Box Office

Figures just released reveal that the week commencing 26 October 2012 saw the highest admissions to cinema in the UK this century, at over 7.5m. Furthermore, the month of October has seen industry admissions, which totalled 16.8m, up 24% from the same period in 2011 and the biggest October in terms of admissions for nearly a decade.

The release of the 23rd James Bond movie, Skyfall, has made this October huge. Bond’s return has easily beaten the one week box office record, previously held by Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (£18.1m) with £33.1m.

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Pt 2 had the strongest second weekend for a Twilight film with £5.3m taking its cume to £27m after ten days. At the same point, Breaking Dawn Pt 1 had grossed £23.3m, which suggests that Breaking Dawn Pt 2 will finish a few million higher than that film’s final total of £31.1m.

On week four of Bond-watch, Skyfall is up to £89.6m and it is without question now a case of when, not if, it’ll pass Avatar’s final total of £94m to become the highest grossing film in UK history. The next question is whether it can reach £100m, a total that was almost unthinkable four weeks ago. Before the weekend it was £14.2m away from £100m and it grossed a further £3.8m over the weekend. Back in January, War Horse opened with just over £3.9m and went on to reach £18.6m. If Skyfall performs similarly, it should comfortably pass £100m.

The highest new entry, in third place was yuletide sequel, Nativity: Danger In The Manger. With £1.6m (including £18k from previews) it doubled the performance of the first Nativity film in 2009 (£786k). We can now expect it to easily pass that films final total of £5.3m. Fourth place was taken by another new entry, exhilarating rom-com, Silver Linings Playbook with £1.3m (including £292k from previews). For a film that has a very different feel to other romantic comedies, it’s tough to find a comparison but Love And Other Drugs was another edgy star led comedy and that opened with £1.6m in December 2010.

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Sequels monopolised the top of the UK box office this weekend as the top three places all went to high profile franchises. The number one spot was taken by Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted 3D with £6m (including £2.4m from previews). When the previews are removed it shows the extremely consistent performance of the series. The first Madagascar opened with £3.6m in 2005 and Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa opened with £3.9m in 2008. Both those films went on to a final total in excess of £22m.

Second place was possessed by found footage chiller, Paranormal Activity 4 with £2.5m (including £806k from previews). It’s a solid start but comfortably the lowest of the series, with PA2 opening with £3.8m, PA1 with £3.6m and PA3 with £3.4m. The low production costs of the series though has ensured that a fifth instalment is on the way in time for Halloween 2013. In third spot, Taken 2 continued its remarkable run with a further £2.3m taking its cume to £18.6m. Although it’s likely to take a hit with the release of Skyfall on Friday, it’s possible that The Bourne Ultimatum’s final total of £24m is within reach.

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For the second weekend running, Liam Neeson took the UK box office by the scruff of the neck as Taken 2 delivered an impressive £3.7m. The Istanbul-set actioner has now grossed a considerable £14.5m after eleven days and with another instalment surely on the cards, Neeson’s dog must be getting nervous. A great comparison for Taken 2 would be The Bourne Ultimatum, which opened with a similarly impressive £6.6m but grossed a much lower £2.9m on its second weekend on its way to £24m. With that in mind, a final total of £20m-plus for Taken 2 looks almost guaranteed and considering the first Taken only grossed £6.4m, it demonstrates just how much impact the first film made on DVD and television.

In second spot, the highest new entry was Adam Sandler animation Hotel Transylvania 3D with £1.7m. Distributor, Sony Pictures, have released an autumnal animation twice before (not including last year’s Arthur Christmas) with 2006’s Open Season (£1.7m) and 2009’s Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (£1.6m) and Hotel Transylvania 3D has outperformed them both. Third spot was taken by Sinister, which had a terrific hold, easing just 12% to £1.3m for a cume of £3.7m. Distributor Momentum are obviously using their 2011 horror hit Insidious as a template and that had a similarly strong second weekend hold, falling just 9% on its way to a final total of £7.1m.

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The UK box office went loopy this weekend for an exciting original sci-fi title. Time travel mind-bender Looper came out on top with £2.4m, outperforming a number of well received recent sci-fi films including District 9 (£2.3m), The Adjustment Bureau (£1.4m) and Source Code (£1.3m). It’s also comfortably more than any other film where Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the lead, beating 2009’s (500) Days Of Summer (£1.2m).

Despite having a quiet Monday – Friday, ParaNorman 3D once again had a very strong weekend hold, easing just 11% to £1.1m for a cume of £4.3m. It didn’t open as well as Coraline but ParaNorman 3D appears to have more staying power, with Coraline only grossing £458k on its third weekend. The fifth entry in the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Retribution 3D with £792k. The previous Resident Evil film, Resident Evil: Afterlife opened with £1.7m in 2010.

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After The Sweeney’s previews prevented it from topping the box office last weekend, ParaNorman 3D gained his revenge emerging as the clear winner this weekend. With a great hold, easing just 12% to £1.2m, the stop-motion charmer has now grossed £2.9m in ten days. In second spot was the week’s highest new entry, Killing Them Softly. The brutal Brad Pitt crime drama opened with £955k, which is pretty similar to another Cannes premiering crime drama Lawless, which opened with £973k two weeks ago. Killing Them Softly has also been compared, perhaps inaccurately, to Drive which opened with £609k almost exactly a year ago.

In third spot was another new entry, Jennifer Lawrence thriller House At The End Of The Street or HATES, as it has come to be known. It turns out the audience didn’t hate it and a £796k debut is a perfectly respectable performance and far superior to another recent female star-led thriller in May’s Silent House (£215k). Last week’s number one The Sweeney fell a chunky 53% to £728k, although that figure falls to a more respectable 35% if you don’t include previews. The Ray Winstone crime drama now has a cume of £3m.

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The Sweeney was out on its tod at the top of box office this weekend. The new Ray Winstone and Ben “Plan B” Drew version of the 70s television favourite opened to £1.5m, which included £433k from Wednesday and Thursday previews. British director Nick Love has not had huge success at the UK box office in the past but this is comfortably his biggest opening, almost tripling his previous best – 2007’s Outlaw (£586k). Outlaw is also Love’s highest grossing film outright, with £1.6m and The Sweeney almost beat that in one weekend.

Charming stop-motion animation ParaNorman 3D opened in second place with £1.4m and would have come out on top had it not been for The Sweeney’s previews. ParaNorman 3D is the second feature film from the American stop-motion animation studio Laika, with their first Coraline released in May 2009. Although it didn’t open as well as Coraline’s £2.4m debut, it’s still a decent start for an animation film outside of the school holidays.

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On Friday the exhibitors were imploring the populace to get their mass to ours, as the remake of Total Recall was finally on general release. The populace agreed and twenty two years after the original was released, the new Total Recall topped the UK box office with £2.8m (including £959k from previews).

In second spot and benefitting from the unusual step of opening on a Monday was all-star comedy The Watch with £2.2m (including £1.4m from previews). Brave 3D continues to enchant adults and children alike with a further £1.6m over the weekend taking its cume to £17.9m. Ted still bears fruit, easing 42% to £989k for a cume of £28.1m.

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For the second successive weekend Brave 3D hit the bullseye, falling a very light 9% to £2.4m (fall-off not including opening weekend previews). Including bank holiday Monday, Pixar’s latest smash now has a cume of £14.4m and is fast closing in on Cars 2 (£15.6m) and Cars (£16.5m). After that the next Pixar title in its sights is Toy Story with £22.3m, which is looking increasingly likely.

The remarkable performance of ribald bear Ted shows little sign of slowing down as a further £1.7m over the weekend takes its cume to £26.2m. It has now grossed more than any Austin Powers film and will probably finish around Meet The Fockers’ final total of £28.9m. It is also the fourth biggest film of the year so far, having just surpassed The Amazing Spider-Man 3D’s current cume of £25.8m.

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In an extremely close race for the top spot less than £90k separated the top four films but Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter just managed to come out in front. The historically inaccurate action horror opened with £1.1m but owes its number one spot to Wednesday and Thursday previews, which provided £375k of its total. The film feels similar in style and tone to the Underworld franchise and the most recent film in that series Underworld: Evolution also opened with £1.1m. A sizeable 81.2% of Abe Lincoln’s total was from 3D presentations.

For the third weekend in a row, Men In Black 3 secured second place holding off the challenge from The Five-Year Engagement by just £13k. The sci-fi comedy now has a cume of £19.1m and is the sixth highest grossing film of 2012. Also with £1.1m, The Five Year Engagement made a solid start. It is some way off the last Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller collaboration, Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s £2.1m opening, but a more apt comparison would be something like March’s Wanderlust, which opened with £491k.

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