‘Black Widow’ holds top spot as hot weather hits UK-Ireland box office

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.37

Marvel’s latest superhero blockbuster Black Widow held top spot at the UK-Ireland box office for a second successive session, on a weekend when hot weather across much of the territory limited box office takings.

Black Widow fell 61% on its opening session for distributor Disney, with £1.8m taking it to £11.2m from two weekends.

Directed by Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland, the blockbuster sees Natasha Romanoff confront dark parts of her past when a dangerous conspiracy connected to her history arises.

It has already passed the total grosses of 2008’s The Incredible Hulk (£8.3m) and 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger (£10.4m) from the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.

Warm weather and 50% occupancy limits still in place at all venues in England meant takings were down across the weekend, with a 25% drop in the top five total from £6.7m to £5m, even with three new openers in there.

Warner Bros’ animation-live action hybrid Space Jam: A New Legacy opened with £1.4m from 605 sites, at an average of £2,253. This is a similar figure to the £1.5m opening of the first Space Jam film in 1997, which went on to gross £11.7m total.

The Forever Purge pipped The Croods 2: A New Age to be the higher of Universal’s two openers this weekend. The horror franchise title opened to £702,000 from 501 locations, at an average of £1,401. Including Cineworld Unlimited previews it has £720,000 in total, behind the previous low opening for the series – 2016’s The Purge: Election Year with £807,803 – although this is the first of the five to be released post-pandemic.

The Croods 2: A New Age started with £696,000 from 601 locations at an average of £1,156 – also down on the £5.4m opening of the 2013 first film.

Universal also had Fast & Furious 9 in week four of its run, falling 59% to £446,000 and reaching £14.2m total; and week three of Freaky, which dropped 91% to £10,000 and has £794,000.

Horror sequel Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions led Sony’s slate, opening to £262,097 from 414 sites at an average of £633. It took a further £16,000 in previews for £278,097 total. This is down on the £820,713 opening of the first film in 2019; however that was also pre-pandemic, and in the colder, more cinema-friendly climes of February.

A Quiet Place Part II dropped 64% on its seventh weekend with £91,300, and has £11.2m in total – in the region of the £12.1m made by the first film in 2018, marking a good result for Paramount. 

Also for Sony, Peter Rabbit 2 took an 83% hit, with £88,835 bringing it to £18.6m total – less than half of the £41.1m made by the first film, again pre-pandemic in 2018.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical In The Heights, directed by John M. Chu, dropped 70% with £69,000 taking it to £4.1m from five weekends for Warner Bros. The studio also had franchise title The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which slipped 62% to £49,000 and £9.3m total – slightly below the £10.5m and £11m grossed by the first two Conjuring titles.

Elsewhere for Disney, Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) opened to £62,000 from 130 locations at an average of £477. The film is directed by Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson, and is a documentary about the influential 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival in New York. Cruella dropped 77% with £51,000 bringing it to just over £9m on its eighth weekend.

Studiocanal’s Another Round dropped 57% - a good hold in the context of this weekend – with £42,630 this weekend and £563,907 in total after three sessions. The distributor also has Supernova, which fell 66% on its fourth session to £10,970 and has grossed £687,237 to date.

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard took £34,579 – a 73% drop – on its fifth session, and has £3.7m, just over half of the £7.3m made by the 2017 first film. The Father dropped 70% to £9,753 and has £1.9m after six weekends.

For Curzon, Venice 2020 title Nowhere Special starring James Norton opened to £18,806, and has £22,016 including previews.

For Picturehouse Entertainment, Cannes 2019 Directors’ Fortnight title Deerskin opened to £13,241 this weekend, and has £24,594 including previews.

Japanese volleyball team documentary The Witches Of The Orient took £1,672 from seven locations including previews for Modern Films, with London’s Barbican and Ciné Lumière as the top sites, and further screenings this week through both virtual cinema partnerships and outdoors at the Coal Drops Yard in London.

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