HITS AND MISSES 3-5 JULY: A TEDDY BEAR’S PICNIC
With all eyes on Mo, Jessica and Usain this weekend, the UK box office nevertheless fared surprisingly well all things considered. US smash opener TED clocked top position with a cool £5.9M, third week hold THE DARK KNIGHT RISES took silver second with £4.3M, while child-friendly opener DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS cruised to a bronze third on £1.5M. Box office gold.
At fourth place, resilient hold ICE AGE 4: CONTINENTAL DRIFT showed no signs of cooling down with £1.2M in its sixth week, at fifth THE LORAX trailed with £855K, while at sixth, a Scottish-only launch for Pixar period piece BRAVE took £816K, boding well for a UK-wide release from Friday. At seventh, THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN took £392K in its fifth week, at eighth MAGIC MIKE took £288K in week four, while at ninth MIRROR MIRROR made a surprise resurgence into the top ten with a set of Odeon and Vue Kids screenings to knock Studiocanal’s other contender, moving doc SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN down to tenth with £41.5K in week 2.
Remaining openers fared less strongly. Bollywood romance JISM 2 came in softly with a modest £13.8K load, elegant Chinese drama A SIMPLE LIFE took £9254, while critically heralded doc LONDON: THE MODERN BABYLON drooped with a frugal £4,870 from a six site launch.
Over in the states, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES held fast to its top spot going into week 3. With a cool $36.4M the film has clocked a stratospheric running total of $354M to date. At second position, Sony’s sci-fi remake TOTAL RECALL launched to a middling $26M, while at third DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS opened to $14.7M, significantly down on previous entries DIARY OF A WIMPY KID at $23M in 2010, and sequel RODRICK RULES at $24M in 2011. Could the appetite for the antics of obnoxious twerp Greg Heffley be waning? Say it isn’t so. On the indie circuit, the big winner proved to be hip romcom CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER, which took a smashing $112K to average a stonking $28K from four screens, while starry ensemble drama 360 disappointed with $12,600 from a two site launch and an uninspiring $6.3K average. Buzzy doc THE IMPOSTER meanwhile widened from two to seven screens, to gross an extra $33,320 putting the cumulative total at just over $100K so far.
From Friday, Olympic-weary punters can look forward to extravagant prancing about from franchise fourquel STEP UP 4: MIAMI HEAT, much running around from found footage horror THE DINOSAUR PROJECT, plentiful existential thinks from starry ensemble drama 360, and oodles of Scandi bloodletting from raucous Jo Nesbo adaptation JACKPOT. On a smaller scale launches for acclaimed doc AI WEI WEI: NEVER SORRY, intense revenge drama THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD and gritty Brit urban crime drama OFFENDER should also keep appetites whetted. Happy viewing.
PR.
