The winner



Despite a hefty fall of 66% from its opening frame, Fifty Shades of Grey led the field by a clear margin on its second weekend of release. After 10 days, it has grossed a spectacular £25.24m, overtaking The Wolf of Wall Street (£22.70m lifetime) to be the biggest ever 18-certificate title at the UK box office.

Between 16-22 February, Fifty Shades earned £11.69m, indicating that audiences were still lining up to see it following a strong opening weekend when it earned £13.55m). In percentage terms, it suffered the biggest drop for a number-one title since The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 fell an identical 66% in November 2012. That film ended up achieving a rather slim 2.26 times its opening weekend by the end of its run. Fifty Shades should show slightly stronger legs, but a similar rate of decay would deliver a cumulative total around £31m.

Fifty Shades of Grey - video review Guardian

In the UK, Fifty Shades is far ahead of the pace it’s achieving in the US. By industry rule of thumb, an equivalent UK result to the US box-office of $129m would be about £13m. In fact, it’s nearly double that figure, perhaps reflecting local enthusiasm for the source material and actor Jamie Dornan, or just an exceptional release campaign by Universal UK.

The half-term surge

All the family films in the market enjoyed excellent business over the February half-term holiday. Disney’s Big Hero 6 rose 40% from the previous frame, and added £6.31m over the seven days. Aardman animation Shaun the Sheep the Movie rose 39%, and added £5.98m over the seven days. Totals for the films stand at £16.18m for Big Hero 6 and £10.35m for Shaun.

Shaun the Sheep the Movie - video review Guardian

Now that kids are back at school, numbers for both these titles should drop, but Big Hero 6 is already past the lifetime total of Cars 2 (£15.65m) and should push past £20m, matching the likes of Kung Fu Panda (£20.29m) and Tangled (£20.47m).

Paddington rose 36% at the weekend – perhaps a last hurrah for a film that has been on release for three solid months, and arrives on DVD on March 23. Cumulative total is a sensational £36.95m.

Disney pushed Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Never Beast back into cinemas, nabbing 15th place in the chart with £127,000 – a 20-fold rise on the previous frame. Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots fell 27%, but nevertheless added a handy £504,000, and now stands at £2.02m. Given what can be assumed to be a modest production budget, this looks like an easy cash win for the rights holders, with rich ancillary to follow.

The middling new releases

In the second weekend of Fifty Shades’ release, UK distributors didn’t risk any of their major assets, but Sony went out with broad comedy The Wedding Ringer, and Paramount offered teen time-travel flick Project Almanac. The Wedding Ringer, starring Kevin Hart and Josh Gad (who voiced the snowman in Frozen) collected an OK £827,000 plus previews of £164,000. Project Almanac managed £495,000 plus previews of £373,000. Both landed mid-table in the chart.

The result for The Wedding Ringer is good enough to confirm Kevin Hart as a marketable comedy star here in the UK (he has long been that in the US), although the gross is below the opening of last year’s Ride Along (£1.42m), co-starring Ice Cube.

The most apt comparison for Project Almanac is Chronicle, given the teen characters, self-filmed conceit and genre storyline. Chronicle debuted in February 2012 with a much richer £1.58m plus previews of £617,000.

The disappointments

Despite a release on more than 100 screens, both Blackhat and Cake landed outside the top 10. Blackhat, a pricey thriller directed by Michael Mann, went out on a surprisingly tight 149-print release, presumably a result of the disappointing US performance (just $8m). An opening gross of £147,000 delivered a weak screen average of £988. Given the narrow release, it’s reasonable to assume that marketing spend was reined in, the studio not wishing to throw good money after bad.

Jennifer Aniston drama Cake did similarly badly, with £114,000 from 118 screens, an £969 average. However, with a much lower production spend, the result barely represents a fiscal blip for distributor Warners.

The arthouse alternative

Venues seeking an alternative to Fifty Shades – as well as to family films, mainstream new releases and the many middlebrow awards-bait films still in play – were offered one in the shape of Peter Strickland’s defiantly arthouse The Duke of Burgundy. The stylish, narratively light, obscurely playful depiction of two lesbian entomologists debuted with a so-so £43,200 from 23 cinemas. The film did best in London, in venues such as Curzon Soho and Curzon Mayfair. The result is almost identical to the start of Strickland’s previous film, Berberian Sound Studio, which kicked off in August 2012 with £43,100 from 23 venues.

Beyond the Oscar-nominated films such as The Theory of Everything, Selma and Whiplash, the top indie title in holdover play is Love Is Strange, which fell a slim 21%, for weekend takings of £55,000 from 38 venues, and a 10-day total of £207,000.



January report

The Cinema Exhibitors’ Association has posted admissions numbers for January (number of tickets sold) and they are a modest 1.3% up on January 2014. The month was boosted by titles such as The Theory of Everything (closing in on £20m), Taken 3, Into the Woods and American Sniper. In 2014, top titles included The Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle.

The future

Thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey, the market is an acceptable 5% up on the equivalent weekend from 2014, when family films The Lego Movie and Mr Peabody and Sherman led the field. This Thursday, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel lands in cinemas, with a built-in audience from the earlier hit. Will Smith’s enduring star power will be measured by the outcome of hustle caper Focus, with Margot Robbie. Jennifer Lopez offers a guilty pleasure in The Boy Next Door. Indie alternatives include hip teen-horror It Follows, gritty Brit flick Catch Me Daddy and Cannes prizewinner White God.

Top 10 films, 20-22 February

1. Fifty Shades of Grey, £4,597,092 from 596 sites. Total: £25,242,636

2. Big Hero 6, £2,581,806 from 575 sites. Total: £16,178,232

3. Shaun the Sheep the Movie, £2,429,181 from 561 sites. Total: £10,352,125

4. Kingsman: The Secret Service, £1,216,457 from 457 sites. Total: £13,385,637

5. The Wedding Ringer, £990,445 from 384 sites (new)

6. Project Almanac, £868,030 from 385 sites (new)

7. Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots, £504,253 from 407 sites. Total: £2,020,924

8. The Theory of Everything, £445,461 from 324 sites. Total: £19,908,073

9. Jupiter Ascending, £436,526 from 342 sites. Total: £3,925,912

10. American Sniper, £414,648 from 341 sites. Total: £13,021,706

Cake – video review Guardian

Other openers

Blackhat, £147,199 from 149 sites

Cake, £114,316 from 118 sites

Badlapur, £44,825 from 20 sites

The Duke of Burgundy, £43,155 from 23 sites

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, £16,640 from 16 sites

Ali Kundilli, £3,444 from 2 sites

Maidan, £2,756 from 3 sites

Predestination, £1,758 from 10 sites

• Thanks to Rentrak