Harry Potter opens with a bang!
No prizes for guessing Picturehouse Cinema’s top film over the weekend. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was the number one film on the planet this past weekend. Grossing a colossal $237M in 54 territories since opening last Wednesday.
In the UK, The Half-Blood Prince was the second biggest launch of all time after The Prisoner of Azkaban with 3.2m admissions and grossing a not inconsiderable £19.75 over five days (2 preview days plus the Fri- Sun weekend).
By contrast, Bruno suffered the worst second weekend drop of any major summer film this year, falling a rather alarming 51% in the UK and 73% worldwide. Bruno figures should improve (watch this space) this weekend with the release of the 15 certificate version.
The number one film buzzing around the Picturehouse Twitterfeed was undoubtedly indie-flick Moon; a couple of groans about why this British flick got to air in the US before Blighty and why so few cinemas are actually showing the film. Sam Rockwell’s brilliant turn in Duncan Jones’ sci-fi tale of isolation in deep space, fared well with £158,000 from 57 screens.
Facts and figures courtesy of Charles Gant’s always excellent Guardian film blog.
UK top 10, 17-19 July
1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 584 sites, £19,784,924. (New)
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, 503 sites, £2,849,981. Total: £20,283,183
3. Bruno, 457 sites, £2,301,432. Total: £10,357,495
4. The Hangover, 359 sites, £881,514. Total: £18,142,083
5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 405 sites, £678,743. Total: £24,919,977
6. Public Enemies, 360 sites, £470,651. Total: £5,728,410
7. My Sister’s Keeper, 311 sites, £378,680. Total: £4,955,541
8. Moon, 57 sites, £157,867. (New)
9. Year One, 168 sites, £53,033. Total: £2,776,236
10. Night at the Museum 2, 203 sites, £49,570. Total: £19,560,553
How the other openers did
Frozen River, 7 screens, £18,594
The Informers, 4 screens, £6,149
Wide Open Spaces, 9 screens, £5,924
Burma VJ, 6 screens, £4,626 (plus £26,896 in previews from 39 screens)
Kisses, 6 screens, £3,310
