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Summer fun … The Meg.
Summer fun … The Meg. Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros
Summer fun … The Meg. Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros

The Meg takes giant bite of UK box office

This article is more than 5 years old

Jason Statham’s prehistoric shark makes waves with summer cinemagoers, while Mamma Mia! 2 is still packing them in

The winner: The Meg

While Jason Statham has been seen on screen in recent years in Fast and Furious and Expendables movies, and had a supporting role in Melissa McCarthy comedy Spy, his own movie vehicles had begun to dwindle in number and impact. His last outing as a protagonist was 2016’s Mechanic: Resurrection, which grossed £1.37m in total in UK cinemas. Before that, 2015’s Wild Card managed just £410,000. Was it now game over for Statham as a leading male action star, some were beginning to wonder?

The answer provided by The Meg is an emphatic no. The underwater-peril actioner – featuring Statham and a giant prehistoric shark – has debuted in the UK with a sensational £3.65m. That’s Statham’s biggest ever opening outside the Expendables and Fast and Furious franchises, although inflation adjustment would put Snatch ahead: Guy Ritchie’s second feature began in September 2000 with £3.18m.

The Meg benefited from astute dating. By this point in the summer, all the big franchise films have already been released. The Meg faced competition on its date from commercially lacklustre fare such as young adult dystopian-future sci-fi The Darkest Minds and horror sequel Unfriended: Dark Web. Those films debuted with £611,000 between them. The weather was also on The Meg’s side, with a fair amount of rain – and certainly plenty of grey skies – over the past weekend.

The strong hold: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Sailing along … Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Photograph: Jonathan Prime/Universal Pictures

Declining just 14% from the previous session, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again delivered another impressive weekend number in the UK: £3.57m. Total after 24 days is a very sturdy £48.3m, and there’s clearly plenty of life left in the title. It’s a rare film that manages four consecutive weekends with takings above £3m – that’s a feat that eluded, for example, both Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther, as well as recent consistently strong performers such as Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Greatest Showman. In fact, the only other title in 2018 to have achieved the feat was Peter Rabbit.

The original Mamma Mia! enjoyed a famously long run in 2008, eventually reaching £68.6m – more than 13 times its opening weekend number. Here We Go Again opened much bigger, and it’s inconceivable that it could achieve such a big multiple of that number, but something like six or seven times its debut (which was £9.74m) is now looking likely.

Family titles surge

The two big animations currently on release – Incredibles 2 and Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation – achieved the strongest holds of any titles in the Top 10. Incredibles 2 fell just 2%, and Hotel Transylvania 3 increased by 8%. During term time, family films are notoriously weak on weekdays, but during holiday periods every day is a potential cash bonanza. Incredibles 2 added £5.14m over the whole week, and Hotel Transylvania 3 added £3.49m. Respective totals are £45m and £11.2m.

Incredibles 2 has now overtaken the likes of Toy Story 2 (£43.5m) and Finding Dory (£43m) to become the second biggest Pixar film of all time at UK cinemas, after Toy Story 3 (£73.9m). The film looks certain to overtake the other big animated hits that are currently above it in the all-time chart – Illumination’s Despicable Me 2 and 3 and Minions, and DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek 2 – which are all in the £47m-£48m range.

Hotel Transylvania 3 is already past the total of the first film in the franchise (£8.31m), and is chasing Hotel Transylvania 2’s tally of £20.7m.

The market

Six titles at the weekend recorded grosses of at least £1m (see chart below). It’s the first time this has occurred since mid-February, when half-term holiday hits Coco and Early Man jostled with awards contender The Shape of Water, franchise titles Fifty Shades Freed and Black Panther plus holiday-season carry-over The Greatest Showman.

The strength in depth offered by the current set of titles helped the market overall to show a very handy 43% rise on the equivalent weekend from 2017. Now cinemas have hopes pinned on The Festival, from The Inbetweeners creators Ian Morris (director) and Damon Beesley (executive producer), which opens today (August 14). Following this Friday are Disney’s Christopher Robin and Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 2.

Top 10 films, 8-10 August

1. The Meg, £3,651,111 from 499 sites (new)

2. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, £3,568,169 from 698 sites. Total: £48,311,304 (4 weeks)

3. Incredibles 2, £2,354,530 from 658 sites. Total: £45,007,302 (5 weeks)

4. Ant-Man and the Wasp, £2,282,343 from 613 sites. Total: £10,493,740 (2 weeks)

5. Mission: Impossible – Fallout, £2,042,327 from 593 sites. Total: £17,455,734 (3 weeks)

6. Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation, £1,565,618 from 643 sites. Total: £11,249,963 (3 weeks)

7. The Darkest Minds, £388,325 from 403 sites (new)

8. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, £246,390 from 480 sites. Total: £1,013,117 (2 weeks)

9. Unfriended: Dark Web, £223,110 from 239 sites (new)

10. The First Purge, £117,451 from 152 sites. Total: £5,776,741 (6 weeks)

Other openers

Vishwaroopam 2, £61,771 from 56 sites

Dog Days, £59,223 from 238 sites

Heathers (30th Anniversary), £43,462 from 55 sites

The Heiresses, £34,155 from 24 sites

Sgt Stubby: An Unlikely Hero, £30,993 from 165 sites

The Domestics, £24,133 from 20 sites

Pope Francis: A Man of His Word, £21,593 from 68 sites

I Can Only Imagine, £19,897 from 25 sites

Under the Tree, £16,612 from 18 sites

The Negotiator, £11,558 from 14 sites

Leaning into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy, £11,054 from 12 sites

Srinvasa Kalyanam, £3,804 from 10 sites

Ashke, £196 from 1 site (Ireland only)

  • Thanks to comScore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.

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