All Change: UK Box Office Report Jan 12-14th 2018

There were some huge changes at the top of the UK Box Office Chart this past weekend, as the United Kingdom welcomed in awards season with the embrace of Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as well as franchise horror movie Insidious: the Last Key. Could it be that British film goers are cooling on their Star Wars interest? Here are the top 5:

It seems that British film goers have embraced “one of their own” in British made Darkest Hourpushing the Universal Pictures release to a £4,058,356 opening and helping it to topple surprise mega-hit Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

This total is double that of leading star Gary Oldman’s last UK release, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, which earned £1.97million in its debut weekend to top the chart in August 2017. Oldman, whose performance has been touted to win the Oscar in early March, has already won a Golden Globe for the film and has been nominated for a BAFTA, peaking interest in the period drama about famed Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Darkest Hour is the latest film in a spate of releases to tap into the zeitgeist of nationalistic pride, and it seems likely that such a connection could leave the film boasting a £10million run when all is said and done.

In the US, audiences have already driven it to a $36.6million (£26.6million) gross, some 20% over its budget of $30million (£21.8million), with it hitting 10th place on the chart this past weekend despite being in its 4th week of release; the film likely receiving a box office boost due to the Golden Globes award win last weekend. It wasn’t, however, strong enough to knock off the world’s most surprising mega hit to come from 2017: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

In North America, Jumanji accumulated $27million over this past weekend’s 4-day holiday period, taking its North American total to $291million. The film also opened in China, where the box office gross was expected to be huge given the country’s affinity for Dwayne Johnson movies. The action-comedy co-starring Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan, earned $50.3million (according to Forbes) but only landed in 2nd place on the chart, failing to surpass China’s January mega-rom-com-hit Ex-File 3: Revenge of the Exes. It now seems likely that Jumanji will take less than $100million in the country, though it should be noted that any taking of $90million or more will be enough to cover the film’s production costs in total, and that Star Wars: The Last Jedi looks set to make just $35million in comparison.

Here in the UK, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle made £2,435,626 in its 4th weekend on release to take its total to £29,912,422 for its entire run in the region thus far. This makes it the 9th highest grossing movie released in 2017, taking its total beyond that of Spider-Man: Homecoming (£29,286,455), with Thor: Ragnarok (£30,217,572) and IT (£31,342,556) firmly in its sights. Paddington 2 is currently sitting in 5th place on the annual chart with £41,056,106 (having earned an additional £401,521 this past weekend), and it’s the bear movie that may prove to be ceiling as regards how high Jumanji can reach given its current form. Overall, Welcome to the Jungle’s £29.1million taking equates to $41million, and has contributed to a worldwide gross of $676.4million. At such a rate, with China, North America and the UK all seeming set to continue backing the film, last week’s prediction of an $800million total run remains a likelihood.



Also making the top 5 was the debuting Insidious: The Last Key, the fourth film of the Insidious horror movie franchise. The film, which has taken $95million worldwide, earned £1,840,992 this past weekend, which is up on the franchise’s average. The Insidious movies have recorded the following opening weekends overall:

  1. Insidious Chapter 2 – £2.9million
  2. Insidious: The Last Key – £1.8million
  3. Insidious – £1.44million
  4. Insidious Chapter 2 – £1.41million

Also in the top 5, The Greatest Showman earned £2.1million to take its 3 week total to £13.5million in the UK, with the worldwide gross now sitting at $199million. Reviews for the film have largely been contradictory to the responses of audiences, masses of whom have embraced the movie as being an excellent and uplifting release – the soundtrack has even topped the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Here’s the official chart top 15:

  1. Darkest Hour – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £4,058,356 – total: £4,058,356
  2. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – 4 – £2,435,626 – £29,912,422
  3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – 1 – £2,361,782 – £2,361,782
  4. The Greatest Showman – 3 – £2,142,337 – £13,537,211
  5. Insidious: The Last Key – 1 – £1,840,992 – £1,840,992
  6. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – 5 – £1,717,106 – £79,867,006
  7. Pitch Perfect 3 – 4 – £840,059 – £14,147,058
  8. All the Money in the World – 2 – £539,706 – £2,417,003
  9. Molly’s Game – 2 – £522,456 – £3,378,232
  10. Paddington 2 – 10 – £401,521 – £41,056,106
  11. Ferdinand – 5 – £318,078 – £8,814,406
  12. Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars – 1 – £183,051 – £183,051
  13. Thalaivaa – 1 – £90,582 – £90,582
  14. Hostiles – 2 – £83,837 – £770,750
  15. Daddy’s Home 2 – 8 – £68,850 – £14,296,957

Perhaps the biggest film sitting outside the top 5 right now is Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which earned a respectable £1.7million to add to its already massive total accumulation. That total now sits at £79,867,006, around £500,000 behind the 5th highest grossing UK release ever, Titanic. As covered in last week’s box office report, it’s expected that The Last Jedi will surpass the 1997 James Cameron release before its run comes to an end, though its recent drops do seem to eliminate the possibility of it catching Avatar (2009) at £94million in the number 4 spot.

The UK release of Thalaivaa may have taken nearly 5 years, but it seems to have been embraced, earning £90,582, a relatively high total for a foreign-language, internationally produced film. The Indian Tamil-language film is an action-thriller directed by A. L. Vijay.

Seemingly bidding farewell to the chart this week is Daddy’s Home 2, which earned £68,850 this weekend to take its overall total to £14,296,957. The film, which starred an array of talent in addition to the original film’s cast, has therefore earned £3million less in the UK than Daddy’s Home did in late 2015. In terms of its worldwide gross, Daddy’s Home 2 has taken a 26% reduction on Daddy’s Home’s $242.8million to earn $179million overall, indicating a lack of interest in the franchise and all-but guaranteeing that there won’t be a Daddy’s Home 3 (as studios rarely risk financial investment on a franchise that takes such a large hit).

Finally we have Ferdinand, Blue Sky Studios’ animated release, which has now earned £8.8million in total, leaving it at a figure around the half-way mark as concerns animated releases in 2018. The full list is below:

  1. Despicable Me 3 – £46.4million
  2. The Boss Baby – £27.2million
  3. Sing – £26.2million
  4. The Lego Batman Movie – £25.1million
  5. The Emoji Movie – £14.8million
  6. Cars 3 – £11.5million
  7. The Lego Ninjago Movie – £9.6million
  8. Ferdinand – £8.8million
  9. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie – £8.1million
  10. Smurfs: The Lost Village – £5.4million
  11. My Little Pony – £3.6million
  12. Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience – £3.4million
  13. The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature – £2.4million
  14. Loving Vincent – £938,000
  15. My Life As A Courgette – >£100,000

That does it for this week’s UK Box Office Report. Next week, the UK will be welcoming Disney Pixar’s Coco to the box office, with Steven Spielberg’s awards season movie The Post starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep also being released this Friday (19th January). Until then, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube for first access to our UK Box Office Top 5 Chart videos each Tuesday, bookmark our homepage to keep up with all of our latest posts, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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