UK box office report, July 10–12: Star Wars, you’re our only hope
The Empire Strikes Back tops still-dormant market
First, the good news: UK and Ireland box office takings rose at the weekend by a robust 78 per cent from the previous session. And despite the successive delays for major new films such as Mulan and Tenet, two new titles were released into our cinemas: Black Water: Abyss and Love Sarah.
Now, the less encouraging news. Despite that 78 per cent rise, the weekend total might still be described as “pretty weedy”: ￡457,000. This tally represents just 3 per cent of average weekend takings in 2019, and was achieved from 85 UK cinemas (roughly 10 per cent of the country’s total), plus drive-ins, and a number of cinemas in Ireland (making 122 sites operating in total, according to Comscore).
Those two new titles were left in the shade by the arrival of a 40th-anniversary re-release of The Empire Strikes Back, which topped the UK box office with ￡50,000 – 11 per cent of the total market. When you consider that Comscore was tracking no fewer than 159 different titles at the weekend, that’s quite a fine result for a 40-year-old film.
The original 1980 release of The Empire Strikes Back grossed ￡9.01m in the UK – a hefty sum given ticket prices in that distant era. In 1997, whetting appetites for George Lucas’s then in-the-works Star Wars prequels, the original trilogy of Star Wars films were re-released, with The Empire Strikes Back grossing ￡7.19m at UK cinemas. In 2015, a Secret Cinema presentation of the film grossed ￡6.32m.
Archive titles dominate UK top 10
No fewer than four films that are more than 20 years old feature in the weekend’s UK top 10 chart. The Empire Strikes Back is joined by Dirty Dancing, Grease and The Shawshank Redemption (see chart below). There is also Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which is nearly 19 years old.
Drive-in cinemas are significantly contributing to the success of these titles. For example, The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert played at Troubadour Meridian Water in north London on Saturday, grossing more than ￡10,000 – enough for 13th place in the UK weekend box office chart. The Shawshank Redemption’s showing at this drive-in venue last Friday will undoubtedly have boosted its place in the weekend rankings (it’s in eighth place).
New films achieve mixed outcomes
The first new films since lockdown were officially released into UK cinemas last Friday, with mixed results. UK distributor Altitude exploited the opportunity offered by cinemas beginning to reopen and hungry for fresh product, and released Black Water: Abyss, a sequel to Australian crocodile horror Black Water, which grossed a modest ￡65,000 in UK cinemas in 2008. This belated follow-up kicked off with ￡19,500 from 79 venues, and ￡28,100 including previews – enough for third place in the UK chart.
Love Sarah landed outside the top 10, with ￡6,100 from 38 sites, including preview takings. This amiable comedy drama concerns three generations of women coming together to open a west London bakery, in honour of the deceased woman who connects them all.
Cinemas reconsider re-opening plans
With the release of major titles slipping back – and US trade papers are reporting that Christopher Nolan’s Tenet will likely slide yet again, from its current August 12 slot – UK cinema operators are looking again at their own re-opening plans. Vue, Cineworld and Picturehouse delayed a planned July 17 re-opening to July 31. Odeon, which has 21 sites open so far, is reported to have slowed down its re-opening schedule. Everyman, which has 11 sites open, acknowledged last week that it is doing the same. Curzon reopens its first site, Canterbury, on Friday.
So far, for the UK and Ireland market, only venues in England, Ireland and Northern Ireland are open. From today (July 15), cinemas in Scotland may reopen, and Wales follows on July 27. Many of the major art-house independents are not planning to reopen until very late August or early September.
The future
The release of Black Water: Abyss and Love Sarah seemed to signal that a trickle of new releases was beginning. Not much, however, is set to arrive this weekend or next. Several titles that were originally scheduled for this Friday have gone back to July 31 (Russell Crowe road-rage thriller Unhinged, Blumhouse horror The Vigil, and a 10th anniversary re-release of Christopher Nolan’s Inception), or to August 7 (romantic comedy The Broken Hearts Gallery) – or simply to some unspecified date (US indie Saint Frances).
Road-trip buddy comedy Come As You Are (a remake of the Belgian film Hasta La Vista) was originally set as a digital release this weekend, but will now also play at selected venues. The same is true, albeit to a lesser degree, of US Death Row prison drama Clemency, starring Alfre Woodard – it’s only playing at London’s Genesis Cinema. Danish family animation Dr?mmebyggerne has been re-voiced in English and is released this Friday as Dreambuilders.
Tomorrow (July 16) sees International Drag Day special previews of Stage Mother, ahead of its July 24 release. Jacki Weaver stars as a Texas church-choir director who flies to San Francisco for her son’s funeral, where she discovers she has inherited his drag bar.
Top 10 films, July 10–12
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, ￡50,406 from 101 sites (new re-release)
Onward, ￡35,086 from 95 sites. Total: ￡5,355,929 (19 weeks)
Black Water: Abyss, ￡28,053 from 79 sites (new)
Trolls World Tour, ￡19,996 from 70 sites. Total: ￡64,835 (14 weeks)
Dirty Dancing (30th Anniversary), ￡15,134 from 25 sites. Total: ￡265,098 (2107 release)
Knives Out, ￡14,747 from 5 sites. Total: ￡13,159,043 (33 weeks)
Grease (40th Anniversary), ￡14,416 from 18 sites. Total: ￡530,376 (2018 release)
The Shawshank Redemption (25th Anniversary), ￡13,231 from 18 sites. Total: ￡37,836 (2019 release)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, ￡12,358 from 30 sites. Total: ￡65,626,808 (2001 release)
The Greatest Showman, ￡11,681 from 57 sites. Total: ￡49,375,808 (2017 release)
Thanks to Comscore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas