New Records and ‘Mission: Impossible’ | Box Office Report 25-27th July 2018
The UK box office was 30% up this weekend when compared to last weekend and 25% up on the same weekend from 2017, owing much of its success to the massive, ongoing performances of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! and Incredibles II as well as the debut of Paramount’s ever-growing action juggernaut Mission: Impossible – Fallout. In this week’s report we’ll break down just how well Fallout performed in its opening weekend here in the UK and worldwide, as well as take a look at Mamma Mia 2’s potential as one of the year’s biggest hits and whether or not Incredibles II can make the year’s top 5, but first… the top 5 movies at the UK box office from the weekend of 25-27th July 2018:
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is officially the UK’s number 1 movie this weekend after amassing a box office return of £7,300,103 for its debut on the chart, but this figure doesn’t tell the whole story.
The Paramount franchise led by Tom Cruise and directed by Christopher McQuarrie earned close to £2million in previews, reducing the Friday-Sunday total to a figure closer to £5.4million, some £1.8million short of this week’s number 2 movie Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!, a film in its second weekend at the UK box office.
Even so, the total does mark a Friday-Sunday franchise high for Cruise and company, and the £7.3million overall accumulation is some £2million up on previous release Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015). So far, Rogue Nation is the only Mission: Impossible movie to surpass £20million here in the UK, so Paramount will be hoping that this higher than usual opening for Fallout brings about a similar result.
Released on the same day in North America as it was in the UK, Fallout also reached a franchise high in the region, accumulating $61.2million overall and becoming one of Cruise’s top 5 all-time North American openings. This is excellent news for Cruise as it seems to almost guarantee a return of over $100million in the region before all is said and done, a figure that only 4 Cruise movies in the past 10 years have managed to hit, with three of those being from the MI franchise (the 4th being Edge of Tomorrow – 2014). Similarly, the £7.3million UK opening is over 2 times greater than the figures from his previous release The Mummy, which amassed £3.3million on its way to 2nd spot in June 2017.
Fallout also debuted at number 1 at the worldwide box office with a total accumulation of $155million over its opening weekend, a figure that is also a franchise high despite the movie not yet being released in a number of key markets including France (where a number of key sequences were filmed) and China (where it will be released at the end of August).
Overall, Paramount needed a win after the waning of their Transformers tent-pole on that franchise’s last go around, and Fallout has provided that.
In as the spiritual winner of this weekend’s box office but actually ranked at number 2 here is Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! at a total accumulation of £7.1million, a drop off of just 18% from its opening weekend’s £8.3million gross.
The movie, which is a sequel to one of the top 15 most financially successful films in the history of the UK box office (Mamma Mia – 2008; £68.6million), is actually tracking ahead of its predecessor by some £10million having already hit £27million after just 10 days of release.
This huge accumulation makes Here We Go Again! the 3rd quickest out of the gates for 2018 behind the 2 biggest hits thus far, Avengers: Infinity War (£49.1million at the same stage) and Black Panther (£29.5million at the same stage). To put this into perspective, Mamma Mia 2 has earned more in 10 days than Solo: A Star Wars Story did in its entire run, and the musical is also set to surpass the entire takings of juggernaut comedy Deadpool 2 by the end of the coming weekend.
If Here We Go Again! manages to have the legs of its predecessor, we could be looking at one of the highest grossing movies in the history of UK cinemas by the end of its run.
In North America things aren’t going quite as smoothly, with a 57% drop off in its 2nd weekend earning it $15.1million over the three day period. This was enough to leap frog last week’s top spot earner in the region, The Equalizer 2, but is somewhat of a drastic down turn and does seem to indicate that overall takings for the film may be lower in North America than they were the first time around despite its opening weekend being a franchise high, and that $100million may be the highest that Universal can aim for.
The number 3 film on this week’s chart is Incredibles 2 which out-gunned the debuting Sony Pictures animated film Hotel Transylvania 3 this weekend to fire itself to £5,146,128 Friday to Sunday, taking its overall accumulation to a whopping £33.2million, the 5th highest gross of any movie released in the UK so far in 2018.
Perhaps more importantly for Disney, this total and the continued success of the film as a result of the school holidays does seem to indicate that their Pixar movie will be able to out-run Peter Rabbit for a top 5 spot once all is said and done. Currently, Peter Rabbit sits £7million ahead of Incredibles 2 having just been overtaken by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom as the UK’s 3rd highest grossing movie of the year.
Worldwide is where the best reading is done for employees of Pixar and/or Disney, as Incredibles 2 this week surpassed $1billion at the worldwide box office.
This achievement makes the film the 4th release of 2018 to surpass that mark and the 3rd from Disney (the others being Infinity War, Black Panther and Universal’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). Soon it will surpass Toy Story 3 as the 3rd highest grossing animated movie of all time behind Minions (2015) and Frozen (2013), making it a juggernaut superhero franchise in its own right.
Bonus fact: 22 of the 30 weekends in 2018 have featured a superhero film in the top 5 highest grossing movies list in North America.
Here are the 15 highest grossing movies at the UK box office for the weekend of Friday 25th July 2018 to Sunday 27th July 2018:
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £7,300,103 – total: £7,300,103
- Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – 2 – £7,104,808 – £27,018,068
- Incredibles 2 – 3 – £5,146,128 – £33,216,759
- Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation – 1 – £3,449,876 – £3,449,876
- Event Cinema: Andre Rieu’s 2017 Maastricht Concert – 1 – £1,486,528 – £1,486,528
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – 8 – £344,993 – £40,500,006
- Skyscraper – 3 – £329,232 – £4,723,325
- The First Purge – 4 – £279,751 – £5,101,817
- Ocean’s 8 – 6 – £125,664 – £10,753,658
- Sherlock Gnomes – 12 – £98,493 – £9,017,422
- Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie – 2 – £78,360 – £296,047
- Apostasy – 1 – £66,002 – £66,002
- Hotel Artemis – 2 – £65,264 – £624,451
- Show Dogs – 10 – £46,413 – £3,274,525
- Dhadak – 2 – £40,945 – £220,994
Outside of the official top 5, but still the 5th highest grossing movie of the week is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom which earned another £344,993 to push on past Peter Rabbit and the £40million mark to make it the 3rd highest grossing movie of the year thus far.
Juxtaposing that success is the continued decline of Skyscraper which, after just 3 weeks at the box office, is teetering on the edge of existence with a poor return of £329,232 this past weekend and a total accumulation of just £4.7million. The action film, which looked to take advantage of its star draw Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at the box office, also disappointed in North America where it earned just $60million of its $125million budget. Worldwide, the film has limped to $257million overall, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough to off-set production and promotional costs for Universal.
That about does it for this week’s box office report. The UK box office will welcome Marvel back to the market in the shape and form of Ant Man & the Wasp this coming weekend. With MI – Fallout, Mamma Mia 2 and Incredibles 2 each earning over £5million this week, it seems like something’s got to give. For updates on all of this and ongoing industry coverage, reviews, lists and more, make sure to bookmark our home page, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. For first access to the UK box office’s top 5 each and every Tuesday, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube.
