The saviour: Incredibles 2
After two sessions in which box office was down by almost two thirds on the equivalent weekends from 2017, the UK market has bounced back. Soaring temperatures continue to present a challenge, but it helped enormously that the weekend saw the arrival of a title that audiences definitely wanted to see: Incredibles 2. And it didn’t hurt that England had exited the World Cup, reducing TV audiences for Sunday’s final.
Incredibles 2 opened with £9.52m from 664 cinemas, and £9.65m, including previews. This compares with £6.26m, and £9.75m including significantly heftier previews, for the original Incredibles movie in November 2004.
Pixar’s biggest UK opening – and lifetime total – remains Toy Story 3. It began in July 2010 with £11.49m, and £21.19m including previews, on its way to a total of £73.9m. Pixar’s most recent films have been relatively modest at the UK box office. Despite stellar reviews, Coco’s Mexican Day of the Dead setting was a challenge for less adventurous family audiences, and it ended up with £18.8m. Last summer’s Cars 3 – a franchise that has proved more adept at selling toys than movie theatre tickets – is the lowest grossing Pixar film at UK cinemas, with £11.7m.
Incredibles 2 is now the highest grossing animated film of all time in the US, with $536m so far. Worldwide, it stands at $858m. The success is timely for the studio, following the announcement that chief creative officer John Lasseter will depart by the end of the year. Inside Out director Pete Docter has been announced as Lasseter’s replacement.
The disappointment: Skyscraper
Big Hollywood action movies these days are typically sequels, but studios still seem willing to roll the dice on a property lacking built-in familiarity if the star is Dwayne Johnson. In April, he tackled giant animals running amok in Rampage; now he’s in Skyscraper, based on an original screenplay by writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber.
Based on the opening numbers – £1.47m, and £1.83m including previews – it seems that UK audiences are beginning to tire of watching The Rock saving the day. Rampage began with £3.16m and £4.11m including previews. A more direct comparison for Skyscraper is 2015 disaster movie San Andreas, which began with £3.89m and £4.63m including previews.
While Skyscraper’s towering inferno might have struck audiences as a not very original concept, it’s probably also true that the short gap between Johnson movies didn’t give his fans long to build up fresh appetites. It’s a concern for studios making or developing the nine features on the prolific actor’s to-do list.
The flop: The Secret of Marrowbone
With £145,000 from 383 cinemas, and £171,000 including previews, it’s clear that UK audiences have rejected The Secret of Marrowbone. It’s a disappointment for Sergio G Sánchez, the talented writer of JA Bayona’s The Orphanage and The Impossible, here making his feature directing debut.
With a period setting, in 1969, the film is positioned as both character-driven drama and a spooky genre title. Mixed reviews plus a fair amount of indifference from bookers at indie cinemas and the boutique chains have combined to make the film reliant on mainstream multiplex cinema-goers. But this audience has surmised – accurately – that the film doesn’t offer scares comparable to those of recent hits such as Hereditary and A Quiet Place.
The market
Thanks to the arrival of Incredibles 2, box office for the whole UK market is 133% up on the previous session. However, takings remain 25% down on the equivalent weekend from 2017, when the wealth was spread between a number of titles, notably War for the Planet of the Apes, Despicable Me 3, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Cars 3.
The current market is demonstrating extreme polarity, with Incredibles 2 romping out in front, and only seven films achieving a weekend gross of more than £100,000. Four months ago, a typical weekend saw 19 or 20 titles achieve weekend grosses of more than £100,000.
This coming weekend, cinema operators will be hoping for a strong hold on Incredibles 2 and will also welcome the anticipated Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. The original Mamma Mia! debuted in 2008 with a solid £5.21m (plus previews), but then went on to a stunning run, eventually reaching £68m. While it would be foolish to predict a final tally for Here We Go Again, it is likely to achieve a much bigger opening.
Top 10 films, 13-15 July
1. Incredibles 2, £9,650,000 from 664 sites (new)
2. Skyscraper, £1,829,830 from 543 sites (new)
3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, £824,705 from 542 sites. Total: £38,480,573 (six weeks)
4. The First Purge, £798,455 from 480 sites. Total: £3,367,946 (two weeks)
5. Ocean’s 8, £529,697 from 489 sites. Total: £9,731,255 (four weeks)
6. The Secret of Marrowbone, £171,161 from 383 sites (new)
7. Sicario 2: Soldado, £131,078 from 279 sites. Total: £1,838,626 (three weeks)
8. Sanju, £96,329 from 73 sites. Total: £1,150,401 (three weeks)
9. Hereditary, £91,897 from 169 sites. Total: £5,368,030 (five weeks)
10. Adrift, £75,742 from 236 sites. Total: £1,267,325 (two weeks)
Other openers
First Reformed, £73,233 (including £4,482 previews) from 61 sites (new)
Soorma, £36,602 from 53 sites
Vadhayiyaan Ji Vadhayiyaan, £13,873 from 11 sites
Racer and the Jailbird, £13,386 from 14 sites
Vertigo, £10,845 from 14 sites (reissue)
Thamizh Padam 2, £10,071 from six sites
Pin Cushion, £9,936 from 19 sites
Kadaikutty Singam, £5,732 from five sites
Summer 1993, £4,796 from six sites
Ex Libris: New York Public Library, £3,262 from 23 sites
Mario, £2,565 from four sites
Path of Blood, £1,299 from five sites
Lost & Found, £1,112 from four sites