| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Tom Linay |
The Weekend Round-up
- Aladdin comfortably held on to the top spot this weekend, posting a terrific hold especially considering the sunny weather, falling just 15%, once previews are removed, to £4.9m. That takes its total to £19.8m and it’s now the fifth biggest film of the year and today will overtake How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (£19.9m) to become the fourth biggest. Last week I highlighted that Aladdin’s opening weekend was behind Dumbo, but it now looks nailed on to overtake Dumbo’s final total which is currently £25m.
- Godzilla: King Of The Monsters opened in second with £3.5m, which includes £1.2m from previews after opening on Wednesday. This is the third film in the extended ‘monsterverse’ and it has opened lower than both films to date, 2014’s Godzilla (£6.4m, including £1.1m from previews) and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island (£6.2m, including £615k from previews). When looking at just Friday to Sunday weekend gross, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters only came in fourth.
- The Secret Life Of Pets 2 also posted a great hold, falling just 16% to £2.9m. After it opened quieter than expected last weekend, it picked up during half term and now after the weekend it is on £11.9m. While it’s not going to trouble the first film’s final total of £36.6m, it should still add a lot more to its current total over the next couple of months and into the school summer holidays.
- Rocketman fell to fourth, adding £2.5m – a drop of 37% from last weekend. That takes its total after 12 days in cinemas to £12m and at the same stage of its run, Bohemian Rhapsody had crossed the £20m mark, so Rocketman is tracking about 40% behind. Hopefully with great word-of-mouth, Rocketman will hold up well over the coming weeks.
- Pokemon: Detective Pikachu completed the top five, adding £664k from Friday to Sunday, which takes its total to £12.5m.
- Outside of the top five, Blumhouse horror Ma had a slightly disappointing opening kicking off its run with £510k. Horror has so far had a mixed 2019, with Us (£2.8m opening weekend) and Pet Sematary (£1.6m) currently the standouts, while Ma joins the likes of The Curse Of La Llorona (£610k), Happy Death Day 2U (£735k) and Escape Room (£821k) in opening with less than £1m.
Overall the box office is down 17% from last weekend and up 60% from the same weekend last year when the top films were Solo: A Star Wars Story, Deadpool 2,Avengers: Infinity War and Sherlock Gnomes.
Next Weekend
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix is the next comic book blockbuster. Jean Grey begins to develop incredible powers that corrupt and turn her into a Dark Phoenix. Now the X-Men will have to decide if the life of a team member is worth more than all the people living in the world. It’s in cinemas on Wednesday.
- Late Night is a comedy-drama starring Emma Thompson as a late-night talk-show host suspects that she may soon lose her long-running show. Mindy Kaling stars and co-writes.
- Gloria Bell is a remake of Sebastian Lelio’s brilliant Chilean comedy-drama, Gloria. Lelio returns to direct and Julianne Moore stars as a free-spirited woman in her 50s who seeks out love at L.A. dance clubs.
- Liam Gallagher: As It Was is a documentary about the former Oasis frontman as he attempts to make a solo comeback.
The Buzz
Pavarotti is a documentary about the legendary opera singer. After his success with the Beatles: Eight Days A Week, Ron Howard again directs a music documentary and the first reviews are now out. The Hollywood Reporter called it ‘intelligent, vastly appreciative of its subject and conventional in approach, Pavarotti can scarcely go wrong due to the charisma of its subject, the gorgeous music that wallpapers the entire film and an arc of success arguably unmatched in the opera world.’ Screen International were equally complimentary, saying ‘even for opera neophytes who couldn’t tell a soprano from a tenor, Ron Howard’s brisk, engaging film capably maps out an art form that Luciano Pavarotti ruled for decades’. It’s in cinemas for a one night only live event on 13 July before opening nationwide on 15 July.
Across The Pond
Godzilla: King of the Monsters topped the box office with $49m, which is well down on the openings for 2014’s Godzilla ($93m) and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island($61m). Last week’s top film, Aladdin fell 53% in second to $42.3m, which takes its total to $185m. Rocketman opened in third with $25m, which is the fourth largest opening weekend for a music biopic. Ma opened in fourth with $18.2m and John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum completed the top five, adding $11.1m for a new total of $125.8m.