‘In The Heights’ opens at number two of UK-Ireland box office as ‘Peter Rabbit 2’ surges back to top

 GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.39

Warner Bros’ musical In The Heights reached second place on its opening weekend at the UK-Ireland box office, as Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway surged back to the top spot with a 38% weekend-on-weekend rise.

The family sequel added £1.1m on its fifth weekend for Sony, up from the £798,985 it took last time out. It is now up to £15.3m, making it comfortably the highest-grossing film in the territory since indoor cinemas were allowed to reopen on May 17.

Jon M. Chu’s In The Heights, based on Lin-Manuel’s musical and Quiara Alegría Hudes’ screenplay about the dreams and everyday lives of residents of the Washington Heights area of New York City, opened to £1.073m from 637 locations – a location average of £1,684.

This is below the £2,399 location average delivered by the film’s $11.5m (£8.3m) US opening, although this is to be expected with the film’s US-centric subject matter and the greater Hispanic population stateside.

For Lionsgate, action-comedy sequel The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard opened to £1.031m, narrowly securing third place for the weekend. Playing in 521 locations, the film grossed an average of £1,980 per site. This is down on the £2m opening from 467 locations of the first film, which went on to a £7.3m total; however all current results continue to be affected by social distancing measures, limiting cinema capacity to 50%. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard has £1.64m including previews from Monday to Thursday of last week.

Having held the number one position for the previous two weeks, A Quiet Place Part II dropped to fourth spot with £1.023m for Paramount, which represented a reasonable drop of just 22% on its previous session. It now has £8.34m, and with a strong tail could get up towards the £12.1m of the first film from April 2018, which would be a very impressive result in the circumstances.

Disney’s Cruella stayed in the top five, with a £731,639 weekend – a drop of just 0.19%. It is now past the £7m mark after four weekends.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It dropped 25.8% to £493,000, and has £7.7m from four weekends. It will fall short of the £10.5m and £11m taken by titles one and two in The Conjuring series, but has still performed well in a crowded market for horror titles. Further Warner Bros titles include Godzilla Vs. Kong, which added £76,000 to reach £2.5m; and Dream Horse, which topped up £25,000 to hit £586,000 total.

The Father was one of the strongest-performing holdovers of the weekend, rising 0.27% with £358,492 to reach £1.2m. 

Universal opened Ben Wheatley’s Sundance 2021 horror In The Earth to £58,538, of which £11,185 was previews. Playing in 177 locations, the average was £331 including previews and £268 without them. The film follows people struggling to find ways to live as a deadly virus ravages the world.

Universal also had Ilya Naishuller’s crime drama Nobody starring Better Caul Saul’s Bob Odenkirk, which dropped 46.7% to £200,431, and has topped the £1m mark from two weekends.

Paul W.S. Anderson’s Monster Hunter opened to £150,000 from 270 locations, at an average of £556, for Sony; which also had anime Demon Slayer: Mugen Train adding £18,000 to reach £1.4m, and The Unholy up to £632,000.

For Disney, Raya And The Last Dragon added £73,914 to reach £687,116; while Oscar best picture Nomadland put on £35,526 to hit £1.9m. 

Amongst indie titles, autism documentary The Reason I Jump opened to £14,185, plus £562 in previews, at a location average of £373 through Picturehouse Entertainment; while Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven opened to £4,778 from 11 locations at an average of £434, through New Wave Films.

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