- Two By Two: Overboard! – £ 329,265 – NE
Includes £137,822 from previews last weekend in 361 screens
Sequel to 2015’s Two by Two which was a cheap European Ice Age rip-off, children’s films has been the genre of films that have found their audience since cinemas reopened in July with Cats & Dogs: Paws United opened 4 weeks ago with £456,531.
Two By Two opened May 2015 with £566,871 from 427 screens opening seventh behind Avengers: The Age Of Ultron (£8,591,670); Far From The Madding Crowd (£1,450,297); Unfriended (£1,346,952); Fast & Furious 7 (£1,113,888); Home (£732,514); Cinderella (£675,425) and took £2,212,100.
The one genre of films that have performed well over the last 17 weeks has been children’s films. Disney re-released Onward despite being released on digital and DVD (and in the last month Disney+), it has performed well over the last 17 weeks taking over £2m. Similarly, Universal Pictures released Trolls World Tour in cinemas and again despite it being released on digital and DVD during lockdown still taken £900k+ since cinemas reopened.
The first new children’s film Dreambuilders opened July 17 taking £12,407 from 51 cinemas released by Signature Entertainment went on to take £358,188 over 8 weeks. Followed by 100% Wolf opening two weeks later with £33,130 from 146 screens from Vertigo taking £1.4m after 10 weeks. Pinocchio opened 2 weeks later with £108,626 from 272 screens also released by Vertigo taking £829,967 after 8 weeks.
The rebuilding of confidence with people going to the cinema will belong as while exhibitors have talked a lot about the safety measures they come short of the far stricter safety measures seen in Asian countries that helped boost confidence with cinemagoers much quicker and with a mix of local films and smaller releases admissions in many of those countries is slowly getting back to normal.
Over the last 17 weeks, it has been films released by independent distributors including Vertigo, Signature Entertainment, Trafalgar, and Altitude have released most of the new releases. They took the gamble to release films ahead of the major studios and many of the films have been steady performers with films like 100% Wolf in the top 10 for 10 weeks. In normal circumstances, Vertigo would be lucky if it lasted more than a week in the top 10.
This weekend was very unusual with the two biggest films Two By Two: Overboard and Honest Thief in normal circumstances going straight to video (or opened in the lower end of the chart) and The Secret Garden, The Witches and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan all performing strongly. That said 20th Century Studios had dated Everybody’s Talking About Jamie to opened October 23rd with the aim the feel-good musical would repeat the success of Bohemian Rhapsody two years ago.
Vue Cinemas released a survey (asked 2,000 people) last week about how important the cinema experience is to families; 69% of children 5-14 would rather go to the cinema than a playground 68%, theme park 56% or go for a walk 48%.
If Vue believed the findings of their own survey would have put on many more screenings of children’s films during half-term week. This week is normally one of the most lucrative weeks for children’s films because of the colder wetter weather people don’t want to do outdoor activities. Box office increased 55% from last weekend and Mon-Fri will probably increase 150%+ even with Northern Ireland, ROI and Wales cinemas closed.
A survey saying 69% of children would prefer to sit and watch a screen rather than go outside and have some exercise isn’t such a surprise, you need comparable activities to go to the cinema like watching Netflix, on social media or playing Fortnite?
The survey also said 58% felt safe taking their children to the cinema with the current safety measures if this was really the case box office over the last 17 weeks wouldn’t be on average 10% of the normal level.
- Honest Thief – £254,267 – NE
Includes £43,779 from previews on Wednesday #3 and Thursday #2 in 133 screens
Had the 5th biggest opening since cinemas reopened in July between Bill & Ted Face the Music and Unhinged and the 34th biggest opening this year between My Spy and Downhill.
Unhinged opened in July with £175,263 from 253 screens taking £1.96m
Liam Neeson’s last action film 2019’s Cold Pursuit opened with £631,467 from 417 cinemas taking £1,743,561
2018’s The Commuter opened £1,602,680 taking £3,643,253
2015’s Run All Night opened £823,833 taking £2,037,542
Signature Entertainment acquired UK rights in February, and it is their widest release in the UK opening in over 300 cinemas including several IMAX screens.
In normal circumstances, Honest Thief would have a far smaller release as Unhinged and many other films that have been released by independent distributors since July.
In 2017 Liam Neeson said he wasn’t going to make any more action films, but then two years later he said he will keep starring in them as long as audiences stop watching them, but since Taken 3 in 2014 they have gotten less successful at the box office and many of them feel like they are Taken rip-offs with Liam Neeson having a scene on the phone as he does in Honest Thief.
- The Secret Garden – £154,087 – NE
The previous version of The Secret Garden was released in 1993 opening with £273,000 from 135 screens taking £3.82m (£8.5m+ inflation inflated).
Other adaptions of classic children books include
2016’s Swallows and Amazons opened with £676,175 taking £2,499,537
2009’s Where The Wild Things Are opened with £883,990 taking £2,646,965
1996’s A little Princess opened with £420,539 taking £723,264
Along with the far bigger C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe films and the many Roald Dahl films.
After Studiocanal and Heyday Films had huge success with Paddington announced plans in 2016 to make a remake of another children’s favourite Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, the book was first published in 1911 has been hailed ever since as a classic 20th-century literary children’s book. Heyday Films are again teaming up with Studiocanal to make Pippi Longstocking remake, Shackleton starring Tom Hardy and a third Paddington film is in development.
Studiocanal originally dated it for release in April, but its release date was delayed to August after cinema lockdown and US rights which previously were sold to Global Road Entertainment was sold on to STX who then released it on VOD in August. Had The Secret Garden opened as originally planned in April it would have opened in more than double the number of screens and opened with about £1m.
Sky Cinema acquired UK rights in August and set an October 23rd for their hybrid Sky Cinema and theatrical release, major exhibitors refuse to book these releases similar to Netflix, but this never makes any sense as only a quarter of the country subscribe to Sky Cinema, so they are just biting off their nose to smite their face refusing to book it especially while they are crying out for studio content. The major exhibitors who refuse to book Sky Cinema and Netflix content will still book Event Cinema screenings of Doctor Who, Sherlock and They Shall Not Grow Old which was broadcast live at the same time on the BBC.
Sky Cinemas first cinema and TV release was Monster Family released in March 2018 opened #16 with £126,235 from 126 screens; Anon opened May 2018 #33 with £19,108 from 81 screens and Final Score opened #36 with £9,945 from 52 screens.
They also released Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Life Itself, The Hurricane Heist and Serenity, except for The Secret Garden these are films that would not get much media coverage. Despite having limited box office potential Sky Cinema pushed these films heavily getting the actors in the UK to promote them.
The previous incarnation of Sky Cinema Original Films was Sky Pictures launched in 1998 (closed in 2001) to make original British films to rival Film Four and BBC Films, but the only success they had was 1999’s Saving Grace released as part of an output deal with 20th Century Fox in the UK. While Sky has made many successful TV shows over the decades, they have not been able to repeat that same success with films unlike HBO in the US.
Along with the release of The Secret Garden, Amazon released Borat 2 in selected cinemas in the UK, but as it was released on Amazon on Friday major exhibitors again refused to book it despite the film getting huge media coverage and the first film opening with £6,242,344 in 2006 taking £23,863,341 (£35,378,506 inflation inflated); Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G Indahouse in 2001 opened with £3,231,673 taking £10,170,779 (£17,737,446 inflation inflated) and 2012’s The Dictator opened with £4,963,745 taking £11,016,175.
Box office figures for Borat 2 haven’t been released but it was watched over 1.6m times in the US over its opening weekend which is more than Mulan; Borat 2 was free with Amazon Prime.
Major exhibitors also refused to book The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Rebecca (both from Netflix) but were released in independent cinemas in the UK over the last few weeks. The Trial of the Chicago 7 as The Secret Garden were both theatrically made films, but the distributors choose to sell to Netflix and Sky Cinema as they feared neither would find the audience in cinemas they deserve to get. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is an excellent film, so many films are called “the movie we need right now” but this is definitely the case with The Trial of the Chicago 7 as “The whole world is watching” what will happen next month’s US elections.
After Warner Bros announced The Witches would be released on HBO Max at the end of October in the US, they announced it would get a theatrical release internationally, but then a few weeks later announced it would go to PVOD internationally. Roald Dahl film adaptations are hugely popular in the UK, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, Fantastic Mr Fox and Matilda (a new film is currently being made by Working Title, Netflix will release in the world except for the UK where Sony Pictures will give it a cinema release). Along with it being half-term and Halloween, or maybe Warner thought it might be too scary for children as the 1990 original film was?
As seen with how Onward has taken over £2m since cinemas reopened despite being released on digital and video these films could have found an audience in cinemas if major exhibitors booked them.
There was a complete lack of imagination over the relaunch of cinema the Film Distributors Association gave exhibitors a library of 450+ films but cinemas on July 4th in major exhibitor’s cinemas looked as they did on March 17th.
The whole relaunch of cinema was poorly handled, and cinema is predictably suffering now for this mismanagement. As soon as cinemas went dark on March 17th exhibitors and studios should have planned the reopening of cinema as it gave them a once in a lifetime chance to relaunch cinema and it likely to get huge free media coverage.
Cinemas should have reopened with classics over the last 50 years with all seats £5 and the Meerkat Movies 2for1 should have run 7 days a week from July to the end of the year.
Despite Christopher Nolan and exhibitors belief Tenet was never going to be the film that was right to relaunch cinema on its own, studios should have worked together all putting up one or more high-profile release to open during a mega-movie month having films like Free Guy and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie comedies, popcorn movies and feel-good films not a pretentious film about people wearing masks.
- Tenet – £134,968 – £17,122,299
2D took £129,431 (96.2%) of £15,228,541 (88.9%); IMAX took £5,156 (3.4%) of £1,891,322 (11.1%)
After 8 weeks #1 becoming the third longest after Avatar and Titanic, drops down three places
Had Tenet opened on its original July 17th date Tenet might have never opened #1 as it was due to open against Top Gun: Maverick, the week after Ghostbuster, two weeks after Minions: The Rise of Gru and a week before Jungle Cruise. When Tenet was delayed would have only lasted one-week #1 with Mulan opening weekend after, three weeks if The King’s Man had not been delayed and five weeks if Wonder Woman 1984 had opened last weekend.
Dunkirk #1 for 4 weeks; Interstellar #1 for 2 weeks; The Dark Knight Rises #1 for 2 weeks; Inception #1 for 1 week; The Dark Knight #1 for 2 weeks (returned #1 in 5th week); Batman Begins #1 for 2 weeks; Insomnia #1 for 1 week
9th weekend
Batman Begins £24,194 #15 dropped 67% (12 films took more than Tenet) #1 Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (£2,886,352); The Island (£1,481,647); Crash (£818,604); Herbie: Fully Loaded ( £672,674); Madagascar (£648,653); Fantastic Four (£566,573); Wedding Crashers (£558,492); War of the Worlds (£339,078); The Perfect Catch (£272,285); The Rising (£220,259); Skeleton Key (£176,000); Stealth (£171,119).
The Dark Knight £211,370 #11 dropped 41% in 180 screens; (11 films took more than Tenet) #1 Tropic Thunder (£2,483,271); Mamma Mia! (£708,489); The Women (£605,390); Pineapple Express (£547,701); The Duchess (£518,865); The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (£451,446); Rocknrolla (£439,848); Disaster Movie (£371,142); Step Brothers (£311,957); The Strangers (£216,437); The Dark Knight (£211,370).
Inception £271,033 #14 dropping 35% in 154 screens; (15 films took more than Tenet) #1 Resident Evil: Afterlife (£1,690,655); Toy Story 3 (£756,575); Grown Ups (£742,472); The Last Exorcism (£730,395); Tamara Drewe (£615,553); Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (£439,143); Going the Distance (£436,361); Cyrus (£429,687); Dinner for Schmuks (£401,567); The Expendables (£366,663); Salt (£342,575); Dabangg (£332,673); Marmaduke (£305,663); Inception (£271,033); Diary of a Wimpy Kid (£265,068).
The Dark Knight Rises £231,156 #11 34% drop in 140 screens; (14 films took more than Tenet); #1 The Sweeney (£1,545,294); ParaNorman (£1,393,123); Anna Karenina (£813,395); Lawless (£790,378); Dredd (£769,381); Hope Springs (£728,689); Brave (£584,321); Total Recall (£472,232); The Possession (£346,642); Ted (£317,035); The Dark Knight Rises (£231,156); Barfi! (£229,882); The Watch (£180,099); To Rome with Love (£141,008).
Interstellar n/a
Dunkirk #8 £336,547 dropped 47% in 370 screens (11 films took more than Tenet); #1 It (£6,070,542); Victoria and Abdul (£1,846,970); mother! (£831,676); American Assassin (£768,951); The Emoji Movie (£388,656); Aces of the Jungle (£374,982); American Made (£344,764); Dunkirk (£336,547); Wind River (£255,037); Despicable Me 3 (£254,959); The Hitman’s Bodyguard (£235,043).
Biggest 9th weekends are Avatar (£2,817,009); The Greatest Showman (£2,000,922); Titanic (£1,953,082); Slumdog Millionaire (£1,289,094); The Kings Speech (£1,076,381); Mamma Mia! (£1,059,102); Toy Story 4 (£1,023,453); Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (£1,013,564); The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (£968,387); Casino Royale (£839,164)
Had a similar 9th weekend close to Captain Marvel (£162,989); Mary Poppins Returns (£141,000); Alice in Wonderland. (£139,995)
Took more than 143.29% Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (£134,030); 133.24% Star Wars; The Last Jedi (£57,866); 64.65% Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (£167,452).
But less than -36.15% The Dark Knight (£211,370); -39.05% A Star Is Born (£221,455);-41.6% The Dark Knight Rises (£231,156); 41.7% Star Wars: The Force Awakens (£442,768); -45.4% 1917 (£247,291); -47.3% Gravity (£256,109); Dunkirk -59.9% (£336,547); -63.1% Joker (£506,763);-67.3% Bohemian Rhapsody (£413,563); -70.1% Black Panther (£452,734); -87.4% The King’s Speech (£1,076,381); -93.2% The Greatest Showman (£2,000,922); Titanic -93.1% (£1,953,082); 95.2% Avatar (£2,817,009).
Had the 3rd biggest 9th weekend of 2020 after Jumanji: The Next Level (£391,310 #86); 1917 (£247,291 #11); Little Women (£90,662) ahead of Bad Boys for Life (£58,441); Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (£55,476 #25)
In normal circumstance would expect Tenet to take like 1917 and Joker in its 8th weekend taking about £600k+.
326th biggest film in the UK between Iron Man and The Silence of the Lambs (close to Goldeneye, The Matrix, The Favourite and Mad Max: Fury Road) and 520th biggest inflation inflated between The Imitation Game and Aliens (close to Gangs of New York, Django Unchained, The Great Gatsby and The Passion of the Christ).
52nd biggest Warner Bros film between The Matrix and Godzilla (close to The Lego Movie: The Second Part, Clash of the Titans, Batman Begins and Ready Player One) 78th biggest inflation inflated between Miss Congeniality and The Great Gatsby (close to The Last Samurai, Ocean’s Twelve, The Final Destination (opened the same day as Tenet in 2009) and Disclosure).
First, 12 days took 58.4% of its current box office comparable to 10-day openings of The Other Woman, Hidden Figures, Collateral and The Girl on the Train; Tenet has currently taken 3.16x opening similar to Straight Outta Compton (opened the same day as Tenet in 2015), RoboCop, Hobbs & Shaw and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Normally the UK is Christopher Nolan second or third biggest global territory after the US and China as his films often get a Brit boost but Tenet has performed similarly as in the UK to France, Germany and South Korea, showing that the film didn’t cross over beyond Nolanites and cinephiles.
Independent cinemas had a far more realistic approach when it came to reopening, majors’ exhibitors were all about opening asap having predictable results of only a 20% of audience returning and cinemas closing again within months. When lockdown started in March many independents did not expect to reopen this year, with the Prince Charles cinema reopening last week four months after the major exhibitors had reopened.
Almost compared Tenet to Blade Runner 2049 as both were critical darlings but regularly cinemagoers would see Tenet as they did Blade Runner 2049 pretentious style over substance film, while positive reviews often help films find their audience as soon as critics called Tenet the film for Nolan fans this probably turned off many; Blade Runner 2049 took £18,820,009 and Tenet will take slightly less. Both films performed far stronger internationally than in the US and next year’s Dune reimagination could suffer a similar fate directed by Denis Villeneuve, while the film has a strong ensemble cast as with Blade Runner the original film underperformed at the box office.
Dune was originally due to be released in December but Warner moved it to the first week of October which they have had strong success over the years launching adult sci-fi and it should have been the date Tenet was moved to in March as soon as Sony Pictures delayed Venom 2.
Tenet is the 3rd biggest film of the year after 1917 and Sonic the Hedgehog; at the start of the year, most people would have expected Tenet to be one of the biggest films of the year which it still will be but taking less than half many expected, about £18m less than Interstellar.
Cinema industry had a once in a lifetime chance to relaunch cinema to the world China has seen attendance almost return to normal after two months, but the US and UK won’t get back to pre-lockdown levels before 2022 due to their bull in a china shop rush to reopen far too soon.
Unlike Asia, the reopening of cinemas has been poorly handled in the UK and the US with exhibitors behaving like a bull in a china shop despite all the research telling them it could be 6 months or more for before the majority return and cinemas should be for the many, not the few.
There doesn’t seem to have been any planning as soon as China closed cinemas in January before their most lucrative time of the year the rest of the world should have been concerned but it was business as normal until mid-March. 6th March ‘not seeing any discernible impact in terms of cinema admissions’ despite Pixar having the worst opening that weekend in the UK for Onward.
To quote the great Ian Malcolm Warner were so preoccupied with whether they could, they did not stop to think if they should release Tenet now. If Warner had any sense they would announce Tenet going PVOD in the next few weeks alongside theatrical to avoid many watching it illegally online over the next few months, given that 80% not willing to return to the cinema anytime soon a chance to see it legally.
The 9 Christopher Nolan films have taken £260m at the UK box office (£302m inflation inflated).
Guardian live-stream an interview with Christopher Nolan on November 5th hopefully answering the question why Tenet had to open in the middle of a pandemic and is he happy with the performance of the film, as Tenet will surely take about half of what Inception took a decade ago.
Warner Bros have surprisingly dated the Melissa McCarthy comedy Superintelligence they moved to HBO Max several months ago to open in cinemas on November 27th (despite her comedies apart from Spy not being very popular in the UK apart from Spy) as they did with American Pickle in August opening with £27,732 from 162 screens in August taking £128,349.
- Pixie – £116,517 – NE
Gangster comedy starring Olivia Cooke, Ben Hardy, Daryl McCormack, Colm Meaney, Alec Baldwin and directed by Barnaby Thompson (previously directed 2007’s St Trinian’s opened with £1,832,594 taking £12,042,854; and 2009’s St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold opened with £1,586,832 taking £7,074,379).
Originally planned to open in over 500 screens when Cineworld and Picturehouse cinemas were still open as well as cinemas in Northern Ireland, ROI and Wales Pixie opened in 326 screens.
Comparisons re of course made with Guy Ritchie British gangster films 1998’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels opened with £941,638 taking £11,784,141 (£21,112,034 inflation inflated)
Colm Meaney starred in Matthew Vaughn’s 2004 Layer Cake opened £1,090,561 taking £4,447,859
If you are to compare Pixie with any of these films, it needs to be at 10% which it has done, and Pixie opened with far fewer media coverage or marketing. With few films opening over the next few weeks and exhibitors not so quick to pull films word of mouth could help Pixie find a wider audience over the coming weeks. Have to ask why open Pixie this weekend with so many other new releases?
Also released
- All My Life – Universal Pictures
Opened with £50,488 from 224 screens
Surprisingly despite All My Life’s soft opening, it’s still playing in cinemas for the second weekend in normal circumstances major exhibitors would have pulled it.
Universal Pictures release the film in the US in December and is expected to be one of their first films that will go to PVOD after 17 days.
- The Climb – Sony Pictures
Opened with £14,902 from 185 screens
Despite ROI, Northern Ireland and Wales cinemas are currently closed The Climb and All My Life both opened in over 200 screens but not able to find an audience. Always find it strange that this weekend is always a remarkably busy weekend for new releases, this year there were 21 films released over the weekend, never makes any sense to open so many over one weekend as most were never going to find an audience.
20 of the new releases reported their box office taking £998,402 from 1,853 screens (45% of the screens still open had new films); box office for Borat 2 wasn’t reported but played in Curzon and other independent cinemas as have Netflix films The Trail of the Chicago 7 (also starring Sacha Baron Cohen) and Rebecca.
- Cinema Paradiso 4K Restoration – Arrow
Opened with £28,320 from 63 screens
Despite being released on Apple TV and helped by a TV advertising campaign On The Rocks #12 took £31,893 in its fourth weekend and £399,089
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £1,303,829 up 48.2% from last weekend (£880,276)
The weekend admissions 183,380 up 65.5% from last week (110,804); admissions last year this week was 1,887,622 (90.3% down)
Latest estimate for 2020 box office is £340m about a third of last year’s £1.227bn; UK BO was only £294m after 37 week and is likely to be the lowest annual box office since 1995 (£383m)
Top 3 took £737,619 56.6% of £1,303,829; Two By Two: Overboard! 25.2% (£329,265); Honest Thief 19.5% (£254,267); The Secret Garden 11.8% (£154,087)
Down 90.8% from 2019 (2019: (£14,176,042); Top three took 57.7% (£8,488,929) of the top 10; Joker 23.5% (£3,464,682); Terminator: Dark Fate 19.5% (£2,864,941); Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil 14.7% (£2,159,306); #1 Joker (£3,464,682) 4th weekend #1
Down 93.6% from 2018: (£20,418,070); Bohemian Rhapsody (£9,530,463); The Hate U Give (£911,309); La Fanciulla Del West – Met Opera 2018 (£186,621); Die Walkure – ROH, London 2018/19 (£185,066); Beetlejuice (30th Anniversary) (£33,825); #1 Bohemian Rhapsody £9,530,463 1st week 659 screens (46.6% of top 10)
Down 93.2% from 2017: (£19,248,577); Thor: Ragnarok (£12,375,804); Jigsaw (£1,851,249); Breathe (£535,675); Call Me by Your Name (£235,760); The Shining (Re: 2017) (£1,448); #1 Thor: Ragnarok £12,375,804 1st week 611 screens (64.3% of the top 10)
Down 93.1% from 2016: (£18,662,678); Doctor Strange (£9,288,898); Ethel & Ernest (£19,202); #1 Doctor Strange £9,288,898 1st week 602 screens (49.7% of the top 10)
Down 88% from 2015; (£10,858,414); Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension 3D (£1,472,427); The week 588 screens 64% drop (20.9% of top 10)
Down 87.9% from 2014: (£10,824,678); Fury (£2,692,786); The Book of Life (£981,432); Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (expansion) (£571,581); Love, Rosie (£482,535); The Babadook (£347,512); This Is Where I Leave You (£109,441); Serena (£95,109); #1 Fury £2,692,786 1st week 462 screens (24.8% of top 10)
Down 89.6% from 2013: (£12,528,593); Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (£3,658,618); Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (£1,940,476); Ender’s Game (£1,158,548); One Chance (£717,857); The Selfish Giant (£81,737); Reef 2: High Tide (£26,910); Closed Circuit (£19,998); #1 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 £3,658,618 1st week 510 screens (29.2% of top 10)
Down 95.1% from 2012 (£26,591,268); Skyfall (£20,180,369); #1 Skyfall £20,180,369 1st week 587 screens (75.9% of top 10)
Down 88.4% from 2011 (£11,227,673); Paranormal Activity 3 (£3,405,036); Contagion (£1,463,638); Monte Carlo (£237,469); Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer (£33,605); Restless (£11,270); #1 Paranormal Activity 3 £3,405,036 1st week 390 screens (30.3% of top 10)
Down 89.4% from 2010: (£12,266,017); Paranormal Activity 2 (£3,764,722); RED (£1,662,472); Legend of the Guardians (£737,444); Alpha and Omega (£643,425); Easy A (£277,975); Africa United (£177,827); Ramona and Beezus (£84,475); #1 Paranormal Activity 2 £3,764,722 1st week 389 screens (30.7% of top 10)
Down 87.5% from 2009; (£10,454,829); Saw VI (£1,736,287); Fantastic Mr. Fox (£1,517,312); Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (£798,641); The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (£35,362); #1 Up £3,807,003 3rd week 549 screens 26% drop (31.1% of top 10)
Down 91.2% from 2008; (£15,824,329); High School Musical 3 (£8,409,375); Saw V (£2,436,817); Ghost Town (£1,347,678); Incendiary (£18,964); #1 High School Musical 3 £8,409,375 1st week 493 screens (53.1% of top 10)
Down 87.8% from 2007: (£10,717,468); Saw IV (£2,482,889); Eastern Promises (£623,491); Sicko (£156,173); #1 Ratatouille £3,056,938 2nd week 525 screens 19% drop (33.5% of top 10)
Down 84.6% from 2006; (£8,486,228); Barnyard: The Original Party Animals (£1,022,890); The Guardian (£826,569); The Grudge 2 (£773,422); The Last Kiss (£431,071); Marie Antoinette (£283,883); #1 The Departed £1,456,564 3rd week 2nd #1 358 screens 14% drop (17.1% of top 10)
Down 88.5% from 2005 (£11,324,493); Nanny McPhee (£2,603,834); Corpse Bride (£1,150,464); Sky High (£646,569); Broken Flowers (£395,880); Dreamer (£149,058); #1 Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit £4,666,723 2nd week 499 screens 50% drop (41.2% of top 10)
Down 86.5% from 2004 (£9,648,812); Alien vs Predator (£2,003,663); Alfie (£1,314,156); The Princess Diaries 2 (expansion) (£807,008); #1 Shark Tale £3,199,963 2nd week 504 screens 58% drop (33.1% of top 10)
Down 87.3% from 2003 (£10,261,167); Intolerable Cruelty (£1,555,684); Second-hand Lions (£200,851); #1 Finding Nemo £3,887,996 4th week 3rd #1 501 screens 34% drop (37.9% of top 10)
Down 82.1% from 2002 (£7,277,320); Halloween: Resurrection (£520,171); K-19 (£352,163); High Crimes (£208,727); Donnie Darko (£191,348); Simone (£147,372); Possession (£85,004); The Magdalene Sisters (£78,151); #1 XXX £2,044,850 2nd week 435 screens 40% drop (28.1% of top 10)
Down 83.5% from 2001 (£7,926,562); Legally Blonde (£1,453,148); The Man Who Wasn’t There (£419,609); #1 American Pie 2 £1,626,438 3rd week 417 screens 42% drop (20.5% of top 10).
Next weekend in 2019 took £12,078,831; top three took 54.3% (£6,563,938) of the top 10; Joker 20.2% (£2,446,199); The Addams Family 18.5% (£2,234,172); Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil 15.6% (£1,883,567); 12 films opened at weekend taking (£2,306,374); Doctor Sleep 63.3% (£1,460,643); Sorry We Missed You 15.8% (£364,849); remaining 10 films shared 20.8% (£480,882);
UK Box Office since the restart
Before lockdown in March there were 848 cinemas open, with the closure of 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse cinemas (1,180+ screens), ROI, Northern Ireland and Wales there are now 461 cinemas open.
UK cinemas have now been open for 17 weeks with box office from a low of £189,000 to high when Tenet opened £6,224,288; first weekend (from 42 cinemas+ drive-ins (460 screens) to 670 cinemas+ drive-ins 6,372 screens.
Week 1 £189,000 from 460 screens (73 cinemas) 141 films on release; top 5 took £81,880
Week 2; Up 76.2% £333,002 (182 films) from 1,059 screens (123 cinemas 85 from the UK the rest from Ireland and drive-ins) up 130.2%; The Empire Strikes Back (40th Anniversary opening with £50,406 from 1012 screens); top 5 £148,675.
Week 3: Down 7.5% £308,154 (191 films) from 151 cinemas and 1,286 screens up 21.4%; top 5 took £136,559; top 5 took £169,911
Week 4: Up 30.7% £402,752 (214 films) from 185 cinemas and 1,734 screens Up 34.8%; top 5 took £328,783
Week 5: Up 61.8% £651,914 (218 films) from 3,016 screens (326 cinemas reopened) up 74%; Unhinged opened with £175,263 from 243 screens); top 5 took £328,783
Week 6: Down 17.4% £538,716 (236 films) from 338 cinemas and 3,393 screens up 12.5%: American Pickle opened with £27,732 from 162 screens; top 5 took £262,058
Week 7: Up 85.2% £997,837 (269 films) from 366 cinemas; Inception: 10th Anniversary opened £207,675 from 313 screens; top 5 took £628,678
Week 8: Up 10.9% £1,107,153 (264 films) from 3,889 screens (491 cinemas) up 21.5%; top 5 took £643,139
Week 9: Up 462.2% £6,224,288 (204 films) from 3, 856 (629 cinemas); Tenet opened with 85.7% (£5,335,654); top 5 took £5,868,018
Week 10: Down 39.8% £3,746,637 (198 films) 658 cinemas 4,607 screens (198 films on release; 487 England); top 5 £3,167,757
Week 11: Down 25% £2,812,496 from 5,522 screens; top 5 took £2,223,661; top 5 took £2,086,954
Week 12: Down 7.4% £2,603,624 from 5,401 screens; 613 cinemas; top 5 took £1,598,935
Week 13: Down 18.9% £2,112,443 from 5,564 screens 620 cinemas; top 5 took £1,598,935
Week 14: Up 24.6% £2,633,473 from 6,372 screens; top 5 took £1,753,045
Week 15: Down 36.5% £2,425,745 from 4,527 screens (closure of 1,180+ Cineworld screens); top 5 took £1,139,278
Week 16 Down 59.3% £1.2m from 4,031 screens in 488 cinemas (closure of Northern Ireland cinemas); The top five took £570,127 down 38.7% from £1,139,278 last week
Week 17 Up 54.2% £1.85m from 4,124 screens in 461 cinemas (Wales cinemas closed); 20 new releases taking almost £1m between them.
This weekend’s box office was 90.5% down on the same weekend last year taking £14,176,042; Top three took 57.7% (£8,488,929) of the top 10; Joker 23.5% (£3,464,682); Terminator: Dark Fate 19.5% (£2,864,941); Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil 14.7% (£2,159,306).
UK cinema admissions will drop to between 40m which will be the lowest since 53.8m in 1984, this would see 2020 box office drop almost 75% from £1.25bn to £334m, the lowest total since 1992, but with 150% ticket inflation since really have to go back to 1984 box office levels of £102.22m (£382.52m inflation inflated).
In an interview in the FT Curzon’s Philip Knatchbull talked about the antiquated theatrical window and cinemas won’t survive saying lockdown “released an enormous pent-up demand for change that had been held up by outdated business models predicated on a large number of admissions.”… “It isn’t that James Bond was the final straw for Cineworld. It’s that Cineworld was looking down a dark space anyway because it was relying on trying to control the theatrical window,”… and that the reason why Cineworld and Odeon are in the trouble they are in now has more to do with the high levels of debt both have after buying into the US market.
Major exhibitors have played the victim card for the last decade, their lack of action ahead of lockdown (everyone knew COVID was coming) and then how they dealt with reopening rather than dealing with the issues head-on which has put itself into this precarious position. It’s due to exhibitors unwillingness to change as they see it as cinemas have been around for 100+ years and that’s the way it is ignoring brick-and-mortar music and video stores had similar thoughts and where are Our Price, Tower Records, HMV and Blockbuster Video now?
Exhibitors should have learnt from what happened to Blockbuster Video, 20 years ago rejected a chance to buy Netflix for $50m (now worth $215bn) at their peak in 2004 generated $5.9bn a year with 9,000+ stores worldwide now only have 1 in Bend, Oregon, after closing in 2013. The problem is cinema industry has been in denial and don’t like change they have been ‘rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’ with their cosmetic change of recliners and restaurant-style food rather than dealing with the issues of dropping admissions for the last 15+ years
Ever since cinemas closed in March have suggested a similar-sized event as British Film Year in 1985 which started the renaissance of cinema in the UK and the launch of the first multiplex cinemas in the UK and National Cinema Day in 1996 (repeated the following year) when all cinemas across the UK were £1 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of cinema. Over the years that followed from 1985 to 2002 admissions grew steadily in the UK, they were boosted in 1996 with admissions increasing 226% from 54m to 175.9m (between 2003-2019 admissions only increased by 0.6%). A similar-sized event was needed to relaunch cinema and get people back into the cinema habit again, it is the 125th anniversary next year and this could have been part of a celebration of British cinema.
The US box office is expected to drop almost 80% from $11.3bn last year to $2.4bn this year; dropping 95% in the third quarter and 85% in the fourth quarter.
The UK cinema industry said 93% of current cinemagoers feel safe going to the cinema now, what the industry fails to understand is that is 93% of the 20% who have been comfortable returning to cinemas since they reopened in July, but cinema should be for the many, not the few, and is still 80%+ who aren’t comfortable and won’t return anytime soon.
China and Japan have shown the West how cinema reopening should have been and they should have followed in the footsteps of how Asia dealt with COVID from the beginning of the year, waiting longer to reopen and when they did have far stricter safety measures and in doing so are reaping the rewards now. While the West predictable suffers from a second closure of cinemas within 6 months.
While US exhibitors talk a lot about CinemaSafe measures if they were really working would see admissions increasing but they do not go far enough for the majority to feel safe going back to the cinema anytime soon. After exhibitors blamed Andrew Cuomo for not allowing New York movie theatres to reopen should see a dramatic rise in admissions this weekend with many reopening on Friday, but of course, they did not.
Exhibitors behaved like a bull in a china shop rushing to reopen far too soon and didn’t think of the consequences targeting the pent-up demand of 20% of cinemagoers (who would have continued going to the cinema if they were open between March and June had they stayed open) rather than the 80% who have always said it would take 6 months or more to return
That’s because Asia handled Coronavirus far better than the West, had the West followed in their footsteps this pent-up demand would now be released over a very lucrative half-term week but while China and Japan are breaking BO records will be a long time till the same happens in the West.
UK cinemas reopened 109 days after lockdown compared to 189 days in China and only 61 days in Japan. In Asia, they brought in far stricter safety measures when they reopened, as people felt confident, they have loosened them.
Asia brought in far stricter safety measures when cinemas reopened which gave the majority confidence to return to the cinema far quicker than the West. Many of these safety measures the industry talked about but never implemented like checkboard seating and temperature scanners (might not be effective but are fully a visual placebo, as when you go to hairdressers or beauty salons) and mandatory masks.
As soon as lockdown happened exhibitors and distributors should have worked together on a restart plan with multiple scenarios including the one if UK cinemas reopened before the US working with distributors and seeing what films they could release as there are many British films that have been delayed since lockdown. Films like Dream Horse and Our Ladies could have been part of a keep up and carry on the campaign…..as the 1997 Star Wars re-release trailer said… “for an entire generation, people have experienced Star Wars the only way it’s been possible on the TV screen, but if you have only seen it this way, you haven’t seen it at all”… “See it again for the first time”
UK cinemas should have extended Meerkat Movies to 7 days and offered 2for1 to everyone or as some exhibitors did in July all seats £5 all the time until November. As the key part of this was to get people back to the cinema feeling safe and get them into the cinemagoing habit again as once they do they will be back many times over those months for £5 people will take a chance on seeing films they might not normally see at the cinema.
Major exhibitors have complained about the lack of studio releases but we are in a chicken and egg situation as after the soft performance of Tenet it’s now down to exhibitors to show studios that there is the audience going to cinemas now that will justify them risking another tentpole release, this was always likely to happen if the first film failed to be as big as expected.
The problem with the UK exhibitors has been dependent on US films to fill their cinemas and many ‘British’ films that are made by the US studios. The countries that have had success relaunches have had strong success from local releases including China and South Korea. China, Korea & Japan are now stable because unlike other countries including the USA and UK government demanded far stricter safety measures when cinemas reopened, and exhibitors are now reaping the benefits.
Over the last week, there have been rumours that Amazon or Apple had offered MGM a crazy amount of money to acquire No Time To Die to go straight to streaming after the film has been delayed a second time. In 2017 when Eon was looking for a new distributor to release their upcoming James Bond films Amazon and Apple were amongst the bidders but Eon wanted the film to be seen in cinemas first and sold rights to MGM in the US and Universal Pictures internationally. It would make much more sense for Apple or Amazon to buy MGM as it would give both companies access to one of the biggest film libraries in the world.
US Box Office
- Honest Thief – Open Road
Dropped 35% in its second weekend taking $2.34m and $7.48m total. This time last year Maleficent: Mistress of Evil took $19.36m in its second weekend and $66.24m.
There was no notable increase on the box office of any films despite the reopening of movie theatres across New York state with most other films dropping similar percentage except for The Nightmare Before Christmas dropping 56% after dropping 580 screens.
Hard to make direct comparisons with Unhinged as it took four weeks to get to the same number of screens Honest Thief opened with dropping 30.5% in its fourth weekend (2nd wide) taking similar $1.8m and $11.43m total. Honest Thief had the benefit of playing in 180+ IMAX theatres and has taken $20.43m to date in the US and $41.13m worldwide.
With no wide releases this weekend Honest Thief is likely to remain #1 for the third weekend which could see the Kevin Costner thriller Let Him Go become #1 in two weeks’ time which will be his first film in a lead to be #1 since 1999’s Message in a Bottle (opening with $4.22m) he had small roles in Hidden Figures and Man of Steel that have since been #1.
- The Empty Man – 20th Century Studios
Opened with $1.31m; received D+ CinemaScore (took $450k on Friday)
Opened in 2,027 screens including movie theatres in New York outside of the city after Gov Andrew Cuomo announced on October 17th they could reopen with the same safety measures he demanded in June including MERV-13 filters which the NATO CinemaSafe measures don’t require.
Over the last few weeks, exhibitors have personalised their attack over movie theatres not being allowed to reopen in New York against Gov Cuomo over the last few weeks as they believe the reason why studios won’t release their biggest films is that New York and Los Angeles movie theatres are closed.
There is a 25% capacity cap of a maximum of 50 cinemagoers per screen, which was not enough for exhibitors who wanted 50%. Regal blamed the closure of movie theatres in New York as the reason why they closed their theatres and started a campaign on their cinema display screens with comments like “48 states have reopened theatres safely. Why not New York, Governor Cuomo?”
Just reopening movie theatres in New York will not change anything unless exhibitors go much further with their safety measures as while exhibitors might believe they are good enough the vast majority still feel uncomfortable to return to movie theatres anytime soon. This weekend it was announced that China had overtaken the US to become the world’s biggest cinema nation this year, despite their cinemas being closed for two months longer than the US. China cinemas reopened in August (after closing in January) with far stricter safety measures, that always included masks mandatory, no food and drink allowed, temperatures checked (while scanners aren’t completely effective, they have a placebo effect as people feel more comfortable), and checkboard seating.
These stronger safety measures were also implemented across Asia when their cinemas reopened and saw admissions grow steadily and as confidence grew the safety measures were lessened and the capacity increased from 25% to 75%.
Had the West followed in the footsteps of Asia movie theatres wouldn’t have reopened in the US or the UK before September (not just saying this in hindsight, but in March when cinemas were closing in March did say October would have been the most sensible time to reopen) with similar stronger safety measures box office levels could have been back to pre-lockdown levels in 2021, but now this won’t be until 2023 if at all, as can see major changes ahead with the way many studios release their films with many more theatrical planned releases going straight to streaming.
Major exhibitors have been in denial ever since movie theatres reopened in July despite all their research showing that it would take the majority over 6 months before they felt comfortable going back and nothing has changed over the months they have reopened if anything it’s gotten worse, nothing will change with New York movie theatres reopening.
The trailer and poster were released only a week before its release date, Disney continues to dump 20th Century Fox’s remaining films having either delayed or moved to Disney+ all of their 2020 releases but are still currently releasing Nomadland, Free Guy and Death on the Nile in December. While will be a complete year of no new releases from Disney with their next Raya And The Last Dragon currently dated for March.
- Tenet – Warner Bros
Down 19% in its eighth weekend taking $1.3m and $52.5m total (14% of total worldwide box office) Tenet is expected to take about $65m; took $355k down 25% from IMAX taking $5.1m (12.4% of US BO); IMAX, PLF/Premium Large Formats, and Dolby Cinema took 32%
8th biggest film of 2020 between Onward and The Gentlemen; 1,653rd biggest film in the US between Hubble 3D and Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps; 269th biggest Warner Bros film between Hubble 3D and The Lake House; 2,549th biggest inflation inflated between Hitman and Driven.
Last week Warner Bros said at an investors conference call “I can’t tell you that we walked away from the Tenet experience saying it was a home run.” … “I’m happy we did it. I think the team was incredibly creative. I think we learned a few things about what we can do. I think if theatres were open nation-wide if California and New York were open, we’d have some latitude… So maybe as we get to a place where there is a little more consistent footprint we can do some more.” But Warner knew when they dated Tenet to open August 28th internationally and September 4th in the US New York and Los Angeles movie theatres weren’t going to reopen anytime soon and should have delayed its release until they were as most other had done.
After Warner Bros released The Witches on HBO Max this week (was due to open in the cinema this month) they have been teasing they will release a big film on Christmas Day on HBO Max. While Warner still has Wonder Woman 1984 dated for Christmas Day it’s more likely to be their live-action/animated Tom and Jerry which was originally due for release over Christmas before Wonder Woman 1984 was delayed. This would see Warner move Wonder Woman 1984 to March 5th.
Over the last few weeks studios have been moving their early 2021 releases to later in the year including Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Rumble and Respect, with Coronavirus daily cases still on the increase in the US can’t see studios risking opening any major releases until March at the earliest. The industry only has themselves to blame for this with Warner’s idiocy to keep Tenet dated for the summer which saw exhibitors reopen cinemas several months too early and see a second much longer lockdown. Cinemas in Northern Ireland, ROI, Wales, Spain, Italy and Germany have been forced to close for a second time, while in England and the US major exhibitors have closed cinemas to save costs.
As always the West only thinks short-term, movie theatres shouldn’t have reopened in the West before September but the reason they did was due to the saviour of cinema Christopher Nolan who believed Tenet had to open in the middle of a pandemic and did more damage than good. This was predictable when China waited 7 months to reopen cinemas while US (and the UK) rushed to reopen after only 5 and implemented far stricter safety measures than US and UK, Asian cinemas are getting close to pre-lockdown levels while the West won’t get back to normal before 2023.
Rather than seeing streaming services as the enemy, exhibitors should be working with them as research shows that people who stream the most content also go to the cinema more often. “The exhibitors were all very clear at CinemaCon 2019 that they are happy to continue working alongside Netflix as they have been, as neither has been negatively impacted by the other.”
As always it’s not Netflix or Coronavirus that is doing the most damage to the future of cinema it’s exhibitors, as their rush to reopen movie theatres in the US and UK will do long-term damage that will impact this year and 2021 while China overtakes the US to become #1 as it waited.
Dunkirk took $520m WW; Interstellar $654m WW: The Dark Knight Rises $1.08bn WW; Inception $834m WW; The Dark Knight $1bn WW: Batman Begins $359m WW; Insomnia $114m WW.
Took $3.3m from 61 territories (down 51% from last weekend) $289m total and $341.4m worldwide (41m admissions worldwide); China $66.3m; Japan $23.1m; UK $22.4m; France $22.3m; Japan $23.1m; Germany $18.9m; Korea $14.9m
Took $453k from IMAX from 254 screens taking $39.1m globally worldwide from IMAX 11.3% of the total global box office and 32% of its box office came from PLF/Premium Large Formats including IMAX and Dolby Cinema and took $2.5m from film formats from 41 cinemas in 11 countries; UK (IMAX 70mm), Italy, Spain, and Denmark being the highest countries for film formats.
Tenet is the 3rd biggest US film of the year in the world between Bad Boys For Life $424.61m and Sonic the Hedgehog $306.76m.
255th biggest international film between The Matrix Revolutions and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter; 3rd biggest film internationally in 2020 between Wo He Wo De Jia Xiang and Jiang Ziya (showing how China has taken over the global cinema market over these last few weeks); 47th biggest Warner Bros film internationally between The Matrix Revolutions and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
412th biggest film worldwide between Enchanted and Tomorrow Never Dies; 76th biggest Warner Bros film worldwide between The Legend of Tarzan and Batman Forever; (Batman Begins #71; Dunkirk #26; Inception #21; The Dark Knight #6; The Dark Knight Rises
- After We Collided – Open Road
Opened with $420k from 460 screens was released the same day as VOD #1 on both Apple TV and Google Play.
Sequel to 2019’s After based on the Anna Todd One Direction fan-fiction; opened with $6m taking $12.13m and $69.74m, as with the first film the sequel will perform much stronger internationally than in the US taking over $46m since opening in September.
- Synchronic – Well Go USA
Opened #14 with $245,561 from 327 screens
Last month the film’s directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson in an Instagram post wrote “Due to distribution arrangements that are out of our control, the release of ‘Synchronic’ into drive-ins and indoor theatres has been confirmed for October 23rd. But we want to be very clear: at the time of writing this, we personally wouldn’t go to an indoor movie theatre, so we can’t encourage you to,” the post. “To us, this isn’t only about feeling safe in a theatre, this is also about the scientific community indicating that enclosed spaces like movie theatres are still a hazard for spreading COVID-19 to others.” … “If you do go to see it in an indoor theatre, please adhere to all guidelines. We love and miss the theatrical experience, so let’s work together to stop the spread of the virus,” …. “We are infinitely grateful for anyone checking out our movies, as well as everyone who has worked on them, and want all of you to remain as healthy as possible during these unprecedented times.”
In response, the distributor said “Well Go has a long and valued history with our friends at Rustic Films, including future projects; we applaud them for expressing themselves and encourage the same for all the artists we work with. Nonetheless, we stand behind the guidelines developed by NATO for the public and theatres to follow and stay safe enjoying movies on the big screen.”
It was great to see filmmakers come out and question the decision to release a film in cinemas in the middle of a pandemic as surely many directors and actors can’t be that comfortable promoting a film that will play in cinemas now despite industries claims there hasn’t been an outbreak yet traced back to a cinema anywhere in the world.
In May Spike Lee said “I know I’m not going to a movie theatre. I know I’m not going to a Broadway show. I know I’m not going to Yankee Stadium. Corona is a bitch. Corona is not playing. You fuck around you’re going to get killed, you’re going to die. I’m not ready to go.”
UK Box Office Top 10
The UK this weekend
Opening Wednesday for Halloween The Craft: Legacy, the sequel to 1996’s The Craft is being released in cinemas and on VOD same day; has received positive reviews.
The Craft opened in November 1996 with £1,160,915 taking £2,765,491; has since become a cult favourite on video.
Also opening is horror Relic and drama The Burnt Orange Heresy along with 16 other films Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Halloween (Re: 2020); Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone At Alexandra Palace, The Lady Of The Camellias – Bolshoi Ballet 2020, London 2014 (Opera) Manon Lescaut – Royal Opera, Michael Jordan: To The Max, Mogul Mowgli, The Painter And The Thief, Phil Lynott: Songs For While I’m Away, Philophobia, The Rifleman: The Director’s Cut, Ronnie’s, Shirley, Song Without A Name, V For Vendetta (Re: 2020) and Wolfwalkers.
UK Coming Soon
- Horizon Line – Eros-STX
Survival thriller starring Alexander Dreymon and Allison Williams and directed by Mikael Marcimain; it is the first film released by since Eros acquired STX in August and STX’s first since My Spy was released in March.
2018’s Adrift opened with £405,240
2004’s Open Water opened £1,970,176 taking £4,818,915
2017’s The Mountain Between Us opened £777,646 taking £2,360,660
2016’s The Shallows opened £800,963 taking £1,723,386
2013’s All Is Lost opened £231,595
2016’s The Finest Hours opened February 2016 – £247,643
- A Christmas Gift from Bob – Lionsgate UK
Sequel the 2016’s A Street Cat Named Bob starring Luke Treadaway, Anna Wilson-Jones, Kristina Tonteri-Young and Bob The Cat and directed by Charles Martin Smith; Sony Pictures acquired the rights for the original film in the UK and several other territories, while Lionsgate acquired rights for the sequel in July in the UK.
Actor turned director Charles Martin Smith has directed many animal films over the years including Air Bud, Dolphin Tale and A Dog’s Way Home, before directing starred in many classic films including American Graffiti and The Untouchables “Carry a badge carry a gun”.
A Street Cat Named Bob opened in November 2016 with £985,557 from 440 screens fourth behind Doctor Strange (£3,445,203); Trolls (£1,990,129); The Accountant (£1,623,866) taking £4,212,734 and $16m worldwide
Will have a limited cinema release along with VOD
Films about cats and dogs have immensely popular over the years in cinemas with films including om 2009’s Marley And Me opening with £4.4m taking £15.4m; 1992’s Beethoven taking £6.8m; 1993’s Beethoven’s 2nd taking £5.8m; 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose opened £1,300,097 (including £667,168 previews) taking £3.2m and 2010’s Hachi: A Dog’s Tale opened £442,753 taking £1,048,876 and also the two The Secret Life of Pets films, the first opened with £9,580,039 in 2016 taking £35,825,195, the second in £3,490,598 taking £18,638,365.
- Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula – Studiocanal
South Korean action horror directed by Yeon Sang-ho and the sequel to the 2016 film Train to Busan; was due to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival; was released in South Korea with mixed reviews taking $28m and $37m worldwide.
Studiocanal also released Train To Busan in October 2016 opening #18 with £38,183 from 33 screens
- Words On Bathroom Walls – Sony Pictures
Teen drama starring Charlie Plummer, Andy García, Taylor Russell, AnnaSophia Robb, Beth Grant, Molly Parker and Walton Goggins. And directed by Thor Freudenthal based on the YA novel by Julia Walton.
It has been described as a teen movie for the generation of mental health awareness and received positive reviews and was released in the US in August.
cigarette burns and missed changeovers 