UK Box Office Dec 29th 2017 – Jan 1st 2017

There was only one winner in a bumper box office weekend in the UK this week, as Star Wars: The Last Jedi rolled into its third weekend at number 1 on the chart despite being ran close by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Here’s the official top 5:

The prolonged holiday weekend experienced in the UK at the end of December meant that the usual 3 day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) grosses were stretched to the Monday too, thus equating to an extra day of income and therefore bumper box office takings. The winners were clear, with the top 5 making at least £1.4million more each than any chart entry positioned 7th-15th (the full chart can be found below). In fact, the top 5 each reached such heights that even the impressive 3rd weekend performance of Ferdinand, which took £1.4million, couldn’t make the official chart video, despite its total being high enough to have broken nearly any top 5 in 2017.

Perhaps the biggest news within this week’s top 5 was the debut of The Greatest Showman starring Golden Globe nominee Hugh Jackman. The musical, which co-stars Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson, has performed modestly here in the UK despite achieving an all-time record 77% jump from Thursday screenings to Friday-Sunday screenings in the United States and having earned an impressive $54million in North America thus far. Landing behind Jumanji, despite the Dwayne Johnson starring fantasy film having been on release for a week longer, will be disappointing for 20th Century Fox who spent $84million on the project, quite a lot of money for a musical. The film took £4,754,049 over the 4-day weekend, a figure which is dwarfed by January 2017 musical hit La La Land which earned £6.6million in its opening weekend, though was notably released a further 2 weeks removed from that year’s Star Wars movie. The Greatest Showman’s near £5million gross is perhaps better than its chart position would usually indicate and should be considered impressive for a film of its type, as it all-but guarantees a run of at least £10million at the UK box office, with even more potential earnings to come should the film be nominated by BAFTA and the Oscars.

Mentioned briefly above was Jumanji which has maintained momentum after an impressive £12million opening week. The movie, which has performed better in opposition to The Last Jedi than anyone could have expected, earned a further £5,210,725 in its second weekend to take the movie to £17.8million total. Should audiences maintain their intrigue for The Rock, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan’s reigniting of the 90s IP, Welcome to the Jungle may break the UK’s top 10 highest grossing movies released in 2017 – current top 10 available via our Facebook.

Notching in at an incredible £68,263,774 from 3 weekends, and taking the mantle as the UK’s number one movie of 2017 is Star Wars: The Last Jedi which surpassed fellow Disney release Beauty and the Beast (£66,990,507) by claiming close to £8million this weekend and seeming unlikely to be shunned from its top spot anytime soon.



Here is the entire top 15 chart, including weekend and overall box office totals, for the top films of this past weekend:

  1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – weeks on release: 3 – weekend: £7,975,174 – overall: £68,263,774
  2. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – 2 – £5,210,725 – £17,835,902
  3. The Greatest Showman – 1 – £4,754,049 – £4,754,049
  4. Pitch Perfect 3 – 2 – £2,322,065 – £8,887,440
  5. Paddington 2 – 8 – £1,884,062 – £37,567,705
  6. Ferdinand – 3 – £1,387,426 – £6,145,052
  7. Daddy’s Home 2 – 6 – £492,920 – £13,597,770
  8. Tiger Zinda Hai – 2 – £265,424 – £1,262,123
  9. Wonder – 5 – £160,396 – £4,294,199
  10. Murder on the Orient Express – 9 – £82,146 – £23,900,453
  11. Event Cinema: Berliner Philharmoniker Live 2018 – 1 – £61,387 – £61,387
  12. The Lego Ninjago Movie – 12 – £50,056 – £9,535,000
  13. The Disaster Artist – 4 – £49,671 – £1,272,348
  14. The Star – 6 – £47,026 – £1,072,650
  15. The Wedding Party 2 – 1 – £45,812 – £45,812

Paddington 2 has officially become the nation’s favourite independent film of the year, having now earned £37.5million at the box office and having surpassed its predecessor’s £34million earnings over the Christmas period. The Studiocanal film, which stars a plethora of British names, earned £1,884,062 in its 8th weekend at the box office, illustrating its longevity as a box office draw and possibly indicating a £40million overall run, a total that would see it oust Disney/Marvel juggernaut Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 from 5th spot on the highest grossing films of the year list.

Elsewhere, Murder on the Orient Express maintained its grip on the chart, spending its 9th successive week in the top 15 and pushing ever closer to a £24million run. The Kenneth Branagh movie has been far from a mega-hit, but its steady intake of box office cash has made it one of the more solid British made movies of the year, having already earned more than the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers and Wonder Woman, and currently teetering on the edge of 2017’s top 15.

At number 8 in this week’s chart is Bollywood action movie Tiger Zinda Hai, a film that has managed to break the £1million mark in the territory on its way to becoming the highest grossing Bollywood movie of 2017 on $54million total. The film’s impressive performance also makes it the highest grossing Indian made film of 2017 in the UK and takes it above noteworthy movies like British Independent Film Awards winner God’s Own Country, Oscar-nominee Fences and Martin Scorsese’s Silence in terms of overall gross in the region.

As of this coming weekend, 2017 shall begin to become an after-thought as the first releases of 2018 begin to make their mark on the box office. Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World and the new Ben Stiller movie Brad’s Status will both enter the running for the top 5, making for an interesting battle with the already existing high performers of this past weekend, and we’ll begin to get a clearer picture on the overall, final results of the 2017 box office race. Could Paddington 2 make it into the top 5? Will Murder on the Orient Express crack the top 15? We’ll be sure to have more definitive answers next week, but until then make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube to be the first to catch our weekly Box Office Top 5 videos, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with all of our most important updates.

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