The Men In Black take the top spot but there’s trouble ahead in a somewhat quiet weekend at the UK Box Office.
1. Men In Black 3 (532 sites) W/E: £2,953,736 NEW
2. The Dictator (507) W/E: £1,078,155 Total: £7,563,554
3. Marvel Avengers Assemble (479) W/E: £872,664 Total: £46,891,709
4. What to Expect When You’re Expecting (415) W/E: £661,617 NEW
5. Dark Shadows (450) W/E: £409,560 Total: £6,236,054
6. American Pie: Reunion (378) W/E: £362,323 Total: £15,813,549
7. Moonrise Kingdom (163) W/E: £251,760 NEW
8. The Raid (239) W/E: £116,340 Total: £805,399
9. Beauty and the Beast 3D (306) W/E: £69,795 Total: £2,475,361
10. Iron Sky (26) W/E: £66,076 NEW
Source: The Guardian
Ah sun, the bane of the UK cinema chains. With damn fine weather all weekend, every release in this week’s chart suffered a fair bit – Sony in particular will be cursing their luck as Men In Black 3 debuts to a fairly middling total despite opening at Number One. Unable to beat the opening weekends of either previous installment, even with the added help of 3D ticket prices and a general rise in the cost of tickets over the years, MiB3 may not be a bomb, but there are few ways to spin this as anything too amazing, beyond it being the Number One movie currently at the Box Office. With weather not forecast to be quite as strong next weekend this could hold – however with two massive releases hitting this weekend, MiB3 will struggle to remain relevant, although it has the benefit of being a big film released around a major football tournament which means it may retain more screens in future weeks than it would have otherwise.
The Dictator drops pretty horrificall,y with around 75% gone week-on-week, though it’s worth noting it had two days of previews last week. Still, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a drop from the top spot that bad since I started this column last year, and this is with only ten sites lost. This doesn’t bode well for Sacha Baron Cohen at all, though he at least had an opening weekend to be happy about. The film doesn’t seem to have generated any real heat whatsoever and this is the kind of thing which results from that. It’s probably worth noting that is one which people would rush out to see so they can talk about it, with repeat business and stragglers probably not being all that much of a guarantee. I wouldn’t expect nearly the same kind of drop next week, but in the increasing squeeze for screens, this could see itself shut out sooner than first thought. Those mighty Avengers make less than a million in a weekend for the first time since release, but a look at that lifetime total proves that there’s obviously no talk of bomb about this one!
A new entry follows next, as the counter-programming of What To Expect When You’re Expecting gets rail-roaded by the sun, with the casual cinema-going audiences this type of thing would attract having other more pressing matters in mind. £661,617 isn’t a terrible result by any means, but it hasn’t made nearly the impact that similarly-aimed fare like Bridesmaids did last year. What this says for next month’s release of The Five-Year Engagement could be a worry for Universal, although that film will be coming out as counter-programming against Euro 2012 which may help matters. That tournament is something which could see What To Expect hanging on for a bit, as audience numbers are more than likely going to shift towards the ladies out there through June.
Like The Dictator, Dark Shadows takes a massive tumble, also approaching the 75% zone even though this didn’t even have the two extra days of previews that film had. Depp/Burton aside, this was always a weird choice for the summer schedule, and with defiantly non-vampiric weather outside this has also been rather adversely affected and could see screens being taken from it quicker than would have been thought pre-release. Another bad drop follows for the latest American Pie but like Avengers, it’s already got a lifetime total which tells us it has been a real success.
Another new entry (and the best film in the chart this week) sees Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom open fairly well given the smaller release compared to the rest of the chart, with around a quarter million pounds being a pretty decent result given the pretty damn indie nature of the film (despite the cast). When I went to see it on Sunday there were five of us in the screen and I had similar reports from others on Twitter, so it’s nice to see that it didn’t get lost in the shuffle, though its long-term prospects aren’t that strong. The Cannes premiere certainly helped matters, and it will have a fine life on the small screen. On a weekend like the one we just had, I’m sure Universal will be OK with what they got.
On a weekend of bad drops, The Raid surprisingly suffered a fair bit too, unable to build on the word-of-mouth with a fairly quick drop down the chart which isn’t boding well for its long-term chances. 18-rated fare at the box office is always a tricky proposition but in summer? It’s going to do well to not take a huge drop in screens over the next week. Beauty 3D follows as it also drops massively but hangs on in there as pretty much the only option for younger children out at the moment.
Lastly, well done to Revolver who played their audience like a fiddle, as Iron Sky manages to make an appearance off the back of a very heavily promoted “one-day” only release which then evolved into a limited release. With the Blu-Ray already out, this one wasn’t going to be playing in many multiplexes – if any – but Revolver can be proud of an entry with a rather high site average.
OK, we have got some big ones this weekend folks, and my real question is if Snow White and the Huntsman, with its two additional days of previews, can make a dent in Prometheus’ haul once that film opens on Friday. With 3D, Imax and an incredibly extensive marketing campaign, Fox have done all they can in support of the film and I’d expect Prometheus to be Number One, though sci-fi horror isn’t something which screams SUMMER and the cast of Snow White will be more attractive to a broad audience. If the weather turns for the worse, both of these could do HUGE numbers, especially with a Bank Holiday weekend. Also opening as counter-programming is Cannes’ third prize winning comedy-drama The Angel’s Share, alongside the Miley Cyrus/Demi Moore joint LOL and the looks-like-it-was-made-for-a-
It’s the last weekend before Euro 2012 and it should be a bloody battle. Let’s see how it shakes out next week!
