TOP TEN FILMS

Top 10 films, 20-22 November

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, £11,255,566 from 576 sites (new)
2. Spectre, £3,821,156 from 607 sites. Total: £84,313,251
3. The Lady in the Van, £1,609,943 from 549 sites. Total: £6,437,140
4. Hotel Transylvania 2, £539,251 from 527 sites. Total: £19,189,306
5. Brooklyn, £409,100 from 373 sites. Total: £3,782,618
6. Steve Jobs, £404,026 from 393 sites. Total: £1,776,129
7. The Dressmaker, £235,968 from 202 sites (new)
8. Pan, £230,282 from 431 sites. Total: £8,694,861
9. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, £217,514 from 100 sites. Total: £1,392,688
10. The Perfect Guy, £102,924 from 102 sites (new)

Spectre - results

Spectre suffers big drop

Having dropped by 34% and 40% in its second and third sessions, Spectresuffered its biggest fall to date, down 51%. Sony shouldn’t be too worried: Skyfall experienced a similarly hefty dip (down 47%) in its fourth frame, when it faced competition from the final Twilight film.

Bond and gagged: Spectre's kissing scenes censored by Indian film certification board

 

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The arrival of Mockingjay – Part 2 has had a comparable effect on Spectre. After 28 days of release, Spectre stands at £84.3m. Skyfall had reached £85.8m at the same stage of its runand went on to add another £17m, pushing it to almost £103m. That was an exceptionally long tail for a film that pulled in a number of extremely infrequent cinema-goers by the end of its run. It remains to be seen whether Spectre has the same staying power. Competition for the older male audience hots up this week with the arrival of Black Mass and especially Bridge of Spies.

Spectre has now overtaken Titanic (£80.1m, including the 3D rerelease) to become the third-biggest film ever at the UK box office, after Skyfall and Avatar (£94.0m). The big questions now are: can it match Skyfall? Will it crack £100m? And will it beat Avatar?

Mockingjay - statistics

Katniss off target as Mockingjay – Part 2 trails Part 1 at UK box officeHunger Games finale’s £11.3m opening fails to match its predecessor’s, as Spectre rockets to third place in all-time UK chart.

Numbers soften for Hunger Games finale

When the makers of the Harry Potter and Twilight films split the last book of each series into two movies, both saw a box office uptick for the finale. It was reasonable to assume that Hunger Games would follow the same pattern, with Mockingjay – Part 2 delivering a bigger opening than its predecessor. It didn’t happen.

The final Hunger Games film opened with £9.26m plus just under £2m in previews, for an £11.26m total. That compares with Mockingjay – Part 1’s £10.32m plus £2.33m in previews for a four-day total of £12.65m. In other words, the second instalment is 11% down on its predecessor.

Mockingjay - Part 2 might have dipped because Part 1 was arguably a water-treading exercise that eroded the fanbase. But the same could be said about Twilight: Breaking Dawn, the first part of which was rather uneventful. That didn’t stop fans turning up in droves for the finale.

Another theory is that, with the addition of the Divergent and Maze Runner franchises – both delivered sequels in 2015 – the dystopian-future YA space has become too cluttered. It may also be that occasional cinemagoers have seenSpectre, booked for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and decided that’s enough for now.

Viewed in a broader context, £11.24m in four days is still a tidy sum for Mockingjay – Part 2. While it was beaten this year by the debuts of Fifty Shades of Grey, Fast & Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, Minions and Spectre, it’s worth remembering that 2015 has been an exceptionally strong year for blockbusters. Last year, ignoring previews, only one film opened bigger than Mockingjay – Part 2 and that was Mockingjay – Part 1.

Mockingjay Part 2 interviews (distribution)

The main actors

The Hungergames (mockingjay) PART2 Distribution

Teaser trailer 

Extended trailer 

Spectre Behind The Scenes Action

Spectre interview with one of the bond girls:

Spectre Exhibition

Premiere of Spectre 

Opening Weekend Review 

Spectre had a good news, bad news weekend this time out. The bad news is that the 007 movie plunged 75% in its second weekend in China, earning $12.2 million and bringing its total there to $77.8m. Now that’s already over the $61m that Skyfall  earned in China last time out, but it means that the 007 adventure won’t be on the Chinese market for long.But, the good news is that it made $65m overseas in total this weekend, meaning the MGM/Sony/Eon Productions release is doing pretty okay, with (among other things) a $50m total in Germany and $130.5m in the United Kingdom. It has already earned $524.1m overseas thus far, or almost as much as Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace made total.