Which Best Picture Oscar Nominee Won the Box Office? | UK Box Office Report March 9-11th 2018

With only a few critically successful independent films hitting the UK box office this week, there was little change at the top of the UK Box Office Chart this past weekend, with Black Panther, The Greatest Showman, Red Sparrow, Game Night and Lady Bird holding onto their spots in the top 5 despite diminishing returns. Here’s our video of the top 5 and how much each film made:

Four weekends removed from its release, Black Panther earned nearly £3million this weekend (actual: £2,931,682) to push the film to an overall UK box office accumulation of £39,830,023 by the end of business on Sunday evening. This total, which as of today is likely to have crossed the £40million mark, has ensured that the Ryan Coogler directed superhero action film has now out-grossed every superhero film released in the UK in 2017 after just 24 days of release. This remarkable figure, which is all-but guaranteed to increase by at least another £5million in the next few weeks, will likely ensure Black Panther’s spot on the annual box office top 5 for 2018 given that 2017’s 5th highest earning movie – Paddington 2 – grossed £42million to earn the distinction last year.

Internationally, things are looking even stronger for the Marvel Studios release, with the film crossing the $1billion mark this past weekend thanks to a strong $66million opening weekend in China and its continued dominance of the North American box office, the region in which the film earned $40million to set the 2nd highest grossing 4th weekend in North American box office history, taking its total accumulation in the region to $565million, the 7th highest gross of all time having just surpassed the gross of The Dark Knight (and closing on Star Wars: The Last Jedi).

The now $1,085,000,000 worldwide accumulation for Black Panther makes it the 5th highest grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe release of all time, with Captain America: Civil War sitting just $50-60million in front of it with plenty of legs left in the film before it’s removed from cinemas.

Perhaps the story of the weekend, however, is the continued performance of 2017’s never-dying flame The Greatest Showman, which earned £1,567,366 this past weekend to fire it into the number 2 spot, solidifying its position in our top 5 for the 11th weekend in a row. The musical, which was recently re-released with a sing-along feature, has now earned £37,336,900 overall in the UK, sitting the film on par with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 just outside the top 5 highest grossing movies released in 2017, but with number 5 spot holder Paddington 2 firmly in its sights (especially if these £1million plus weekends continue to pour in).

The film is now at $390million worldwide from a mid-level budget of $84million, and is now officially one of the most successful films of 2017 in terms of overall gross compared to budget. It’s nothing short of a phenomenon.



Here are the top 15 UK box office chart toppers for the weekend of 9-11th March 2018:

  1. Black Panther – weeks on release: 4 – weekend: £2,931,682 – total: £39,830,023
  2. The Greatest Showman – 11 – £1,567,366 – £37,336,900
  3. Red Sparrow – 2 – £1,166,764 – £4,019,594
  4. Game Night – 2 – £703,115 – £2,640,693
  5. Lady Bird – 4 – £703,115 – £3,973,500
  6. Finding Your Feet – 3 – £573,481 – £3,547,352
  7. The Shape of Water – 4 – £552,230 – £6,349,265
  8. Coco – 8 – £465,033 – £17,787,726
  9. I Tonya – 3 – £407,933 – £2,826,908
  10. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – 9 – £359,714 – £13,903,885
  11. Early Man – 7 – £292,131 – £10,402,603
  12. You Were Never Really Here – 1 – £288,344 – £288,344
  13. Gringo – 1 – £215,029 – £215,029
  14. Fifty Shades Freed – 5 – £185,323 – £17,521,819
  15. Mamma Mia – 505 – £174,660 – £68,798,120

Outside of the top 5, we seem to be getting a better picture as regards the overall performances of particular mainstream, big budget releases like Coco and Fifty Shades Freed.

Coco, the latest animated feature from Disney Pixar, sits at close to £18million after an 8 week run, and while it looks like it may have the legs to hold onto a chart spot into mid April, it’s unlikely that the animation giants will surpass the total of last January’s animated release (from rival production company Illumination Entertainment) Sing, which grossed £25.8million overall. This is bound to be viewed upon by Disney as a huge disappointment for their UK promotions arm as it’s not often that their more respected animated releases are out-grossed in such a manner.

Fifty Shades Freed has seemingly suffered from the same curse, performing £8million under the overall UK accumulation of its predecessor Fifty Shades Darker and nearly £20million under that of franchise opener Fifty Shades of Grey, with little life left in cinemas. The conclusion to the E.L. James novel adaptation franchise has similarly lost money internationally in comparison to its predecessors, earning $360million compared to Darker’s $381million and Fifty Shades’ $572million, though each film has of course been a successful return on investment having grossed more than enough to cover the franchise’s own production and promotional costs.

Despite British comedy Walk Like A Panther hitting cinemas this weekend and the latest Clio Barnard drama Dark River being featured across the country, neither film was able to break the top 15 this past weekend, with the Cannes-winning You Were Never Really Here and the Charlize Theron starring Gringo being the only new entries to this week’s chart at 12 and 13 respectively, offering little hope for successful runs for any of the 4 films.



Last week, we promised a roundup of the Oscars’ Best Picture nominees here in the UK, so here is the chart as of this weekend:

  1. Dunkirk – total gross: £55,848,681
  2. Darkest Hour – £23,166,906
  3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – £13,903,885
  4. Get Out – £9,106,179
  5. The Post – £8,839,133
  6. The Shape of Water – £6,349,265
  7. Lady Bird – £3,973,500
  8. Phantom Thread – £2,148,930
  9. Call Me By Your Name – £1,610,037

Internationally, the same films chart as follows:

  1. Dunkirk – $526million
  2. Get Out – $255million
  3. The Post – $155million
  4. The Shape of Water – $150million
  5. Darkest Hour – $143million
  6. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – $143million
  7. Lady Bird – $65million
  8. Phantom Thread – $41million
  9. Call Me By Your Name – $35million

Interestingly, only Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread can be considered a financial failure out of all 9 Best Picture nominees following its $41million taking from its $35million budget, an accumulation that would certainly not have covered its Oscars promotional campaign nor its general advertising. In fact, it’s the only film in the list that didn’t at least double its production budget.

And there you have it for this week’s UK Box Office Report. Make sure to check back next Wednesday where we’ll hopefully have a more eventful shake-up at the top of the chart. Until then, bookmark our homepage, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For first access to our weekly chart videos (posted each Tuesday), subscribe to our YouTube channel and, most importantly, have a great day!

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