The winner: The Hateful Eight

When it was confirmed that three UK cinema chains – Cineworld, Picturehouse and Curzon – were not booking The Hateful Eight, there must have been a fair few concerned faces at partners Entertainment Films and the Weinstein Company. Would the dispute – which is seemingly all about the Odeon Leicester Square being given exclusive access to the 70mm “roadshow” version of the film, preferred by director Quentin Tarantino – seriously damage the box office?

So far, the answer would appear to be no. The Hateful Eight has opened in the UK and Ireland with £2.78m from 402 cinemas, delivering a muscular site average of £6,912. Back in January 2013, Django Unchained, which boasted a starrier cast including Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx, began with an almost-identical £2.80m, but from 445 cinemas, delivering an average of £6,295. Inglourious Basterds debuted in August 2009 with £1.90m from 444 cinemas, with previews of £1.69m taking the opening tally to £3.60m.

The Hateful Eight – video review. Guardian

Cineworld, Picturehouse and Curzon boast a combined 135 venues. It’s reasonable to assume that, but for the dispute, most Cineworlds and Picturehouses, and a few Curzons, would have played The Hateful Eight – perhaps 100 cinemas in total across the three chains. Looking at the site counts for both Django and Hateful – a gap of only 43 – it’s also reasonable to assume that Entertainment Films was able to quickly scramble and book its film into a number of cinemas that might otherwise not have carried it. Showtimes will almost certainly have been added at Vues and Odeons to take advantage of the situation.

It’s impossible to know how The Hateful Eight would have fared without the commercial dispute. But another comparison might also be considered helpful: in North America, the film opened a week ago with $15.7m (£11m), well down on the debut of Django Unchained ($30.7m). In other words, Hateful is trailing Django in the US, but not so far in the UK.

Star Wars feels the force again

Topping the UK box office for a fourth week in a row, Star Wars: The Force Awakens posted weekend box office just over £6m, bringing the total to a record-breaking £108.4m. On Friday, the film overtook Skyfall (£102.9m) to become the biggest hit ever at the UK box office. After four weekends of play, The Force Awakens is 31% ahead of Skyfall’s tally at the same stage of its run (£82.8m).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens – video review Guardian

The Force Awakens follows a four-week spell at the top spot by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, which followed three weeks of Spectre. That’s an unusual period of chart stability – in the previous 11 weeks, for example, seven different titles occupied the top spot. Before Mockingjay Part 2, the last film to win four straight weeks at the UK box office was Les Misérables, back in early 2013.

Daddy’s Home continues hot streak

Dropping just 22% from the previous frame, Daddy’s Home continues its impressive box-office run, with third-weekend takings of £2.27m. Cumulative box office of £11.87m is ahead of the lifetime totals of virtually every 2015 Hollywood comedy, including Spy (£10.05m), Ted 2 (£10.02m) and Pixels (£8.44m). Outside of animation, only Pitch Perfect 2, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and The Lady in the Van did better last year.

Aside from the star power of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg (which propelled The Other Guys to £8.19m back in 2010), Daddy’s Home is perhaps scoring due to a zeitgeist comedy premise (dad vs step-dad) that’s highly relatable and relevant for many families.

Bafta nominations give awards-bait films a lift

The Danish Girl – video review Guardian

Several titles seemingly received an assist from last Friday’s Bafta film awards nominations. Bridge of Spies and Carol, which led the nominations with nine apiece, saw box-office jump from the previous frame by 31% and 24% respectively. Bridge of Spies is back in the Top 10, in its seventh week of release. Brooklyn, with six nods, went up 50%. The Danish Girl, benefiting from four nominations including best actor, actress and British film, dipped by a very modest 6% from its opening session.

Both The Danish Girl and Joy, among other titles, will have benefited from Picturehouse and Curzon’s decision not to play The Hateful Eight. Hardly anything else opened – Danish drama A War is pretty niche, and documentary Bolshoi Babylon was chiefly booked as a Sunday afternoon special with live-link talent Q&A – meaning that The Danish Girl and Joy remained the top choices for the boutique indie chains.

The Lady in the Van – video review Guardian

Another film witnessing a big surge is The Lady in the Van, up 50% from the previous frame. Maggie Smith’s best actress Bafta nomination may have provided an assist, but more likely is a modest spike in bookings that saw the film return to a number of cinemas in its ninth week of play. Cumulative box-office now stands at £12.13m.

2015 report

Rentrak has issued its annual report on the UK and Ireland box office, showing an impressive 15.3% rise in 2015 from 2014, with a record-breaking £1.31bn in takings. The total is also an 11.1% rise on the previous record holder (2012), but of course ticket prices have risen in those three years. The release of admissions figures – actual number of tickets sold – lags behind box-office data, but after 11 months of 2015, admissions were running 9.3% ahead of the previous year. If that pace continued in December, admissions in 2015 would reach 172.1m, just behind recent strongly performing years 2012 (172.5m) and 2009 (173.5m). However, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens on release for 14 days in December, hopes are that the final month of the year can push the admissions total past those recent top performers.

The future

Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy star in The Revenant. Guardian

With a relatively light set of new releases, takings are 23% down on the previous frame, and also 19% down on the equivalent weekend a year ago, when Taken 3 topped the chart ahead of fellow new entrant Into the Woods. January has gradually emerged as a strong month for cinemagoing in the UK, especially in the arthouse sector, with the increased focus on exploiting the awards corridor as a release strategy – so the dip in figures so far this month is a concern. Bookers will be pinning hopes on Alejandro G Iñárritu’s The Revenant, arriving Friday – its expansion into wide play got off to a flying start in the US at the weekend, and then scooped several Golden Globes on Sunday night. It’s challenged here by other Globe winners Room and Creed. Genre alternatives include Dragon Blade and Ip Man 3.

Top 10 films January 8-10

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, £6,001,948 from 634 sites. Total: £108,430,730

2. The Hateful Eight, £2,778,633 from 402 sites (new)

3. Daddy’s Home, £2,268,945 from 466 sites. Total: £11,867,429

4. The Danish Girl, £1,294,024 from 545 sites. Total: £3,794,176

5. Joy, £1,047,139 from 532 sites. Total: £3,363,525

Joy – video review Guardian

6. Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie, £693,575 from 548 sites. Total: £8,376,110

7. The Good Dinosaur, £438,680 from 524 sites. Total: £13,229,402

8. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, £240,095 from 207 sites. Total: £28,865,260

9. In the Heart of the Sea, £202,774 from 330 sites. Total: £2,405,515

10. Bridge of Spies, £179,554 from 157 sites. Total: £7,156,826

Other openers

Wazir, £78,647 from 33 sites

Bolshoi Babylon, £35,587 from 100 sites (nine sites in full release)

Bolshoi Babylon - video review Guardian

Beauty and the Bestie, £19,233 from five sites

A War, £17,356 from 18 sites

Kocan Kadar Konus: Dirilis, £11,817 from four sites

Partisan, £4,890 from two sites

The Last Hijack, £1,397 from sites site

Adi Kapyare Kootamani, £700 from eight sites

Charlie, £332 from one site

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

