Top 5
1. Everest – £2,489,322 – total £3,147,281
3D took £1,100,853 with previews £1,299,983 – 2D took £1,007,938
IMAX/3D took £381,569 with previews 3839,361
While the industry will add box office taken last week when Everest opened in IMAX as previews but its opening last week was similar to when films have limited releases ahead of going wide which are classed as their openings. In the US Universal opened the film similar opening last weekend in IMAX before going wide this weekend but included the IMAX box office as its opening weekend.
Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox brought in 10 day opening weekends last year with Bad Neighbours, Transformers Age of Extinction and How to Train Your Dragon 2 and upcoming releases Suffragette and Spectre both opening on Monday’s will see their week day box office combined into the film’s opening weekend which is artificially inflating these films making a mockery of a films “opening weekend”. It is surprising that the US haven’t done this to inflate an opening as with films like Star Wars The Force Awakens will have Thursday 7pm previews that will be added to its opening weekend.
It was Universal Pictures UK eight number one opener of 2015 and director Baltasar Kormákur best ever opener and will soon become his highest grossing film in the UK beating 2013’s 2 Gun £4.3m.
2. Legend – £2,433,525 – total £9,957,810
Dropping 52.8% (including previews) but only 33.8% without thanks to strong word of mouth in its second weekend; but as with Everest will face tougher competition in two weeks time with The Martian and The Walk opening.
3. The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials – £1,510,097 – total £5,185,393
2D took £1,227,851 total £3,959,483 – 3D took £282,246 – total £1,225,910
Holding surprisingly well down 37.5% from last weekend (including previews) compared with the 25% drop of the first film released last October. While the first film benefited from half-term holidays the sequel has received positive reviews and has strong word of mouth. There may be many films opening in the next few weeks but Scorch Trials has limited competition until mid October when the half term films opens.
Many took issues with 20th Century Fox cutting the film to get a lower certificate but in doing so allowed the fan-base to see the film.
4. The Visit – £484,855 –total -£1,994,537
Down 52.9% in its second weekend on release which was expected with the poor reviews but surprisingly held in the top 5 but that’s openly because of the poor performance of the new releases.
5. Inside Out – £436,111 – £37,366,159
2D took £433,272 total £32,378,553 – 3D took £5,273 – total £4,900,871
Holding fifth place down only 28% in its 9th week on release will overtake both 2003’s Finding Nemo £37.5m and 2001’s Monsters Inc £37.9m next weekend and become second biggest original animation film of all time at UK box office. It will then be the third biggest Pixar film behind Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.
Has of course done less than Minions (£46.25m) but no one would have expected it to do so but after a far smaller opening it has held far stronger in the weeks after opening while Minions performed like most opening big but didn’t hold nearly as well.
Illumination/Universal Pictures have had great success opening their sequels against Pixar movies in recent years but the big battle is in 2017 with Toy Story 4 Vs. Despicable Me 3 opening within a month of themselves.
Also opened
The D Train – Sony – opened £10,000 from 106 screens
Other box office news:
Top 10 weekend £8,526,240 box office down 24.7% from last weekend;
Weekend top 10 is up 38.7% from last year (£6,147,223).
A Walk among the Tombstones opened with £1,317,948, The Riot Club £496,647, 20,000 Days on Earth £356,467, Magic in the Moonlight £273,998, The Giver £186,989.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Live from the Playhouse Theatre took £600,000 from 600 screens on September 17th beating the box office taken by Legend and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials on the same day.
This weekend last year: Billy Elliot: The Musical Live opened with £1.9m, The Equalizer £1.89m and What We Did on Our Holidays £809,953.
None of the films opening this weekend are likely to break into the top 5.
Captive – Paramount – Thriller starring David Oyelowo and Kate Mara based on a true story of Brian Nichols; Paramount acquired the film in March. The film has a similar plot to the recent Knock Knock film starring Keanu Reeves that opened in June and the upcoming Valencia starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead produced by J.J Abrams Paramount also release next March.
Miss You Already – eOne –Comedy drama starring Toni Collette, Drew Barrymore, Dominic Cooper and Paddy Considine and directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Premiering at Toronto Film Festival next week trailer feels similar in tone to Toni Collette’s 2005’s In Her Shoes and the kind of film both Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore have made many similar films in the past; received London premiere on September 17th.
Its 16 years ago since Toni Collette starred in The Sixth Sense starring in many films but has never broken through from being a support actress. Whenever I think of Toni Collette I remember Diana and Me an Australian film she made in 1997 about meeting Diana in London a few months after the film was completed Princess Diana sadly died and the film disappeared never to be seen again. I remember screening it during my time as a Projectionist at Rank Film Distributors in 1997 was a silly sweet film has appeared on DVD in Germany and Australia but never in the UK.
https://dailymotion.com/video/x16ln3d
Life – eOne – Biographical drama based on friendship of Life photographer Dennis Stock and actor James Dean starring Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan; premiered at Berlin Film Festival in February receiving mixed reviews; screened at Deauville on Saturday had a Q&A screening on September 13th at Picturehouse Central with its director Anton Corbijn attending and had premiere in Belgium on September 21st.
Solace – Entertainment –Thriller starring Anthony Hopkins, Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Abbie Cornish originally written as a sequel to Seven (released 20 years ago). The film was made in 2013 financed by Relativity Media but since its bankruptcy hasn’t got a US distributor.
99 Homes – Studiocanal – Drama starring Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon and Laura Dern premiered at last year’s Venice and Toronto Film Festivals receiving positive reviews with strong performances from its leads; picked up by new distributor Broad Green Pictures last year possibly the reason why taken over year to be released.
MacFarland – Disney – Sports drama film based on the true story of 1987 cross country team from MacFarland High School starring Kevin Costner. (Disney was famous for sports films either based on true story or family comedies before getting into the comic-book business Remember the Titans, Invincibles, The Mighty Ducks and Mystery Alaska). It received positive reviews before opening in the US in February was a moderate success but similar to last year’s Draft Day starring Kevin Costner which opened with £146. Disney is probably only releasing for their Sky TV deal.
UK Box office top 10 – September 25th – 27th 2015
cigarette burns and missed changeovers 