‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ tops UK-Ireland box office with £3.1m, down 40% on first film

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Universal sequel Downton Abbey: A New Era brought in £3.1m on its opening weekend – enough to top the UK-Ireland chart, but down 40.8% on the first film from 2019.

Playing in 746 locations - the second-widest opening of all time in the territory - A New Era took an average of £4,119 per location – also down on the £7,087 average of the first film.

It has £4m including showings from the Bank Holiday Monday.

Paramount held the second and third spots this weekend. In second place, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 added £1.35m – a 17% drop – and has £22.6m from five sessions, now well past the £19.3m of the 2020 first film.

In third place, The Lost City dropped just 12% with £1.2m bringing it to £7.4m from three weekends.

Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore dropped 24.8% on its fourth session, with £1.2m taking it to £18.8m total. Within the next week it should hit the £20m mark that few films have crossed since the pandemic began.

Animation The Bad Guys posted an excellent hold on its fifth weekend, falling just 1.9% with £723,938 taking it to £10.2m total for Universal.

Takings for the top five stood at £7.5m – up 23.7% on last weekend thanks to Downton Abbey. Exhibitors will look to Marvel title Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness to boost takings back towards the £16.9m taken by the top five in early March.

Strong holds

The Northman also held well for Universal, dropping 15.2% on its third session with £590,807 taking it to a £3.6m cume.

Warner Bros’ Operation Mincemeat dropped 29.2% on its third weekend, with £537,109 taking it to just shy of £4.1m.

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent dropped 36% for Lionsgate, adding £300,051 on its second weekend for a £1.2m total.

The Batman has crossed the £40m mark for Warner Bros, with £104,943 this weekend – a 32.5% drop – taking it close to £40.1m. Its next target among superhero titles is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which took £41m in 2017.

Sony’s Morbius dropped 35.8% on its fifth session, with £77,000 taking it to £6.4m.

Dreamz Entertainment’s Bollywood title Acharya opened to £29,961 from the three-day weekend, and had £92,624 including previews by Sunday, May 1.

The Worst Person In The World moves ever closer to the £1m mark rarely reached by non-English language titles, adding £27,212 on its sixth weekend to reach £957,934 total.

Modern Films’ nature documentary The Velvet Queen: Snow Leopard opened to £15,603 over the weekend including the Bank Holiday, and has £17,894 from the 20 sites to have reported so far.

Curzon’s Cannes 2021 Competition title Casablanca Beats opened to £6,087 from 26 sites, and has £9,126 including the Bank Holiday and previews.

Lightbulb Film Distribution’s We’re All Going To The World’s Fair opened to £2,832 at the weekend, and has £4,350 in total from 17 locations.

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