The winner: Jurassic World
After its giant opening of £16.84m (plus previews), you’d expect Jurassic World to take a big tumble in its second session – that’s the typical pattern, especially for a franchise picture. So Universal should be delighted with a drop of 34%, the smallest decline of any film in the top 10 except Secret Cinema’s Empire Strikes Back event.
Jurassic World’s three-day opening number was the fourth biggest of all time, behind the final two Harry Potter films and Skyfall. But the dinosaur picture is already exhibiting stronger legs than Potter: second-weekend takings of £11.13m are ahead of the second frames of both those Harry Potter films, and behind only Skyfall’s second session. In other words, Jurassic World is only the second film ever to score £10m-plus in its second weekend of UK release.
With £38.52m so far, after just 11 days of play, Jurassic World is exceeded in total box-office by only one of 2014’s releases: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (lifetime: £41.26m). Adding Monday’s takings into its tally, Jurassic World is now at £39.69m, and will soon sail past the Hobbit film. So far, the top-grossing release of 2015 is Avengers: Age of Ultron, with £48.23m. Jurassic World looks likely to reach that total by the end of the weekend.
Jurassic World is the third £30m-plus UK grosser this year for Universal, joining Fifty Shades of Grey (£35.0m) and Fast & Furious 7 (£38.5m). Disney achieved the same feat with a trio of 2013 releases, Iron Man 3, Monsters University and Frozen, although Frozen had yet to pass the £30m barrier by the end of the calendar year. Universal is, in fact, highly likely to score a fourth £30m-plus hit this year, with its Despicable Me spinoff Minions.
The event: Take That Live
From a single showtime on Friday, Take That Live took more money than any of the big new releases did over the whole weekend. In fact, its £965,000 takings from 421 cinemas were exceeded at the weekend only by Jurassic World.
The Take That number is the best ever for a live music event at UK cinemas, ahead of André Rieu’s Maastricht concert last July (£852,000; £957,000 including encore showings, and Westlife’s farewell gig in 2012 (£571,000; £573,000 including encores). Take That Live is still behind One Direction: Where We Are, which boasts a cumulative total of £1.03m. However, this pre-filmed concert played at multiple showtimes when it opened last October, so the comparison is not quite apt.
In terms of event cinema overall, the big hitters remain theatrical performances such as the National Theatre’s War Horse (£2.93m total) and Frankenstein (£2.44m).
The new wide releases
Three films with brand-name cachet were released at the weekend, targeting a diverse set of audiences. On paper, Entourage, based on the hit HBO show, appeared to be the most commercially sturdy of the trio. The Longest Ride, adapted from a Nicholas Sparks book, looked likely to connect with audiences that have shown up for the author’s previous romantic melodramas. Mr Holmes, starring Ian McKellen, had the advantage of strong recognition and affection for the popular literary sleuth.
Now that the numbers are in, McKellen will be delighted to have seen off the challenge of both the Entourage crew and Sparks, with a debut of £741,000. The film offered a different twist on Sherlock than presented by the Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr films and by TV’s Benedict Cumberbatch vehicle, and looked likely to appeal to a broad, older audience that is not well served by the current cinema offer.
Not counting ensemble films in the X-Men, Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises, this is the first lead film role for McKellen since 2004’s Emile, which more or less evaporated on contact with cinemas. McKellen also had leading roles in a pair of 1999 releases, Apt Pupil and Gods and Monsters. Mr Holmes is already ahead of the combined lifetime grosses of both these films.
Entourage lands with a disappointing £633,000, which will not encourage further big-screen exploits for Ari and the boys. (In fairness, its screen average is slightly better than Mr Holmes, due a high cinema count for the latter.) The Longest Ride begins with £419,000, which is down on the debut of the last Sparks adaptation, The Best of Me (£488,000 plus previews of £149,000). Before that, 2013’s Safe Haven kicked off with £812,000, and The Lucky One with £830,000 plus previews of £329,000. The Longest Ride is the 10th film adapted from a Sparks book, and UK cinema audiences are evidently showing fatigue.
The film event: Secret Cinema
Secret Cinema’s The Empire Strikes Back rose 5% in its second frame, with takings of £262,000, and now rises another 9% in its third, with box-office this time of £285,000. After 16 days of play, the event has grossed £1.05m. Secret Cinema is one sixth of the way through its 100-date run, and at the current pace looks on track to gross £6.6m. Of course, early adopters might be boosting attendance at this stage of the run. On the other hand, the coming school summer holiday might see attendance rise, especially on weekdays. Secret Cinema’s Back to the Future grossed £3.37m last year.
Admissions update
Admissions figures (actual number of tickets sold) are now in for May, recording a negligible 0.5% increase on the same month last year. For the first five months of the year, admissions are a healthy 7% up on the same period from 2014. That number looks likely to rise when June is included, given the current strong performance of Jurassic World. Cinema owners were disappointed with admissions in 2014, 5% down on 2013 and an alarming 9% down on 2012. The industry is looking for a big rise this time, given results achieved so far and the titles yet to come in 2015, notably Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Spectre.
The future
With no blockbusters arriving last Friday, takings are 25% down on the previous frame, but that strong Jurassic World second-session performance sees the market overall a healthy 93% up on the equivalent frame from 2014, when The Fault in Our Stars arrived as counter-programming to World Cup football. The healthy run looks set to continue with the release on Friday of Minions, which has been performing ahead of the Despicable Me movies in territories released so far. Also in the mix: Salma Hayek in action thriller Everly, Michael Fassbender in indie western Slow West, and Peter Bogdanovich screwball comedy She’s Funny That Way. But let’s be realistic, it’s all about the dinosaurs again and those banana-coloured, pill-shaped, Esperanto-babbling, villain-serving urchins.
Top 10 films, 19-21 June
1. Jurassic World, £11,133,912 from 614 sites. Total: £38,522,331
2. Take That Live, £965,000 from 421 sites (new)
3. Spy, £922,399 from 464 sites. Total: £7,376,203
4. Mr Holmes, £741,080 from 489 sites (new)
5. Entourage, £632,754 from 402 sites (new)
6. San Andreas, £443,028 from 400 sites. Total: £10,742,136
7. The Longest Ride, £419,047 from 397 sites (new)
8. Insidious: Chapter 3, £289,492 from 362 sites. Total: £3,536,345
9. Secret Cinema: The Empire Strikes Back, £284,590 from one site. Total: £1,054,865
10. Mad Max: Fury Road, £215,091 from 231 sites. Total: £16,955,183
Other openers
ABCD2, £114,868 from 45 sites
Accidental Love, £31,518 from 20 sites
Premam, £22,261 from 21 sites
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: New York 2014, £14,631 from 46 sites
Les Combattants, £11,106 from 18 sites
The Long Good Friday, £9,172 from 21 sites
Eli, £6,407 from 13 sites
The Burning, £3,613 from seven sites
Natural Resistance, £396 from one site
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