By the end of July, U.K cinema admissions were 102m 6.6% more than they were a year earlier and the best performing since 2009 when 103.5 million tickets were sold in the first seven months. By the end of July Dunkirk had taken £28.4m of its final box office of £56.63m. July, admissions increased 7.3% 17.8 million from 2016 the fifth month of the 2017 admissions were higher than 2016 but In May and June admissions dropped.
February, July had their highest admissions since 2011 and March and April were the highest since 2002. Phil Clapp, CEO of the U.K. Cinema Association said, “There has been a diverse and strong film slate,” “Not all films land but we’ve had a significant number of films that have, most notably ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and most recently ‘Dunkirk,’ which probably brought in a slightly different audience to the usual summer blockbusters.”
January – April 2017 admissions were higher than 2016 – May June down – July up – August-October down – November up and December flat; admissions January – November 2017 were 153,451,891;
By the time of writing this (January 4th) December admissions haven’t been announced but looking at December box office rough predictions of 17 million would see UK admissions for 2017 be 170.4m approx. If average ticket price according to UK Cinema Association goes up as it has done in recent years they will claim it was £7.62 in 2017.
As many chains have admitted increased prices by up to 5% that figure is meaningless or would be as that figure is used is used to calculate annual admissions even though they don’t admit it box office divided by average ticket price equals the same as average ticket price times admissions.
My estimate for 2017 would be £1.273bn which would be only 0.8% more than 2016 despite admissions being higher than 2016 for 9 months of the year which highlights something is seriously wrong as 2017 should of been the first year since 2002 of actual growth not just box office but admissions.
I do believe had prices increased by inflation from 2002 they would be over 250m by now the highest for almost 50 years. But greed by exhibitors in the early 00’s using the film to digital as an excuse saw ticket prices dramatically rise. This was exactly the same time film fans discovered a real alternative to paying £10+ a time subscription streaming services paying less than than for a month.As many have upgraded their home cinemas from analogue to digital and HDTV and more recently to 4K HDR Dolby Atmos on even bigger TV screens now many 55+ inches in many homes .
2017 must be seen for what it is a very disappointing year as despite five of the biggest box office his in 2017 coming from the second half of the year box office was flat for the year while admissions were only slightly up from 2016.
While the box office has increased dramatically since 1989 on the chart above if you compare the admission growth against the ticket inflation the box office has as I’ve said so many times before been flat since 2002. This is also noticeable comparing the top 50 films in 1997 to the top 50 in 2017 while of course 2017 box office is doubled if you compare like for like by admissions 2017 to 1997 priced the 1997 films performed stronger.
2016 box office was the highest ever having grown by 80% from £742m to £1.31bn over the last 14 years but industry claimed average ticket prices have gone up from £4.44 to £7.41 between 2003 and 2016 while over the same period admissions were 175.9m in 2002 but haven’t increased in the years since.
In the 10 years prior to 2002 were massive increases in cinema admissions and in the early 90s many experts were predicting admissions to be over 200m by the year 2000.
In the 90s was massive growth in 1993 due to Jurassic Park but also in 1996 and 1997 due to National Cinema Day on June 2nd, 1996 with all cinemas £1 which brought millions back to the cinema it was so successful it was repeated the following year on June 15th, 1997. National Cinema Day still continues in Northern Ireland but not the rest of the UK. An annual UK National Cinema Day could boost attendance as it did 20 years ago and make peopole who haven’t been to the cinema in years comeback to it again.
The question I always ask is why admissions stopped growing in 2002 as it can’t be the films as were as many massive films in 2003 with Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Matrix Reloaded, Bruce Almighty; against Spider-Man, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Star Wars; Attack of the Clones, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002.
Jurassic Park in 1993 took £46.71m which helped admissions have a huge increase on the year before average ticket prices were £3.21 in 2015 when Jurassic World opened were £7.21 2017 inflated box office would have been £104.91m (doesn’t include 3D and large format surcharges). Jurassic World took £64.5m 38% more than Jurassic Park but was really 62.5% less than its box office; admissions Jurassic Park 14.55m Vs Jurassic World 8.95m 38% less but probably nearer 50% less with 3D and large format charges and of course average price far more than claimed £7.21.
So, if it wasn’t the films that made people stop going to the cinema as regular it must be the price as while the industry might claim average cinema ticket is still cheap only £7.62 it’s really a third more which would see admissions at the same levels as they were 20 years ago.
I always go back to quote Jeffrey Katzenberg’s famous memo he wrote now 27 years ago and everything has gotten far worse over the years since not going to upload all the pages but here are a couple.
Last month I checked the prices of over 230 cinemas showing Star Wars: The Last Jedi for standard adult 2D and it was £11.57. There are many surcharges for 3D, IMAX, Reclining, VIP, 4DX, PLF that increase prices even further, but the industry still claims average price is £7.62. Of the 230 cinemas, less than 10% were less than £7.62. Cineworld and Odeon have their own subscription cinemas services that offer a month unlimited cinema attendance for £17.99 which is close to what Netflix and Amazon offer but for half the price.
Going to the cinema used to be a cheap night out something many at its peak would go several times a week when tickets would cost the same as a pint of Guinness. But over the years since it became weekly, monthly and now a yearly trip for many as the costs have gone from a pint of Guinness to a Big Mac in the 70s to two Big Macs in the 90s to now a gourmet burger and drink.
Until the industry stops living in denial believing just because the box office is up everything is awesome cinema won’t change.
Film streaming in the UK is now as big as UK box office while the combined digital and physical home entertainment marketing is almost double. Distributors for years have wanted to cut the 17-week theatrical window being shut down by exhibitors, but as most films are played out of cinemas by week 6 these films are then unavailable legally for up to two months thanks to digital cinema and China good quality pirates are now available online after about a month on release. While 90% of a films box office is now taken for most films within the first 4 weeks, even the Last Jedi which took £67m in three weeks has already taken over 80% of its final box office and will likely be played out by week 10.
Most studios realise PVOD is urgently needed as the 17-week window would be great if films stayed in cinemas that long but even The Last Jedi won’t be playing on many screens in 13 weeks time. While there are many flops or films that underperform that are out of cinemas within weeks it’s crazy that they still need to have a theatrical window as they aren’t legally available anywhere for up to 3 months. Several years ago Paramount Pictures planned to release their films several weeks after films dropped under 1,000 screens in the US which made complete sense as it was then in exhibitors interest to keep films playing for longer in cinemas. But instead many exhibitors boycotted the films and the two films it was trialled on flopped.
UK BO for 2017 was £1.273 billion down 1.75% from 2016 £1.246 billion; in 2017 were two films taking over £60m Beauty and the Beast and Star Wars: The last Jedi and one over £50m Dunkirk while in 2016 none took over £60m with Rogue One and Fantastic Beasts taking over £50m.
ComScore reported on 800 films and 130 Event Cinema shows were released in 2017;
Top 10 films took £447.77m = 34.25% of total box office of 2017
Top 20 films took £700.78m = 53.96% of total box office of 2017
Top 100 films took £1.191bn = 92.16% of total box office of 2017
Which leaves £80m+ (8%) for the other 700 film releases and 130 Event Cinema screenings.
UK drop of 1.75% compares to 2.3% drop in North America with admissions in North America likely the lowest for 27 years; US box office took $11.1bn down 2.3% from last year’s record $11.4 billion and slightly down from 2015’s $11.14 billion; but while industry claim ticket inflation is only about 2% real inflation is closer to 5% a year.
2017 US admissions are the lowest since 1995 when its box office was $5.31bn but inflation-adjusted box office would be $10.87bn compared with the $11.04bn last year showing that there has been no growth in the US market while at the same times budgets have tripled and so have marketing costs. While industry claimed ticket, the price is up from $4.35 in 1995 to $8.95 in 2017.
Global box office is up 3% (global inflation is up 3.15%) from $38.6bn in 2016 to $39.9bn in 2017 with China over 21% from China and 28% from the US but as rentals in the US are more than double China the Chinese box office only artificially inflates global box office it needs to more than double in size to be comparable to the US.
It’s crazy that the industry celebrates these tiny percentage increases as production and marketing costs have increased far more than 3% while you only must compare the yearly growth Amazon and Netflix are gaining in subscribers to realise the industry needs double digital increases.
Studio breakdown (final figures up to November 30th and estimates for December).
Disney
£243.81m – (18.02%) from 6 films
Down from £300.7m from last year have been #1 biggest distributor in the UK now for three years running. It’s looking hard to see how any of their rivals can overtake them in the coming years with another strong slate in 2018 including Avengers: Infinity Wars, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Mary Poppins Returns.
While in 2019 with Avengers 4, Toy Story 4, Frozen 2, Star Wars Episode IX and reimaginations of Aladdin and The Lion King and 20th Century Fox also part of Disney could take 40% share of the marketplace.
Beauty and the Beast
After the teaser released in May 2016 viewed 91.8 million times more than Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the second released in November 2017 was viewed 127.6 million in 24 hours.
The question was only how big would reimagination of one of Disney’s most beloved animated films in the last 30 years open and that was £19.7m having the biggest Fri-Sun opening of the year and the biggest since 2012’s Skyfall. Star Wars: The Last Jedi had a bigger opening weekend and Fri-Sun opening £600,000 more but had extensive midnight screenings Beauty and the Beast never had.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
After Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened with £34,011,849 including £9,679,746 from previews taking £123,000,894 becoming biggest ever film in the UK. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opened with £17,305,011 including £4,086,256 from previews going on to take £67,842,944 the biggest film last year expectations were huge for The Last Jedi.
The Last Jedi teaser was watched 43m in first 24 hours in April compared to 55m for The Force Awakens in November 2014. The trailer was watched 120.1m in October 2017 compared with 112m for The Force Awakens in October 2015. Being a Star Wars film there was huge hype and expectation for the sequel even though a few weeks after The Force Awakens there was a backlash to the film as many released the reason why they liked it, so much was because it was a remake of A New Hope.
In early December premiere reaction was very positive with many calling it the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back and then when embargo broke reviews were equally as positive. But those four words were mentioned a lot The Empire Strikes Back many had feared that The Force Awakens would be close to the second Star Wars film Rian Johnson had spoken of the similarities several months ago.
But the backlash came within hours cinemagoers saw the film, not weeks as The Force Awakens Star Wars fans are very fanatical believing it was fake news but over the opening weekend while critical reaction was 93% on Rotten Tomatoes audience score dropped to 53% (now only 53%) lower than Attack of the Clones.
A month before The Last Jedi trades were reporting $200m US opening down from $248m for The Force Awakens but as both The Force Awakens as Rogue One opened 20% bigger than tracking I predicted the opening of $215-220m and UK opening down 20% from The Force Awakens. Both predictions were on the money with US opening of $220m and UK opening of £28m down 18% from The Force Awakens. Final box office had predicted a month before the opening of $750m US and £108m UK but after 6 days on release, those estimates dropped from mine to under $700m US and £95m in the UK. Three weeks after opening UK estimate £91m and the US $655m a global $1.6bn.
The Last Jedi opened only 13 days before the 40th anniversary on December 27th when Star Wars opened in the UK.
Other Films
Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Thor: Ragnarok performed as expected to take £41m and £31m. being the fifteenth and seventeenth films of the franchise must be seen in that way as the audience for all MCU films should be similar as are continuations of story arc started in Captain America: Civil War and is expected to end after Avengers 4. If people are so critical about DC Extended Universe they must also be for the MCU and they need to perform far stronger.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge and Cars 3 underperformed (taking £19.53m and £11.66m) both were expected for being follow-ups to underwhelming sequels while also Johnny Depp is box office poison. Was surprising that Warner Bros were happy to keep Johnny Depp in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald which is set for release in November.
Entertainment Films
£21.29m (1.57%) from 6 films
Up slightly from last year Entertainment Films have suffered over the last 10 years first from the loss of their output deal with New Line Cinema and then the emergence of eOne, Lionsgate and Studiocanal which has made the independent market much more competitive.
In the 90s and early 00s, Entertainment Films were the leading independent distributor releasing the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the early 00s. Entertainment Film Distributors become the first independent distributor to take over £100m at the box office in 2002 with £137m and 2003 with £115m. eOne also taken over £100m the last time was 2016 taking £109.9m but 2017 they took a quarter.
But then New Line decided to make more and bigger budget films including the $180m The Golden Compass in 2007 while being a huge hit in the UK was a massive flop in the US. The result of this saw Warne Bros incorporate New Line Cinema into the studio this is what many fear Disney will do with 20th Century Fox when they take control of the studio in 2019.
Being an independent distributor, are reliant on production deals and product availability as the marketplace squeezes with tentpole releases while Amazon and Netflix aggressively acquire global right for films makes it very hard for local distributors who can’t buy blocks of territories. Another issue for Entertainment Films is are suffering from STX International launching their UK distribution and after effects of Weinstein as both companies supplied them with their biggest hits.
2018 is Entertainment Film Distributors 40th anniversary which is an incredible achievement as so many independent distributors have come and gone over those years in the UK many with much deeper pockets than Entertainment Films.
Lion
Had been building strong buzz from its world premiere at Toronto Film Festival and shortly after London Film Festival opening January 20th with £1.26m. Held very strongly over the following weeks having one of the lowest second weekends for a wide release of the year thanks to strong word of mouth and Oscar and BAFTA nominations winning two and taking £11.81m. Of course, with the plot and the casting of Dev Patel were many similarities with the Oscar-winning 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire.
A Bad Moms Christmas
Last year Bad Moms was a surprise hit and STX rushed a sequel in production, but Entertainment Films still held the rights for the sequel despite STX opening UK distributor. After receiving average reviews many expected it to underwhelm at the box office while not matching the success of the original film in the US it did in the UK taking £8.12m
Other Films
Their other two films from STX underwhelmed at the box office The Space Between Us and The Bye Bye Man.
eOne
£27.34m (2.02%) from 17 films (having the lowest year in over 5 years)
Down 75% from 2016 and 46% from 2015 eOne was the biggest independent distributor for four of the last five years and five times of the last eight. Highlighting again how hard it is for an independent film distributor even one with the very deep pockets and production deals eOne have.
Last year had huge success from The BFG £30.64m and The Girl on the Train £23.65m 50% of their total box came from those two films.
Amblin provided eOne only one average performer in 2017 A Dog’s Purpose taking £2.99m next year provides them with their second Steven Spielberg film in two years The Post and The House with a Clock in Its Walls.
2017 started off with several potential award contenders A Monster Calls, Jackie, Denial, 20th Century Women and Miss Sloane but none were either that successful at the box office or won awards.
Biggest films of the year were The Death of Stalin and Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience neither were huge box office performers taking £4.88m and £3.62m but Peppa Pig helped bring the next generation to the cinema.
Exhibitors should have made the experience more special for first time cinemagoers as it was a rip off to charge regular pieces for an hour-long film Disney in November screened the Frozen short with all tickets £1.
With admissions flat again in 2017 and not having any growth now since 2002 the only growth being ticket inflation it is vital to get the next generation interested in going to the cinema by charging £12 parents will see cinema is a rip-off and wait three months to watch it on VOD or stream it illegally.
The Death of Stalin was generating strong buzz ahead of its release many critics calling it the funniest film of the year it was then surprising given the media coverage it received eOne choose to open it on only 138 screens on 20th October opening with £995,458.
Might have been a crowded weekend for new releases, but had it opened in 100 more screens would have opened ahead of both Geostorm and Happy Death Day and could have had an outside chance of being #1. Instead, they choose to open it wide the following weekend against Thor: Ragnarok.
Other films Detroit, Hampstead, 47 Meters Down, Suburbicon all disappointed
20th Century Fox
£191.73m (14.14%) from 24 films
Down 14.1% from last year’s £212.5m having a similar mixed year as 2015 with many of the older franchises and new planned franchises underwhelming Assassin’s Creed, Alien: Covenant and War for the Planet of the Apes. But then others like Hidden Figures, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Murder on the Orient Express and The Boss Baby performed strongly.
After the shocking news in December Disney are to buy 20th Century Fox the next year the studio will be treading water as they worry about what will remain of the 82-year-old studio when it becomes part of Disney. Many expect 20th Century Fox to become a production company close to Touchstone Pictures making 3 or 4 films a year the future of Blue Sky Studios and Fox Searchlight are both likely to be surplus to requirements.
Logan
After receiving widespread critical acclaim (93% Rotten Tomatoes) described by many as the best comic-book movie had the second biggest X-Men film opening with£.9.44m in the UK behind last year’s Deadpool £13.73m including £3.76m from two days of previews in comparison Logan took £2.5m its previews started at 22.23 on Wednesday night; Logan went on to take £23.87m and was one of 20th Century Fox’s biggest films of the year.
After the success of Deadpool in 2016 comic-book fans were very excited about the prospect of another R-Rated/15 comic-book film but Logan was a very different comic-book film having more similarities to a western than a comic-book film.
20th Century Fox releases three more Marvel films in 2018 New Mutants, Deadpool 2 and Dark Phoenix with Gambit starting shooting in early 2018 for 2019 release but of course, if Fox does become part of Disney in 2019 X-Men will become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and could appear together in Avengers 4. While Disney has said they are happy to make R-rated comic-book movies how likely is this to happen?
The Boss Baby/Captain Underpants
The penultimate Dreamworks Animation film released by Fox after the studios were bought by Universal Studios in August 2016 was their biggest success in the UK taking £29.1m after opening with £8.1m. The nine films released took over £180m at the UK box office.
The Boss Baby was helped with the similarities with President Trump but the book it was based on had nothing to do with Trump and as animation films take years to be made it was made before anyone could of possibly of thought he could become president.
When Dreamworks Animation was launched in 1998 a year after Dreamworks Pictures was a direct rival to Disney making computer animated films with their first film Antz being very similar to Disney’s A Bugs Life released a month later. They had huge success with Shrek seen as an anti-Disney animated film and its sequels.
Since 2010 have been overshadowed by illumination Studios at Universal Pictures makers of Despicable Me franchise and The Secret Life of Pets and Sing. Now Universal Studios have three very different animated studios illumination, Dreamworks and Laika with Dreamworks and illumination upcoming slate heavy on sequels to previous hits How to Train Your Dragon 3, Trolls 2, The Croods 2 and The Boss Baby 2.
Captain Underpants was probably the best family animated film of the year but was caught in the crossfire between Despicable Me 3 and Cars 3 which was the reason why Sony Pictures likely held back the release of The Emoji Movie and it performed far stronger than anyone could have believed.
Alien: Covenant
After first Alien prequel, 2012’s Prometheus received positive reviews and opened with £6.23m taking £23.1m. Expectations were high for the sequel and sixth film of the series opening with £5.17m but only took £12.92m but hard to compare openings as Alien: Covenant wasn’t released in 3D.
Originally Alien: Covenant was set for release in August but 20th Century Fox brought it forward to May in November 2016 which saw rival studio shift many of their summer slates and was one of the reasons for the poor August box office. They also moved Kingsman: The Golden Circle from June to October
Murder on the Orient Express
After receiving mixed reviews but being based on world’s best-selling novelist selling more books than only Shakespeare and God opened with £4.98m and has taken £23.9m in the UK and over $311m worldwide.
The success of Murder on the Orient Express was one of many fuelled by the over 50s cinemagoers who go regularly to the cinema. In recent years as studios have been busy targeting younger audiences been a lack of content for older audiences why Event Cinema has become very popular in recent years now taking over £30m at the box office about 3%. But this year have been many films including Dunkirk, Victoria and Abdul, Their Finest, Churchill, Hampstead, Hidden Figures and Jackie that have got older audiences interested.
Recently Kenneth Branagh has talked about the possibility of the Agatha Christie Cinematic Universe as she wrote 66 books and short stories with many of them adapted over the decades into films, TV series and plays. He is currently developing the sequel Death on the Nile which he teased at the end of the film with someone telling Hercule Poirot be must come to Egypt urgently as there has been a death.
Other Films
Had many films that underperformed Assassin’s Creed was a potential franchise its extended opening helped it to open #1 ahead of Rogue One but was very front-loaded while many including A Cure for Wellness, Snatched, The Mountain Between Us, Rules Don’t Apply and Battle of the Sexes, Goodbye Christopher Robin disappointed as did their two Sundance Festival acquisitions Step and Patti Cake$.
These mid-budget films are being the most squeezed at the box office as cinemagoers have become much more selective over recent years with the films they pay to see and those the wait to see and this is mostly to do with the cost.
A couple of years ago Lionsgate UK boss suggested that British films had cheaper tickets than the US which would be a return of the Eady Levy but instead should be reduced prices for these mid-range films. Exhibitors over the years have brought in dynamic pricing but all this does is increase current prices for certain films doesn’t reduce pricing.
Cineworld and Odeon have subscription cinema packages paying £17.99 a month but an industry-wide service close to MoviePass in the US would be far better but one that can be month to month not yearly as for many to pay £220 a year is a lot if they probably go 10 times a year maximum.
But had many films that performed strongly despite missing out on Oscars Hidden Figures took £6.3m, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul performed surprisingly far better than the US taking £6m.
War for the Planet of the Apes the third part in the Planet of the Apes reboot series received positive reviews (according to Rotten Tomatoes War For the Planet of the Apes is one of the best trilogy ending behind Toy Story 3, Before Midnight and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) but was poorly dated sandwiched between Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dunkirk, while few could have predicted the Dunkirk would have opened so strong and held so well opening between those two films, was always going to be problematic.
After moving Alien: Covenant from August to May should have moved War for the Planet of the Apes into August date as Rise of the Planet of the Apes opened August 2011 with £5.83m taking £20.54m.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle took 52% more than Kingsman: The Secret Service taking £24.88m and was their second biggest film of the year.
As Kingsman: The Golden Circle taken similar global box office of the first film $395m Vs $414m a third film is expected. Matthew Vaughn was annoyed the trailers had too many spoilers including the return of Colin Firth’s Harry Hart has said that he would try to have more power over the marketing.
Lionsgate Films
£76.38m (5.65%) from 21 films
Up 45% from 2015 with La La Land taking 40% of their total box office for 2017 but also had steady earners from The Hitman’s Bodyguard took £7.31m, Hacksaw Ridge £5.48m and Their Finest £4.52.
While Lionsgate planned franchises Power Rangers and My Little Pony both disappointed taking £4.52m and £3.52m.
Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was always going to be a hard sell in the UK as the US taking only £1.86m far from Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element took £7.08m in June 1997 is the 22nd biggest film of 1997.
Of course, Lionsgate’s year was highlighted by their first film of the year La La Land which opened in the UK after months of hype after receiving critical acclaim and Oscar and Bafta nominations and awards; opened with 36.59m taking £30.42m becoming one of the biggest films of the year.
La La Land is a lovely film but as so many award contenders it has been overhyped as there are I’m sure far better films deserving of Oscar success, but it is a perfect film for Academy members about the magic of movies and music and set in Los Angeles. While watching, it reminded me of Steve Martin’s LA Story and Grand Canyon both 25 years old.
The rest of Lionsgate slate for 2017, of course, couldn’t come close to La La Land box office but unlike rivals, it was all original content with several potential franchise properties that disappointed.
While several including Patriot’s Day and Wonder not matching their US performance and there were several films that underperformed including Only the Brave, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, The Limehouse Golem and Churchill
As with Studiocanal highlights how one film can make or break an independent distributor in the UK with La Land and Paddington 2 both had but its unlikely with each distributor slate for 2018 be able to match their success.
Paramount Pictures
£46.99m (3.47%) from 9 films
Down over 30% from last year from (£69.6m) another disappointing year for the studio who still haven’t dealt with losing Dreamworks Pictures in 2008 and then the double whammy loss of Marvel Cinematic Universe and Dreamworks Animation in 2011.
Baywatch
TV to film adaptations have had mixed success over the years for every 21 Jump Street, The Brady Bunch Movie, Charlie’s Angels, Dragnet, Get Smart, The Man From U.N.C.L.E and Naked Gun there are many more bad ones Bewitched, The A-Team, Dukes of Hazard, Entourage, I Spy, Life on the Road, St Bilko, Thunderbirds and Wild Wild West.
The trailers were going for the same self-aware humour that made 21 Jump Street s enjoyable but instead, Baywatch was a confusing mess of the film and tonally wrong with its sexual jokes and gross-out humour which made it feel more like a Farrelly Brothers film.
Baywatch had a 7-day opening taking £4.63m which was less than 22 Jumps Street opened in June 2014 in 3 days taking £9.5m.
Transformers: The Last Knight
The disappointing performance of 2014’s Transformers Age of Extinction then the lowest grossing of the film series in the US wouldn’t normally warrant a sequel as the budget of Transformer films are over $200m. But after it took over $320m in China and Paramount’s lack of franchises it was a no brainy that there would be another film.
But Transformers: The Last Knight performed ever worse than Age of Extinction in the US taking $130m and in the UK opening with £4.63m and taking only £9.5m less than half Age of Extinction £19.07m. Despite The Last Knight being the lowest grossing film of the series Paramount Pictures are still moving forward with their Transformers Extended Universe with Bumblebee spin-off released in December 2018 and then a Transformers 6 set for June 2019.
Daddy’s Home 2
The original film was a surprise hit Christmas 2015 opened with £1,628,219 taking £16,742,333 and took $150m in the US and over $240m worldwide so no surprise Paramount announced plans for a sequel a few months later.
What was a surprise was in January 2017 was announced Mel Gibson would join the cast receiving disgust from many that Hollywood has seemingly welcomed back the convicted wife beater, racist and anti-Semite after Hacksaw Ridge received several Oscar nominations this year.
Was expected the casting of Mel Gibson in the sequel might harm the film but neither poor reviews of his appearance stopped it from opening with £4.91m and taking more than £12m at the UK and $100m+ at the US and over $168m worldwide so another sequel is likely, and will they cast Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey as great-grandparents?
Other Films
XxX3: The Return of Xander Cage, Fences, Rings, Ghost in the Shell, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power and Mother all disappointed for some reason or other mostly because they were bad films or poorly marketed with Darren Aronofsky’s Mother was one of the most polarizing films of the year not helped by its confusing marketing. The director demanded the studio didn’t reveal too much about the film in the trailers which was the complete opposite of most trailers.
Sony Pictures
£130.28m (9.63%) from 19 films
Up 44% from last year with a nostalgia-heavy slate including sequels to Trainspotting, Blade Runner and reboots of Jumanji, Spider-Man and Flatliners. Both Baby Driver and The Emoji Movie both performed far stronger than expected Baby Driver received 93% Rotten Tomatoes while The Emoji Movie only 9% proving that Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t have as much power as studios believe as many blamed the disappointing performance of many of their films due to the website rather than of course being the real issue they were just bad films.
T2: Trainspotting/Blade Runner 2049
Opening 21 years after original Trainspotting film was released. The first teaser trailer was released in July with the trailer released in November which felt like a remake of the 1995 trailer just updated with Choose Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
T2: Trainspotting opened with £5.14m and took £16.95m this compared to original Trainspotting film took £12.43m in 1996 (would be the equivalent of over £26m today) was the tenth biggest film of 1996. The audience for T2: Trainspotting was close to Blade Runner 2049 and why it opened similar with £6.01m taking £19.04m artificially inflated with 3D and IMAX surcharges.
While both films played strongly to the fans of the first film who were teens in the 80s and 90s they didn’t play as well to other audiences which was predictable by the way both films were marketed and the reviews they received. Why I have much criticism of The Force Awakens is a remake of A New Hope and Jurassic World being a remake of Jurassic Park both films made them accessible to old and new fans.
Both films needed audiences to of seen the original films while Trainspotting was a massive success when it was released in 1996 and ever since on video and DVD. While Blade Runner received critical acclaim and became a cult film over the last 30 years with various versions of the film released over the years.
After Blade Runner 2049 received critical acclaim comparing it to the original it was always likely to be too pretentious for regular audiences. During an interview for All the Money in the World, Ridley Scott said “It’s slow. It’s slow. Long. Too long. I would have taken out half an hour,” while Michael Deeley, the producer of the original Blade Runner said the length was “self-indulgent at the very least, arrogant probably and “criminal.”
Spider-Man: Homecoming
In early 2015 Sony Pictures announced plans to partner with Marvel to reboot the Spider-Man franchise Sony Pictures would release new Spider-Man films while he would also join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This first came to light in the Sony Hacking emails in 2014 when Sony approached Marvel Studios that Sony would hold on to “creative control, marketing, and distribution”. It was win-win for Disney as they took more control of Spider-Man merchandising rights while getting Sony Pictures to fund a $175m 2-hour long advert for them to sell more merchandise along with boosting the MCU.
Spider-Man first appeared in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War setting up a story that would continue until Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 in July 2019.
But were questions over if audiences wanted the third reboot of Spider-Man in 15 years; Spider-Man: Homecoming received positive reviews opening with £9.36m which was less than the 2002 film which opened with £9.42m. But the film held strongly opening ahead of War for the Planet of the Apes and Dunkirk gave it an advantage and £30.48m becoming the second biggest Spider-Man film in the UK, but of course, with ticket inflation, it was only ahead of The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Three films surprised in different ways
Edgar Wright Baby Driver had been generating strong buzz since its premiere at SXSW in March receiving positive reviews opened strongly with £3.6m and held strong against the bigger summer films thanks to strong word of mouth; taking £13.05m
For The Emoji Movie it was the complete opposite here was a film critics and adults dreaded as soon as it was announced and it was even worse than they could of imagined. But despite the poor reviews young audience it was made for lapping it up the opening with only £2.7m it was expected to drop like a stone. But as Sony held it back a week in the UK it avoided the cannibalization Captain Underpants suffered sandwiched between Despicable Me 3 and Cars 3. Which allowed The Emoji Movie to pick up the pieces as the only major children’s film released in August. Opening incredibly was only 18% of its final box office of £14.94m.
While Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was the anti The Last Jedi as it was a sequel but had nothing of the original and as so lacking the nostalgic elements as teens saw the Robin Williams original. But today’s teens can’t get enough of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart and be a teenage boy fantasy. So was no winder it performed strongly against The Last Jedi opening with £8.1m and taking £17.83 after almost three weeks.
Other Films
As their rivals, Sony suffered from their mid-range films from Life, Flatliners reboot, Tough Night and the mess that was The Dark Tower and sequels to franchises Resident Evil and Underworld were dead on arrival as was their Smurfs reboot. While pickups Professor Marston & the Wonder Women, Brigsby Bear, Maudie, Brigsby Bear and Marshall failed to find an audience. The big issue with Sony and Paramount id they don’t have the franchise properties of their rivals as over the last 10 years have depended much knowing there was another James Bond film coming in a couple of years’ time, but it looks like they won’t get Bond 25 in 2019 which will be a £100m hole they need to fill.
Studiocanal UK
£52.46m (3.88%) from 51 films
Up 141% from 2016 releasing a huge 51 releases (the majority of them were limited releases with about a dozen getting a normal release) down from 60 releases in 2016 with Paddington 2 taking two-thirds of its total box office for the year as the rest of their slate underwhelmed at the box office.
2017 year started with much expectations for Martin Scorsese’s Silence, The Founder, Gold and Manchester by the Sea which was a moderate success taking £3.21m, Steven Soderbergh’s first film since 2013’s Behind the Candelabra Logan Lucky underperformed opening with only £0.8m taking £3.2m. While the much-hyped The Big Sick failed to match its US success despite receiving critical acclaim opened with £0.48m taking £1.74m.
But Studiocanal knew they had an ace in the hole with Paddington 2 after the first film took £37.84m after opening with £5.19m in November 2014. The sequel was always expected to do similarly and opened in November 60% bigger taking £8.26m and after 8 weeks on release taking £37.56m by /December 31st.
Studiocanal will officially announce Paddington 3 for a probably November 2020 release but the problem is apart from two Aardman Animations films this year Early Man and Shaun the Sheep 2 in 2019 their upcoming slate has very little to get excited about highlights the feast or famine challenge independent distributors have.
STX UK
£3.92 (0.29%) from 3 films
Underwhelming start from the new distributor, after they announced their first slate of films in February last year none stood out as films likely to find a wide audience. Was surprising STX opened UK distribution so early in the company’s lifetime but were murmurings they were unhappy with how Entertainment Films were handling their films.
All three STX films opened similarly between £0.43-£0.53m taking similar £1.13m-1.59m; Breathe despite opening the London Film Festival failed to generate much media coverage received positive reviews in the UK but still failed to find an audience. While Wind River similarly received critical acclaim compared to Hell or High Water and Sicario seen as an early Oscar contender taking over $33m in the US but failed to generate much interest in the UK.
While Reese Witherspoon’s first film since the critically acclaimed TV series Big Little Lies similarly failed to make much impact at the box office despite Reese Witherspoon coming to promote the film the film, was about 10 years too late as non-British rom-coms have failed to make much impact at the box office in recent years only need to look at the critically acclaimed The Big Sick that didn’t do much better than Home, Again.
So many companies have tried and failed to launch an independent distributor over the years in recent years Koch Media had ambitious plans to release 20 films a year their first release Arbitrage in 2013 performed ok but all their other films disappointed.
Icon Film Distributions relaunched their UK distribution in 2014 after the closed in 2011 they had a slate of small releases. In 2015 acquired Shane Black’s The Nice Guys which underwhelmed at the box office in June 2016 despite positive reviews the film suffered being poorly dated. 20 years ago, First Independent Films announced their return to UK distribution acquiring two Ridley Scott films White Squall and G.I Jane but both underwhelmed at the box office.
1997 was also the year the biggest independent UK film company closed its doors after 60 years Rank Film Distributors in the 60s they were one of the most powerful distributors in the world. In the 70s cut back on film production deciding to acquire films globally but despite having £100m production fund in the 90s most of the films acquired were home video releases at the very best did have a couple of good films Fabulous Baker Boys, Fried Green Tomatoes and To Die For but the rest were very poor.
So, an independent setting up distribution needs to be very careful with what films they acquire deciding are they going to try to compete with the studios which is what STX are trying to do in the UK so I that is the case they need to acquire much more high-profile films.
STX as other major independents have deep pockets but problem is that they are also competing with the likes of Amazon and Netflix who stole their biggest prize out of their hands Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. STX acquired international rights for The Irishman at Cannes 2016 planned to be their launch title but after Martin Scorsese’s Silence flopped Paramount Pictures let go of their US rights for The Irishman and Netflix pounced acquiring world rights.
Other UK independent distributors Electric were brought by Alliance who then became Momentum and then were acquired by eOne, Redbus Film Distributors had great success with Bend It Like Beckham were brought by Helkon Media and then bought by Lionsgate and Optimum Releasing were brought by Studiocanal. Those three distributors were fortunate to acquire Twilight, The Hunger Games and Paddington franchises which allowed them to hold their own against the studios.
The problem for start-up STX is that they have yet to have a major title and the one film that was a success Bad Moms the sequel A Bad Moms Christmas was released by Entertainment Films. STX does have some interesting films for 2018 but the question is will audiences find them.
Universal Pictures UK
£209.37m (15.47%) from 23 films
Up 17.23% from 2016 had sequels to many of their hits that have their record-breaking year in 2015 Fifty Shades Dark, The Fate of the Furious, Despicable Me 3 and Pitch Perfect 3 all four performed as expected.
But 2017 was the year of many surprises and Universal had many including M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, Jordan Peele’s Get Out and comedy Girls Trip.
Fifty Shades Darker
Sequel to 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan and directed by James Foley. James Foley for many is best known for 1992’s Glengarry Glen Ross would seem a strange choice as a director but also directed At Close Range, Who’s That Girl, Fear and Perfect Stranger but most recently is better known for directing TV episodes of House of Cards and Billions.
First trailer released September 15th receiving 114 million views in its first 24 hours; 39.4 million from North America and 74.6 million from international breaking previous record held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens of 112 million in October 2015; its record overtaken by the second trailer for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast with 127.6 million in November 2016.
50 Shades of Grey opened February 2015 with £13,271,409 taking £4.61m on its opening day. The opening was as the Twilight movies was fan fiction of dropping a similar 66% in its second weekend.
Fifty Shades Darker took £23.08m a third less than the first film with the final part of the trkogy Fifty Shades Freed openibg in February.
Despicable Me 3
Universal repeated the success have had over the past two years opening their animated film first Sing in January two weeks before The Lego Movie and Despicable Me 3 in June ahead of Cars 3 and Captain Underpants.
Despicable Me 3 was the biggest animated film of 2017 and fourth biggest film of 2017 taking £47.7m and the biggest of the franchise while Sing took over £29m and was the second biggest animated film. Universal only release one animated film in 2018 The Grinch despite now distributing Dreamworks Animation films after acquiring it in 2014 the first films they will be distributing in 2019.
Despicable Me opened October 2010 with £3.66m, including £205,000 in previews (17% of final box office). The 8th biggest film of 2010 taking £21.2m
Despicable Me 2 opened July 2013 with £14.78m (including £4.9m from previews from the weekend before) £10m taken Fri-Sun (31% of final box office); biggest film of 2013 taking £47.4m.
Minions opened June 26th, 2015 with £11.55m taking £47.25m.
Illumination Entertainment’s The Secret Life of Pets opened June 24th, 2016 with £9.58m taking £36.04m.
The Fate of the Furious
The Fate of the Furious opened with £14.02m taking £29.63m couldn’t match the success of Furious 7 which was always expected as Furious 7 was the film even critics had tears in their eyes at the end seeing Paul Walker’s last appearance before he died.
it was the first Furious film since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift not to star him which was the lowest performing film of the series in the UK/US and worldwide.
The Fast and the Furious Sept 2001 opened with £1.76m taking £6.49ml;
2 Fast 2 Furious June 2003 opened with £2.74m taking £7.04m;
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift June 2006 opened £1.81m taking £5.66m;
Fast & Furious opened April 2009 with £4.92m taking £13.53m;
Fast & Furious 5 opened April 2011 with £5.33m taking £18.01m;
Fast & Furious 6 opened May 2013 with £8.72m taking £24.3m;
Fast & Furious 7 opened April 2015 with £12.74m taking £38.38m;
The Fate of the Furious opened April 2017 with £14.02m taking £29.63m;
Other Films
Disappointments include The Mummy which was planned to be the first part of their new Dark Universe franchise a reboot of The Mummy disappointed. The Mummy was Universal’s second attempt in 3 years to reboot their classic Monster film series having previously made Dracula Untold which flopped. Universal made the same mistake Warner Bros did with King Arthur instead of trying to set up a franchise with the first film make the first film worthy of a series instead.
While Universal Pictures strangely decided to open American Made a month before the US while many Tom Cruise films The Mummy perform far stronger internationally than the US a film called American Made should be released in America first. The film predictably opened softy internationally but despite receiving positive reviews was one of Tom Cruise’s lowest grossing films in the US.
As with other studios had many mid-budget disappointments The Zookeepers Wife, the Book of Henry, The Snowman and The Beguiled while Atomic Blonde and Happy Death Day failed to match their US performance the later was predictable a teen horror getting a 15-certificate meant its target audience couldn’t legally see it.
Warner Bros
£214.03m (15.82%) from 22 films
Up 5.99% from 2016 Warner Bros had a very mixed year with many of their star-driven films, tentpoles and high budget films underwhelming including Live by Night, King Arthur and Geostorm. While their biggest films of the year were not the expected Justice League of Lego Batman Movie but Secord World War film Dunkirk and a Stephen King film It proving again audiences do what something different than the sequels, comic-book, remakes, re-imaginations that fill out most studios slates; but of course Dunkirk and It were also remakes.
The Lego Batman Movie/Lego Ninjago
Seven years ago, when was announced Warner Bros were making a Lego Movie everyone was WTF how can you turn a children’s brick toy into a film but remember waking up very early on 18th June 2013 and watched the first teaser for The Lego Movie and knew everything would be awesome.
The Lego Movie opened February 14th, 2014 with £8.03m including £1.9m from previews taking £21.87m after 10 days including almost £8m Mon-Thurs over half-term holidays and £33.15m. Lego Batman was the best version of Batman on film and was no surprise that Warner made a spinoff and The Lego Batman Movie whilst not being as original as The Lego Movie was great fun.
The Lego Batman Movie in comparison opened with £7.9m taking £27.43m despite very positive reviews its box office was squeezed by Illumination Animation’s far inferior Sing opened two weeks earlier opening with £10.48m was affected being the second family film released.
Watching it again over Christmas on Sky Cinema it is one of a few films in recent years that is enjoyable on repeat and as a great animated film does it plays to different audiences from children to adults and comic-book fans. Maybe Warner Bros would do better turning their DC Extended Universe into Lego.
Warner Bros decided to be the first family film released for The Lego Ninjago Movie but suffered the double whammy of being the second Lego movie of the year and having Ninjago in the title probably alienated the female audience. While the male audience was much more interested in Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Reviews were more mixed for the film, but it still had the same humour from The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie but opened with less than half of The Lego Batman Movie £3.64m taking £9.43m. After the disappointing performance many asked if the bubble had burst for Lego film franchise but after The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie are loved by many it will surely be just a blip with The Lego Movie Sequel released in 2019.
The sequel will benefit with The Lego Movie writers and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miler returning to re-write the script after being fired from Solo: A Star Wars Story to tackle gender issues on how a girl plays vs. how a boy plays with toys. In development is another spin-off film The Billion Brick Race and must be The Lego Batman Movie 2 also in development.
Wonder Woman/Justice League
While over the last 9 years the Marvel Cinematic Universe received a positive reaction from fans and at the box office. DC Extended Universe films have been as successful in their early years as Marvel they haven’t been received as positively as Marvel films have by fans or critics. Wonder Woman changed this receiving critical acclaim and was the highest-rated comic-book movie on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of its release had a 96% score.
UK box office for the first three Marvel Cinematic Universe films Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 took £46m DC Extended Universe Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad DC took almost £100m; the DC films are much more front-loaded but despite all the negativity surrounding Suicide Squad in 2016 it held surprisingly well.
But despite Wonder Woman the best part of Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice was 12 years since the last major female superhero film Elektra opened with £791,914 in January 2005 taking only £1.5m and Catwoman opened a year earlier in August 2004 with £557,583 taking a similar £1.3m. But Angelina Jolie starred in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001 (opened with £3,846,592 taking £12,744,662) and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003 (opened with £1,524,676 taking £5,136,809); Alicia Vikander stars in the reboot opening in March. More recently Jennifer Lawrence starred as Katniss Everdeen in the hugely successful The Hunger Games film series while Scarlett Johansson was the Black Widow in five MCU films.
Wonder Woman opened with only £6.17m (compared $103.2m opening in the US taking $412.56m) taking £22.18m; were many non-film related issues that affected it’s opening including hot weather, Champions League final, London Attacks and then Manchester One Love concert on Sunday over 14m watched majority of would have been the target female audience for Wonder Woman.
While Wonder Woman held strongly in the weeks after release as 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow opening with £1.85m held strongly over the weeks that followed taking £7.75m its opening was only 23.8% of its final box office. Wonder Woman’s opening was only 27% of its final box office which was close to Beauty and the Beast, Baby Driver and The Boss Baby.
After the positive response to Wonder Woman Warner decided to lighten the tone of Justice League having extensive reshoots directed by Joss Whedon after Zack Snyder had to leave the film due to family issues.
Justice League opened with 64.87% of Man of Steel (£11,198,786) 49.68% of Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (£14,621,007) (receiving 27% Rotten Tomatoes score compared with 40% for Justice League); 64.56% of Suicide Squad (£11,252,225) and 17% more than Wonder Woman (£6,179,616).
While opened with less than half Avengers Assemble £15.78m, Avengers: Age of Ultron £17.99m and Captain America: Civil War £14.46m its opening was close to the last years equally poorly received X-Men: Apocalypse £7.33m.
Justice League won’t match the box office of 2016’s lowest-performing comic-book film X-Men: Apocalypse £18.27m taking about £17.5m
Justice League is far from a good film Suicide Squad is far worse doesn’t deserve the amount of negativity received in the same way MCU films don’t all deserve the hugely positive comments get. As have the lack of originality Deadpool and Logan have as they have played far too safe being far too similar arrogant man finds redemption in spandex.
Aquaman is DC the only film set for release in 2018 with Shazam and Wonder Woman 2 already dated for 2019 with Suicide Squad 2 expected to start shooting in October next year and The Batman with or without Ben Affleck is also expected to start next year and others expected to be announced in the next few months.
Dunkirk
The first trailer was released in August with Suicide Squad the second trailer was released in December 2016 screened with Rogue One while in selective IMAX screenings of Rogue One they screened a seven-minute preview.
Opening Dunkirk, the week after War for the Planet of the Apes both adult war thrillers will be targeting similar audiences thought could be problematic, but it was for War for the Planet of the Apes rather than Dunkirk. Both films received positive reviews but Dunkirk despite opening a week after War for the Planet of the Apes had the momentum behind it that was attracting audiences old and young for different reasons and because the must-see summer film as La La Land was the must-see Oscar nominee.
Christopher Nolan’s last film Interstellar opened November 2014 with £5.37m taking £20.06m.
Pearl Harbour opened June 2001 with £3.07m taking £14.22m
Saving Private Ryan opened September 1998 with £2.7m taking £18.74m
After opening with £10.01m in July Dunkirk held strongly for many weeks after its release taking £56.65m; Saving Private Ryan opened 19 years ago ran in cinemas for over 6 months but while Dunkirk might of more than doubled its box office admissions tell a different story as they are very similar.
Other Films
Many predictable flops King Arthur and Geostorm expectedly after both were delayed several times and Justice League took half what was expected to do. Comedies The House, Chips and Fist Fight and 90s thriller Unforgettable were all anything but Warner are one studio that keeps making these film in the hope that one might break out as The Hangover did almost 10 years ago.
It surprised opening with £10.1m taking £32.3m after great marketing campaign positive reviews using similar nostalgia that made similar 80s and 90s reboots successful that attracted the horror fans as well as non-horror fans who also saw Get Out through the fingers of their eyes.
While Annabelle 2 and John Wick Chapter Two both performed stronger than their first films and have further parts along the way which is the reason why Warner keep making these films as they have far smaller budgets and if they are a success can be much more lucrative to the studio than $200m+ budget films.
cigarette burns and missed changeovers 