Ant-Man 2 vs Mamma Mia 2 vs Mission Impossible 6 – Box Office Report 3-5th August 2018
All five of this week’s highest grossing movies in the UK were sequels, with Ant-Man and the Wasp entering the race to challenge Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! for the top spot, as movies like Incredibles 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom made strong claims for a permanent spot in the annual top 5 list of highest grossing movies by passing important milestones. Information on all of this and more below, but first the Top 5 Highest Grossing Movies 3-5th August 2018.
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Which better place to start than at the very top with newcomer Ant-Man and the Wasp from Marvel Studios?
The Peyton Reed sequel starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly is believed to have had a production budget of around $150million, a total that the movie has already surpassed at the North American box office having being released on 6th July and thus far accumulated $193million in the region, with the film currently sitting at around $423million worldwide.
In North America, this sequel managed to surpass the financial takings of its predecessor by $15million (a total that is hardly ideal for a sequel given the added investment that should be brought about by those who grew to like the original on home video and streaming), but worldwide the picture is much more bleak with the film thus far having made $93million less than Ant-Man did back in 2015.
In the UK, Ant-Man and the Wasp is opening against strong competition which will inevitably lower expectations for Disney Marvel but the early signs are good with this film out-grossing the original by nearly 25% in its opening weekend, earning a total of £4,988,747 as compared to the figure closer to £4million set in 2015. This does however come with an asterisk as Ant-Man 2 benefited from £1.23million in Thursday previews, meaning the typical Friday-Sunday period was actually down on Ant-Man 1’s gross at just £3.77million.
In comparison to the debut figures of the other Marvel Studios movies, Ant-Man and the Wasp looks like this (previews included):
- Avengers: Infinity War – Apr 2018 – £23.1million
- Avengers: Age of Ultron – Apr 2015 – £18million
- Black Panther – Feb 2018 – £17.7million
- Avengers Assemble – Apr 2012 – £15.8million
- Captain America: Civil War – Apr 2016 – £14.5million
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – Apr 2017 – £13.1million
- Thor: Ragnarok – Oct 2017 – £12.million
- Iron Man 3 – Apr 2013 – £11.4million
- Spider-Man: Homecoming – July 2017 – £9.4million
- Doctor Strange – Oct 2016 – £9.3million
- Thor: The Dark World – Nov 2013 – £8.7million
- Iron Man 2 – Apr 2010 – £7.7million
- Guardians of the Galaxy – July 2014 – £6.4million
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Mar 2014 – £6million
- Iron Man – May 2008 – £5.4million
- Thor – Apr 2011 – £5.4million
- Ant-Man and the Wasp – Aug 2018 – £5million
- Ant-Man – July 2015 – £4million
- The Incredible Hulk – June 2008 – £3.25million
- Captain America: The First Avenger – July 2011 – £3million
With competition as strong as it is and the likelihood of a long run in cinemas shortened by the film’s unusually late Summer release, it seems that Disney and Marvel Studios have a tough challenge ahead in attempting to surpass the £16.3million total UK accumulation of Ant-Man 1 with this sequel; something that would be a first for the studio.
The real winner at the UK box office continues to be Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! which this week posted another £4,121,275 to maintain 2nd spot on the chart in its third weekend of release. This is particularly unusual given that the expected audiences of the film are not often recognised as particularly large weekend cinema goers, with mid-week numbers for the chosen demographics often being stronger.
Perhaps such a stat is evident in how the long-awaited sequel has pushed to £39.3million in total box office grosses after just 18 days of release and is teetering on the edge of the UK’s annual top 5 already, with its staying power seeming to indicate the strong possibility of the film outlasting Ant-Man this coming week as it managed to outlast Mission: Impossible – Fallout this past weekend to keep a hold of 2nd place in this chart.
Discounting previews, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! was the top earner at the UK box office this weekend, with the Friday-Sunday total for the film being some £300,000 higher than the Disney Marvel juggernaut sitting at number 1, and perhaps more impressive is how this sequel is currently sitting £14.7million ahead of where Mamma Mia 1 was at the same point in its run; a run that made it one of the top 10 highest grossing movies in UK box office history until the releases of Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther earlier in 2018, the latter of which it is currently £4million ahead of after the same period of release.
Despite a strong mid-week that saw it take close to £6million in total, Mission: Impossible – Fallout was leap-frogged by Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! this past weekend, earning just £2,471,073 across the three day period in only its 2nd weekend. Technically, Mamma Mia 2 did earn more in the Friday-Sunday period of Fallout’s first weekend, with previews propping the 6th Mission: Impossible film up at number 1, but the drop off of nearly 50% will not be welcomed by studio Paramount whom have relied upon the franchise to be their centrepiece tent-pole over the course of the last decade particularly.
It’s not all doom and gloom for Cruise and company however, as Fallout is actually well on its way to out-grossing the 5th Mission: Impossible film (Rogue Nation), which earned £20million over the course of its run, here in the UK. Worldwide, the picture is also a lot prettier for the spy-action-thriller, with the film so far raking in close to $330million despite not yet being released in China and having been released in only a select number of key global markets thus far. With its budget of $178million having already been nearly doubled, it seems there’s no end in sight for the franchise. Not yet at least…
Elsewhere in the top 5, the interesting “family film” battle between Sony Pictures Animation and Disney Pixar continues with Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation and Incredibles 2 hitting numbers 5 and 4 respectively on this week’s chart, each earning upwards of £1million.
Incredibles 2 is by far the juggernaut of the pair, earning close to £2.4million in its 4th weekend at the UK box office this past weekend when compared to Hotel Transylvania 3’s £1.45million in its 2nd weekend, and the Pixar film sitting at £39,869,498 for its total accumulation, just £1million away from toppling 2018’s reigning animated box office champion Peter Rabbit (£40million).
Both films did, however, all but destroy the prospects of the newcomer family animation Teen Titans Go! To the Movies which debuted disappointingly in number 6 with just £389,726 across its opening weekend for rival studio Warner Bros. Animation.
Here is a chart of the top 15 highest grossing movies at the UK box office over the weekend of August 3-5th 2018:
- Ant-Man and The Wasp – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £4,988,747 – total: £4,988,747
- Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – 3 – £4,121,275 – £39,324,001
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout – 2 – £2,471,073 – £13,357,630
- Incredibles 2 – 4 – £2,391,917 – £39,869,498
- Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation – 2 – £1,451,295 – £7,761,551
- Teen Titans Go! To the Movies – 1 – £389,726 – £389,726
- The First Purge – 5 – £172,871 – £5,507,600
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – 9 – £166,187 – £40,979,530
- Skyscraper – 4 – £118,809 – £5,126,110
- Ocean’s 8 – 7 – £58,824 – £10,923,384
- Sherlock Gnomes – 13 – £43,209 – £9,161,985
- Fanney Khan – 1 – £36,639 – £36,639
- Event Cinema: The Producers – 1 – £35,745 – £35,745
- Event Cinema: Andre Rieu’s 2018 Maastricht Concert – 2 – £35,582 – £1,651,106
- Apostasy – 2 – £30,912 – £146,123
Outside of the top 5, the biggest news comes from Universal’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom that this past weekend finally pushed past Peter Rabbit to become the year’s 3rd highest grossing movie behind Infinity War and Black Panther, though both Mamma Mia 2 and Incredibles 2 should expect to surpass the dino-sequel throughout the course of this week.
Lower down the chart, Ocean’s 8 and Skyscraper tell vastly different stories, with Skyscraper taking over double the takings of Ocean’s 8 this past weekend but 8 having made over double the total amount of Skyscraper to this point.
The biggest disappointment of the week as far as the UK box office goes was the performance of independent films in the region. Operating from 106 sites and featuring films such as Apostasy and Hearts Beat Loud, the indie releases accounted for just £77,100 of the total box office, cementing 2018 as one of the least successful summers for independent film at the UK box office in years.
Overall however, the weekend was up by 6% when compared to the adjacent week from 2017 and the box office looks set to welcome The Meg this weekend, a big budget monster movie that will be looking to take a huge chomp out of the top 5 takings and may be able to sneak into number 1 if its appeal is high enough. The Darkest Minds and Unfriended: Dark Web are each trying to cut into the chart before the end of summer with releases this weekend too, so next week’s chart should feature a lot of change; change that we will of course cover in detail in next week’s Box Office Report.
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