SCREEN DAILY: ‘HAROLD FRY’ LEADS NEW RELEASES AT UK-IRELAND BOX OFFICE; ‘THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE’ STAYS TOP.
3rd May, 2023
SCREEN DAILY: ‘HAROLD FRY’ LEADS NEW RELEASES AT UK-IRELAND BOX OFFICE; ‘THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE’ STAYS TOP.
3rd May, 2023
Holdovers continued to dominate the UK-Ireland box office over the bank holiday weekend, with eOne’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry the only new release, and only non-franchise title, to find a spot in the top five.
Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie took £3.1m in its fourth weekend, down 28% on its third. It performed strongly on bank holiday Monday, bringing in an additional £1.4m. It has grossed to-date £47.2m in the territory.
Studiocanal’s Evil Dead Rise took £1.1m in its second weekend, for an overall figure of £3.6m.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry, the widest new release of the bank holiday weekend, has stomped into third place, taking £760,000 for eOne from Friday to Sunday across 643 locations, for an average of £1,182. Hettie Macdonald’s feature is about a seemingly unremarkable man in his 60s who embarks on a 450-mile mission to see his friend who is dying in a hospice. Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton star.
It took a further £301,000 on the bank holiday Monday. With previews, its total is just over £1m, with the top 25 performing cinemas across the UK and Ireland all independent exhibitors, Picturehouse and Everyman venues.
Its opening figure doesn’t quite match up in takings to Broadbent’s last big screen leading performance in Roger Michell’s The Duke, which brought in £941,975 in its first weekend for Pathé in February 2022, to an average of £1,429 from 659 locations.
Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4’s sixth outing took £620,444. This is up 5% up on its previous weekend. Its overall is now at £16.8m.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves‘s fifth weekend performed admirably, taking £576,000, with an impressive £239,000 from the bank holiday Monday. Its total is just over £13m.
Return Of The Jedi’s 40th anniversary screening took £446,000 from 40 locations across the weekend for Disney, for a superb location average £11,150, and an overall figure of £606,000.
Air’s fourth weekend for Warner Bros kicked up a further £485,000. The Ben Affleck-directed trainer origin story has now made £4.4m.
Sony thriller Missing took £208,798 in its second outing. Its cumulative is £861,309.
George Tillman Jr’s boxing biopic Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story Of The Once And Future Heavyweight Champion Of The World, starring Khris Davis in the titular role and Forest Whitaker, took £197,083 from 459 locations, for an average of £429. Including previews, its three-day total including previews and the bank holiday Monday stands at £266,142.
Polite Society brought in £195,307 for Universal in its debut outing, giving the action comedy an average of £437 from 447 locations. Its total including previews and bank holiday Monday’s takings was £290,959. The Sundance premiere is the feature debut of Nida Manzoor, the creator of Channel 4 and Peacock series We Are Lady Parts. An aspiring stuntwoman tries to put a stop to her older sister’s wedding day, with Priya Kansara and Ritu Arya playing the sisters.
Animation Mummies added a further £175,000 in its fourth session, with a total now creeping towards the £3m mark, currently at £2.8m.
Universal’s horror comedy Renfield, starring Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult fell 53% from its previous session in its third outing, taking £140,226, bolstering its overall figure to £1.7m.
Sony’s The Pope Exorcist added £120,544 in its fourth weekend, for a cumulative figure of £2.4m.
Anime title Suzume took £71,831 in its third weekend. It’s now crossed the £1m mark at the UK-Ireland box office for Sony.
The Three Musketeers; D’Artagnan brought in £58,547 for Entertainment Film Distributors in its second session, raising its total to £345,333.
Shazam! Fury Of The Gods added £51,000 for Warner Bros. After seven sessions, it has passed the £6m mark.
Vertigo Releasing’s How To Blow Up A Pipeline added £23,674 in its second outing, for a cumulative figure of £164,987.
Seventh Art has taken £37,082 on its second weekend for documentary Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition, now totalling £484,483.
Scream VI added £18,688 on its eighth weekend for Paramount, down 20% on the previous session. The slasher’s cumulative figure is £7.7m.
South London-set Disney romantic comedy Rye Lane added £17,200 in its seventh outing. It has now grossed £1.2m.
In event cinema, Trafalgar Releasing’s Saturday night ‘as live’ showing of Terence Blanchard’s boxing opera Champion, from New York’s Met Opera, took £15,509 across the UK, including some Sunday encores. From 92 locations, this gives an average of £169. With additional takings from bank holiday Monday repeat screenings, its total is £15, 698.
Curzon’s Rodeo opened to £6,774 across Friday-Sunday, for an average of £226 from 30 cinemas, adding a further £2,376 on the bank holiday Monday. With previews, the overall figure is plumped to £18,808.
BFI Distribution brought in £1,354 for the re-release of 1991 thriller and queer romance Young Soul Rebels from two sites, to an average of £677, and a total figure of £1,764 including the bank holiday Monday. It also re-released 1986 title The Passion Of Remembrance – examining the Black British experience in the 1980s – taking £275 from two sites, averaging £138, for a total of £931 including the bank holiday Monday and a preview.
Verve brought in £923 from three cinemas for Roma documentary Leaving To Remain, for a location average of £307, and a total of £1,006. Further documentaries out this weekend were Tull Stories’ Berg, at 11 spots, from Dutch director Joke Olthaar’s, and set in the Slovenian mountains; Dogwoof had Sundance music doc Little Richard: I Am Everything at 16 sites; and Bohemia Media played My Everest at 17 locations, which follows a physically disabled man who sets out to trek to Mount Everest base camp on horseback.