UK Box Office Report November 10-12th 2017

Posted on by Joseph Wade

November has kicked off in a big way, and with the likes of Justice League still to come this month, we could be on for a record breaker.

Last week Murder on the Orient Express ran through Marvel powerhouse Thor: Ragnarok to take the top spot with a £5million opening weekend, and with a drop-off of only £623,000 in its 2nd week, it seems audiences are growing attached to the film, keeping it above Thor 3 for the 2nd week in a row. The biggest news as regards this week’s chart is the new number 1…

Paddington 2 has blasted its competition out of the water with an opening of £8,260,160 (rounded to £8.3million in the video), nearly doubling the total of its closest competition this week and out-grossing the opening for October’s Blade Runner 2049 by over £2million, despite having a budget of less than a third the price of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi blockbuster. The film, which features an all-star British line-up including Hugh Grant, Hugh Bonneville and Julie Walters to name but a few, also managed to out-gross Paddington 1 which reached a debut total of £5.1million during the weekend of November 28-30th 2014.

Paddington 2, which is not set for release in the United States until early 2018, is receiving favourable reviews and has had a marketing campaign that seems to champion the film’s uniquely British values, but with such stiff competition from Fox and Marvel it seems as if this STUDIOCANAL release is punching above its weight. This is especially apparent when considering the last family movie debut of note was October’s The Lego Ninjago Movie which barely hit £3million in its opening weekend despite the power of the Lego brand; a total Paddington 2 has nearly trebled.

Elsewhere in the top 5, it’s worth noting that despite Thor being at the top of the chart for only 1 week – less time than the summer dud The Hitman’s Bodyguard – the Marvel movie, distributed by Disney, is already pushing £26million for its run, despite being only 3 weekends old and still taking box office earnings in the 7 figures. This is only £3million short of the total run that Spider-Man: Homecoming had in the UK, and seems to suggest that Thor 3 could surpass the Tom Holland starring movie by the end of next weekend, making it the number 6 box office movie of the year and the number 2 Marvel movie behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which reached close to £42million following its release in late April. It seems highly unlikely that Thor 3 will reach the heights of the James Gunn directed sequel, but an assault on IT – which is currently 5th for the calendar year at £32.1million – seems likely.



Here are the top 15 films of the week:

  1. Paddington 2 – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £8,260,160 – total: £8,260,160
  2. Murder on the Orient Express – 2 – £4,376,429 – £12,989,387
  3. Thor: Ragnarok – 3 – £3,073,349 – £25,879,938
  4. A Bad Moms Christmas – 2 – £1,272,396 – £4,186,649
  5. Jigsaw – 3 – £414,932 – £4,541,777
  6. The Death of Stalin – 4 – £296,693 – £4,282,860
  7. Only the Brave – 1 – £268,680 – £268,680
  8. The Florida Project – 1 – £241,490 – £241,490
  9. Blade Runner 2049 – 6 – £213,054 – £18,640,036
  10. The Lego Ninjago Movie – 5 – £193,466 – £9,306,771
  11. My Little Pony – 4 – £162,713 – £3,433,973
  12. The Killing of a Sacred Deer – 2 – £118,703 – £550,269
  13. Predator (30th Anniversary) – 1 – £99,689 – £99,689
  14. Geostorm – 4 – £98,656 – £4,217,525
  15. Call Me By Your Name – 3 – £91,412 – £767,323

Debuting at number 7, it seems that the Miles Teller, Josh Brolin and Jeff Bridges starring movie Only the Brave suffered from being distinctly American in its ideals and presentation in the UK, having the opposite effect of the distinctly British sensibilities on offer with Paddington 2, earning just £268,680, an amount that indicates the film will struggle to reach £1million for its total UK run. This is bad news for Di Bonaventura Pictures who splashed out $38million on the film, claiming back only $17.1million in the entirety of the film’s North American run and grabbing only $1.8million in the rest of the world. Even if Only the Brave does catch £1million in the UK – which seems incredibly unlikely at this stage – the movie will barely surpass $20million at the worldwide box office, just over half of its budget, declaring the true-to-life tale of Californian firefighters a financial failure.

Elsewhere in the top 15, The Florida Project ran to a disappointing £241,490 in its opening weekend, landing it at number 8. The independent film, which was made for only $2million, will likely be happy with earning any money in the UK given that its US run earned $3million to cover its entire budget. However, with reviews of the film indicating that it’s one of the top movies of the year thus far, its performance – especially when considered alongside similarly independent movies like Wind River and Goodbye Christopher Robin which each made over £1million – remains relatively low, perhaps owing to the popularity of the week’s top 3 movies.

This week also marked the first week in 4 that British comedy The Death of Stalin fell out of the top 5, earning £296,693 to push the film beyond £4million, a total that places the film in amongst some of the better received British independents in the past few years, such as I, Daniel Blake. 

In the bigger, studio realm of films still on release, Blade Runner 2049 has eased fears that it would lose money across its box office run by earning $248,491,008 worldwide, some $68-98million beyond its rumoured production budget. In the UK, an £18.6million 6 week stretch seems soon to come to an end given its diminishing returns, but the performance of the film has far surpassed early indicators as regards its success, placing it firmly in the top 20 movies of the year in the UK so far at number 19.

With the box office returns of the likes of The Killing of a Sacred Deer – the latest film from the director of The Lobster – and The Death of Stalin reaching low points this week, it would be smart to catch each of them before they exit cinema screens, an event which could happen as soon as this weekend. In the meantime, make sure to keep up to date with us via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for the latest film news, reviews, features and updates. The Box Office Report will be back next week, where Justice League looks set to enter the mix for a very competitive top spot.

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