Lowest Grossing Weekend of the Year | UK Box Office Report 6-8th July 2018

It was the lowest grossing weekend at the UK box office for the entire 2018 year between Friday 6th July and Sunday 8th July, as the FIFA World Cup quarter finals took a large portion of the potential box office audience across Friday and Saturday, with the heat being blamed for low figures on Sunday too.

Universal are possibly the only distributor to who can look at this past weekend’s chart with any positivity as they sat at 1 and 2 on the UK box office chart this week as the fourth Purge movie, The First Purge, fired its way to the top of the chart, removing Universal’s biggest hit of the year Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in the process.

Here are the top 5 films from the weekend of 6-8th July 2018:

The First Purge topped the chart in its debut weekend with an overall total of £1,778,157, though £620,000 of this figure was taken from previews on Wednesday and Thursday. As such, Purge 4 only just hit 7 figures with £1.16million earned Friday to Sunday, a number lower than the taking of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in the dino-sequel’s 5th weekend – £1,318,104.

Its performance has landed the Purge franchise its highest position on the UK box office chart ever, with its near £1.8million accumulation being by far the biggest debut in the franchise’s history. Here’s how The First Purge compares to its predecessors:

  1. The First Purge (July 2018) – £1.8million – entry position: 1
  2. The Purge: Anarchy (July 2014) – £1.2million – entry position: 3
  3. The Purge (May 2013) – £1million – entry position: 6
  4. The Purge: Election Year (August 2016) – £800,000 – entry position: 7

The up-turn in opening weekend interest, which has seen the movie’s financial intake rise by nearly 200% when compared to previous release Election Year, is likely due (at least in part) to its astute promotional campaign that drew comparisons between the futuristic setting of the franchise’s universe and the reality of our own, with some posters even featuring Trumpian “Make America Great Again” campaign baseball caps. It seems that the team over at Universal did a fantastic job of plugging into the zeitgeist of current societal fears regarding the Trump reign on both sides of the Atlantic, as North Americans invested $17million into the movie over its opening weekend and have thus far driven it to a $33.7million run in the region, a figure that far exceeds its budget of $13million and has therefore guaranteed a huge financial success for the distributors.

Meanwhile, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had its 5th successive weekend in the 7-figure zone of the chart, earning another £1,318,104 to take its overall UK total to £36,810,689. The near £37million accumulation to date places the J.A. Bayona movie as the 4th highest grossing movie of the year so far behind Avengers: Infinity War (£70million+), Black Panther (£50million) and surprise children’s hit Peter Rabbit (£40million), though the mighty T-Rex may yet catch the plucky rabbit before all is said and done.

Worldwide, Fallen Kingdom is currently sitting on a haul of over $1billion, over 5-times its budget of $170million, so while its North America return of $337million to date is lagging far behind Jurassic World 1’s North American accumulation of $652million, the so-called “foreign” markets outside of North America are continuing to buy into the franchise in a huge way, and the franchise won’t be going anywhere soon.

Another franchise that may not be going anywhere sharpish is Ocean’s 8, which hit its 3rd straight weekend in the UK box office top 3, earning £837,427 to take its overall accumulation to £8,529,286, a figure not to be sniffed at for distributors Warner Bros. who have already suffered a number of misfires this year including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson blockbuster Rampagehas now made $240million at the worldwide box office, a figure over 3-times that of its $70million budget, make an Ocean’s 9 a must for all involved.

At the lower end of the top 5, Sicario 2: Soldado and Tag continue to flounder, with each earning under £500,000 in just their 2nd weekends, leaving both below £1.5million overall and unlikely to surpass the £2million mark before being pulled from cinemas. Given the star power on show in both movies, this will be disappointing for the money men behind the projects, as neither film has performed all that well on the worldwide stage either, earning $52million and $61million respectively.



Here are the 15 highest earning movies at the UK box office for this past weekend:

  1. The First Purge – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £1,778,157 – total: £1,778,157
  2. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom –  5 – £1,318,104 – £36,810,689
  3. Ocean’s 8 – 3 – £837,427 – £8,529,286
  4. Sicario 2: Soldado – 2 – £321,750 – £1,462,458
  5. Tag – 2 – £250,517 – £1,063,855
  6. Adrift – 2 – £229,898 – £979,004
  7. Patrick – 2 – £226,306 – £723,317
  8. Hereditary – 4 – £224,003 – £5,090,322
  9. Sanju – 2 – £221,424 – £938,135
  10. Event Cinema: The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine – 1 – £163,155 – £163,155
  11. Uncle Drew – 1 – £151,336 – £151,336
  12. Whitney – 1 – £142,936 – £142,936
  13. Deadpool 2 – 8 – £131,498 – £32,338,709
  14. Blade Runner: The Final Cut – £115,406 – £4,800,527
  15. Sherlock Gnomes – 9 – £95,004 – £8,587,894

The biggest news from outside of the top 5 comes from number 12, where Whitney Houston documentary Whitney disappointed with an accumulation of just £142,936. Seen by many as effective counter-programming to not only the rest of the movies on offer at the box office but also the World Cup, Whitney was expected to do just as well as 2015 documentary hit Amy which ultimately grossed over 4-times that of Whitney in its opening weekend (£523,000), a figure Whitney will now struggle to surpass over the course of its entire run.

Hindi-language hit Sanju continues to be a draw at UK cinemas, reaching £938,135 in just 10 days to all-but ensure a run of at least £1million, a figure that distributors 20th Century Fox will be more than happy with.

And finally, Deadpool 2 seems to be on its way out of the box office chart after a strong 8 week run, having reached as low as number 13. The Fox-Marvel 15-rated hit has actually outlasted Solo: A Star Wars Story at the box office despite being released before the Lucasfilm juggernaut, and has earned around £13million more than it throughout the course of its run. DP2, as it’s affectionately known, is currently the 5th highest grossing movie of 2018 in the UK and is tracking side-by-side with Deadpool 1 at around $730million worldwide, a figure nearly 7-times its budget. Though star Ryan Reynolds has been quick to dismiss rumours of a 3rd movie in the franchise, the 2nd instalment’s financial success does indicate that there is still a large following for the character and this may force Reynolds’ hand moving forward. Expect to see a Deadpool 3 in a few years… especially if the Disney-Fox merger is delayed any further.

This coming weekend will see Dwayne Johnson return to cinemas with Skyscraper, while you may have to go to an independent cinema to catch Ethan Hawke starring in Paul Schrader’s First Reformed, but the biggest release to come this weekend is without a doubt Disney Pixar’s Incredibles 2, which will be looking to replicate its record-setting run at the North American box office here in the UK. Until then, you may want to check out our article on the concerning ideologies of The Incredibles The Exceptionals: The Philosophies of The Incredibles – and bookmark our home page to make sure you don’t miss out on all of our coverage of these movies and much more. As always, you can keep up to date with our latest releases, staff member updates and exclusive merchandise discounts by following us on Twitter and liking our Facebook page, and don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for first access to our weekly box office chart top 5 videos (available every Tuesday). We’ll be back next week to take an in-depth look at all of the stats surrounding Incredibles 2 and Skyscraper going head to head. Until then, enjoy the World Cup!



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