Spectre surges ahead

Is Spectre doing better than Skyfall at the UK box office? That very much depends on what you choose to measure. In terms of gross so far, Spectre is ahead of its predecessor, with £64.0m after 14 days, compared to £61.6m for Skyfall at the same stage of its run. But if you measure momentum, it’s a different story. Skyfall fell just 20% in its second frame. For Spectre, that number is 34%. The competitive environment looks similar for both films. Skyfall faced the finale to a major YA franchise – Twilight – in its fourth week of play.

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Spectre similarly faces the final Hunger Games picture at the same juncture of release. Skyfall was able to retake the top spot in its sixth weekend, and was still in the top two in its seventh. The challenge for Spectre is to show equivalent legs, chasing Skyfall’s lifetime tally of just below £103m. At close of play on Sunday, Spectre was breathing down the neck of Jurassic World, 2015’s biggest UK box-office hit, with £64.24m so far. On Monday, Bond overtook the dinosaurs to snatch the 2015 crown.

The arthouse hit: Brooklyn

On paper, there were plenty of reasons to anticipate a strong UK and Ireland opening for Brooklyn. The film had been well received at Sundance, Toronto, London and other festivals. Marketable elements included author Colm Tóibín, screenwriter Nick Hornby and cast members Saoirse Ronan, Domnhall Gleeson, Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent. Reviews were strong, with an 88/100 score at MetaCritic, and last week the film picked up five nominations at the British independent film awards, including one each for Hornby and Ronan. On the other hand, Brooklyn seemed to lack a strong story hook, and it wasn’t necessarily so easy communicating the special qualities of the film. Furthermore, was going up against the second weekend of Spectre a challenge too far?

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In the event, Brooklyn has opened with an impressive £1.04m, including previews of £65,000. Playing in 308 cinemas – significantly fewer than most films in the top 10 – Brooklyn enjoys a robust screen average of £3,381, second only to Spectre’s. The John Crowley-directed film might be expected to enjoy an older and a female audience skew – a factor that should help it perform strongly on weekdays this week, following the Suffragette pattern. Indeed, Brooklyn was comfortably in second place (behind only Spectre) on Monday. The UK and Ireland total has been significantly boosted by a whopping number in the latter territory: £432,000. That’s the biggest in Ireland for an Irish film since Michael Collins in 1996, according to the film’s publicist. Opening numbers in Ireland for more recent Irish hits include The Guard (£409,000), In Bruges (£344,000) and Calvary (£331,000). However, Mrs Brown’s Boys: D’Movie opened bigger in Ireland than any of the aforementioned titles – leading to a debate about what qualifies a film as Irish. In the case of Brooklyn, which is produced by London-based Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey (producers of An Education), the Irish Film Board is a participant and investor.

The disappointment 1: Burnt

While an opening of £446,000 from 364 cinemas isn’t a total disaster for Burnt, it’s less than half the Brooklyn debut, and from a few more cinemas. Given what was seemingly a marketable premise – Bradley Cooper is Gordon Ramsay, basically – and a support cast including Sienna Miller, Daniel Bruhl, Alicia Vikander, Emma Thompson and Uma Thurman, the film appeared to have commercial potential. Rather discouraging reviews (42/100 at MetaCritic) will not have helped. Audiences are responding better, with a decent 6.7/10 rating at IMDb.

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The disappointment 2: Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

Released in 407 cinemas, horror comedy Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse did worse than Burnt, with a UK opening of £297,000 (including £25,000 previews) delivering a site average of just £730. The film offered a clear proposition – teenage boy scouts, hot cocktail waitress, zombies, grossout gags – but the target audience evidently struggled to view it as a must-see film. A kinder fate probably awaits it on DVD and VOD.

The disappointment 3: Kill Your Friends

When an adaptation of John Niven’s Kill Your Friends was announced, anticipation among the author’s fans was high. But any film, with a protagonist who qualifies as unlikable, was always going to be a challenge for broader audiences. An opening of £102,000 (including £6,500 in previews) from 169 cinemas delivers a site average of £605. The film arguably sits uneasily in the space between arthouse and mainstream – the goal is always to straddle those two audiences, rather than falling between them.

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The disappointment 4: He Named Me Malala

Released ambitiously into 203 cinemas, He Named Me Malala is the worst performing of the five wide openers, grossing £102,000, including £24,000 in previews. Reviews were, in many cases, very positive – five stars from the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, for example – but audiences were perhaps picking up notes of encouragement and admiration rather than love for a film that was easier to see as important than as unmissable. Given competition from Brooklyn, upscale audiences can be forgiven for being more drawn to Ronan’s 1950s-set romantic escapades. An analysis of He Named Me Malala’s top-performing sites suggests it is scoring with Asian Muslims, with good numbers at Cineworlds in Wembley and Feltham.

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The future

Thanks to a solid second session from Spectre, the market, overall, delivered a 58% uptick on the equivalent weekend from 2014, when Interstellar landed at the top spot. The coming frame, which is the last before the arrival next week of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, offers a number of solid choices, but no likely blockbuster. Danny Boyle directs Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs, with a screenplay from Aaron Sorkin. Box office in the US so far suggests a total below The Social Network’s. Maggie Smith stars in The Lady in the Van, adapted from the Alan Bennett book and stage play, presenting a clearly identified audience. Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried and Aaron Paul star in family drama Fathers and Daughters. Alternatives include Ireland-set creature feature The Hallow and hip US indie Tangerine, set in LA’s transgender prostitute community.

Top 10 films 6-8 November

1. Spectre, £13,145,138 from 660 sites. Total: £63,973,267

2. Hotel Transylvania 2, £1,105,023 from 559 sites. Total: £17,510,007

3. Brooklyn, £1,041,278 from 308 sites (new)

4. Pan, £520,526 from 496 sites. Total: £7,861,368

5. Burnt, £445,777 from 364 sites (new)

6. The Martian, £437,450 from 358 sites. Total: £22,593,037

7. Suffragette, £404,805 from 438 sites. Total: £8,579,916

8. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, £297,263 from 407 sites (new)

9. Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension, £290,351 from 339 sites. Total: £3,559,245

10. The Last Witch Hunter, £156,466 from 264 sites. Total: £2,555,470

Other openers

Kill Your Friends, £102,221 (including £6,523 previews) from 169 sites

He Named Me Malala, £101,776 (including £24,176 previews) from 203 sites

Ex-Files 2, £11,277 from seven sites

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Why Brief Encounter is the film you should watch this week

Brief Encounter, £8,798 from 10 sites

Microbe & Gasoline, £859 from two sites

Kafes, £428 from one site

The Runner, £338 from eight sites

The Sweet Escape, £41 from one site

Thanks to Rentrak