The winner: Murder on the Orient Express
Would audiences pay to see another film version of the most famous whodunnit ever? Fox gambled that they would, throwing a lavish budget and a cavalcade of stars at the screen with Murder on the Orient Express, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot.
In the UK at any rate, the gamble has paid off: the Agatha Christie adaptation opened with a robust £4.99m from 618 cinemas. Given a likely older audience skew, midweek business should also be strong.
Murder on the Orient Express was last in cinemas in 1974, in an adaptation directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery and John Gielgud. Subsequent versions have been for television. Peter Ustinov starred as Poirot in big-screen Christie adaptations Death on the Nile (1978), Evil Under the Sun (1982) and Appointment with Death (1988).
Murder on the Orient Express opens in another 26 markets this week, including North America, China, Russia, Australia and Germany. Japan, France and Italy follow in December.
The runner-up: Thor: Ragnarok
Dropping 36% in its second weekend, Thor: Ragnarok delivered another £4.62m, taking its tally after 13 days to £20.8m. The Marvel adventure is the 17th film this year to crack £20m in the UK. Only 17 films took more than £20m in the whole of 2016, and that tally is certain to be exceeded this year.
Thor: Ragnarok has already overtaken the lifetime totals of both Thor (£14.0m) and Thor: The Dark World (£20.1m) as well as other Marvel Cinematic Universe titles such as Iron Man (£17.4m), Ant-Man (£16.3m), Captain America: The First Avenger (£10.4m) and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (£19.3m).
The festive comedy: A Bad Moms Christmas
Sequels to comedy hits usually take a couple of years to reach the screen, but the makers of 2016 hit Bad Moms have rushed through A Bad Moms Christmas in less than 16 months. It hit cinemas three weeks ahead of rival Christmas-themed comedy Daddy’s Home 2. A debut of £1.27m resulted, rising to £1.78m including previews. That compares with £1.22m (£1.47m including previews) for the original movie. Bad Moms proved a significant word-of-mouth success, taking £8.39m in the UK.
The arthouse contender: The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Director Yorgos Lanthimos’s arthouse drama The Killing of a Sacred Deer opened with a decent £194,000 from 100 cinemas, rising to £286,000 including previews. In October 2015, Lanthimos’s The Lobster opened with a stronger £230,000 from 75 venues, including modest previews of £10,000. A significant word-of-mouth hit, The Lobster went on to a lifetime total of £1.52m.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer faced considerable competition at indie venues, not just from Murder on the Orient Express but also Breathe, Call Me By Your Name and upscale hit The Death of Stalin, which has now reached £3.6m after 17 days.
The market
Thanks to Murder on the Orient Express and Thor: Ragnarok, the market is 21% up on the equivalent weekend from 2016, when Doctor Strange, Trolls and The Accountant held the top three places.
Figures for the first 10 months of the year show box office running 3% ahead of 2016 for the period – a disappointing outcome given this year was 18% ahead of 2016 after the first quarter and 12% ahead after the first six months. Cinema bookers can be confident of a huge surge this coming weekend, thanks to the arrival of Paddington 2.
Top 10 films, 3-5 November
1. Murder on the Orient Express, £4,985,600 from 618 sites (new)
2. Thor: Ragnarok, £4,617,180 from 609 sites. Total: £20,789,487 (two weeks)
3. A Bad Moms Christmas, £1,781,738 from 476 sites (new)
4. Jigsaw, £752,137 from 459 sites. Total: £3,680,161 (two weeks)
5. The Death of Stalin, £520,275 from 376 sites. Total: £3,599,835 (three weeks)
6. The Lego Ninjago Movie, £470,870 from 573 sites. Total: £9,071,791 (four weeks)
7. My Little Pony: The Movie, £387,946 from 555 sites. Total: £3,233,365 (three weeks)
8. Blade Runner 2049, £347,024 from 296 sites. Total: £18,202,599 (five weeks)
9. Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You!, £304,435 from 368 sites (new)
10. The Killing of a Sacred Deer, £286,448 from 100 sites (new)
Other openers
Ittefaq, £58,107 from 20 sites
The Son of Bigfoot, £23,213 from 94 sites
Ach Spij Kochanie (Lullaby Killer), £20,945 from 29 sites
Thelma, £19,085 from seven sites
Sardar Mohammad, £13,558 from 14 sites
The Silence of the Lambs, £8,383 from two sites (reissue)
Rise of the Footsoldier 3: The Pat Tate Story, £7,050 from 12 sites
78/52, £7,015 from five sites
Sorcerer, £4,567 from six sites (reissue)
Ferrari: Race to Immortality, £3,390 from 16 sites
Gauguin: Voyage de Tahiti, £2,415 from two sites
Condemned to Remember, £1,919 from four sites
Kentenpere, £1,826 from three sites
The School of Life, £845 from two sites
De plus belle, £482 from one site
Problemos, £64 from one site
• Thanks to comScore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.
