The winner: Wonder Woman
Resisting the challenge of Tom Cruise and The Mummy, Wonder Woman held on to the top spot with second-weekend takings of £3.48m, for an 11-day total of £12.84m. Despite decent weekend weather across much of the UK, Wonder Woman declined just 31% from its opening frame, which is impressive.
Since the start of May, second weekends for aspiring blockbusters saw Alien: Covenant drop 62%, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword fall 69% and Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge decline a gentler 40%. In April, Fast & Furious 8 fell 58% in its second session, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 dropped 54%. So, by summer blockbuster standards, Wonder Woman has resisted gravity to a remarkable degree.
The runner-up: The Mummy
While The Mummy debuted with a disappointing $32m (£25m) in the US, foreign markets proved more enthusiastic, with a collective non-US opening of $141m. The UK, however, is much more in line with the US result: the debut number here of £3.34m is almost exactly what you’d expect given the US box office.
Universal has long pondered how best to exploit its so-called “monster” properties, and has made several attempts, most notably with 2004’s Van Helsing, which threw into the pot Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and a werewolf character. The Wolfman in 2010 was another attempt. The Mummy, which also features a Dr Jekyll (Russell Crowe), is the first in Universal’s proposed set of Monsters films, which the studio is branding Dark Universe. Bride of Frankenstein, directed by Bill Condon is up next.
My Cousin Rachel skews indie
Fox released its Daphne du Maurier adaptation My Cousin Rachel into an ambitious 467 cinemas, achieving a debut weekend of £638,000, and a so-so £1,366 average. Anecdotally, the film has done well in independent cinemas. The presumed corollary is that it has struggled in many of the regional multiplex screens.
Take That score with live concert
Take That’s Wonderland concert, beamed into 486 cinemas from the O2 Arena, London, delivered box office of just over £1m. Distributor CinemaLive is billing that as a record for a live concert in UK and Irish cinemas. Violinist and conductor André Rieu regularly delivers bigger numbers with his summer Maastricht concert (£1.41m last July), although this is pre-recorded.
The Shack struggles in UK
The Shack is the latest faith-based film that failed to replicate US success in the secular UK market. Having clocked up $57m in the US, the mystical drama debuted with £97,000 from 168 cinemas in the UK – a site average of just £575. Outside the US, top territories were Brazil, Mexico and Germany.
Moulin Rouge! ends Secret Cinema run
After 17 weeks in a single east London venue, Secret Cinema’s presentation of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! ended its run with a triumphant total gross of £4.84m. Takings rose by 23% for the final weekend as audiences grabbed the last chance to experience the interactive event. With admissions of more than 70,000, Moulin Rouge! ranks third in the Secret Cinema pantheon, behind The Empire Strikes Back (almost 100,000 attendees) and Back to the Future (76,000). Moulin Rouge! grossed £18.5m during its initial run in 2001, so the Secret Cinema haul boosts that tally by 26%.
The market
With The Mummy delivering less than blockbuster opening numbers, takings overall fell 23% from the previous frame. However, box office was up by 61% on the equivalent session from 2016, which suffered a dearth of commercially appealing new releases – the UEFA European Championship kicked off in France on Friday 10 June that year, and the top new film that weekend was flop Melissa McCarthy comedy The Boss.
Top 10 films 9-11 June
1. Wonder Woman, £3,480,956 from 613 sites. Total: £12,841,001 (two weeks)
2. The Mummy, £3,343,650 from 574 sites (new)
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, £1,487,705 from 575 sites. Total: £16,007,456 (three weeks)
4. Baywatch, £1,139,773 from 506 sites. Total: £6,983,836 (two weeks)
5. Take That: Wonderland Live from the O2, £1,004,918 from 481 sites (new)
6. My Cousin Rachel, £637,704 from 467 sites (new)
7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, £508,394 from 555 sites. Total: £4,845,138 (three weeks)
8. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, £305,740 from 363 sites. Total: £40,293,853 (seven weeks)
9. Secret Cinema: Moulin Rouge!, £163,474 from one site. Total: £4,484,897 (17 weeks)
10. The Boss Baby, £155,512 from 392 sites. Total: £28,190,391 (10 weeks)
Other openers
Peter Pan – NT Live, £119,127 from 487 sites
The Shack, £96,580 (including £3,972 previews) from 168 sites
Berlin Syndrome, £33,991 from 31 sites
Raabta, £18,824 from 24 sites
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, £18,017 from 88 sites
Berliner Philharmoniker – June Concert, £6,229 from 19 sites
Wilson, £5,347 from six sites
Der Müde Tod (Destiny), £5,242 from nine sites (rerelease)
From the Land of the Moon, £4,547 from three sites
Ramante Edenthottam, £1,870 from 23 sites
Exhibition on Screen: Michelangelo – Love and Death, £670 from one site
My Name Is Lenny, £342 from six sites
- Thanks to comScore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.
