Star Wars awakens UK box office

The previous weekend (11-13 December) was the lowest-grossing of the year. Now the UK box office has recovered in spectacular fashion thanks to the arrival of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The franchise reboot’s three-day weekend gross of £24.33m set a new record at UK and Ireland cinemas, ahead of the £23.75m achieved by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in July 2011. Thursday takings of £9.68m pushed the opening tally to £34.01m – a record for a four-day debut.

In November, Spectre’s three-day weekend debut was £19.98m, 18% behind the pace set by The Force Awakens. However, a more generous preview period pushed Spectre’s opening to a bigger £41.30m – a number grossed from nearly a whole week of play.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens video review Guardian

The Force Awakens’ first day of £9.68m is the biggest ever opening day in the UK, although it’s worth noting that it was boosted by significant takings from 12.01am previews on Wednesday night. The film also achieved the biggest Saturday (£8.71m) and Sunday (£8.58m) of all time. Disney takes heart from the exceptionally small dip of 1.5% from Saturday to Sunday, suggesting the film is set to show strong legs. Over the weekend, The Force Awakens achieved a market share of 83%, which is the biggest ever recorded for a single title. Saturation play is on around 2,500 screens in the UK and Ireland, at 670 cinemas. The film helped push UK takings to a spectacular 512% rise on the previous frame, when a dearth of new releases had caused extreme stagnation in the market.

Disney has announced Monday takings of £5.83m, which is likewise a record haul for a Monday, beating Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’s 2004 Bank Holiday Monday tally of £5.05m. The additional box office pushes The Force Awakens to a five-day total of £39.81m.

What happens next depends on the answers to two questions. To what degree has the audience for this highly anticipated film already rushed out to see it? And how robust will repeat business be? Anecdotally, the latter already looks set to be a major factor in the success of the film. However, The Force Awakens must surely suffer a significant drop on its second weekend of play, covering the 25-27 December period – after all, cinemas are closed on Christmas Day in the UK.

Disney reports the format splits as 54% of box office in 2D, 36% in 3D and 10% in Imax. In terms of admissions numbers, that number would be a bit higher in 2D and lower in the other formats, given lower ticket prices for 2D, and probably also a bigger skew in child and family tickets for 2D. Disney also reminds us that The Force Awakens’ four-day total of £34.01m is more than the lifetime totals of every Transformers movie, every Spider-Man title and sleeper hits such as Gravity and Slumdog Millionaire.

Sisters achieves £1m ‘weekend’

Sisters video review Guardian

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler achieved a £1.22m debut in the UK with their new comedy Sisters. If that number sounds robust, especially given competition from a new Star Wars film, a look at the small print is required. Sisters effectively opened in UK cinemas on 12 December, and played six days of previews in advance of the 18-20 December weekend, earning £734,000. The film’s actual weekend figure is a less sturdy £481,000, from 442 cinemas.

Existing titles collapse

Holding firm against The Force Awakens … The Good Dinosaur video review Guardian

The Force Awakens was always going to have a big impact on existing titles in the marketplace, taking away screens and showtimes, and sucking away audience attention. Spectre shed over 100 cinemas, and fell 63% in box office from the previous session. Bridge of Spies lost more than 250 venues, and dropped by 73% in box-office. Carol saw box office decline by 67%, The Lady in the Van by 76% and Black Mass by 82%. Bucking the trend is family animation The Good Dinosaur, which fell a relatively slim 30%, and festive comedy Christmas With the Coopers, down 45%.

The vintage perennial

It’s a Wonderful Life - trailer

It’s a Wonderful Life is back in the UK box office top 10, enjoying the fruits once again of its annual festive rerelease. This is the ninth successive year that the Frank Capra classic has been pushed back into cinemas for Christmas, achieving its highest chart placing since 2010. The Jimmy Stewart film added another £97,000 at the weekend, bringing the total since its 2007 reissue to £2.04m. The title should continue to play well until Christmas Eve, and fade thereafter until next December.

The Hindi hits

Star attraction … Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in Dilwale

With takings of £728,000, Dilwale delivers the biggest three-day debut for a Bollywood title since Bajrangi Bhaijaan began with £758,000 in July. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, the other notable Hindi hit of the year, recorded an opening tally of £912,000, but that included preview takings of £187,000 – strip them out, and the weekend total declines to £725,000, just below the Dilwale figure. Dilwale, starring Shah Rukh Khan, is described as an action crime comedy about the children of two competing families meeting again after a 15-year separation. Also landing in the top 10 is historical romance Bajirao Mastani, with debut takings of £298,000.

Films of the year

Spectre - video review Guardian

After a dismal 2014, our top 25 of the year (see chart below) sees Hollywood blockbusters bounce back in spectacular fashion. The equivalent chart exactly a year ago, with just over a week of the year yet to play, showed no film managing £35m (although both Paddington and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies would go on to exceed that tally). Our chart for 2015 shows seven films above £35m, led by Spectre (£92.6m) and Jurassic World (£64.4m). The Force Awakens also passed £35m on Monday, and looks well on course to reach Spectre’s lofty heights.

Although the top hits are far, far ahead of the equivalent titles from 2014, lower down the top 25, the box-office numbers are much closer to the films occupying the same positions in last year’s chart. In other words, 2015 was not quite a rising tide lifting all boats. The year with the most number of £50m hits remains 2012, when Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises, Marvel Avengers Assemble and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey all passed the milestone – albeit doing so after the year had ended in the case of the Hobbit film. This year has recorded two £50m hits (Spectre and Jurassic World), although The Force Awakens is a dead cert to provide a third.

The future

In the Heart of the Sea star Chris Hemsworth and director Ron Howard - video interview Guardian

As mentioned above, UK box office is an amazing 512% up on the previous frame, and also 146% up on the equivalent weekend from 2014, when The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies retained the top spot. Officially opening yesterday, but in fact already playing previews for three weekends now, is Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie. Boxing day sees the arrival of Ron Howard’s whaling adventure In the Heart of the Sea and Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg comedy Daddy’s Home. However those films fare, The Force Awakens is certain to continue to dominate the session.

Top 25 films of 2015

1. Spectre, £92.80m*

2. Jurassic World, £64.37m

3. The Avengers: Age of Ultron, £48.34m

4. Minions, £47.29m

5. Inside Out, £39.18m

6. Fast & Furious 7, £38.53m

7. Fifty Shades of Grey, £35.05m

8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, £34.01m*

9. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, £26.67m*

10. Home, £25.38m

11. The Martian, £23.47m

12. The Theory of Everything, £21.52m

13. Cinderella, £21.31m

14. Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, £21.18m

15. Big Hero 6, £20.68m

16. Hotel Transylvania 2, £19.65m*

17. Legend, £18.34m

18. Taken 3, £17.78m

19. Mad Max: Fury Road, £17.40m

20. Pitch Perfect 2, £17.39m

21. Kingsman: The Secret Service, £16.57m

22. Ant-Man, £16.32m

23. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, £16.01m

24. Shaun the Sheep Movie, £13.75m

25. American Sniper, £13.73m

Grosses to 20 December; * still on release

Top 10 films, 18-20 December

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, £34.01m, 670 sites (new)

2. Sisters, £1,215,368, 442 sites (new)

3. The Good Dinosaur, £890,350 from 585 sites. Total: £8,087,040

4. Dilwale, £727,512 from 135 sites (new)

5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, £525,727 from 425 sites. Total: £26,671,519

6. Spectre, £297,803 from 308 sites. Total: £92,798,732

7. Bajirao Mastani, £297,573 from 126 sites (new)

8. Christmas With the Coopers, £258,162 from 353 sites. Total: £1,953,180

9. Bridge of Spies, £212,169 from 304 sites. Total: £6,144,463

10. It’s A Wonderful Life, £96,893 from 54 sites. Rerelease total: £2,041,085

Other openers

Surprise: Journey to the West, £28,776 from 14 sites

Sherpa, £4,640 from 3 sites

Thanga Magan, £1,639 from 5 sites

Thanks to Rentrak. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.