The winner: War for the Planet of the Apes
For the fourth weekend in a row, a film with blockbuster ambition has arrived at the top of the UK box office, with War for the Planet of the Apes landing in the wake of Spider-Man: Homecoming (5 July), Despicable Me 3 (30 June) and Transformers: The Last Knight (22 June). The latest Apes film has begun with a solid £5.22m, and £7.20m including previews for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The numbers may be a tad disappointing to backers Fox, because franchise predecessor Dawn of the Planet of the Apes began in July 2014 with £7.10m from four days, plus £1.61m from a single day of previews. War has taken less in six days (£7.20m) than Dawn did in those four (£8.71m).
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, with a total of £32.7m in the UK, was the fifth biggest hit of 2014 – a year notably light on major box-office winners. Its total was an impressive 4.6 times its opening weekend number, indicating strong audience satisfaction and powerful word of mouth. Fox will be hoping that War can achieve a similar feat of sustaining in the current market, although the competitive environment looks discouraging – the much-buzzed Dunkirk, by director Christopher Nolan, arrives on Friday.
The family battle: Despicable Me 3 v Cars 3
Given that the previous Cars films provided two of the three worst results in the UK for Pixar (beating only commercial minnow The Good Dinosaur among the Pixar canon), it might be a surprise to see a third Cars movie racing out of the starting grid. Was the market truly crying out for this? The franchise has been reasonably successful globally, with Cars 2 scoring well in Japan, Mexico, Russia and Brazil. More pertinently, the series is Pixar’s jewel in the crown for consumer products, with massive sales for toys, sleepwear, costumes, underwear, backpacks, luggage, stationery and toolbox play sets. Box office is almost incidental to the value of the Lightning McQueen brand.
Cars 3 has opened in the UK with a soft £2.63m, which compares with £3.54m for the start of Cars 2 just under six years ago. The original Cars began in 2006 with £2.67m. Disney points out that most schools in the UK have yet to break up for the summer holiday.
Meanwhile, Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me 3 does not appear to have been held back by its release during a non-holiday period. Despite competition from Cars 3, the Universal release fell by only 27% at the weekend, the smallest decline of any film in the Top 10. Its gross of £3.84m was more in its third weekend than Cars 3 managed for its debut session. Its total after 17 days is a nifty £25.6m, with the school summer holiday ahead of it.
The indie challenger: The Beguiled
Six films into her writing and directing career, Sofia Coppola has established herself as a recognised film-maker without having achieved much consistent commercial success: 2003’s Lost in Translation ($120m worldwide) remains by far her biggest hit. The genre-inflected The Beguiled, with a cast led by Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning, offered commercial potential, and UK distributor Universal pushed it out into an ambitious 250 multiplexes and indie venues.
The result: a respectable £388,000, or £415,000 including previews. Previous effort The Bling Ring (2013) began in the UK with £141,000 from 65 sites, on its way to a total of £628,000. Predecessor Somewhere (2010) maxed out at £495,000.
The market
For only the second time since April, four films took more than £2m at the weekend: War for the Planet of the Apes, Despicable Me 3, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Cars 3. Early in the year a number of titles regularly perform strongly at the same time, then the market tends to get polarised as spring gives way to summer. A greater spread of wealth increased box office 8% on the previous weekend, and 17% on the equivalent frame from 2016, when Ghostbusters and Ice Age: Collision Course landed in the top two places of the chart.
Next week: Dunkirk, which currently has an astonishing 9.6/10 IMDb user rating and a 97% MetaCritic score.
Top 10 films July 14-16
1. War for the Planet of the Apes, £7,195,773 from 597 sites (new)
2. Despicable Me 3, £3,839,659 from 617 sites. Total: £25,600,301 (three weeks)
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming, £3,718,078 from 620 sites. Total: £16,821,260 (two weeks)
4. Cars 3, £2,625,000 from 522 sites (new)
5. Baby Driver, £976,725 from 515 sites. Total: £8,666,448 (three weeks)
6. The Beguiled, £414,924 from 250 sites (new)
7. Transformers: The Last Knight, £122,288 from 238 sites. Total: £9,313,421 (four weeks)
8. Jagga Jasoos, £113,003 from 93 sites (new)
9. Wonder Woman, £110,526 from 171 sites. Total: £21,765,515 (seven weeks)
10. All Eyez on Me, £89,626 from 157 sites. Total: £1,841,210 (three weeks)
Other openers
David Lynch: The Art Life, £23,021 from 19 sites
Channa Mereya, £7,350 from six sites
The Death of Louis XIV, £5,568 from eight sites
Genocidal Organ, £3,627 from three sites
Legend of Wukong, £1,624 from six sites
- Thanks to comScore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.
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