Rerelease total: £2,041,085 Other openers It’s A Wonderful Life, £96,893 from 54 sites. Bridge of Spies, £212,169 from 304 sites. Christmas With the Coopers, £258,162 from 353 sites. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, £525,727 from 425 sites. The Good Dinosaur, £890,350 from 585 sites. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, £34.01m, 670 sites (new)ģ. Grosses to 20 December * still on release Top 10 films, 18-20 Decemberġ. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, £16.01m Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, £21.18mĢ1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, £26.67m*ġ4. However those films fare, The Force Awakens is certain to continue to dominate the session. Boxing day sees the arrival of Ron Howard’s whaling adventure In the Heart of the Sea and Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg comedy Daddy’s Home. Officially opening yesterday, but in fact already playing previews for three weekends now, is Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie. In the Heart of the Sea star Chris Hemsworth and director Ron Howard - video interview GuardianĪs mentioned above, UK box office is an amazing 512% up on the previous frame, and also 146% up on the equivalent weekend from 2014, when The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies retained the top spot. This year has recorded two £50m hits (Spectre and Jurassic World), although The Force Awakens is a dead cert to provide a third. The year with the most number of £50m hits remains 2012, when Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises, Marvel Avengers Assemble and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey all passed the milestone – albeit doing so after the year had ended in the case of the Hobbit film. In other words, 2015 was not quite a rising tide lifting all boats.
The Force Awakens also passed £35m on Monday, and looks well on course to reach Spectre’s lofty heights.Īlthough the top hits are far, far ahead of the equivalent titles from 2014, lower down the top 25, the box-office numbers are much closer to the films occupying the same positions in last year’s chart. Our chart for 2015 shows seven films above £35m, led by Spectre (£92.6m) and Jurassic World (£64.4m). The equivalent chart exactly a year ago, with just over a week of the year yet to play, showed no film managing £35m (although both Paddington and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies would go on to exceed that tally). Sisters achieves £1m ‘weekend’Īfter a dismal 2014, our top 25 of the year (see chart below) sees Hollywood blockbusters bounce back in spectacular fashion. Disney also reminds us that The Force Awakens’ four-day total of £34.01m is more than the lifetime totals of every Transformers movie, every Spider-Man title and sleeper hits such as Gravity and Slumdog Millionaire. In terms of admissions numbers, that number would be a bit higher in 2D and lower in the other formats, given lower ticket prices for 2D, and probably also a bigger skew in child and family tickets for 2D. However, The Force Awakens must surely suffer a significant drop on its second weekend of play, covering the 25-27 December period – after all, cinemas are closed on Christmas Day in the UK.ĭisney reports the format splits as 54% of box office in 2D, 36% in 3D and 10% in Imax. To what degree has the audience for this highly anticipated film already rushed out to see it? And how robust will repeat business be? Anecdotally, the latter already looks set to be a major factor in the success of the film. What happens next depends on the answers to two questions. The additional box office pushes The Force Awakens to a five-day total of £39.81m. The film helped push UK takings to a spectacular 512% rise on the previous frame, when a dearth of new releases had caused extreme stagnation in the market.ĭisney has announced Monday takings of £5.83m, which is likewise a record haul for a Monday, beating Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’s 2004 Bank Holiday Monday tally of £5.05m. Saturation play is on around 2,500 screens in the UK and Ireland, at 670 cinemas. Over the weekend, The Force Awakens achieved a market share of 83%, which is the biggest ever recorded for a single title. Disney takes heart from the exceptionally small dip of 1.5% from Saturday to Sunday, suggesting the film is set to show strong legs. The film also achieved the biggest Saturday (£8.71m) and Sunday (£8.58m) of all time. The Force Awakens’ first day of £9.68m is the biggest ever opening day in the UK, although it’s worth noting that it was boosted by significant takings from 12.01am previews on Wednesday night. Star Wars: The Force Awakens video review Guardian