The school holidays are still in full swing across the UK, and the weekend’s box-office figures reflect that. The Disney Toons PLANES has made it to the top of the pile after raking in £1.7 million despite poor reviews. The spin-off from the hit Disney/Pixar series CARS, beat off competition from the other big releases this weekend, which included the comic-book sequel KICK-ASS 2 and the Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg action comedy 2 GUNS. If you compare PLANES’ opening weekend against CARS when it was released in 2006, you’ll see the difference in performance. CARS brought in a huge $3.1 million over its first three days, nearly double than that of PLANES. CARS 2, the sequel, released in 2011, did even better with £3.6 million in the bank over its opening weekend.
PLANES didn’t fare too well across the pond either, making the number three spot in US theatres on release, however the film has a significantly smaller budget to its predecessors, and is already on track to make back its budget of $50 million on home soil alone, so Disney will see the film as a sucess, and worthy of its cinema run, rather than the direct-to-dvd path that had initially been made for.
Universal’s KICK-ASS 2 was also received poorly across the pond, and Universal may be disappointed with the UK performance after raking in a mere £1.4 million, compared to the original movie taking over double that in 2010 (£3.7m). That film also suffered lackluster reviews with critics giving mixed reaction to it, including our own Jazmine Bradley.
The slightly-better reviewed 2 GUNS actually performed reasonably well, matching the take of Denzel Washington’s FLIGHT (£1.3 million in its first three days), which was released back in January. Compare the total to Wahlberg and director Baltasar Kormakur’s last collaboration CONTRABAND in 2012, and you’ll find another success story, as they only managed around £690,000 across the opening three days. 2 GUNS does have a much larger budget to that movie, but the figures are in line and the Denzel/Wahlberg collaboration and will turn profitable after international sales and its current $59 million domestic total.
Adam Sandler’s GROWN UPS 2 did the inevitable and dropped down the charts this weekend to number four. The drop equated to around 33% down from last week’s total, which actually isn’t a lot when you check the 40% drop of ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA, which is down to number seven in its second week out there.
It’s also worth a note that the animated sequel DESPICABLE ME 2 has become the highest grossing film of 2013 with £43 million in the bank, around £3 million more than the second highest grosser of the year, LES MISERABLES. DESPICABLE ME 2 is still hanging on in there at the number ten spot in its eighth week out there.
This coming weekend sees the release of more big releases, including the Warner Bros. comedy WE’RE THE MILLERS, starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis (review coming on Thursday), the Linda Lovelace biopic LOVELACE, which is being well received in reviews, THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES, which goes for the long weekend releasing in cinemas on Wednesday 21st August, and Neill Blomkamp’s first film since DISTRICT 9 starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, ELYSIUM.
We’ll bring you updates on the performances on those movies next week, but here’s the full run-down of the top ten as it stands from this past weekend, 16th-18th August 2013.
1. PLANES
2. KICK-ASS 2
3. 2 GUNS
4. GROWN UPS 2
5. THE CONJURING
6. MONSTERS UNIVERSITY
7. ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA
8. THE SMURFS 2
9. PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS
10. DESPICABLE ME 2
Sources: Rentrak/ Box-Office-Mojo
