‘Infinity War’ Breaks New Records and ‘Black Panther’ Exits | UK Box Office Report 11-13th May 2018

There was plenty of change in UK cinemas this past weekend as three new movies debuted in the top 5 chart, Black Panther dropped out of the top 15, Infinity War set an incredible landmark and The Greatest Showman set what will probably be its final chart figure ever. Here is this week’s UK box office report, headlined as always by the top 5…

Even in a week of five debuting movies, three of which performed well enough to make the top 5, it was Avengers: Infinity War that was atop of the UK box office chart yet again this past weekend with a three day (Friday-Sunday) gross of £5,706,170, just a 44% drop on the previous week. This total, set in the movie’s third weekend, is higher than the debut weekends of fellow Marvel properties Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and Ant-Man read more on that in our box office report from 2 weeks ago and has now blasted Infinity War to an overall UK accumulation of £60,353,842; a total higher than all but 2 films released across 2017 and 2018 (Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Beauty and the Beast).

In total, Infinity War made £11million across the entire week before the end of business on Sunday 13th May 2018 to take it to the top spot in the 2018 annual box office chart, overtaking fellow Marvel juggernaut Black Panther which bowed out of the box office this week with £51million in total, a figure that will likely see it join Infinity War in our end of year UK top 5 chart.

Internationally, Infinity War was finally released in China this past weekend where it managed to set the highest grossing weekend of any Hollywood movie ever in terms of US Dollars (the 2nd highest in local currency behind The Fate of the Furious), earning $200million. Projections have the movie earning at least enough to push beyond Marvel’s current all-time highest grossing Chinese release Avengers: Age of Ultron by the end of its run, though the Chinese box office does remain unpredictable and has proven to drop hugely successful US releases at the drop of a hat. Regardless, the debut figure will make for good reading for Marvel and parent company Disney as it indicates that the Marvel brand is growing in the nation.

Even better reading for Marvel and Disney will be the overall box office accumulation for the movie, which now reads as the highest grossing superhero movie in history with a total accumulation of $1.65billion (£1.22billion) worldwide. This, again, is after just three weekends (or 18 days) of release.

Infinity War is now the 5th highest grossing movie of all time, with Avatar, Titanic, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World being the only movies in history to out-gross the Marvel juggernaut.



Elsewhere in the top 5, Melissa McCarthy star vehicle Life of the Party debuted with £618,311 here in the UK, a figure that is lower than many expected from a film starring such a usually bankable leading actress. The comedy, made for a rumoured $30million (£22million) debuted to an underwhelming $17.9million in the US, the lowest of McCarthy’s career as a leading attraction, with current 5 day estimates putting the film at $24million worldwide, a figure that seems to indicate that this particular McCarthy outing could result in a financial loss for distributors Warner Bros. when marketing costs are also taken into consideration.

Interestingly, Life of the Party was competing with fellow UK top 5 entry Breaking In for the Mother’s Day audience in North America this weekend with the latter posting just $300,000 less at $17.6million in the region; a stat that is mirrored by their similarly as close performances here in the UK (Breaking In – £424,675). The action-crime-drama starring Gabrielle Union was made for only $6million however, and with a worldwide total already above $20million, it seems that Breaking In is actually performing way above the Melissa McCarthy comedy in terms of return on investment.

In at number 2 this week is Paramount’s animated spoof Sherlock Gnomesa movie that was released way back in March in North America to a mediocre reception that seemed to be dwarfed by the release of Peter Rabbit on its way to a $42million run in the region. Its performance here in the UK, although impressive in the shadow of Infinity War during its opening weekend, seems unlikely to hit even close to £10million over the course of its entire run given the increased competition of the summer market, and as such this latest entry into the Gnomes animated franchise could be the last, owing such to a lacklustre $70million worldwide box office gross from a weighty $59million budget.



Here are the 15 highest grossing movies at the UK box office for the weekend of 11-13th May 2018:

  1. Avengers: Infinity War – weeks on release: 3 – weekend: £5,706,170 – total: £60,353,842
  2. Sherlock Gnomes – 1 – £2,522,342 – £2,522,342
  3. I Feel Pretty – 2 – £931,614 – £3,097,220
  4. Life of the Party – 1 – £618,311 – £618,311
  5. Breaking In – 1 – £424,675 – £424,675
  6. A Quiet Place – 6 – £361,029 – £11,402,134
  7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – 4 – £305,925 – £5,003,040
  8. Blade Runner: The Final Cut – £230,016 – £2,755,199
  9. Rampage – 5 – £189,221 – £8,695,722
  10. Raazi – 1 – £150,359 – £150,359
  11. Entebbe – 1 – £138,390 – £138,390
  12. Peter Rabbit – 9 – £115,336 – £40,064,193
  13. Tully – 2 – £113,519 – £400,873
  14. The Greatest Showman – 20 – £90,376 – £46,409,385
  15. The Strangers: Prey At Night – 2 – £86,702 – £431,218

Outside of the top 10, Entebbe debuted to just £138,390 despite starring popular British actress Rosamund Pike. The thriller, also starring Captain America: Civil War star Daniel Brühl, earned almost £100,000 less than 1982 release Blade Runner, despite the Ridley Scott re-release being in cinemas for the past three weeks, and was out-grossed by Bollywood movie Raazi which debuted a place above it in the chart with around £12,000 more in total earnings. Though the budget for the film is as yet unknown, Entebbe’s worldwide run of just $7.3million (£5.4million) seems unlikely to cover the cost of its release, especially given the film’s prolonged promotional push in smaller, art-house cinemas over the past month or so.

The chart seems to be preparing to say goodbye to Rampage and Peter Rabbit too, each of which made less than £200,000 this weekend. Rampage seems to have been one of the biggest losers at the UK box office in recent months given its star power, blockbuster appeal and $120million budget, and will struggle to make £9million overall in the region (a total less than $17million movie A Quiet Place which currently sits on £11.4million and is holding audiences a lot more effectively). Unfortunately for surprise mega-hit Peter Rabbitit seems that Sherlock Gnomes has eaten up many of the screens reserved for family showings and as such looks set to drop out of the top 15 imminently. It will do so having earned a whopping £40million in the UK over the course of its run however; a figure that makes it the 2nd highest grossing animated movie released in the past 2 years (behind only Despicable Me 3 – £46.4million). Peter Rabbit was such a success in this country that it earned twice that of international Disney Pixar mega-hit Coco.

At the very foot of the chart is The Greatest Showman which, despite having been released on home video, seems to have pushed beyond all expectations to a 20 week run in the chart; making it the only 2017 release currently charting in our UK box office report. At a total accumulation of just under £46.5million, Showman can now officially be named the 4th highest grossing 2017 release here in the UK, owing much of its earnings to positive word of mouth that had the movie pushing solid earnings week after week despite a somewhat lacklustre opening behind Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. This film now sits at $430million worldwide from an $84million budget, making it a huge smash hit of a release for Hugh Jackman and distributors 20th Century Fox.

And finally, Black Panther exited the UK box office chart this weekend with a home video release on the horizon. The Marvel release, which received a slight boost when Infinity War was released, has earned $1.3billion at the worldwide box office to become the 9th highest grossing movie of all time. Having earned £50million here in the UK, the Panther movie did not earn enough to reach the top 20 highest grossing UK movies list, just missing out on the spot currently held by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (£54.8million).

Next week will see the debut of Deadpool 2 on the box office chart, with distributors Fox looking to end Infinity War’s dominance on the chart with a huge 5 day opening weekend. How will the two Marvel IPs fair against one another? Find out in next week’s report.

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