Peter Rabbit’s Remarkable Performance | UK Box Office Report March 16-18th 2018
There was a fresh look to the UK box office this week as British-led animation Peter Rabbit and popular video game turned movie franchise Tomb Raider debuted at the very top of the chart, displacing Black Panther from the number 1 spot for the first time in the movie’s 5 week run. Here’s the chart’s top 5…
Bouncing to the top of the chart is Sony Pictures Animation’s adaptation of the popular Beatrix Potter IP Peter Rabbit, starring James Corden. The animated feature was reportedly produced for around £35.5million ($50million) and struck a chord with audiences in the US upon its release there a few weeks ago, accumulating $25million in its opening weekend to pick up the number 2 spot on the chart behind Marvel juggernaut hit Black Panther. Here in the UK, the opening weekend figure was £7,273,207, making it the 2nd biggest opener in 2018 thus far, only being surpassed by Black Panther which made £17.7million back in February.
The £7.3million accumulation over this past weekend has ensured that Peter Rabbit has surpassed the opening weekend gross of Disney Pixar’s worldwide mega-hit, and Oscar winner, Coco, which made £5.2million over the three day period back in January. What is most surprising about this result for Sony Pictures is that Peter Rabbit has been released opposite arguably more substantial competition, with Black Panther continuing to gross high range figures and Tomb Raider hitting cinemas during the same weekend. Coco, by comparison, opened opposite a number of awards season releases including the debuting Steven Spielberg film The Post, but wasn’t faced with big budget blockbuster releases as has been the case for Peter Rabbit.
Remarkably, the weekend total of Peter Rabbit is more than the entire runs of Red Sparrow, Lady Bird, I, Tonya, The Shape of Water, The Post, The Commuter, Molly’s Game and Insidious: The Last Key, each of which has thus far failed to reach a total even close to the £7.3million of Peter Rabbit‘s weekend. And there may be more good news on the horizon for the famous rabbit with Easter on its way and the school holidays that accompany that making cinema trips more likely for children and families.
With Coco currently sitting on a total accumulation of £18,013,336, Peter Rabbit may at this stage expect to surpass £20million overall, which would make the film an undeniable hit here in the UK, adding to the success of its worldwide accumulation of £103million ($146million) thus far; a figure already double that of its budget.
In at number 2 is the latest film iteration of the popular video game franchise of the same name, Tomb Raider, which ran to a total of £3million this past weekend, a figure that is down from the opening weekend total of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie that made £3.8million in its opening weekend back in 2001. With inflation, this figure becomes even more damming of the latest film’s performance, with the 2001 release making the equivalent of £5.9million in today’s money, almost double that of this latest effort. In North America things don’t look much better for the franchise, with the 2018 movie earning $23.6million in its opening weekend, around half of the $47.8million (not adjusted for inflation) made by the 2001 release.
In the international market, the 2018 Tomb Raider is far from a disappointment however, thus far earning $131million from a $97million budget, all but guaranteeing that the film will be a box office success by the end of its runs in North America and Europe.
The other newsworthy inclusion in this week’s top 5 comes via Black Panther, which earned an additional £1.8million this weekend to take its overall accumulation to £42,779,145, a figure that would have placed the film in 2017’s top 5 highest grossing films and therefore makes a top 5 spot in 2018’s chart more than likely for the Marvel Studios picture which remains only 5 weekends into a run we should expect to go for at least another 5 more. Worldwide, Black Panther is currently sitting at $1.19billion, making the 4th highest grossing Marvel Studios movie in history, this week surpassing the total gross of Captain America: Civil War. With things as they stand, Panther could become the number 3 highest grossing Marvel Studios film of all time by the end of this week, with Iron Man 3 next in its sights, just $25million away.
Here is the complete UK box office chart for the weekend of March 16-18th 2018:
- Peter Rabbit – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £7,273,207 – total: £7,273,207
- Tomb Raider – 1 – £3,081,916 – £3,081,916
- Black Panther – 5 – £1,881,691 – £42,779,145
- The Greatest Showman – 12 – £1,059,983 – £38,904,203
- Red Sparrow – 3 – £588,634 – £5,278,099
- Game Night – 3 – £540,977 – £3,650,285
- Lady Bird – 5 – £293,131 – £4,702,917
- The Shape of Water – 5 – £289,641 – £6,978,097
- Finding Your Feet – 4 – £285,202 – £4,437,675
- Event Cinema: My Generation – 1 – £259,990 – £259,990
- Mary Magdalene – 1 – £238,924 – £238,924
- The Square – 1 – £221,256 – £221,256
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – 10 – £212,226 – £14,387,369
- I, Tonya – 4 – £205,446 – £3,293,715
- Coco – 9 – £186,770 – £18,013,336
Outside of the top 5, Finding Your Feet – the latest movie from the team behind The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 1 & 2 – has made just under £4.5million in the 4 weeks of its run despite never breaking into the top 5 on the weekend charts. The movie, which stars a plethora of British acting talent led by Timothy Spall, has been made with the intention of being sold to older generations of film goers, with its strong week-to-week performances of (on average) over £1million – compared to lesser weekend totals – seeming to indicate that such audiences hold less value in a weekend cinema experience than their younger contemporaries.
Made for a budget of £6million, Finding Your Feet has so far accumulated around three quarters of that total back through its performance in the UK alone, with Australia and New Zealand believed to have also boosted that £4.5million by an extra £2.5million to a £7million worldwide box office accumulation. This does, of course, mean that as of right now Finding Your Feet is another solid return on investment for the same producers that made unforeseen amounts of money with their Marigold Hotel franchise, though the jury is still out as to whether the film will be able to make enough money to also cover promotional costs, the actual total of which we will likely never know.
The week’s other debuting features, The Square and Mary Magdalene, seemed to have suffered from a similar fate to that of other high-end independent features You Were Never Really Here and Dark River in that they seem to have failed to grab audiences substantial enough to guarantee a 2nd weekend in the box office chart. Their totals this weekend make the opportunity to see the films in cinemas beyond this Friday quite unlikely.
So that about does it for this week’s UK Box Office Report. For more information regarding all film news, reviews, lists, features, essays and more, make sure to bookmark our homepage and keep up to date with us on Facebook and Twitter. For first access to the UK box office chart top 5, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube where we release our chart video each and every Tuesday.
