Picturehouse Blog

With smash hit CLASH OF THE TITANS opening to a whopping £5.7M back in April 2010, expectations were high for megabucks sequel WRATH OF THE TITANS launching this weekend. However, with a soft opening, down almost two thirds on the original’s opening weekend business at just £2.2M, audiences were clearly in no particular mood to feel the wrath as whole-heartedly as they weathered the clash two years ago. At an impressive £2.9M haul, second week hold THE HUNGER GAMES easily nabbed the top spot, and with a very healthy average of £6K, guaranteed decent sustaining business in the weeks ahead. With a comparatively soft opening at £1.8M meanwhile, Aardman claymation PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS trailed at third place with £1.9M total and a middling £3.5K average from 541 sites; this massively down on 2005’s WALLACE AND GROMIT: CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT opening at £9.4M. A

Another sequel, STREETDANCE 2, the only other wide opener, flopped to a decidedly flatfooted £599K total to limp to fifth position, well under third week hold 21 JUMP STREET at fourth with £956K. The original sleeper smash STREETDANCE 3D launched to £2.5M back in 2010, so the result ranks as a major disappointment for independent UK distributor Vertigo. The remainder of the top ten consisted of a handful of middling holds, ranging from still decent long gaming old timer THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL at a sixth weekend haul of £485K and sixth place, to swiftly exiting holds THE DEVIL INSIDE, WE BOUGHT A ZOO, CONTRABAND all in the £100-200K range and dropping out of the race. On a smaller scale, it was pretty bad news for limited openers, with Herzog’s death row doc INTO THE ABYSS opening to an uninspiring £29K from 28 sites and an average only just above £1K, and mumbly New York hipster comedy TINY FURNITURE launching to just under £6K from and a £851 average. Disappointing.

Over in the states, THE HUNGER GAMES aped its UK fortunes with a stunning top spot sustain and a staggering $61M swoop, streets ahead of second place opener WRATH OF THE TITANS at a nonetheless decent $34M launch. Only third place opener MIRROR, MIRROR really struggled at a soft $19M launch in an otherwise massive weekend for admits overall. On the independent circuit meanwhile much-discussed Weinstein doc launched to a very impressive $115K from a five site launch in key cities sans MPAA certificate, promising aggressive expansion in the coming weeks and yet more controversy to come.

Launching from this Friday will be slick Norwegian romp HEADHUNTERS in an ambitious wide release, plexy thriller THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY, bizarre live action fairy tale caper MIRROR, MIRROR and of course, the one and only TITANIC gets a re-release in glorious 3D, bringing Kate and Leo mania to the Facebook generation. Smaller releases include charming gay coming of age tale NORTH SEA TEXAS, Paolo Sorrentino’s first venture into English language filmmaking with oddball road movie THIS MUST BE THE PLACE and a ravishing reissue for Jean Renoir classic LA GRANDE ILLUSION from the BFI. Delicious.

PR.

With a breathtaking $155 million opening weekend in the states – ranking the film at third highest opening ever after HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 (2011) and THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) – high concept teen thriller THE HUNGER GAMES launched strong this weekend in the UK, easily nabbing the top spot with £4.5M in total and a stonking £8.7K average from a saturation launch; this despite the glorious sunshine. Elsewhere the fair weather had a significantly more drastic impact on admits, with the remainder of the top ten – holdovers all bar one – significantly down on previous weeks. At second place in week 2, frenetic buddy cop comedy 21 JUMP STREET performed fairly decently at £1.2M and a £3K average, while at third place BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL held its position, but with a significant drop to £747K and a £1.7K average, to suggest the film may be headed into its twilight stages after four weeks of top notch business.

Filling out the remainder of the top ten were the usual suspect line up of holdovers, with poor second week performances for last week’s top gun THE DEVIL INSIDE and family bomb WE BOUGHT A ZOO at fourth and fifth place respectively, with £641K and £406K apiece. At sixth, hard edged thriller CONTRABAND seems set for a swift exit after an uninspiring opening last week with £315K this weekend, while at seventh spot mega flop JOHN CARTER scraped just £298K in its third weekend to suggest shelf life for the sci-fi epic is now well and truly Tharked. The only other new start to enter the top ten, US smash ACT OF VALOUR crawled to a poor £263K at eighth from a wide opening in 272 sites, suggesting the film’s brazen US army propagandist tone and bizarre Michael Bay shoots TOWIE style had little place in the UK popular imaginary. Finally at ninth place, stalwart hold THE MUPPETS slipped to £168K, while astonishing thirteenth week hold THE ARTIST bowed out gracefully at £54K and tenth.

A pair of smaller openers launched to mixed results. Holding up in spite of the weather, the Dardennes brothers’ KID WITH A BIKE pedalled its way to a respectable £71K opening to average £2.3K from a modest 31 site platform. Less fortunate however was an astonishingly wide opening for Dexter Fletcher’s Brit gangland flick WILD BILL in 111 sites, which at £59K well and truly squibbed at a £533 average.

Stateside, the other two players in the top three obviously paled in comparison to that HUNGER GAMES launch. However, a second weekend haul of $21.3M down just 41% on last week spelt strong sustaining business for second place comedy 21 JUMP STREET, while animation smash THE LORAX still managed a decent $13.1M in weekend three at third position to suggest there’s still life in the Seuss flick yet. In an unusual development the independent spectrum yielded the most disturbing development of the weekend, with a strong launch for shonky right wing anti-abortion polemic melodrama OCTOBER BABY. An ambitious 390-site release paid dividends for the film, with a $1.7M take and an average of $4.4K to have enlightened Americans all over quaking in their boots and the bone headed jumping about in sheer blinkered glee.  Less furiously depressing however was a smashing opening for relentless action epic THE RAID, which opened to a bone crunching $221K in 14 sites to average $15.7K and promise an aggressive expansion for the film in the coming weeks. More modest meanwhile was a 29 site launch for Terrence Davies’ sensitive melodrama THE DEEP BLUE SEA, which at $120K still managed a very decent $4K for the niche Brit flick.

Three saturation releases go head to head this weekend for the family  booty as the Easter holidays kick in. Holding the fort for wacky claymation shenanigans will be Aardman’s latest colourful bonanza PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS. Meanwhile, hoping to replicate CLASH OF THE TITANS’ thunderous £5.6M opening back in 2010 and top a Kraken £20.2M total haul will be effects heavy sequel WRATH OF THE TITANS. Also krumping its way onto screens will be high profile sequel STREETDANCE 2, with expectations high after the surprise smash of the 2010 original. With the big guns out and HUNGER GAMES primed to gnaw its way to a second week of strong business, the few smaller openers may struggle, despite a strong line up that includes luscious Italian coming of age tale CORPO CELESTE, exquisite Chilean romance BONSAI, wonderfully mumbly New York hipster comedy TINY FURNITURE and high profile Werner Herzog death row doc INTO THE ABYSS. May the odds, for once, ever be in their favour!

PR.

After three unusual weeks in which a sizeable proportion of Brit box office business has been led by the grey pound, younger fodder finally took back the plate this weekend with two new youth-aimed starts duking it out for the top spot and the biggest take of the sizeable swag. US one weekend wonder horror THE DEVIL INSIDE ultimately came out on top, despite a steep Friday to Sunday decline. The film raked in a decent total just under £2M to average a healthy 5,284 from its 378 site launch. Clocking a £1.5M total meanwhile at second place was boisterous buddy cop comedy 21 JUMP STREET, which averaged a decent £3,991 from 395 sites, in a result nevertheless significantly down on a blockbusting opening stateside at $35M. This left OAP caper THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL down at third place in week 4, with a still zinging £1.5M total, averaging £3,189 from saturation play that nonetheless shows little sign of slowing down as the film grows old extremely gracefully.

Down three places at fourth position was high profile Disney sci-fi JOHN CARTER at a £965K figure and a poor £2.1K average from 457 sites. This after a damp squib opening at top last weekend ranks as a major disappointment for the UK, adding to a plethora of territories in which the film has fallen flat off the back of an out of control budget and publicity costs. At fifth place, bestial dramedy WE BOUGHT A ZOO limped to a £845K opening to average under £2K, suggesting the film simply has lost its older-skewed audience out to the sustaining delights of those frisky Marigold Hotel pensioners. Filling out the remainder of the top ten meanwhile were a poor opening for gritty Marky Mark thriller CONTRABAND at £683K and sixth place, a clear decline for UK horror sensation WOMAN IN BLACK at £544K and the seventh position, and declines for THIS MEANS WAR, SAFE HOUSE and THE MUPPETS in the remaining three slots, each in the £300-£400K mark. Outside of the top ten running, a pair of smaller scale openers also debuted to mixed results. Opening ambitiously wide in 50 sites, Polish Oscar contender IN DARKNESS bowed to £89.5K and an uninspiring £1.9 average, despite excellent reviews and a usually bankable plot topic. Critical darling Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s challenging Turkish Art House opus ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA meanwhile defied expectations to open at a smashing £35K from, 14 screens and a blooming £2.5K average, to suggest there is indeed a glimmer of hope for the future of cinema yet in spite of it all.

Over in the good old US of A, the top dog was clearly comic caper 21 JUMP STREET with a buxom $35M opening at the top spot to average a spectacular $11,214. Still performing in week 3 meanwhile was killer Dr Zeuss animation adaptation THE LORAX at $22.8M at second position. The film has thus far raked in a ludicrous total of $158M to date and bodes well for a UK bow in the coming weeks. Less fortunate however was JOHN CARTER at a very poor third place in week 2 at $13.5M, with a result to date of $53M that just doesn’t cut it for a film that allegedly cost $240M to make. Worrying. Of the smaller openers, bizarre western/Mexican soap opera comedy mash-up CASA DE MI PADRE performed strongly in an ambitious 382 screen launch, to take $2.2M and a very encouraging $5.8K average. In a 254 sites launch meanwhile, Duplass brothers comedy JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME impressed with a very decent $840K opening from 254 sites. Boasting the highest average of new openers however was charming French drama THE KID WITH A BIKE which launched in three key city sites to take $51K, and a $17K average which promises an inevitable aggressive expansion.

From Friday all eyes will be on high profile franchise launcher THE HUNGER GAMES which opens worldwide on the back of hefty marketing and industry predictions that the film might be a challenger to the Twilight franchise for the lucrative tween/teen female skewed dollar. Also opening is insane US army recruitment flick ACT OF VALOUR, sublime Art House fare from the Dardennes brothers, THE KID WITH A BIKE and Brit gangster flick WILD BILL. Glass half full folks would call this crop a varied cornucopia of releases. Half empty folks call a mixed bag. Onwards and upwards.

Paul Ridd.