| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | Mia Blakeney |
Box Office Round-up
The Devil Wears Prada 2 held on to the top spot at the UK box office, adding £5.2m, which is down 44% from last weekend, and takes its total to £21.1m. The first The Devil Wears Prada opened with £3.3m in October 2006 and finished its run with £14.2m, a total that this film surpassed in less than a week. It’s already the sixth highest grossing film of the year-to-date, and will likely be in the top four by this time next week.
After a sensational second week, Michael posted another great hold on its third weekend, falling just 28% to £5.1m. That takes its total to £33.5m and it’s now the third biggest film of the year to date, and just a few hundred thousand behind Project Hail Mary in second. It has already overtaken the final totals of Rocketman and Elvis, and at the same stage of its run, Bohemian Rhapsody was on £28.9m, so Michael is still tracking ahead of that. Bohemian Rhapsody finished on £55.3m.
The Sheep Detectives opened in third with £3.3m, which includes £1.6m from previews after playing Saturday to Monday on the bank holiday weekend. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile was a relatively recent film that combined live-action and animation and that opened with £1.7m in October 2022 and finished with £13.1m, so that’s a good target for The Sheep Detectives.
Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour opened in fourth with £1.8m, which includes £408k from previews on bank holiday Monday. The gold standard for modern concert films is Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which is a tough box office target (£12.3m in total), but Hit Me Hard And Soft has opened above Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce (£1.1m and £1.8m in total).
Mortal Kombat II rounded out the top five, opening with £1.6m, which includes £408k from previews. This a sequel to Mortal Kombat, which was released in October 2021 and finished its run with £602k, but was hamstrung by covid. It continues the strong performance of video game adaptations in recent years, and bodes well for Street Fighter and Resident Evil (see below) later in the year.
Outside of the top five, one of the most enduring of British metal bands, Iron Maiden, saw their documentary, Burning Ambition, crack the top 10 with £207k (including £110k from previews).
Next Weekend
The Christophers is the latest film from Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Black Bag). The children of a once famous artist hire a forger to complete some unfinished, long ago abandoned canvases so they'll have an inheritance when he dies. Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel and Jessica Gunning star.
Obsession is a well-reviewed horror and the debut film from YouTuber Curry Barker. After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Normal is a crime-thriller starring Bob Odenkirk and Lena Headey. It centres on a temporary small-town sheriff who uncovers dark mysteries after a local bank robbery.
Top Gun receives a 40th anniversary re-release from Wednesday.
The Buzz
Resident Evil is the eighth film to be adapted from the hugely popular video game series, but it’s the first one to be legitimately mega-excited about. Zach Cregger has directed two feature films in the past four years, and they’ve made him the hottest new filmmaker in Hollywood. He directed Barbarian in 2022, which became a cult hit, and he followed it up last year with Weapons, which grossed £11.9m in the UK & Ireland and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. After that he could have had his pick of projects, but he chose to make a new adaptation of one of his favourite video games. This new iteration stars Austin Abrams (Weapons) as a hapless courier who is tasked with delivering a package to a remote hospital. He soon finds himself caught in the middle of an outbreak and must fight through hordes of mutated creatures to survive. Early reports are comparing it to Mad Max: Fury Road, which can only be a good thing. It’s one of the best films for 16-34 men in H2 when it hits cinemas on 18 September.
Across The Pond
The Devil Wears Prada 2 held on to the top spot with $43m, which takes its total to $136m. Mortal Kombat II opened in second with $40m, which is almost double the $23.5m the previous film opened with in 2021. Michael fell to third but posted another great hold, adding $36.5m, which takes its total to a terrific $240.5m. The Sheep Detectives opened in fourth with $15.9m, and Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard And Soft – The Tour rounded out the top five, opening with $7.5m.