The winner: Mission: Impossible – Fallout
The total UK grosses of the Mission: Impossible films may have declined across the first three instalments, but they have risen steadily since the low point of 2006’s Mission: Impossible 3. Now the sixth episode, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, has delivered the franchise’s biggest opening weekend in the UK at £5.43m – or £7.30m including previews.
The previous entry, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, opened three years ago with £4.33m, or £5.35m including previews, on its way to a total of £21.2m. It was the only film in the series to exceed £20m in the UK, and its distributor, Paramount, has every reason to hope Fallout will be the second.
If previews are included, 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol achieved the biggest opening – but that was a seven-day debut of £8.19m, so it is not a fair comparison. None of these figures are adjusted for ticket-price inflation.
The real winner: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
Though it was knocked off the top spot in the official comScore chart by Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again lost its perch only due to Thursday previews inflating the figures for its rival. In terms of the actual weekend box office (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), the Abba musical was the clear winner, with £7.10m.
With £27.0m so far, Here We Go Again has had a stronger start than its predecessor, which achieved £16.9m after two weekends. So far this year, only two films, Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther, have been faster out of the gate, with £49.1m and £29.5m respectively after two weekends.
Here We Go Again declined by a slim 27% from its opening session, so Universal Pictures will have reasonable hopes of a long run for the film throughout the summer holiday period. Wet weather on Friday and Sunday will have helped: Sunday grosses were almost level with Saturday, which is not usually the case; Friday was not far behind.
Battle of the animations: Incredibles 2 v Hotel Transylvania 3
In its third week of release, Pixar’s Incredibles 2 faced competition from the arrival of Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation. There is little sign that the Incredibles suffered, with a gentle 24% decline from the previous session and a gross of £5.15m. Its total after 17 days is an impressive £33.2m.
A Monster Vacation landed with £3.45m, compared with a debut of £2.82m (£6.32m including previews) for Hotel Transylvania 2 in 2015. Back then Hotel Transylvania faced competition from the live-action adventure Pan for the October half-term audience, eventually reaching £20.7m. Incredibles 2 will be a more powerful competitor, but A Monster Vacation has the whole of the summer holiday to run and should reach a big total, even if for many families it is the second-choice option.
As for Incredibles 2, its £33.2m tally compares with £27.3m for Finding Dory after three weekends of play. Based on these numbers, Incredibles 2 is likely to exceed £50m by the end of its run – a feat that has eluded every previous Pixar title except Toy Story 3.
The event: André Rieu
The reliably popular André Rieu’s 2018 Maastricht Concert delivered the box office goods, with £1.49m earned on Saturday and Sunday. This compares with an almost identical £1.44m for the equivalent event just over a year ago.
The market: back in business
More than two weeks after the end of World Cup, and with the heatwave faltering, UK cinemas are back in business. The top three titles each earned at least £5m box office at the weekend – a feat that has not occurred in the UK in the past 10 years.
The market rose 30% on the previous session and was 25% up on the equivalent weekend from 2017, when Dunkirk led the field, ahead of Captain Underpants and Despicable Me 3. The box office for the last weekend in July grossed four times as much as for the first weekend of the month – during which temperatures soared and England played its victorious quarter-final match against Sweden.
Joining the party this weekend are Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp and the TV animation spinoff Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. If the current titles hold up robustly, UK cinemas could be in for another big win.
Top 10 films, 27-29 July
1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout, £7,300,103 from 584 sites (new)
2. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, £7,104,808 from 718 sites. Total: £27,018,068 (two weeks)
3. Incredibles 2, £5,146,128 from 661 sites. Total: £33,216,759 (three weeks)
4. Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation, £3,449,876 from 549 sites (new)
5. André Rieu’s 2018 Maastricht Concert: Amore, My Tribute to Love, £1,486,528 from 534 sites (new)
6. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, £344,993 from 258 sites. Total: £40,500,006 (eight weeks)
7. Skyscraper, £329,232 from 387 sites. Total: £4,723,325 (three weeks)
8. The First Purge, £279,751 from 211 sites. Total: £5,101,817 (four weeks)
9. Ocean’s 8, £125,664 from 157 sites. Total: £10,753,658 (six weeks)
10. Sherlock Gnomes, £98,493 from 272 sites. Total: £9,017,422 (12 weeks)
Other openers
Apostasy, £66,002 (including £9,991 previews) from 30 sites
Junga, £23,107 from 16 sites
The Giant Pear, £15,823 from 140 sites
Maurice, £13,495 from 12 sites (reissue)
Kaiser: The Greatest Footballer Never to Play Football, £10,961 from 24 sites
Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings, £5,207 from seven sites
Tracking Edith, £4,368 from four sites
Iceman, £3,495 from seven sites
Ashke, £2,763 from five sites
The Nun, £1,842 from six sites
My Story, £284 from three sites
Breaking Through, £236 from nine sites
Vedigundu Pasangge, £222 from two sites
Katheyondu Shuruvagide, £110 from three sites
Thanks to comScore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.