It has been quite a weekend at the UK box-office. With the likes of high concept comedy in the form of THE CAMPAIGN, horror sequel RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION and the eagerly anticiped sci-fi actioner LOOPER all debuting last Friday, I for one couldn’t wait to see how they all lined up in the financials, which have just been released.
There could be only one, and there was. Taking more than double than than of the number two movie this week, LOOPER has managed to wow the critics and the paying public after taking a superb £2.4 million in its opening three days in the UK. The Joseph Gordon Levitt/ Bruce Willis starrer is possibly one of the best scored movies of the year, and deserves every penny of the haul ythat it took over the weekend, and I’m sure that because of the complexity of its story, it will stand up to more viewings, and thus, more money in the bank.
Hanging on for dear life in the number two spot is the well received PARANORMAN, a film that dropped just one spot (and around 12% in takings) from last week’s top spot, taking a huge £4.3m total in just over three weeks, a huge success in the UK for the Universal/Laika animated fare.
This week’s biggest opener in terms of budget was Paul WS Anderson’s RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION, a film with a massive $65 million budget (over double that of LOOPER’s $30 million). The film’s £792,265 is the lowest weekend haul of any of the films in the series to date, however it has a huge DVD audience, so Sony will be hoping to bag a few coins back from the home entertainment market.
At four was the only other new entry to make the top ten this weekend, the Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis comedy THE CAMPAIGN; not too disappointing for Warner Brothers, particularly after a strong US opening weekend, which was obviously its main target audience.
Check out the rest of the line-up below, along with the figures for each title.
Next week sees the release of the superb Josh Radnor comedy drama LIBERAL ARTS, the 007 documentary EVERYTHING OR NOTHING, the huge action sequel which we will probably see near the top of the chart next week TAKEN 2, Emma Watson in the quirky PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, the Ethan Hawke horror SINISTER, and British rom-com THE KNOT.
1. Looper, £2,427,994 from 449 sites (New)
2. ParaNorman, £1,080,197 from 495 sites. Total: £4,304,900
3. Resident Evil: Retribution, £792,265 from 349 sites (New)
4. The Campaign, £772,102 from 390 sites (New)
5. House at the End of Street, £545,961 from 369 sites. Total: £1,864,304
6. Killing them Softly, £470,712 from 372 sites. Total: £2,069,984
7. Hope Springs, £423,051 from 381 sites. Total: £3,041,790
8. The Sweeney, £410,578 from 342 sites. Total: £3,876,142
9. Brave, £400,511 from 466 sites. Total: £21,219,445
10. Untouchable, £317,979 from 153 sites. Total: £493,309
Source: Rentrak, Box-Office Mojo, The Guardian
