UK Weekend Box Office (Oct 23rd – Oct 25th)

‘Hotel Transylvania 2‘ managed to top the charts again, while horror-themed newcomers ‘Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension‘ and ‘The Last Witch Hunter‘ were dead on arrival. All this and more happened at the UK box-office last weekend.

#1
Hotel Transylvania 2 (U)
Weekend Gross: £2,275,612
No. of Movie Theatres: 588
Per-Theatre Average: £3,870
Week of Release: 2nd
Total UK Gross: £9,401,493

#2
The Martian (12A)
Weekend Gross: £1,732,329
No. of Movie Theatres: 561
Per-Theatre Average: £3,088
Week of Release: 4th
Total UK Gross: £20,391,517

Trilbee’s Review

#3
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (15)
Weekend Gross: £1,472,427
No. of Movie Theatres: 405
Per-Theatre Average: £3,635
Week of Release: 1st
Total UK Gross: £1,472,427

Trilbee’s Review

#4
Suffragette (12A)
Weekend Gross: £1,343,819
No. of Movie Theatres: 535
Per-Theatre Average: £2,512
Week of Release: 2nd
Total UK Gross: £5,806,295

Trilbee’s Review

#5
The Last Witch Hunter (12A)
Weekend Gross: £1,241,292
No. of Movie Theatres: 365
Per-Theatre Average: £3,401
Week of Release: 1st
Total UK Gross: £1,241,292

Trilbee’s Review

#6
Pan (PG)
Weekend Gross: £1,215,080
No. of Movie Theatres: 508
Per-Theatre Average: £2,392
Week of Release: 2nd
Total UK Gross: £4,592,531

Trilbee’s Review

#7
Sicario (15)
Weekend Gross: £549,458
No. of Movie Theatres: 414
Per-Theatre Average: £1,327
Week of Release: 3rd
Total UK Gross: £4,379,944

Trilbee’s Review

#8
Crimson Peak (15)
Weekend Gross: £500,299
No. of Movie Theatres: 432
Per-Theatre Average: £1,158
Week of Release: 2nd
Total UK Gross: £1,994,317

Trilbee’s Review

#9
Legend (15)
Weekend Gross: £286,176
No. of Movie Theatres: 255
Per-Theatre Average: £1,122
Week of Release: 7th
Total UK Gross: £18,063,131

Trilbee’s Review

#10
The Lobster (15)
Weekend Gross: £241,922
No. of Movie Theatres: 84
Per-Theatre Average: £2,880
Week of Release: 2nd
Total UK Gross: £561,712

Unsurprisingly, ‘Hotel Transylvania 2‘ was able to retain the No. 1 position at the U.K. box-office as distributors were running scared during the end of October with the latest James Bond film on the horizon. ‘Skyfall‘ is the biggest film in U.K. history so naturally its follow-up has high financial expectations. But with October being a spook-filled month, it would seem that the animated sequel is the only seasonal movie that will conquer at the U.K. box-office. With ‘Hotel Transylvania 2‘s lifetime gross at £9.40M, it has already outpaced its predecessor’s lifetime gross of £8.30M and may find steady business over half term next week.

‘The Martian‘ hit the £20M milestone, though its screenings will be severely diminished next week thanks to ‘Spectre‘ taking up the bigger screens. ‘Spectre‘ will open at 647 cinemas which is the biggest U.K. release in history. ‘Suffragette‘, however, had a very strong hold as it only dropped 54% from last week, which is impressive since last weekend’s figure was a 7-day figure as opposed to last weekend’s 3-day figure. The movie is consistently a high-performer during weekdays as it caters to an older audience and should easily surpass Carey Mulligan’s last leading role, ‘Far From The Madding Crowd‘ (£6.21M).

‘Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension‘ might not seem to be in such a bad place at the No. 3 position, but its additional two-days of previews are what propelled it upwards. Thanks to Wednesday and Thursday takings of £350K, it placed higher than its actual 5th place three-day rankings. This is also a slight downgrade from the last franchise instalment, ‘Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones‘ which opened in January 2014 with £1.58M and didn’t have the benefit of 3-D or a prime October release. ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ also benefited from preview screenings as its actual 3-day total of £974K would have placed it behind ‘Pan‘.

Honestly, there’s not much else to report in the Top 10, except ‘The Lobster‘ actually earned 5% more in its second weekend thanks to a slight, 9 theatre expansion. Its total gross of £561K is a commercial best for Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, whose last movie ‘Dogtooth‘ only managed £180K. Apart from that, it was a movie massacre outside the Top 10 as family-friendly movies bombed with ‘Maya the Bee‘, ‘Paper Planes‘ and ‘Animal Kingdom: Let’s Go Ape‘ not even managing to out-perform ‘Minions‘ in its 18th week in theatres. We also had five (FIVE!?) documentaries get dumped out into limited release this past week. None of them charted.

Last weekend really was a dumping-ground. Forget January, it’s October where U.K. distributors don’t give a crap.

While the weekend was 36% down from last weekend, its results were on-par with the same weekend last year where ‘Fury‘ and ‘The Book of Life‘ opened. Expect next weekend to set the box-office alight thanks to ‘Spectre‘ and ONLY ‘Spectre‘ as distributors aren’t even going to attempt to pit anything against 007.

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