UK box office report, April 12-14: Hellboy freezes over, and Dumbo soars
Tim Burton's Disney reboot has taken flight, while bad reviews could be keeping punters away from Hellboy, writes Charles Gant in his weekly box office bulletin
The winner: Dumbo
During school holiday periods, never underestimate the power of the Disney brand – that’s the takeaway from the latest box office report for UK cinemas. Having been knocked off the top spot by superhero movie Shazam! the previous weekend, Disney’s Dumbo live-action remake has returned to the chart summit.
Dumbo beat Shazam! not just on the weekend period, but also over the past seven days, adding ￡5.6m, compared to ￡4.8m for the Warner Bros/DC bodyswap adventure. Tim Burton’s flying-elephant film now stands at ￡17.7m after 17 days of UK release.
The UK is far and away the top European performer for Dumbo, and the territory currently ranks third for the film overall, after the US and China. Dumbo should continue to perform robustly until Easter Monday, and then fall away as kids return to school. Global total is $269m.
The loser: Hellboy
Among new releases, the top two performers were neck-and-neck for the weekend period: Hellboy and family animation Wonder Park. Considering that Hellboy is a much-anticipated reboot of a fan-adored comicbook character, and Wonder Park does not come from one of Hollywood’s star animation brands (such as Disney, Pixar or DreamWorks) and does not have any pre-existing IP, that’s not a good outcome for the red-skinned, stub-horned half-demon.
Hellboy has begun in the UK with ￡817,000 for the weekend, and ￡990,000 including Thursday previews. That’s marginally down on the ￡926,000 debut, and ￡1.06m including previews, for Guillermo Del Toro’s original Hellboy movie back in September 2004, when ticket prices were considerably lower. Sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army kicked off with a beefier ￡2.97m including ￡1.10m previews in August 2008.
Reviews for Neil Marshall’s new Hellboy were, on the whole, discouraging – The Telegraph's Robbie Collin gave the film just one star – and the outcome is a reminder that marketing and brand popularity are not always enough to deliver box office success. Wonder Park’s position in the official chart (see below) is a misleading one: takings on Monday-to-Thursday have inflated its number to what is essentially a seven-day figure. For the weekend period, the Paramount/Nickelodeon animation grossed ￡823,000.
The plucky underdog: Wild Rose
Back in May 2017, when eOne acquired global rights to UK indie flick Country Music a month before shooting began, it’s fair to say that a UK debut of ￡649,000 would have sounded a pretty alluring outcome. But such became the buzz on Tom Harper’s Glasgow-set drama, which was eventually retitled Wild Rose, that the achieved number now seems pretty much in line with expectations. Previews push the total to ￡772,000. Given the aggressive release into 469 cinemas, site average is a decent, but hardly amazing ￡1,383 (or ￡1,646 including previews).
Wild Rose represents a breakthrough success for Jessie Buckley, who stars as the ex-con mother of two with ambitions of Nashville success. Last year the actress starred in British indie Beast, which reached a lifetime total of ￡418,000.
The live event: Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story
Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story debuts in 14th place in the official UK chart with an eyebrow-raising ￡111,000 from just ten cinemas. The biographical drama about the titular Cuban dancer is significantly boosted by a preview event last Wednesday beamed into 184 cinemas, which featured the participation of Acosta, director Icíar Bollaín and screenwriter Paul Laverty (I, Daniel Blake).
Still, the combined total demonstrates the healthy audience for the film, and the success reflects the continued strength of films featuring cultural subject matter. The White Crow, which is about the life of Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev leading up to his defection to the West, is now at ￡1.02m, and has overtaken Coriolanus to become director Ralph Fiennes’ biggest ever UK hit. At Eternity’s Gate, starring Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh, is another winner, with ￡252,000 so far. These titles have a clearly defined and older-skewing audience of culture fans, providing distributors with a visible target at which to aim.
The market
Another weekend has gone by when takings are below the equivalent session from a year ago, with box office down 16 per cent on the second weekend of April 2018. That’s now 13 out of 15 weekends so far in 2019 when box office has trailed last year – a worrying rut for cinema operators.
Unfortunately, significant salvation does not appear to be at hand: the big releases this weekend are Judi Dench in Red Joan (which should at least be solid), Neil Jordan’s stalker thriller Greta and Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn in the grisly, 18-certificate heist thriller Dragged Across Concrete.
With sunshine forecast for Easter weekend, cinemas must survive one more session of indifferent box office before Avengers: Endgame arrives next Thursday (April 25), essentially launching the start of the summer blockbuster season. Disney’s Aladdin, Elton John musical Rocketman, Detective Pikachu, The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Godzilla: King of Monsters follow in May. According to data company Applaudience, Endgame has already sold 1.19m tickets in advance at UK and Ireland cinemas, with an estimated box office so far of ￡11.7m.
Top 10 films April 12-14:
Dumbo, ￡2,345,046 from 697 sites. Total: ￡17,692,002 (3 weeks)
Shazam!, ￡2,162,719 from 611 sites. Total: ￡8,906,160 (2 weeks)
Wonder Park, ￡1,586,003 from 538 sites (new)
Hellboy, ￡989,562 from 480 sites (new)
Captain Marvel, ￡896,889 from 453 sites. Total: ￡36,423,056 (6 weeks)
Wild Rose, ￡772,060 from 469 sites (new)
Pet Sematary, ￡651,510 from 537 sites. Total: ￡3,025,842 (2 weeks)
Little, ￡540,579 from 359 sites (new)
Us, ￡508,318 from 406 sites. Total: ￡9,071,603 (4 weeks)
Missing Link, ￡443,608 from 580 sites. Total: ￡1,869,141 (2 weeks)
Other openers:
Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story, ￡110,952 (including ￡97,649 previews) from 10 sites
Mid90s, ￡100,454 (including ￡23,334 previews) from 85 sites
Manje Bistre 2, ￡71,605 from 19 sites
Exhibition on Screen: Rembrandt, ￡54,091 (including ￡47,349 previews) from 15 sites
Sherdil, ￡13,118 from 8 sites
Madhura Raja, ￡9,113 from 21 sites
Out of Innocence, ￡7,898 from 15 sites
The Rift, ￡7,485 from 20 sites
Hababam Sinifi Yeniden, ￡3,660 from 2 sites
A Deal with the Universe, ￡2,449 from 5 sites
League of Legends: European Championship Spring Finals, ￡670 from 7 sites
Thanks to Comscore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.