Bookmakers are tipping One Direction movie This Is Us to break UK box office records.
The "intimate, all access" 3D concert film premiered in Leicester Square last night, with hordes of fans turning up to catch a glimpse of the British boy band. Ladbrokes is offering unprecedented odds of 4/1 for the film to overtake James Bond movie Skyfall, which took £102m last year, at the top of the all-time UK box office tree.
This is Us, which is directed by Super Size Me film-maker Morgan Spurlock, will benefit from the huge following for One Direction members Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Niall Horan in the UK and across the globe. They are the most followed British band on Twitter, with
more than 14 million followers, and have more than 19m "likes" on Facebook. Twitter has reported more than 3.6m tweets were posted on the social network site about One Direction and the One Direction world premiere in London yesterday.
Styles told reporters: "We made this for the fans. We just want to say a massive thank-you to them." X-Factor supremo and This Is Us producer Simon Cowell, who signed the band to his label Syco, said: "It has been my dream come true to produce a film. But without their fans, this couldn't have happened. They have the best fans in the world."
The other films in the current UK all-time box office top five are Avatar, Titanic, Toy Story 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two. No other concert movie has even made the top 100, so This Is Us has a challenge on its hands to live up to bookmakers' expectations. Ladbrokes is also offering odds of 5/1 for the film to win a Bafta for Outstanding Debut in 2014.
"One way or another this film is going to break records and win awards," said spokesperson Jessica Bridge. "The '1D' phenomenon is showing no signs of slowing down and the odds suggest they could be adding a BAFTA to their tour bus mantelpiece."
More on One Direction: This Is Us and Morgan Spurlock
• One Direction: This Is Us - watch the trailer
• Stuart Heritage on One Direction
• Morgan Spurlock: 'I wasn't the best looking kid - I was just tenacious
