Wonka (2023)
Director: Paul King
Screenwriters: Simon Farnaby, Paul King
Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Olivia Colman, Matt Lucas, Matthew Baynton, Tom Davis, Hugh Grant

Willy Wonka is an enigma. In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), the original adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” we don’t learn much about him, other than his desire to find an heir to his candy empire, as well as the cruel delight he takes in teaching naughty children a lesson. Wonka is charming and a little unhinged, paranoid from all of the years he has spent locked away in his factory, making sure no one gets their hands on the secret to his out-of-this-world sweets. With a devilish smile and a playful yet devious twinkle in his eye, actor Gene Wilder infuses Wonka with dimension, but we never dig too deep. He’s a nut that we never quite crack, and he works as a character because of that. There’s a reason why the original novel is called “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” after all – at the end of the day, it’s Charlie’s journey. Wilder’s performance hints at the layers inside of Wonka that we don’t need to unpeel, but nevertheless know are there. Wonka, the spiritual prequel to the 1971 musical classic, helmed by Paddington director Paul King, does unpeel those layers, but what’s found underneath is a deeply disappointing origin story that lacks the magic and edge that the original (and even Tim Burton’s 2005 remake) has in spades. Touted as a fun-for-the-whole family Christmas classic in the making, Wonka simply doesn’t have enough sparkle to ever hope to achieve that distinction.

Despite its tagline, which insists we will find out how “Willy became Wonka,” Timothée Chalamet’s version of the famous candy maker and magician doesn’t actually become anything. He just kind of already is.

The film begins with Willy, bright-eyed and bursting with optimism, atop a ship mast, where he begins his “I Want” song, “Hatful of Dreams”. Willy arrives in an unnamed city, fresh off the boat, ready to share his chocolate with the world, as his mother (Sally Hawkins) always hoped he would. Willy is earnest and determined, living on nothing but a dream. But the Galeries Gourmet is not what Willy initially imagined it would be. Instead of spreading his creations, he faces opposition and sabotage from three greedy chocolate makers, including Arthur Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), who will soon become his arch-nemesis. Willy then gets tricked into indentured servitude because he cannot read and fails to read the small print on his contract with Mrs. Scrubitt, played by Olivia Colman doing her best over the top Madame Thénardier impression. Aided by Noodle (Calah Lane), a fellow indentured servant and orphan who becomes Willy’s assistant, as well as the rest of the workers, Wonka bids to outsmart the trio and earn the freedom of himself and his friends.

Timothée Chalamet might be the only saving grace in the film, contrary to early assumptions that he may have been miscast. At times he’s charming, funny and endearing, but his performance is constantly in flux and dependent on the material and direction he’s given. When his jokes don’t land, his performance falls flat, even though he is clearly committed to the bit. Thankfully, he doesn’t try to do an impression of Gene Wilder, but he also doesn’t make the character enough of his own to really stand out. This isn’t his fault; he isn’t given much to work with.

All of the obstacles Willy encounters are external. Whether it’s Mrs. Scrubitt’s dishonest business practices, the antics of the greedy chocolatiers, or Hugh Grant’s Oompa-Loompa hijinks, the plot is always happening to Willy. He is almost entirely a reactionary character, and this is a problem in a movie that is supposed to be an origin story, the story of how he became who he is. It would have been nice if he actively participated in the narrative…

Willy’s desire to share his inventions with the world just as his mother hoped is sweet and admirable, but it simply isn’t enough to drive what we see. The writers, King and Paddington 2 co-writer Simon Farnaby (who also appears in Wonka as Basil), were backed into a corner considering Willy Wonka is a recluse by the time we meet him in the original movie. Telling that story would certainly be more interesting, but not very uplifting, so the filmmakers sidestep it entirely. As a result, there doesn’t seem to be any connection between Chalamet’s Wonka and Wilder’s.

Demystifying a character that works the best when we don’t know everything about him is a non-starter (as proven in Star Wars spin-off Solo), but the filmmakers didn’t give much thought to the supporting characters either. Lane and Chalamet work well together, and their friendship is a bright spot in the movie, but most of the supporting characters are so thinly drawn they barely register as real people. As for Hugh Grant’s Lofty, an Oompa Loompa who has been stealing Willy’s candy because he was excommunicated from Oompa Land until he can get back all of the chocolate that Willy stole, he’s surprisingly in very little of the film. The motion capture is jarring and unconvincing, but at least Grant’s contempt for the role, which he has expressed in several recent interviews, doesn’t show on screen.

Wonka, like the original film adaptation, is a musical, but not a very good one. The songs, written by Neil Hannon, King, Farnaby, and Joby Talbot, are unremarkable and lack passion, which is a shame considering Hannon’s exceptional work with The Divine Comedy. The songs in Wonka, especially Willy’s “Hatful of Dreams,” pale in comparison to those written by Howard Ashman, the songwriting genius behind the iconic tunes of The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). By comparison, “Hatful of Dreams” lacks interiority or reflection. Perhaps the biggest faux pas in this regard is how Willy’s desire to sell chocolates in the hopes of reconnecting with the spirit of his late mother is barely mentioned. Songs in musicals should, in theory, take place when characters are so full of emotion that words no longer feel enough. And then, they must dance when singing doesn’t feel enough. But nothing drives the songs in this movie and they don’t feel needed. They are boring and directionless. Chalamet’s voice is fine, if a little weak and thin in places, but it’s worth noting that his best performance is when he sings “Pure Imagination”, a song not originally written for this film.

Wonka also strips away any of the melancholy or dark comedy found both in the 1971 movie and Roald Dahl’s overall work. The 1971 film feels a lot like “Alice in Wonderland” in that it is a dreamlike and slightly menacing descent into a magical world, but Wonka smooths all those edges out. As a result, the movie is sickly sweet and above all, nice. Which is ironic, because while the filmmakers were busy adding uplifting lyrics to “Pure Imagination” and simplifying the orchestrations, themes, and social commentaries of the 1971 film, they also made time to make several offensive and outdated fat jokes, aimed at Keegan Michael Key’s Chief of Police, who is dressed in a ridiculous fat suit and gets fatter and fatter the more he indulges in the sweets the greedy chocolate makers use to bribe him with. Using fatness as a shorthand for gluttony and greed, and having an actor who is not fat perform fatness, is hurtful and mean-spirited. It’s hard to believe such an antiquated trope is included in a film made in 2023 – especially one made about the wonderful taste of sweet treats – and it sours the viewing experience. For all of the niceness this movie tries desperately to exude, it makes sure to keep one of the only things from the original film that actually needed updating.

If Wonka is trying to say something, it’s hard to know what that something is. The film plays with themes of oppression, poverty, and greed, but doesn’t do much with them. It would be a losing battle to assume that Western filmmaking would trust its young audience enough to sprinkle in some adult themes, but it is equally weird to mention them in passing and not engage with them. Believing in your dreams and sharing those dreams with others should feel like magic, but the film doesn’t allow us to know these characters enough to genuinely care about them or their dreams.

The sets also leave something to be desired. When Wonka first unveils his factory in the original film, it’s a technicolor dream, calling to mind the reveal of the land of Oz in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. It is bright and colorful and a little surreal. Wonka feels like a step down in comparison, and the filmmakers’ decision to set a good chunk of the film in the Galeries Gourtmet makes the world of Wonka feel like it’s just floating in space surrounded by nothing. It is small and claustrophobic.

Prequels bait us with the promise that we will get to see some of our most beloved characters become the people we love and remember from our childhoods. In Wonka, Willy may be younger and brighter and less mad than he will soon become, but if you are counting on the film to show you how that happens, you will be very disappointed. Instead, Wonka is a barely passable movie musical that is so sugary it ends up choking on its own sweetness.

Score: 12/24

Recommended for you: ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ (1971) Earned a Spot in Joseph Wade’s 10 Best Films of All Time

It is Marvel’s Black Panther that sits atop of the UK chart this weekend, grossing £17.7million from an extended five day opening period to earn it the title of best-out-of-the-blocks at the UK Box Office so far in 2018. The film, backed by the House of Mouse, is also sitting pretty as regards its comic book competition. Below is a chart of the opening weekend totals of every major comic book movie released since the beginning of 2016:

1. Black Panther – Feb 2018 – £17.7million
2. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Mar 2016 – £14.6million
3. Captain America: Civil War – Apr 2016 – £14.5million
4. Deadpool – Feb 2016 – £13.7million
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – Apr 2017 – £13.1million
6. Thor: Ragnarok – Oct 2017 – £12.4million
7. Logan – Mar 2017 – £11.9million
8. Suicide Squad – Aug 2016 – £11.3million
9. Spider-Man: Homecoming – July 2017 – £9.4million
10. Doctor Strange – Oct 2016 – £9.3million
11. Kingsman: The Golden Circle – Sept 2017 – £8.5million
12. LEGO Batman – Feb 2017 – £7.9million
13. X-Men: Apocalypse – May 2016 – £7.4million
14. Justice League – Nov 2017 – £7.3million
15. Wonder Woman – May 2017 – £6.2million

What the chart doesn’t reveal is that most of the releases featured were five day opening weekend totals too, making Black Panther’s accomplishments even more phenomenal.

You’d actually have to go back to April 2015 and Avengers: Age of Ultron before finding a comic book movie opening that out-grosses Black Panther. That film, which was the 2nd movie of the central Avengers franchise, grossed £18million in its opening weekend, and is the only superhero film in history to outperform the newcomer upon its debut, meaning that Black Panther is currently more of a financial hit than the likes of The Avengers, every Avengers solo movie and The Dark Knight.

The film has now officially made more money in its opening weekend than the entire box office runs of Ant-Man, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger and even Iron Man.

In terms of overall UK grosses in 2018 so far, Black Panther currently sits comfortably in the top 5, with the chart looking like this (bear in mind that Black Panther had been on the market for only 3 days when these figures were taken):

1. Darkest Hour – weeks on release: 6 – total: £21.9million
2. Black Panther – 1 – £17.7million
3. Coco – 4 – £15.3million
4. Fifty Shades Freed – 2 – £13.4million
5. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – 6 – £11.4million

In the North American box office market, the figures are even more incredible, with Forbes placing the weekend total at $201.8million (£144.2million) for Friday to Sunday and $242million (£172.9million) for the full four-day President’s Day weekend between Friday and Monday. This total has smashed the previous February opening weekend record set by Deadpool in 2016 of $132million Friday-Sunday and $152million Friday-Monday.

In the case of February opening weekends, Black Panther has out-performed Deadpool by 52% and previous record holder Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) by 148%.

If you are to consider The Avengers (2012) a sequel, as opposed to the standalone so many box office experts consider it to be, then Black Panther is the new record holder for highest grossing non-sequel/prequel in the history of cinema, even when adjusted for inflation.

It’s also earned the distinction of grossing the highest amount of any solo superhero movie ever in its opening weekend, has officially earned more in its Friday-Sunday period than any film released over a holiday weekend in history, has claimed the record of highest total weekend gross of any film released by a non-white male, has earned the largest Monday-only gross in history, and is now the fifth highest grossing opening weekend in North American box office history.

By mid-week, Black Panther will have surpassed the cumulative North American grosses of the likes of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Batman and every entry in the X-Men franchise barring Deadpool.

The worldwide gross for the movie sits at $404million after just four days, with the film yet to open in the huge markets of Japan, Russia and China. This places the film above the all-time grosses of popular titles such as: Mission: Impossible III, Twilight, Star Trek (2009), Mad Max: Fury Road and Toy Story.

Here are the top 15 grossing films in the UK this past weekend:

1. Black Panther – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £17,700,000 – total: £17,700,000
2. Fifty Shades Freed – 2- £2,730,197 – £13,361,739
3. The Shape of Water – 1 – £2,466,217 – £2,466,217
4. The Greatest Showman – 8 – £1,927,367 – £30,414,668
5. Coco – 5 – £1,400,000 – £15,256,165
6. Early Man – 4 – £1,154,533 – £8,540,993
7. Darkest Hour – 6 – £553,149 – £21,940,828
8. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – 9 – £456,414 – £37,197,072
9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – 6 – £408,480 – £11,366,703
10. Maze Runner: The Death Cure – 4 – £326,033 – £6,389,338
11. Father Figures – 1 – £250,464 – £250,464
12. Den of Thieves – 3 – £243,111 – £2,790,151
13. Paddington 2 – 15 – £205,479 – £42,453,589
14. The Post – 5 – £205,318 – £8,839,133
15. Phantom Thread – 3 – £186,105 – £2,148,930

Father Figures, the new comedy from Warner Bros starring Owen Wilson and Ed Helms is the only debut film not to make the top 5 this week, sitting incredibly low at number 11. Its £250,464 gross is likely to signal insurmountable failure for the film, which was made for an estimated $25million and earned less than $23million in North America late last year.

2018 BAFTA award winning director Guillermo Del Toro’s nominated fantasy film The Shape of Water earned a much more respectable £2,466,217 in its opening weekend, out-grossing many of its Oscar-contending contemporaries released this year, each of which opened as follows:

1. Darkest Hour – Jan 2018 – £4.1million
2. The Shape of Water – Feb 2018 £2.5million
3. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Jan 2018 – £2.4million
4. The Post – Jan 2018 – £2.2million
5. Phantom Thread – Feb 2018 – £250,000

And finally…

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the surprise hit of late 2017, seems to finally be slowing down having earned just over £450,000 this past weekend to send its total £37.2million, the 7th highest in the UK for a film released in the 2017 calendar year. It would need to gross another £2million in the remainder of its run to out-gross Marvel’s most-successful 2017 release Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and that does seem unlikely at this stage, though the film still managed an outstanding run. As time progresses, it may actually be The Greatest Showman that sneaks up into the 2017 top 5, as it continues to hold onto 7-figure takings each weekend having already accumulated £30.5million.

So that does it for this week’s UK Box Office Report. Make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube to gain access to our weekly box office chart top 5 videos each and every Tuesday (a whole day earlier than these reports!) And please bookmark our homepage, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and leave a comment below with your thoughts!

Coco accumulated a strong (for January) £5.2million in its opening weekend, which will make for good reading for Disney, who have already broken the all-time box office record for a US produced film in Mexico and have so far accumulated $657million (£462million) worldwide from a $175-200million budget. In terms of UK Pixar releases, Coco seems to have fared a little stronger than some of its contemporaries too, posting in the mid-range for a debut weekend when compared to the Pixar releases of the past 3 years:

1. Finding Dory (2016) – £8.1million
2. Inside Out (2015) – £7.4million
3. Coco (2018) – £5.2million
4. The Good Dinosaur (2015) – £2.9million
5. Cars 3 (2017) – £2.6million

Even better news for Disney is the staying power of their animated releases, especially here in the UK. Cars 3, for example, opened low for a Pixar film yet survived in the top 15 chart for 10 weeks, accumulating £11.5million across its entire run; over 4 times that of its opening weekend. Should Disney see similar results for Coco, the likelihood is that the film will be looking at a £20-25million run, though expectations may be even higher given Coco’s much more positive critical reception and awards season buzz. This particular Pixar release may well be the first true box office hit of the calendar year.

Seemingly just as beloved is The Greatest Showman, which took a 0% drop from last weekend’s figures, an incredible feat for a movie in weekend 4 of its run. To put things in perspective, the best performer of this year’s box office (despite being released in 2017) is Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which took a 36% hit in its 4th weekend, itself a strong box office performance. Star Wars: The Last Jedi posted a 55% drop-off during weekend 4.

The musical, starring Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron, has performed just as remarkably in the US, making 12 times its opening weekend’s total to date, owing much of this success to strong word of mouth and the musical chart success of its biggest songs. This makes it the 2nd most successful film in North American box office history in this regard, and it’s still chasing Titanic’s accumulation of 20 times its opening weekend box office gross, the best of all time. The Greatest Showman has now made $234million worldwide from an $84million budget and is showing no signs of slowing down. In the UK, the movie is closing in on £17million, around the same mark as Justice League, Blade Runner 2049 and Pirates 5 made in their entire run in 2017.

Similarly as boundary breaking is the aforementioned Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which grabbed an extra £1.8million this weekend to take its overall total to £32,478,009, placing it above Thor: Ragnarok, IT, Spider-Man: Homecoming and The Fate of the Furious in terms of 2017 releases, and still going strong. Next in the sights of The Rock and company… Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (£39million).

Worldwide, Jumanji has also set records, becoming the 5th highest grossing Sony Pictures release of all time, surpassing Skyfall and only being out-grossed by 4 separate Spider-Man releases (the original trilogy and Homecoming), on its way to a $771million total.

Here is the complete chart for the top 15 box office films of this past weekend (January 19th-21st 2018):

1. Coco – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £5,209,214 – total: £5,209,214
2. Darkest Hour – 2 – £3,295,716 – £10,155,286
3. The Post – 1 – £2,152,977 – £2,152,977
4. The Greatest Showman – 4 – £2,103,605 – £16,865,309
5. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – 5 – £1,840,248 – £32,478,009
6. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – 2 – £1,621,878 – £5,232,135
7. The Commuter – 1 – £1,602,680 – £1,602,680
8. Insidious: The Last Key – 2 – £1,025,740 – £3,663,623
9. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – 6 – £861,320 – £81,447,605
10. Pitch Perfect 3 – 5 – £374,386 – £14,883,218
11. Paddington 2 – 11 – £271,836 – £41,406,603
12. Ferdinand – 6 – £220,385 – £9,075,110
13. All the Money in the World – 3 – £182,087 – £2,910,436
14. Event Cinema: Romeo and Juliet Bolshoi 2018 – 1 – £181,834 – £181,834
15. Molly’s Game – 3 – £130,670 – £3,788,031

The biggest news outside of the top 5 this week is that Star Wars: The Last Jedi has finally surpassed Titanic on the all-time UK box office grosses list, making it the 5th highest grossing movie of all time in the region. The table is as follows:

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) – Walt Disney – £123.2million
2. Skyfall (2012) – Sony Pictures – £103.2million
3. SPECTRE (2015) – Sony Pictures – £95.2million
4. Avatar (2009) – 20th Century Fox – £94million
5. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) – Walt Disney – £81.5million
6. Titanic (1998 & 2012) – 20th Century Fox – £80.3million

Despite still having legs, it seems that The Last Jedi will not surpass its current position in the all-time charts given its diminishing returns, which seems to consolidate the fact that less people were pleased with the content of the film than had been the case with the earlier release of The Force Awakens. In the house of Disney, there’s likely to be even more concern from the North American numbers, as The Last Jedi has featured the biggest box office drop-off in the history of the franchise (including the disliked prequels and spin-off Rogue One). This fact could have Lucasfilm and Disney re-thinking their choice to give The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson his own trilogy, and will make the success (or lack thereof) of Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) more important than any of the previous releases.

Elsewhere, it seems that a lack of awards attention has scuppered the chances of Molly’s Game and All the Money in the World making any real splashes at the box office, with both set to fall out of the charts altogether after posting £3.8million and £2.9million respectively. In contrast, the performance of Three Billboards – currently £5.2million – could take a boost throughout the coming weeks and months as a result of its large tally of Oscar nominations, as could Darkest Hour, which is currently on £10.1million.

Liam Neeson’s The Commuter was the most noteworthy debut outside the top 5 this weekend, posting a respectable £1.6million to land in 7th. Whether the film has the longevity needed for it to be a success remains to be seen, but the movie has already made $37million worldwide from a $30million budget so it isn’t in trouble of posting a loss.

Finally, it seems that Paddington 2 is about to gracefully bow out of the box office chart after 11 straight weeks and £41million of takings. The Studiocanal film is currently the 5th highest grossing movie released in 2017, putting it above every Marvel Studios release and much more, to make it the breakout hit of 2017.

This coming weekend the UK will welcome Downsizing starring Matt Damon and 12 Strong starring Chris Hemsworth, with both looking to take on the top 5 but each unlikely to make a real push for the number 1 spot. The box office report will be back next Wednesday with updates on these developments, as well as more news on whether Three Billboards and Darkest Hour are given a boost by their Oscar nominations and whether Coco looks set to dominate in the long-term. For now, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube to make sure you’re the first to access our weekly box office chart videos (released every Tuesday), and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all of our latest updates.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle has been somewhat of a surprise box office hit in the UK and the international markets, with its current UK total gross of £26,272,798 helping the movie on its way to a $500million worldwide total, with a release in China still to come. Much like here in the UK, North America’s box office has seen the film dethrone Star Wars: The Last Jedi from the top of the region’s box office chart, maintaining 75% of its box office gross in its 2nd weekend in the US to earn $37,233,653 across the Friday to Sunday period. Even with the likes of Dwayne Johnson, a hugely profitable star through whom to promote the movie, Jumanji was never expected to surpass mediocre action movie numbers ($300-400million) given its relatively inexpensive $100million budget. Now, with a half a billion already accumulated, the film could be aiming as high as $800million worldwide once China – a region that Dwayne Johnson movies typically perform supremely well in – has its say on the picture’s overall gross. Here in the UK, Jumanji may well surpass the £39million earned by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which was the 5th highest grossing movie released in 2017 before this weekend. Whether it can surpass new number 5 Paddington 2, which earned £1,034,372 this weekend (its 9th weekend overall) and now sits on £40,415,771 with few signs of it slowing down, is another question.

Elsewhere in the top 5, Star Wars: The Last Jedi continues to push its way up the all-time UK box office charts, hitting 6th overall (not adjusted for inflation) with a total of £76,723,930, surpassing the gross of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (£73.1million) and Toy Story 3 (£74million), and closing on the £80.3million gross of Titanic. Here are the all-time highest grossing movies at the UK box office:

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) – Walt Disney – £123.2million
2. Skyfall (2012) – Sony Pictures – £103.2million
3. SPECTRE (2015) – Sony Pictures – £95.2million
4. Avatar (2009) – 20th Century Fox – £94million
5. Titanic (1998 & 2012) – 20th Century Fox – £80.3million
6. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) – Walt Disney – £76.7million

With at least 3 weeks left in the legs of the Rian Johnson Star Wars movie, it’s inevitable that the film will surpass Titanic (perhaps as early as this week), with a push on Avatar and SPECTRE to come soon after. It seems that The Last Jedi will, however, not surpass the £100million mark nor mount a serious challenge to its franchise predecessor’s incredible £123.2million accumulation.

Worldwide, The Last Jedi currently sits at number 12 in the all-time charts and number 3 for 2017, on approximately $1.25billion.

Here are the UK box office chart’s top 15:

1. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – weeks on release: 3 – weekend: £3,895,450 – total: £26,272,798
2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – 4 – £3,543,117 – £76,723,930
3. The Greatest Showman – 2 – £2,409,143 – £9,998,783
4. Molly’s Game – 1 – £2,283,420 – £2,283,420
5. Pitch Perfect 3 – 3 – £1,635,203 – £12,671,391
6. All the Money in the World – 1 – £1,161,475 – £1,161,475
7. Paddington 2 – 9 – £1,034,372 – £40,415,771
8. Ferdinand – 4 – £842,364 – £8,392,318
9. Hostiles – 1 – £380,718 – £380,718
10. Daddy’s Home 2 – 7 – £205,909 – £14,179,196
11. Wonder – 6 – £167,054 – £4,630,123
12. Tiger Zinda Hai – 3 – £115,648 – £1,607,595
13. My Little Pony – 12 – £49,441 – £3,593,040
14. The Lego Ninjago Movie – 13 – £49,004 – £9,619,242
15. Walk With Me – 1 – £45,248 – £45,248

The debuting films of the week were headlined by awards show front-runners All the Money in the World and Molly’s Game, with the latter landing in the top 5 with just under £2.3million and the former sitting just outside the top 5 on just under £1.2million.

All the Money in the World was the Ridley Scott film re-shot across two weeks to replace outed abuser Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer in one of the central roles, but having cost approximately $50million to make and having earned only $20.5million at the North American box office, it seems that the £1,161,475 earned thus far in the UK shan’t be enough for the film to turn a profit without a significant Oscars push, the likelihood of which seems small given the film’s lack of representation in the list of 2018 BAFTA nominees.

Molly’s Game, which cost a comparatively low $30million to make, seems to have benefited from a sexier promotional campaign that seemed to be more heavily featured across British television in recent weeks, earning almost double that of its counterpart in its opening weekend. In North America, the film seems to have had slightly more success too, spreading from a limited release to a wide release over this past weekend, surpassing $14million overall. The film has therefore earned $17.1million in North America and the UK in one weekend, 57% of its budget, while All the Money in the World has earned slightly less (55.8%) despite being on wide release for a week longer in the North American market.

That about does it for this week’s UK box office report. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out our story on the 2017 calendar year breaking the all-time box office record for more information on the region’s top grossing films and the importance of particular releases (and studios) to the box office economy. Next week will see Golden Globe winners and leading BAFTA nominees Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri hit cinemas, as well as the US box office’s 2nd highest grossing movie this week Insidious: The Last Key ($29.5million). With three releases as huge as these, some big names will have to take a hit. Will Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle hold on to the top spot? We’ll be sure to cover it in next week’s report. Until then, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube to gain first access to our weekly Box Office Top 5 videos (posted each Tuesday), like us on Facebook for our store offers and most recent updates, and follow us on Twitter for the very best content updates and interaction.

The final figure is up 3.6% from 2016’s total of £1.33billion ($1.8billion) and makes 2017’s annual box office total the highest in the history of the region. Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been confirmed as the highest-grossing movie of the calendar year despite receiving a wide release only 3 weeks removed from the start of 2018, with its total overcoming that of Disney live-action remake Beauty and the Beast at the last hurdle to accumulate approximately £68,263,774, around 5% of the annual total.

Here are the official top 5 highest-grossing movies in the UK in 2017:

Disney were the most prominent studio in the region, earning 19.2% of the total market – approximately £265million ($359million) – from 16 releases, with Warner Bros earning 16.2% from 31 releases and Universal earning 15.6% from 30 releases to make up the top three. Notably, Disney’s percentage of the overall box office in the UK for 2017 was down from the 21.88% the company earned in 2016, though when analysed in conjunction with the company’s purchase of Fox, Disney would own a remarkable 34.3% share of the UK box office receipts in 2017.

In terms of British films, Christopher Nolan’s Warner Bros release Dunkirk was the highest grosser, earning £55.8million. The 2nd highest-grossing British film in the region was Studiocanal’s long-awaited family movie sequel Paddington 2 which earned £37.5million (making it the 6th highest-grossing film of the year).

Of the 5 highest-grossing titles released under North American banners, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Guardians of the Galaxy are said to have had a lot of British involvement behind the scenes, particularly with regard to visual effects. Meanwhile, Beauty and the Beast was headlined by two British stars.

Sources: THR and Screen Daily

The prolonged holiday weekend experienced in the UK at the end of December meant that the usual 3 day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) grosses were stretched to the Monday too, thus equating to an extra day of income and therefore bumper box office takings. The winners were clear, with the top 5 making at least £1.4million more each than any chart entry positioned 7th-15th (the full chart can be found below). In fact, the top 5 each reached such heights that even the impressive 3rd weekend performance of Ferdinand, which took £1.4million, couldn’t make the official chart video, despite its total being high enough to have broken nearly any top 5 in 2017.

Perhaps the biggest news within this week’s top 5 was the debut of The Greatest Showman starring Golden Globe nominee Hugh Jackman. The musical, which co-stars Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson, has performed modestly here in the UK despite achieving an all-time record 77% jump from Thursday screenings to Friday-Sunday screenings in the United States and having earned an impressive $54million in North America thus far. Landing behind Jumanji, despite the Dwayne Johnson starring fantasy film having been on release for a week longer, will be disappointing for 20th Century Fox who spent $84million on the project, quite a lot of money for a musical. The film took £4,754,049 over the 4-day weekend, a figure which is dwarfed by January 2017 musical hit La La Land which earned £6.6million in its opening weekend, though was notably released a further 2 weeks removed from that year’s Star Wars movie. The Greatest Showman’s near £5million gross is perhaps better than its chart position would usually indicate and should be considered impressive for a film of its type, as it all-but guarantees a run of at least £10million at the UK box office, with even more potential earnings to come should the film be nominated by BAFTA and the Oscars.

Mentioned briefly above was Jumanji which has maintained momentum after an impressive £12million opening week. The movie, which has performed better in opposition to The Last Jedi than anyone could have expected, earned a further £5,210,725 in its second weekend to take the movie to £17.8million total. Should audiences maintain their intrigue for The Rock, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan’s reigniting of the 90s IP, Welcome to the Jungle may break the UK’s top 10 highest grossing movies released in 2017 – current top 10 available via our Facebook.

Notching in at an incredible £68,263,774 from 3 weekends, and taking the mantle as the UK’s number one movie of 2017 is Star Wars: The Last Jedi which surpassed fellow Disney release Beauty and the Beast (£66,990,507) by claiming close to £8million this weekend and seeming unlikely to be shunned from its top spot anytime soon.

Here is the entire top 15 chart, including weekend and overall box office totals, for the top films of this past weekend:

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – weeks on release: 3 – weekend: £7,975,174 – overall: £68,263,774
2. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – 2 – £5,210,725 – £17,835,902
3. The Greatest Showman – 1 – £4,754,049 – £4,754,049
4. Pitch Perfect 3 – 2 – £2,322,065 – £8,887,440
5. Paddington 2 – 8 – £1,884,062 – £37,567,705
6. Ferdinand – 3 – £1,387,426 – £6,145,052
7. Daddy’s Home 2 – 6 – £492,920 – £13,597,770
8. Tiger Zinda Hai – 2 – £265,424 – £1,262,123
9. Wonder – 5 – £160,396 – £4,294,199
10. Murder on the Orient Express – 9 – £82,146 – £23,900,453
11. Event Cinema: Berliner Philharmoniker Live 2018 – 1 – £61,387 – £61,387
12. The Lego Ninjago Movie – 12 – £50,056 – £9,535,000
13. The Disaster Artist – 4 – £49,671 – £1,272,348
14. The Star – 6 – £47,026 – £1,072,650
15. The Wedding Party 2 – 1 – £45,812 – £45,812

Paddington 2 has officially become the nation’s favourite independent film of the year, having now earned £37.5million at the box office and having surpassed its predecessor’s £34million earnings over the Christmas period. The Studiocanal film, which stars a plethora of British names, earned £1,884,062 in its 8th weekend at the box office, illustrating its longevity as a box office draw and possibly indicating a £40million overall run, a total that would see it oust Disney/Marvel juggernaut Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 from 5th spot on the highest grossing films of the year list.

Elsewhere, Murder on the Orient Express maintained its grip on the chart, spending its 9th successive week in the top 15 and pushing ever closer to a £24million run. The Kenneth Branagh movie has been far from a mega-hit, but its steady intake of box office cash has made it one of the more solid British made movies of the year, having already earned more than the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers and Wonder Woman, and currently teetering on the edge of 2017’s top 15.

At number 8 in this week’s chart is Bollywood action movie Tiger Zinda Hai, a film that has managed to break the £1million mark in the territory on its way to becoming the highest grossing Bollywood movie of 2017 on $54million total. The film’s impressive performance also makes it the highest grossing Indian made film of 2017 in the UK and takes it above noteworthy movies like British Independent Film Awards winner God’s Own Country, Oscar-nominee Fences and Martin Scorsese’s Silence in terms of overall gross in the region.

As of this coming weekend, 2017 shall begin to become an after-thought as the first releases of 2018 begin to make their mark on the box office. Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World and the new Ben Stiller movie Brad’s Status will both enter the running for the top 5, making for an interesting battle with the already existing high performers of this past weekend, and we’ll begin to get a clearer picture on the overall, final results of the 2017 box office race. Could Paddington 2 make it into the top 5? Will Murder on the Orient Express crack the top 15? We’ll be sure to have more definitive answers next week, but until then make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube to be the first to catch our weekly Box Office Top 5 videos, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with all of our most important updates.

The Last Jedi is projected to earn less than the saga’s previous film The Force Awakens – which totalled at $2billion – due to its longer run-time (2hrs 32mins, some 16 minutes longer) and more divisive reception, as well as the fact that it’s the 3rd Star Wars movie in as many years. This past weekend’s box office figures back this projection, with The Last Jedi concluding the 4 day period with £6million less than The Force Awakens made during the same weekend in 2015. Even so, The Last Jedi has set a benchmark of its own by becoming the movie with the 4th highest grossing opening weekend in history of the UK box office, only 2 places below its series predecessor and nearly £16million better off than the 2016 Star Wars spin-off Rogue One. Here are the top 5 opening weekends of all time:

1. SPECTRE (2015) – £46.6million
2. The Force Awakens (2015) – £34million
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) – £28.8million
4. The Last Jedi (2017) – £28million
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) – £25.2million

This of course makes The Last Jedi the movie with the highest grossing opening weekend in 2017, sitting at the top of a chart that features the following top 5:

1. The Last Jedi – £28million
2. Beauty and the Beast – £19.7million
3. The Fate of the Furious – £14million
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – £13million
5. Thor: Ragnarok – £12.4million

The dominance of The Last Jedi as regards the UK box office in 2017 is compounded by the film’s distributor Disney – who have just bought 21st Century Fox – sitting in 4 of the top 5 spots in the table above, with only Universal’s The Fate of the Furious managing to break the company’s tight grip on the chart. This indicates one of two things: either Disney has fantastic promotion in the region or the company simply produces the most highly anticipated spectacle movies in the industry. Once The Last Jedi breaks the annual top 5 by the end of next weekend, Disney will also be sat in 3 of the 5 spots on the Top 5 list for the year, with Beauty and the Beast, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and The Last Jedi occupying said chart places. Make sure to bookmark our homepage to make sure you don’t miss our annual box office report coming in the last week of December!

The unlikely challenger to Disney being the dominant distributor of the top 5 remains Paddington 2, a Studiocanal release that has now officially earned more money at the box office than Thor: Ragnarok, making it the number 5 movie of the year on £31,365,641. It will take a small movie-miracle for the British made movie to earn enough to overtake 4th placed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (£41million) by the year’s end, or to hold off The Last Jedi until then, but when each of 2017’s films have wrapped at the box office, Paddington 2 is in with an outside chance of knocking Guardians 2 out of the top 5 if it remains strong over Christmas. This week, the Ben Whishaw starring picture dropped only £300,000 from its total the previous week, indicating that a total of around £1million could be met for the 7th weekend in a row next weekend; a true testament to the film’s quality and the public’s appreciation for the original IP.

Here are the actuals for the top 15 films in the UK for Dec 15-17th 2017:

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £28,010,841 – total: £28,010,841
2. Paddington 2 – 6 – £1,357,273 – £31,365,641
3. Daddy’s Home 2 – 4 – £1,032,977 – £11,393,266
4. Wonder – 3 – £467,987 – £3,513,838
5. Justice League – 5 – £222,698 – £17,214,315
6. Murder on the Orient Express – 7 – £196,186 – £23,541,083
7. The Disaster Artist – 2 – £118,044 – £1,035,880
8. A Bad Moms Christmas – 7 – £97,840 – £8,121,794
9. The Star – 4 – £93,775 – £717,192
10. Thor: Ragnarok – 8 – £92,665 – £30,936,228
11. It’s a Wonderful Life – £61,102 – £2,806,760
12. Mountain – 1 – £41,813 – £41,813
13. Muppet Christmas Carol – £33,801 – £71,760
14. The Man Who Invented Christmas – 3 – £31,712 – £484,235
15. Call Me By Your Name – 8 – £26,037 – £1,173,150

The lower reaches of the chart were dominated by Christmas movies new and old this weekend, with Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life and beloved children’s classic Muppet Christmas Carol joining The Man Who Invented Christmas, A Bad Moms Christmas and Daddy’s Home 2 on the chart this week, earning a combined £1.2million.

The only new entry was Jennifer Peedom’s mountain documentary Mountain, which features the voice of Willem Dafoe, that earned £41,813; a solid total for a documentary.

Notably, this week’s chart cut-off point was much lower than in previous weeks, with the usual £100,000 to £200,000 barrier being lowered tremendously to only £26,037, largely due to the desires of Disney and cinema chains to screen The Last Jedi in as many screens as possible, significantly cutting the number of screens available for smaller films to be shown.

So that about does it for this week’s box office chart. Next week, we’ll have a better idea as to where The Last Jedi will reach on the 2017 box office chart as well as updates on the performance of Paddington 2 and something close to a final box office taking for Thor: Ragnarok. We will also be providing a box office report for the 2017 calendar year and a covering a bunch of other interesting topics regarding the end of the year, so make sure to bookmark us, keep up to date with us on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to us on YouTube for first access to our UK Box Office Chart Top 5 videos. For now, Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate!

The biggest news from the top of the charts is of course the seemingly never-ending success of Paddington 2, which suffered a drop off of about 35% this weekend, a much lower percentage than most films at any stage of their run, let alone 5 weekends in. Of course, barring a movie miracle, the beloved bear will be surrendering his top spot this coming weekend, but the reality is that this week’s total of £1,690,027 would suggest that the movie may top £1million for the 6th weekend running, which would put the film comfortably above £30million and even, perhaps, ahead of Thor: Ragnarok (currently at £30.7million) in the yearly chart’s top 5 grossing movies.

Elsewhere in the top 5, Justice League earned another half a million pounds to push it towards £17million at the box office overall, a figure that it will top this week. Its run has been by no means a success, but the figure isn’t necessarily a failure either, and with the international box office for the film now topping $600million, it seems that Justice League will at least break even, quashing thoughts that it may lose Warner Bros money. The effects of its lacklustre performance – the film was expected to make $1billion following the financial successes of Wonder Woman and Batman v Superman, each considered to be sequels – have already been seen, with Warner Bros re-organising their DC films division from the very top down, and changes in the cast thought to be on the way.

Daddy’s Home 2 is still sitting pretty in the number 2 spot after 3 weeks in the chart, having earned £1,135,646 in total this past weekend. The comedy, starring a plethora of recognisable names, has performed admirably to reach close to £10million overall, though the story internationally isn’t quite as positive. At the worldwide box office, Daddy’s Home 2 has thus far earned around $126million, nearly 50% less than its predecessor Daddy’s Home which earned just under $243million. This result would indicate that the film series is all-but dead, as drop offs so steep rarely see further films made.

The full results of the top 15:

1. Paddington 2 – weeks on release: 5 – weekend: £1,690,027 – total: £29,332,318
2. Daddy’s Home 2 – 3 – £1,135,646 – £9,742,929
3. Wonder – 2 – £742,687 – £2,586,699
4. Justice League – 4 – £552,227 – £16,683,721
5. Murder on the Orient Express – 6 – £412,400 – £23,011,404
6. The Disaster Artist – 2 – £331,685 – £677,471
7. Thor: Ragnarok – 7 – £242,176 – £30,678,863
8. A Bad Moms Christmas – 6 – £168,037 – £7,847,589
9. Event Cinema: Nutracker (Ballet) – 2 – £137,861 – £1,086,577
10. Stronger – 1 – £102,379 – £102,379
11. The Star – 3 – £97,759 – £566,266
12. Human Flow – 1 – £94,920 – £94,920
13. The Dinner – 1 – £85,252 – £85,252
14. Battle of the Sexes – 3 – £67,193 – £1,332,759
15. The Man Who Invented Christmas – 2 – £56,547 – £369,381

Despite being backed strongly in the US – being one of the top per screen earners of the year and sitting at $8.5million thus far – James Franco’s The Disaster Artist seems to be having a more modest box office run here in the UK. The film, that was this week nominated for a plethora of Golden Globes, may receive an awards season boost that pushes it beyond £1million overall, but at £677,471 and earning just £331,685 in its wide-release debut weekend, it seems that British film goers have less enthusiasm for its subject matter, Tommy Wiseau’s The Room, than North American audiences at this stage. It may turn out that the film earns less, in total, than Battle of the Sexes, another awards season film that arrived with much less hype and sits at 14th in the chart in only its 3rd week, having earned £1,332,579 overall.

One of this week’s debuts was David Gordon Green’s Jake Gyllenhaal starring Stronger, the true story of a Boston Marathon bombing victim, which entered at just over £100,000 and will likely go on to make a quarter of a million. At a budget of around $30million, the $300,000 or so that the UK will likely contribute to its lacklustre North American run of $4.2million, will be unable to pull the film from the mire of financial failure. Green, who has directed a number of hits including Pineapple Express, seemed to have all the pieces in place for an awards season push that simply hasn’t come and has undoubtedly effected the film’s box office takings.

This week’s other debuts look set to fare a little better relative to their budgets and box office expectations, with human rights documentary Human Flow tapping into the zeitgeist to earn £94,920 this past weekend, and The Dinner starring Steve Coogan taking £85,252. Human Flow in particular has achieved great things by breaking the top 15, as documentaries of its ilk rarely find large audiences in cinemas and are usually more popular as home entertainment properties.

So there does it for another week of box office analysis. Next week, we’ll be welcoming The Last Jedi to the chart, where we’re likely to answer the question of: is this the biggest film of the year already? Things will also become more clear as regards Paddington 2’s standing in the yearly chart. Can the independently made sequel add Thor: Ragnarok to its list of box office victims after already surpassing LEGO Batman, Logan, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Justice League? We’ll find out next week. For now, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to access our weekly Top 5 UK Box Office Films chart videos (released every Tuesday), and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest film news, reviews and coverage we have to offer.

Earning £2,883,617 in its fourth weekend is the mark of an incredible success for Studiocanal and Paddington 2’s producers given the picture’s modest budget and well financed competition. This weekend’s gross is perhaps even more important as regards the film’s overall box office takings in the region which now stand at £26,903,226. This total, to be put into context, has the movie sitting just outside the top 5 for 2017 so far, ahead of the likes of Justice League, Blade Runner 2049, Wonder Woman and Logan, and just £1.9million away from Spider-Man: Homecoming, a film that Paddington 2 will likely surpass this week.

Paddington 2 seems set for success then, even without a 2017 release in North America [Americans and Canadians will have to wait until January 2018], though it hasn’t yet surpassed the financial success of Paddington 1, which grossed an incredible £34million in 2014/15. It seems, given the box office takings drop-offs to date and the number of weeks it’s likely to hold on to its spot at major cinema chains, that Paddington 2 will just about make it to the £34million mark, and may even push Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for the number 4 highest grossing movie of 2017 if it makes receives a strong push over the typically family orientated Christmas period. It seems that only Star Wars: The Last Jedi stands in its way.

Elsewhere in the top 5, Wonder debuted strong at number 4, grossing a respectable £1,240,245. The movie, which stars Owen Wilson and Julia Roberts, was made for a rumoured $20million and has been a surprise success in North America having already earned over 4 times its budget in just 2 weeks, currently standing at $88million in the region, $100million worldwide. The likelihood is that Wonder will earn around £5million total in the UK, which will likely be higher than expectations for such a modestly budgeted film and will no doubt help to boost its already incredibly successful run at the worldwide box office.

In a further update on Justice League, it is now a lock that the movie won’t touch the top 5 for the year, nor will it get close to the 3 Marvel Studios releases in terms of overall box office gross. Worldwide, the film has made some $570million, which should be enough for Warner Bros. to break even. The next few weeks will likely leave Justice League with a profit, the amount of which will be determined with how well it fights against growing competition around the world.

Elsewhere in the chart, things are looking like this:

1. Paddington 2 – weeks on release: 4 – weekend: £2,883,617 – total: £26,903,226
2. Daddy’s Home 2 – 2 – £1,945,640 – £7,879,672
3. Justice League – 3 – £1,486,953 – £15,554,643
4. Wonder – 1 – £1,240,245 – £1,240,245
5. Murder on the Orient Express – 5 – £824,494 – £22,127,760
6. Thor: Ragnarok – 6 – £578,606 – £30,194,221
7. A Bad Moms Christmas – 5 – £338,089 – £7,407,722
8. Battle of the Sexes – 2 – £221,996 – £1,127,064
9. The Star – 2 – £176,362 – £432,706
10. The Man Who Invented Christmas – 1 – £168,137 – £168,137
11. Event Cinema: Nutcracker (Bolshoi 2017 Ballet) – 1 – £160,421 – £160,421
12. Happy End – 1- £135,682 – £135,682
13. The Disaster Artist – 1 – £130,238 – £130,238
14. Frozen – 157 – £124,075 – £43,132,048
15. Listy do M3 – 2 – £74,300 – £515,397

The big news from this week’s actuals is the confirmation that Thor: Ragnarok has finally surpassed Spider-Man: Homecoming to enter the Top 5 Grossing Movies of 2017 list, entering at number 5 with £30,194,221, just a few hundred thousand pounds above its Marvel Studios counterpart but with legs to run for a few more weeks.

A Bad Moms Christmas also continues to hold strong, earning a further £338,089 to jump to close to £7.5million overall. This is a solid take for a modestly budgeted comedy, and has helped to boost the overall takings of the film at the worldwide box office to just over $100million, nearly 4 times its $28million budget.

Down at the bottom of the chart is The Disaster Artist which earned £130,238 through previews, with the official release not due until today (Wednesday 6th December). The drama-comedy, which is receiving some awards season attention and stars comedy mega-powers James Franco and Seth Rogen, seems to have drawn the attention of those in the know, so it will be interesting to see if the cast and premise amount to a considerable mainstream run.

Frozen, which was last week’s number 5, maintained its spot on the chart this week, squeezing in at number 14 to add another £124,075 to its bountiful kitty, while Polish production Listy do M3 has out-performed Polish counterpart Botoks, at least in weeks on the chart, by managing to maintain its spot for a 2nd successive week (despite earning £200,000 less overall).

Next week, The Disaster Artist and Christmas-themed horror film Better Watch Out will be looking to exploit the chart’s currently depleted overall strength, with the former looking to challenge Paddington 2 for the number 1 spot given its strategy to open on a Wednesday (allowing for a 5 day weekend). We will also know more about whether Paddington 2 will be able to stake its claim for the year’s top 5 above Thor: Ragnarok and we’ll have more on Justice League. For now, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube for first access to our weekly Top 5 UK Box Office Films video (posted every Tuesday), bookmark our home page, like us on Facebook and subscribe to us on Twitter.

Aided heavily by the release of a new Disney animated short about Frozen favourite Olaf, the re-release of Frozen has surpassed £1million this week, placing its overall earnings, across its 3 year stint, at around £43million. While it does look set to be for only one week, its presence in the chart is indicative of the cult phenomenon the film has become and may, along with the success of Paddington 2, indicate a desire from audiences to experience more wholesome, family fun during the holiday period. It seems, then, that Disney’s somewhat controversial choice to delay the release of Coco – a record setting film in Mexico and the winner of this past weekend’s Thanksgiving weekend box office in the United States – which has been paired with the Frozen short in those regions, may have been a good one, with the reemergence of Frozen likely to be act 1 in a 2 act money-making story from Disney’s animated realm.

Debuting at the top of the chart and placing itself in contention for a strong run in the UK given the coming weeks’ lack of big releases is Daddy’s Home 2, which seems to have capitalised on the coming Christmas fever and some good will from fans of the original to sledge its way to a £4,919,051 opening, some £3.3million higher than the original’s debut in 2015.

The movie, which stars a slew of household names including stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg was, however, pushed heavily by previews that equated to just over half of its weekend earnings and ultimately gave the film a 5-day opening total as opposed to a traditional 3-day (Friday to Sunday) total. If we were to take Daddy’s Home 2 on the basis that it only ran Friday to Sunday, the film would be sitting at no. 3 in the chart behind Paddington 2 and Justice League at £2.3million.

As regards the hugely controversial Justice League, there was an expectation that the picture would fall below Paddington 2 for this past weekend and that has come to pass. The superhero franchise film, with the financial mite of Warner Bros behind it, seems to have suffered from a mix of bad timing – being released between Thor: Ragnarok (still in cinemas) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (set for cinemas December 14th) – as well as general audience dismay at the direction of the universe, making for a poor financial return that may see the production actually lose money once outside factors, including fees to advertise the film, are factored in. The picture made £2,990,473 at the UK box office this weekend, bumping its total up to £12,917,287 ($17,251,036) in the region so far, but with an estimated total cost of $480million to cover, and subsidiaries for multiple parties expected to be paid, seeing Justice League teeter at the $480million mark as regards worldwide takings and therefore covering only its cost to this date, means that this superhero team-up may be the first major studio superhero failure since Green Lantern in 2011.

In stark contrast, the Studiocanal distributed British independent Paddington 2 has been outperforming every expectation thus far, holding onto its audiences with a bear-like grip [pun intended] throughout its 3 week run, hitting £4,545,218 in weekend no.3, a figure higher than many top earning superhero movies tend to earn in weekend no. 2 of their runs – Thor: Ragnarok was £4.5million for its 2nd week and£3.1million for its 3rd week, for example, and that picture looks set to be a top 5 film of the year once all is said and done. Somewhat incredibly, Paddington 2 is all but guaranteed to out-gross Justice League and may, given the current trends towards both films, actually reach double the box office takings than its much more expensive competition. Surely it too cannot penetrate the top 5 for the year? Well, it’s £8million off, but we do have some quiet weeks ahead…

Here are the actuals for the entire top 15:

1. Daddy’s Home 2 – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £4,919,051 – total: £4,919,051
2. Paddington 2 – 3 – £4,545,218 – £22,990,836
3. Justice League – 2 – £2,990,473 – £12,917,287
4. Murder on the Orient Express – 4 – £1,373,756 – £20,442,641
5. Frozen – 156 – £1,115,689 – £42,996,289
6. Thor: Ragnarok – 5 – £596,034 – £29,306,199
7. Battle of the Sexes – 1 – £552,521 – £552,521
8. A Bad Moms Christmas – 4 – £398,450 – £6,756,130
9. Listy do M. 3 – 1 – £397,737 – £397,737
10. Suburbicon – 1 – £231,412 – £231,412
11. The Star – 1 – £204,497 – £204,497
12. Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool – 2 – £108,411 – £585,204
13. The Death of Stalin – 6 – £74,659 – £4,736,799
14. The Florida Project – 3 – £64,196 – £605,735
15. Blade Runner 2049 – 8 – £51,451 – £18,918,361

Debuting at number 9, Listy do M. 3 is significant as it seems to have further established the power of the Polish-speaking communities in the United Kingdom as regards the current box office landscape.

Following in the footsteps of the unbridled success of Polish-produced Botoks in mid-October, which made £792,957 in its opening weekend and even broke into the chart’s top 5, the third instalment of the country’s star-studded Christmas film series Listy do M has outperformed George Clooney’s Suburbicon – starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore – which debuted some £146,000 lower than the Polish language film, and seems to have solidified the picture’s success. Listy do M, much like Botoks, will therefore likely be considered as an important release for Polish language cinema in the UK moving forward as it could prove to be one of the catalysts for an influx of distributors to the country, each investing in the film industry and looking to sell the products to the UK market.

The seasonal Polish film was only the 2nd highest debuting picture of the weekend however, with the star-studded Battle of the Sexes hitting £552,521 and sitting in 7th. The film, which features 2017 Oscar winner Emma Stone and comedy powerhouse Steve Carell in the lead roles, perhaps suffered from being too much of an American tale to truly translate. The true story upon which the film is based was reportedly big news in the country, and has become something of a cult phenomenon, whereas the knowledge and understanding of the event in the UK is far from being at the same level, and clearly this was too much of an obstacle for even A-List stars to overcome with wider audiences – this is a problem that may also face I, Tonya, the tale of disgraced US skating champion Tonya Harding that is set to star Margot Robbie. With a debut weekend of over £500,000 and a 2nd weekend likely to remain relatively strong courtesy of a lack of major competition, expect Battle of the Sexes to surpass £1million by the end of next weekend; a tidy amount for a relatively small film that likely didn’t expect to perform in the region anyway.

And finally, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool dropped off as it was outlined to do in last week’s chart breakdown, earning £108,411 over the weekend to take its total to £585,204. There is a December release date for the film in the US, and it may have traction given that it’s a true story about a beloved American star, but the likelihood of the Annette Bening and Jamie Bell starring picture turning a profit seems more and more bleak by the week.

So that about does it for this week’s box office breakdown. Next week we’ll likely welcome Wonder to the chart, though it will be interesting to see whether the Julia Roberts starring movie can out-perform Paddington 2. We’ll be back next Wednesday with a full box office report, but to gain access to the top 5 before anyone else, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube. You can also stay up to date with the latest news, reviews and features we have to offer by bookmarking our home page, following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.