| Rank | Film (distributor) | Three-day gross (Feb 2-4) | Total gross to date | Week |
| 1. | Migration (Universal) | £3.6m | £3.6m | 1 |
| 2. | Argylle (Universal) | £1.8m | £2m | 1 |
| 3. | Mean Girls (Paramount) | £842,000 | £6.8m | 3 |
| 4. | All Of Us Strangers (Disney) | £797,004 | £2.8m | 2 |
| 5. | The Zone Of Interest (A24) | £596,565 | £595,565 | 1 |
GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.26
Migration trumped Universal stablemate Argylle to top the UK-Ireland box office this weekend; as Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest made an excellent start in just 106 cinemas.
It was lovely weather for ducks as animation Migration opened to £3.6m. Playing in 597 sites, it took a £5,951 site average. Its takings were down on those from Illumination’s Minions series; but still represent a respectable start for an original film.
It was enough to top Matthew Vaughn’s spy thriller Argylle, which opened to £1.8m from 619 sites at a £2,868 average, and has £2m including previews. It is the lowest opening for a film directed by Vaughn since his first, 2004’s Layer Cake with £1.1m.
Former number one Mean Girls dropped 44% on its third weekend for Paramount, with £842,000 taking it to £6.8m total – beyond the £5.7m of the original 2004 film.
After its strong opening, Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers posted a solid second weekend, dropping just 23%. The Searchlight Pictures and Film4 romantic drama added £797,004 to hit a near-£2.8m total – already Haigh’s highest-grossing film ever in the territory, ahead of 45 Years (£1.8m).
Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest scored a £596,565 opening – an outstanding result from just 106 cinemas, with a £5,628 location average the best of the weekend. Released by A24, the Oscar- and Bafta-nominated title scored one of the best openings for an awards contender since the pandemic, coming in 50% above that of Anatomy Of A Fall, Tar and Decision To Leave; higher than Past Lives on half the locations; and doubling the opening of Triangle Of Sadness.
It is Glazer’s biggest opening in the UK and Ireland, and should pass 2013’s Under The Skin (£1.2m) to become his highest-grossing film within a fortnight.
Top five takings increased 48.9% to £7.6m, although still down almost £1m on the equivalent weekend from last year. A re-issue of Dune next weekend ahead of Dune: Part Two, and Lionsgate’s The Iron Claw give the best hopes of continuing the growth.
Fiction enthralls
Breakout romantic comedy hit Anyone But You finally left the top five after six weekends; but is still playing well, adding £572,462 – a 30% drop – to hit an excellent £9.3m total for Sony.
Wonka has crossed the £60m mark after nine weekends in cinemas, with £566,704 – a 45.9% drop – taking it to £60.5m. The Warner Bros title is the 26th -highest-grossing film ever in the UK and Ireland, and the second-highest-grossing 2023 release.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things added a further £429,715 on its fourth weekend - a 38% drop that took the Searchlight Pictures film to a decent £5.9m total.
Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers added £394,206 on its third weekend, dropping 40%; and is up to a decent £2.5m total, with a chance of catching the £3.9m total of the director’s 2005 Sideways.
Oscar contender American Fiction opened to £288,019 for Curzon, at a decent £1,540 site average. Including previews, Cord Jefferson’s film has £389,375.
Sky Cinema’s The Beekeeper, released by Studiocanal, added £237,861 on its third weekend – a 43% drop – to hit £3.3m.
One Life starring Anthony Hopkins added £225,243 on its fifth weekend – a 50.2% drop – to reach £9.1m for Warner Bros.
Studiocanal horror Baghead added £170,430 on its second weekend – a 48.4% drop – to hit £671,002.
The Color Purple dropped 63.5% on its second weekend, with £154,282 taking it to £865,716 for Warner Bros.
With Wonka and Mean Girls both playing well, a third musical found space in the shape of CinemaLive’s event cinema release of Kinky Boots. The title took £95,018 at the weekend, with £174,546 including its Thursday, February 1 event day.
Disney’s Wish added £90,521 on its 11th weekend in cinemas, to hit a £12.6m total, although the arrival of Migration saw a 67% drop on the previous session.
On its sixth weekend in cinemas, Elysian Film Distribution’s The Boy And The Heron added £75,833 – a 40.7% drop – to hit an excellent £4.8m total.
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is eking out the final box office amounts for the DC Extended Universe, with £51,539 on its seventh weekend bringing it to £9.6m for Warner Bros.
Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla added £41,414 on its fifth weekend for Mubi, and has £3.1m total.
George Clooney’s rowing drama The Boys In The Boat sculled a further £34,515 on its fourth session, and has £738,193 for Warner Bros.
The event cinema release of James Graham’s play Dear England by National Theatre Live added a further £29,107, and is up to £883,401 from two weekends.
Park Circus released Gil Junger’s 1999 romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You to £23,105, with the film expanding to a further 153 sites next weekend.
Still playing in cinemas over half a year after its release, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer added £22,032 on its 29th session, and is up to £58.6m – the 27th -highest-grosssing film of all time in the UK and Ireland.
Ferrari’s race is coming to an end for Black Bear Pictures, with £11,170 on its sixth weekend bringing it to almost £4.2m.
A re-release of Terrence Malick’s Days Of Heaven took £7,569 through Park Circus.
Anime Ltd opened Japanese anime Blue Giant to £21,820 including £4,558 at the weekend; while the distributor’s Oscar-nominated Godzilla Minus One is closing out with £2.6m from eight weekends in cinemas.
Event cinema release Pet Shop Boys Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits took £97,065 on Wednesday, January 31; and has £103,532 including encore screenings for Trafalgar Releasing.
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