| Rank | Film (distributor) | Three-day gross (Sept 23-25) | Total gross to date | Week |
| 1. | Don’t Worry Darling (Warner Bros) | £2.7m | £2.8m | 1 |
| 2. | Ticket To Paradise (Universal) | £1.7m | £2.8m | 1 |
| 3. | Avatar re-release (Disney) |
£1.2m | £1.2m | 1 |
| 4. | See How They Run (Disney) | £471,638 | £3.7m | 3 |
| 5. | Moonage Daydream (Universal) |
£375,399 | £676,185 | 2 |
GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.07
Olivia Wilde’s thriller Don’t Worry Darling has topped the UK-Ireland box office on its opening weekend, with a strong £2.7m start.
Don’t Worry Darling opened in 697 sites to become the widest-ever opening for a female-directed film ever in the territory. It brought in an average of £3,818 per cinema – a good result for an original film not based on pre-existing material.
Including previews, it is up to almost £2.8m.
The film brought in £967,320 on Friday, £923,390 on Saturday and £770,717 on Sunday. This drop of just 4.5% from Friday to Saturday was twice as strong as in the US, where the film fell 9.3% between those two days.
It is already Wilde’s highest-grossing film here as director, topping the £1.5m total of Booksmart from 2019.
Don’t Worry Darling’s figure was enough to keep the Warner Bros title ahead of Universal’s Ticket To Paradise.
Having delayed its UK opening to Tuesday 20 following the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, that film took almost £1.7m at the weekend, with a full opening of £2.8m including its midweek figures and Ireland numbers from the previous weekend.
Romantic comedy comparisons in that range include 2009’s Bride Wars (opened: £1.7m; closed: £7.2m); 2008’s 27 Dresses (£1.8m; £6.8m); and 2006’s Just Friends (£1.8m; £6m). Universal will hope the star power of George Clooney and Julia Roberts will be enough to see the film beyond those totals, towards the £10m total mark.
Disney’s re-release of James Cameron’s Avatar brought in £1.2m on the first weekend of its two-week-only cinema run. Added to the total from the original release, it is up to £95.2m, overtaking Spectre to become the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time in the territory.
A strong performance throughout the rest of its run could see it catch Spider-Man: No Way Home - on £97.2m after its own re-release this month; and even No Time To Die on £98m.
Last week’s number one See How They Run dropped 52% on its third weekend, with £471,638 bringing it to a £3.7m cume.
David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream scored a huge 106.9% increase on its opening session, buoyed by its expansion to non-Imax venues. The Universal film took £375,399 on its second weekend, and has £676,185 in total, putting a seven-figure total well within reach.
With four titles entering the top five for the first time, the top five saw a welcome 184.4% increase on last time out, to £6.4m. This marked the first increase in eight weeks, and the highest top five total since August 1.
Minions keep laughing
Universal’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru dropped just 16.7% on its 13th weekend in cinemas – a strong performance amongst the presence of several new titles. It added £267,854 to reach £45.4m total, putting it in the top 70 highest-grossing films of all time in the UK and Ireland.
DC League Of Super-Pets dropped a slim 23% for Warner Bros, with £235,512 bringing it to almost £15.2m from nine weekends.
Tad The Lost Explorer And The Curse Of The Mummy held well for Paramount, falling 28% on its third session with £202,000 bringing it to £1.4m to date.
Bullet Train leads Sony’s slate, with £151,000 on its eighth weekend – a 52.8% drop – bringing it to £10.6m.
Top Gun: Maverick has been in cinemas for a stunning 18 consecutive weekends. It added £140,000 this time – a 57% drop – and is up to £83.1m, as the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time in the territory.
Signature Entertainment’s Orphan: First Kill dropped 52.2% on its sixth weekend, with £64,558 taking it to a £2.3m cume.
Nope dropped 69.3% on its seventh weekend for Universal. with £55,284 taking it to a £7.9m cume – down on the £10.5m of Get Out and £10.1m of Us from director Jordan Peele.
On an impressive 14th weekend in cinemas, Elvis added £53,720 for Warner Bros – a 73.7% drop – to reach £27.5m total.
Disney’s Indian franchise title Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva dropped 77% on its third weekend, with £46,864 taking it to £995,237. Another weekend in cinemas should see it enter a small group of non-English language films to make more than £1m in the UK and Ireland.
Bodies Bodies Bodies fell 77.3% on its third session, adding £44,000 to reach £861,000 for Sony.
Tower thriller Fall added £31,901 on its fourth session, with the 56.2% drop bringing it to a £570,506 total.
National Theatre Live’s Prima Facie, the highest-grossing event cinema release of all time in the UK and Ireland, added a further £21,867 this weekend, and is just shy of £5m total.
Universal’s Jaws re-release added £21,362 on a third weekend, and is up to a £912,597 cume.
Sony’s Where The Crawdads Sing is coming to the end of a long tail, adding £19,000 on its tenth weekend to hit an £8.2m cume – a strong result for a film that started with £1.3m in July.
Thor: Love And Thunder added £16,070 on its 12th weekend in cinemas. It is up to £37.5m, and will end its run as the ninth-highest-grossing of 28 Marvel Cinematic Universe films to date.
Beast is coming to the end of its run for Universal, adding £16,049 on a fifth session to reach £1.9m total.
Moviegoers Entertainment’s Bollywood romance Chup opened to £13,487 from 40 cinemas, at a £337 location average.
Two further Universal titles are also closing out: drama The Forgiven, adding £9,462 to reach £430,463; and the E.T. re-release, adding £7,570 to hit £650,763, both from four sessions.
Music documentary Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song added £7,800 on its second weekend, dropping 67.5%, and has £71,000 in total for Sony.
For Curzon, Funny Pages added £7,491 on its second weekend, and is up to a £56,578 cume.
Hong Sang-soo’s In Front Of Your Face opened to £3,801 from 10 sites through New Wave Films.
Clerks III added £3,186 for Lionsgate, and is up to £65,545 from two sessions.
Hatching put on a further £3,200 for Picturehouse Entertainment on its second weekend, and is up to just shy of £91,000.
It Is In Us All, the directorial debut of Northern Irish filmmaker and Screen Star of Tomorrow actor Antonia Campbell-Hughes, started with £2,719 including previews.
Sony’s two-day anime release of Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island took £4,500 from 72 sites last Wednesday and Thursday.
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