.9m; Spain $1.8m; Mexico $1.6m; Japan $1.6m; Germany $0.9m.

• Ghostbusters Afterlife

Dropped 45% in its second weekend taking $24.2m ($29.8m 4 days and $35.25m 5 days) and $87.51m

315^th biggest opening in the US between Tron: Legacy and Lucy taking $2m less than 2016’s Ghostbusters.

Took $3.7m from 403 IMAX cinemas (also playing in 847 PLF’s); as with all of the tentpoles released this year over 35% of their opening was taken from IMAX/PLF formats as a decade ago with 3D this artificially inflates box office but as prices for these are about double regular prices far fewer people are going to the cinema.

Second weekend

1984’s Ghostbusters increased 11.2% taking $15.09m ($42m inflation inflated) and $38.26m ($113m inflation inflated) taking $229.24m ($635m inflation inflated); was #1 for 7 consecutive weeks and returned #1 for another 7 weeks over the following 5 months

1989’s Ghostbusters 2 dropped 53% taking $13.85m ($34m inflation inflated) and $58.76m ($143m inflation inflated) taking $112.49m ($275m inflation inflated)

2016’s Ghostbuster dropped 54.3% taking $21m and $86.26m and $100.79m and $229.14m worldwide

In August 2016 Sony Pictures said they expected to lose $70m om Ghostbusters as the break-even point was $300m (had a budget of $150m); ahead of its release despite the toxic masculinity that surrounded it after it was announced that it would be a female Ghostbusters film the studio had big plans for two sequels and several animated spinoffs. The problem was away from the unwarranted misogynistic comments that it ruined their childhood it was a very poor film despite all the talent involved.

While talking about 10% of its’s opening weekend in the US from IMAX there wasn’t as much interest to see Ghostbusters Afterlife in IMAX internationally taking $1m from 43 territories.

Took $8.6m from 40 territories and $28m total

• House of Gucci – MGM

Opened with $14.42m (3 days); $22.01m 5 days); received mixed reviews (61% Rotten Tomatoes) and B+ CinemaScore

Took $4.2m from Wednesday

Thanksgiving has been when studios open a drama (often their major Oscar contender) as counterprogramming to the family films over the years included Harlem Nights, For The Boys, Malcolm X, A Perfect World, Casino, Unbreakable, Spy Game, Solaris, Alexander, Australia, Hugo, Life of Pi, Creed, Allied and Knives Out. The weekend is also often when studios used to start platform openings of their major Oscar contenders that would slowly expand throughout December and go wide in January.

Historically Thanksgiving has been far more lucrative for cinemagoing than Christmas but that has switched over recent years with the biggest films of the year opening the weekend before Christmas likewise opening the week before Thanksgiving in the hope they get a Thanksgiving/Christmas bounce.  The downside of this is that the weekend after Thanksgiving will see films drop very heavily unlike the weekend after Christmas.

Opened with $12.81m from 40 territories

• Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City – Sony Pictures

Opened with $5.31m (3 days); $8.85m (5 days); received poor reviews (27% Rotten Tomatoes) and C- CinemaScore

All of the previous Resident Evil films have struggled to find an audience in the US and are far more successful internationally as will be the case for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City which was seen as a reboot of the series only 4 years after The Final Chapter. The film has been marketed with the “only in theatres” tagline but it will be out of them within a week.

The eight Resident Evil films took $285m in the US and $1.24bn worldwide

2002’s Resident Evil opened $17.7m taking $40.11m and $102.98m worldwide

2004’s Resident Evil: Apocalypse opened $23.03m taking $51.2m and $129.34m worldwide

2007’s Resident Evil: Extinction opened $23.67m taking $50.64m and $147.71m worldwide

2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife opened $26.65m taking $60.12m and $300.22m worldwide

2012’s Resident Evil: Retribution opened $21.05m taking $42.34m and $240.15m worldwide

2017’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter opened $13.6m taking $26.84m and $312.24m worldwide

Opened with $5.1m from 15 territories

• King Richard – Warner Bros

Dropped 39% in its second weekend taking $3.27m and $11.34m

Sporting dramas often have mixed success at the box office with Will Smith comparisons could be made with his Ali biopic released 20 years ago ($14.71m taking $58.2m) but while Bad Boys for Life, Suicide Squad and Aladdin reimagination were successful at the box office it’s 15 years since his last original drama The Pursuit of Happyness ($26.54m taking $163.56m). While Will Smith still gets huge media coverage his star power only works with properties this drop in popularity started in 2013 with After Earth.

Four years ago biographical sporting drama Battle of the Sexes had a similar world premiere at Telluride Film Festival and also received critical acclaim but struggled to find an audience opened  #16 $518,332 from 21 screens expanding to 1,213 and 1,822 in its second and third weekend taking $3.4m/$2.56m and $5.96m

After the critical acclaim and strong buzz would have expected King Richard to open similar to 2009’s The Blind Side with $34.11m taking $255.95m in the US and Sandra Bullock won the Best Actress Oscar for this feel-good inspirational drama, but it just puts another nail on the coffin for original films in cinemas.

Biographical sporting dramas used to be very popular at the US BO with films including Remember the Titans, Rudy, Miracle, Cool Runnings, Coach Carter, We Are Marshall, Invincible, Moneyball, The Fighter And Ali.

SambaTV reported 707k US households watched King Richard on HBO Max (similar to In the Heights (693k and Cry Macho 693k) and the majority of the viewers watched it in its entirety

Took $1.6m from 30 territories $5.2m total and $16.6m worldwide expands into 19 more territories next week; King Richard was always going to struggle internationally despite getting critical acclaim and starring Will Smith.

• Eternals – Disney  

Down 28% in its fourth weekend taking $7.92m and $150.73m.

Fourth weekend

Venom Let There Be Carnage dropped 43.6% #4 taking $9.3m and $182.03m 87% of $207m

Shang-Chi dropped 39.9% #1 taking $13.03m and $196.2m 87.4% of $224.51m

Black Widow dropped 44.3% #4 taking $6.47m and  $167.1m 85.3% of $195.97m

Had the 22^nd biggest fourth weekend of the MCU between Ant-Man and the Wasp and Ant-Man

Had the third lowest fourth weekend drop after -21.9% Thor: The Dark World and -22.7% Doctor Strange

377^th biggest film between Divergent and Rambo: First Blood Part II; 790^th biggest inflation inflated between Cats & Dogs and Grown Ups 2; 7^th biggest film in 2021 between No Time to Die and Free Guy; 61^st biggest comic-book movie between Fantastic Four and X-Men: First Class; 88^th biggest Disney film in the US between Cars 3 and Lilo & Stitch.

Some have said Eternals opening is a wake-up call for Marvel it’s not as they will see it as audiences said they wanted a different kind of MCU film, so we gave them something different. But as audiences didn’t come out to see the different MCU as they previously didn’t with Ant-Man they will see it as a reason to instead make MCU films as they have done previously. Eternals was always going to be a hard sell beyond the comic-book fanbase.

Took $10.2m from 49 territories (down 55.1%  $217.8m international total and $368.4m worldwide; Korea $26.4m; UK $18.7m; France $14.9m; Mexico $14.3m; Brazil $11.1m; Australia $10.3m; Japan $9.7m; Italy $9.3m; Russia $8.7m

406^th biggest worldwide between Dr Seuss’ The Lorax and Hannibal; 13^th biggest 2021 film between Free Guy and Shang-Chi; 59^th biggest comic-book movie between The Mask and Batman Forever; 83^rd biggest Disney film between Who Framed Roger Rabbit? And Mary Poppins Returns.

• Dune – Warner Bros

Down 34% in its sixth weekend taking $2.08m and $102.15m

726^th biggest film in the US between In the Line of Fire and Annabelle: Creation; 1,340^th biggest inflation inflated between The Good Son and World Trade Centre; 11th biggest 2021 film between Jumper and Cloverfield; 119^th biggest Warner Bros film between The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist and Annabelle: Creation.

In comparison 2017’s Blade Runner 2049 dropped 37.1% #8 taking $1.46m and $88.05m 95.6% of $92.05m

The industry needs to slow down before calling a film a hit after taking $100m+ at the US BO as 30+ years ago when a film took $100m at US BO was celebrated as was rare and a sign of success with budgets under $50m, but now when films can take that in a day budgets are 4x as much as ticket prices success needs to be recalibrated with $300m ($600m worldwide) the new $100m.

Tenet took $363m last year globally but Warner would have surely expected it to take double but after Christopher Nolan forced them to open in the middle of a pandemic it lost at least $50m.

The seven films Denis Villeneuve directed have taken $401.5m in the US and $1.033bn worldwide

Dune took internationally in 36 territories in September taking $129.3m.

Took $2.7m (41% drop from last weekend) from 74 territories $271.5m total and $374.2m worldwide; China $38.8m; France $31.2m; UK $27.5m; Germany $21.7m; Russia $21.2m; South Korea $12.4m; Spain $9.6m; Italy $8.6m.

351^st  biggest film worldwide between The Adventures of Tintin and Fifty Shades Freed; 10^th biggest 2021 film worldwide between Black Widow and Eternals; 65^th biggest Warner Bros film between Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Mad Max: Fury Road.

When Warner Bros greenlit Dune they would have surely expected it to take similar to 2013’s Gravity their #23 biggest film $688.21m and 2017’s It #22 $701.08m in the first part of a similar two partner. Instead, it’s going to take just over half as much.

• No Time To Die – Universal Pictures

Dropped 38% in its eighth weekend taking $1.7m and $158.08m

No Time To Die was released on PVOD in the US after a 31-day theatrical window

352^nd biggest film in the US between The Longest Yard and X-Men; 737^th biggest film inflation inflated between Entrapment and Blades of Glory; 6^h biggest film of 2021 between A Quiet Place: Part II and Eternals.

Eighth weekends

2002’s Die Another Day took $160.94m US, $271.02m internationally $431.97m worldwide

2006’s Casino Royale took $167.44m US, $449.05m internationally $616.5m worldwide

2008’s Quantum of Solace took $168.36m US, $421.21m internationally $589.58m worldwide

2012’s Skyfall took $304.36m US, $804.2m internationally $1.1bn worldwide

2015’s Spectre took $200.07m US; $680.6m internationally $880.68m worldwide

The 25 James Bond films have taken $2.294bn in the US and $7.875bn worldwide but inflation inflated this is $20bn; the five Daniel Craig James Bond films have taken $3.89bn worldwide to date

Took $7.51m (down 41%) from 72 territories internationally ($60.99m from China) and $579.8m total and $755.96m worldwide (including $42.3m from IMAX worldwide); 108^th biggest film worldwide between Shrek Forever After and X-Men: Days of Future Past (overtook Casino Royale #167 $594.42m and Quantum of Solace #168 $591.69m); 3^rd biggest 2021 film worldwide between Hi, Mom and F9; many have said that No Time To Die is the biggest film of 2021 ignoring that the two biggest films in the world are from China Hi, Mom ($841.7m) and The Battle at Lake Changjin ($893.89m)

• Venom: Let There Be Carnage – Sony Pictures

Dropped 45.7% in its ninth weekend taking $1.58m and $209.51m.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is holding much stronger than 2018’s Venom which dropped 50.8% in its ninth weekend taking $377,396 and $212.26m of $213.51m and $856.1m worldwide.

196^th biggest film in the US between Fast Five and  Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol; 454^th biggest inflation inflated between Nutty Professor II: The Klumps and Notting Hill; 42^nd biggest comic-book movie between Venom ($213.51m) and Thor: The Dark World; 15^th biggest Sony Pictures film between Venom and Bad Boys For Life.

6 of Sony Pictures top 10 films are Spider-Man films with Spider-Man No Way Home becoming their 7^th next month showing how important Spider-Man now is to the studio since losing James Bond with the two Jumanji films starring Dwyane Johnson the other films in their top 10. Sony announced this week plans for another Spider-Man trilogy that will link up with the Venom and other Marvel films they make.

Ninth weekends

Shang-Chi dropped 46.6% taking $1.07m and $222.75m of $224.38m

Black Widow dropped 0.9% taking $779,444 and $182.53m of $183.65m

Took $8.7m from 60 international territories $260.1m total and $469.51m worldwide; Russia $31.5m; Mexico $22.8m; UK $22.1m; South Korea $17.8m; France $12.5m; Brazil $11.1m; Germany $9.8m; still to open in Australia and Japan.

245^th biggest film worldwide between Hotel Transylvania 2 and It: Chapter Two; 6^th biggest 2021 film worldwide between Detective Chinatown 3 and Godzilla vs. Kong; 43^rd biggest comic-book movie worldwide between Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men: The Last Stand; 26^th biggest Sony Pictures film worldwide between Hotel Transylvania 2 and Men in Black 2; #7 Venom $853.53m

• Belfast – Focus Features

Up  1.4% #11 in its third weekend taking 958,770 adding 544 screens to 1,128 screens.

As other films have done Belfast had a strong opening limited wide but then expanded far too wide far too quickly increasing only 1.4% despite almost doubling its screens. These films need a much slower expansion as they need time to find their audiences.

This will also likely be the case with Paul Thomas Anderson’s critically acclaimed Licorice Pizza opened #13 with $345,157 screens from 4 screens having the best platform opening post-pandemic. Paul Thomas Anderson films perform strongly on platform release but then struggle when they expand wider, will be interesting to see how quickly it expands over the next few weeks.

UK Box Office Top 10

UK Box Office Preview

The weekend after Thanksgiving is normal dump week as distributors clear their shelves before the Christmas films start opening next week with West Side Story and Clifford The Big Red Dog. It wasn’t always this way as before films went day and date with the US films would often open this weekend delayed from Thanksgiving or the summer as with films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988 and Ghostbusters 2 and When Harry Met Sally in 1989. Or as studios wouldn’t open anything big this weekend British films would be released as is the case this year with Boxing Day a film Warner Bros acquired for the UK.

British Christmas rom-com is the best hope for success this weekend. Boxing Day is the first British Christmas rom-com featuring an all-black cast, while there have been many similar films in the US and many family central films but for many years they didn’t travel very well internationally with films like About Last Night and Think Like a Man Too. But then in 2015, Kevin Hart came over to the UK to promote The Wedding Ringer opening #5 with £990,445 from 384 screens taking £2,119,244 and they started finding audiences in the UK.

Aml Ameen starred in the critically acclaimed and BAFTA-winning TV series I May Destroy You and Leigh-Anne Pinnock is a member of Little Minx which will help the film build-up media coverage. While Christmas films are very popular in the UK with the last major one Last Christmas in 2019 opened with £2,654,354 taking £17,758,583. While Christmas films have a short cinema window from early December to January 1st many then become a festive mainstay shown on TV every Christmas or as Home Alone, Love Actually and Die Hard any time of the year.

Reviews have been mixed for Boxing Day with many saying it feels like it’s trying to imitate Love Actually as many other films have done since 2003, but more likely open similar to 2005’s The Family Stone £247,515 #5  from 155 screens.

As 2017’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter opened #8 £463,691 the reboot Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City will struggle to find an audience and its tagline only in cinemas will last about a week before Spider-Man No Way Home opens.

Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon has received critical acclaim (92% Rotten Tomatoes) since its world premiere at Telluride Film Festival and was the Surprise Film at the London Film Festival but will have a limited audience in the UK.

Ahead of the release of The Matrix Resurrections on December 22nd the first film is re-released in cinemas including IMAX. The Matrix was last re-released in July 2019 (4K Restoration) for its 20th anniversary with £163,812 #11 from 286 screens with The Matrix Reloaded (4K Restoration) #61 £876 12 screens; The Matrix Revolutions (4K Restoration) #66 £583 10 screens.

There are now 50 IMAX cinemas in the UK over half opened in the last 8 years mostly retrofitted in conventional cinemas and they take about 10% of the BO of the opening weekend BO of tentpoles.

Christmas With Andre, Event Cinema screenings have struggled to find audience post-pandemic as they target older demographic who have been very slow to return to cinemas as seen with Anything Goes taking £371,879 from 434 screens on Sunday and Andre Rieu’s 2021 Summer Concert: Together Again opened with a disappointing £420,056 in August and Andre Rieu’s Magical Maastricht: Together In Music opening with £124,101 in September 2020 both were far from the £1m+ openings for Andre Rieu’s Event Cinema concerts pre-pandemic since 2014.

2020’s Andre Rieu: 70 Years Young opened January taking £1,717,073; 2019’s Andre Rieu’s New Year Concert from Sydney taking £1,745,941; Andre Rieu 2019 Maastricht Concert – Shall We Dance? – £1,492,154; 2018’s André Rieu’s Maastricht Concert, ’Amore £1,783,222; Andre Rieu’s 2017 Maastricht Concert £1,439,604; Andre Rieu’s 2016 Maastricht Concert £1,414,075; Andre Rieu’s 2015 Maastricht Concert £1,107,000; Andre Rieu’s 2014 Maastricht Concert £830,586.

Christmas With Andre is the canary in the coalmine for Event Cinema and films targetting older demographic, while older audiences came out to see No Time To Die the question has always been what film would make them come back to the cinema the next time.

Also released for much younger audiences CBeebies Christmas Show 2021: The Night Before Christmas.

Opening in two weeks

• Nine Days – Sony Pictures

Supernatural drama starring Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, David Rysdahl, and Arianna Ortiz and written and directed by Edson Oda; had a world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020, where it was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics and was released in the US on limited release in July receiving positive reviews taking $694,849.

• The Matrix: Resurrections – Warner Bros (Wednesday 22^nd December)

The fourth instalment of The Matrix film series and sequel to 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jada Pinkett Smith, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Christina Ricci and directed by Lana Wachowski.

The first film opened in UK cinemas in June 1999 receiving rave reviews (a month before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) with £3,384,948 (£5,805,065 inflation inflated) taking £17,279,897.

Two sequels opened back-to-back in 2003 6 months apart with receiving mixed reviews; The Matrix Reloaded opened May with a massive £12,165,276 (including £3,267,952 previews) £19,782,273 inflation inflated taking £33,423,117 (£54,350,204 inflation inflated)

The Matrix Revolutions opened with £8,712,350 (including £3,002,097 previews) £14,167,380 inflation inflated taking £17,754,338 (£28,870,793 inflation inflated) it was the first live-action film to be released in regular and IMAX cinemas at the same time; there are now 50 IMAX cinemas in the UK over half opened in the last 8 years mostly retrofitted in conventional cinemas and they take about 10% of the BO of the opening weekend BO of films including Eternals last weekend.

In 1999 The Matrix gave audiences something they hadn’t seen on the big screen, remember doing many preview screenings of the first film and the audience reaction was always so good afterwards. So the hype and expectation for the sequels in 2003 were almost as high as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and of course when that happens the films can never live up to that hype.

Over the years since there have been many film series that have taken up the mantle of The Matrix from John Wick to MCU and The Matrix Resurrections opens the week after Spider-Man No Way Home with both films targetting a similar demographic.   

In 2003 when The Matrix Reloaded opened in May X-Men 2 was #2 £903,221 in its fourth weekend taking £18,303,458 having comedies opening the weeks after Bringing Down the House, Anger Management, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry allowing it to stay #1 for  4 weeks until 2 Fast 2 Furious.

While in November The Matrix Revolutions opened against the 6th weekend of Finding Nemo £1,659,861 and dropped 70% in its second weekend despite no films opening against it (taking £ 2,575,595) with Love Actually opening in its third-weekend #1 with £6,657,479 as The Matrix Revolutions dropped 55% (£1,158,971).

With The Matrix Resurrections opening less than a week after Spider-Man No Way Home it’s unlikely to get many IMAX screens and will also struggle to get the largest screens in multiplexes as The Matrix films are all about the visual experience this will lessen the impact of the experience of watching the film.

Ahead of the release of The Matrix Resurrections on December 22nd, the first film was re-released in cinemas on December 4^th for the first time in  IMAX. The Matrix was last re-released in July 2019 (4K Restoration) for its 20th anniversary with £163,812 #11 from 286 screens with The Matrix Reloaded (4K Restoration) #61 £876 12 screens; The Matrix Revolutions (4K Restoration) #66 £583 10 screens.

The problem for The Matrix: Resurrections is it opens days after Spider-Man No Way Home and days before The King’s Man and all three are targetting males under 35. The last two Spider-Man films dropped 50%+ in their second weekends Spider-Man Far From Home didn’t have any major competition in its second weekend while Spider-Man: Homecoming dropped 62% against War for the Planet of the Apes. Both previous Spider-Man films opened in July but December is a very different marketplace.

• The King’s Man – Disney (Sunday, December 26^th)

The third instalment of the Kingsman film series and prequel to 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou and Charles Dance and directed by Matthew Vaughn.

In 2018 Matthew Vaughn announced a Kingsman film was in development at that time The Kingsman film series was a valuable film series for 20^th Century Fox and there were plans for Kingsman shared universe with prequels, sequels and spinoffs. The King’s Man started production in  January 2019 but two months later the studio was acquired by Disney and they had no interest in the film series as it didn’t fit in Disney’s plans. So as with X-Men: Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants which 20^th Century Fox had planned to be the start of a new series of X-Men films it’s unlikely there will be anymore theatrically made King’s Man films.

It was originally set for release in November 2019 by Fox and then to 14^th February 2020, in November 2018 was delayed by Disney to 18^th September, then to February 2021 due to COVID and then to August 2021 and delayed again in March 2021 to December 2021.

The teaser trailer was released in July 2019, the second trailer in September 2019, the third in June 2020 and a red band trailer was released in August 2021. In September Disney announced it would have a 45-day theatrical window.

After directing Daniel Craig in Layer Cake Matthew Vaughn was briefly attached to direct Casino Royale before Martin Campbell was signed and Matthew Vaughn instead moved on to develop Kingsman: The Secret Service.

The problem many had with the Kingsman films was they were laddish ad women were seen as weak and needed saving by men and they had unnecessary misogyny scenes especially the end scene in the first film that ruined the film for me.

2015’s Kingsman: The Secret Service opened £4,241,292 (including £679,498 previews) taking £16,418,247

2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle opened £8,525,664 (including £2,327,105 previews) taking £24,883,225