The winner: Black Panther
Freezing snow and disrupted transport across the UK saw box office takings plummet at the back end of last week, with film fans instead opting for the comfort of their sofas. But the big thaw on Saturday and Sunday saw audiences return to cinemas.
Given this context, Disney and Marvel will probably be sanguine about a 46% drop for Black Panther from the previous session. Third-weekend takings of £3.74m push the total after 20 days to £35.4m. For comparison, after three weekends, Captain America: Civil War had reached £32.2m, Avengers: Age of Ultron had achieved a sturdy £40.4m and Iron Man 3 had clocked up £31.1m.
Although the character Black Panther was introduced in Captain America: Civil War, the film essentially rests on the shoulders of a figure largely unfamiliar to film audiences. Compared with other Marvel franchise launches, such as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, it has scored far higher takings, more in keeping with the mega-hit sequels mentioned above.
The challenger: Red Sparrow
Among new releases, top for box office is Red Sparrow, starring Jennifer Lawrence as a Russian ballerina-turned-spy. The lurid espionage thriller began with a solid £1.68m from 531 cinemas at the weekend, and £1.84m including previews. That’s a stronger start than was the case for Lawrence’s previous film, Mother!, which began last summer with £832,000 from 468 venues. Before that, the sci-fi Passengers, co-starring Chris Pratt, launched over Christmas weekend 2016 with £2.42m, including previews of £1.22m.
The indie success: Lady Bird
Experiencing the smallest decline of any film in the chart – down just 2% – Lady Bird also achieved the highest weekend box office (£927,000) of any of the major awards contenders on release. Vital to that success was the film’s expansion from 190 to 397 cinemas. Despite the expansion, Lady Bird still delivered a healthy site average (£2,335) – higher than for any of the other awards contenders on release, such as I, Tonya (£1,418) and The Shape of Water (£1,024).
Lady Bird has reached £2.62m so far. The Shape of Water, currently at £5.28m, should roar back into life off the back of Oscar wins on Sunday night that included best director and best picture.
The Polish hit: Mafia Women
One film in the top 10 that most cinemagoers have probably never heard of is Kobiety Mafii (Mafia Women). It’s the latest from Polish UK distributor Phoenix, which previously enjoyed stellar success with the Pitbull franchise and hospital thriller Botoks. Mafia Women is from the director of all those hit movies, Patryk Vega, and is rated 18 for strong, bloody violence, sexual violence and very strong language.
The film kicks off with a sturdy £552,000 from 254 cinemas (£571,000 including previews), which compares with £793,000 from 217 venues for Botoks last October. Box-office performance for Polish-language action fare tends to be very front-loaded in the UK – Botoks reached a lifetime total of £1.06m, meaning that the opening session represented 75% of the final tally.
The market
Final figures are in for February, and they show UK box office up 2% year on year. For the first two months of the year combined, box office is up 1% on 2017. That may sound like a very modest rise, but it’s worth remembering that 2017 box office got off to an exceptionally strong start, with grosses up 16% on the first two months of 2016. March and April last year were also strong.
As for the weekend just ended, the lack of major new blockbuster releases plus the bad weather saw overall box office decline by 25% from the previous session, and it was also down 27% from the equivalent weekend in 2017, when Logan arrived at the top spot. Salvation does not appear to be immediately at hand – wide releases this weekend include comedies Gringo and Walk Like a Panther.
Top 10 films 2-4 March
1. Black Panther, £3,736,954 from 599 sites. Total: £35,362,230 (three weeks)
2. Red Sparrow, £1,843,124 from 531 sites (new)
3. The Greatest Showman, £1,239,069 from 530 sites. Total: £35,265,331 (10 weeks)
4. Game Night, £1,094,478 from 469 sites (new)
5. Lady Bird, £926,935 from 397 sites. Total: £2,623,540 (two weeks)
6. Kobiety Mafii, £570,540 from 254 sites (new)
7. Coco, £556,898 from 538 sites. Total: £17,264,765 (seven weeks)
8. I, Tonya, £547,455 from 386 sites. Total: £2,011,528 (two weeks)
9. Finding Your Feet, £465,622 from 498 sites. Total: £2,127,798 (two weeks)
10. The Shape of Water, £418,969 from 409 sites. Total: £5,279,015 (three weeks)
Other openers
Monster Family, £126,235 from 132 sites
A Fantastic Woman, £98,445 (including £34,755 previews) from 38 sites
The Flames of Paris – Bolshoi Ballet, £74,391 from 132 sites
Pari, £12,418 from 12 sites
The Nile Hilton Incident, £8,100 from seven sites
Erase and Forget, £1,523 from three sites
Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2018 Live, £824 from 12 sites
- Thanks to comScore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.
