‘People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan’ leads openers at UK-Ireland box office; ‘Free Guy’ stays top

Disney’s original comedy Free Guy posted a good hold on its second session in UK-Ireland cinemas to retain the box office lead, as BBC mockumentary feature People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan broke into the top five on its first weekend.

Free Guy dropped only 7% on its opening session, with £2.26m taking it to £7.2m. This is a decent result in a box office climate that continues to recover from the pandemic; especially given the film is a rare wide release that is not based on pre-existing IP.

The last original Disney release to hit the £10m mark was Coco, released in January 2018; Free Guy has a shot at that target should it continue on its current trajectory.

The PAW Patrol Movie held second spot for Paramount, also with a good hold of just 18% drop. It took £1.03m, and has £4.47m to date.

Continuing apace for Warner Bros is The Suicide Squad, which dropped 39% on its fourth session, with £653,885 taking it to £12.3m to date. The 2016 film Suicide Squad, which shares some characters but holds a different story, finished on £33.6m; however The Suicide Squad has passed the gross of fellow DC Extended Universe title Birds Of Prey (£8.8m), and is coming up on Shazam! (£13.4m).

Just behind for Disney was Jungle Cruise, with £652,000 – a drop of 23%, which takes it to £10m from four weekends. The film will look to benefit from family audiences in the final full week of UK school holidays. 

Universal comedy People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan was the only new title to break into the top five, starting with £553,261 for the highest opening of the weekend. Including previews on the Wednesday and Thursday of last week, the film has £896,992 from five days in cinemas, at a reasonable average of £2,011 across that time.

Space Jam: A New Legacy fell just 14% with £434,000 taking it to £11.1m from five weekends. It continues to edge closer to the £11.7m of the 1997 first film.

Universal’s slate also includes The Croods 2: A New Age, which added £410,507 - a fall of just 2.6% - to reach £8m from six sessions; Spirit Untamed adding £181,225 to reach £2.7m; Old topping up £41,013 for £3.3m; The Forever Purge  with £34,427 for £3.5m; and F9 with £27,757 for £16.4m.

Hungry Eyes

Paramount’s Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins starring Henry Golding was the second highest-grossing new opener this weekend, landing in sixth place. The film took £347,000 on Friday to Sunday, with £542,000 including previews. The film serves as an origin story for the G.I. Joe action character, based on the Hasbro toy of the same name.

Disney opened David Bruckner’s psychological horror The Night House to £316,000 from 354 locations - a £893 location average.

Lisa Joy’s cerebral thriller Reminiscence opened to £260,000 from 525 locations for Warner Bros – a somewhat flat location average of £495, especially on a decent box office weekend.

For Sony, Don’t Breathe 2 added £150,750 - a fall of 57% on its opening session - and has £783,163; while Peter Rabbit 2 became the first film since the pandemic began to cross the £20m mark, adding £68,011 at the weekend to reach £20.1m total.

Black Widow added £108,000 for Disney, and is up to £18.5m; while the studio also has Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) up to £434,000, and Cruella at £9.4m.

For eOne, Matt Damon vehicle Stillwater put on £55,250 on its third weekend – a fall of 67% - and has £1.1m to date.

Prano Bailey-Bond’s UK horror Censor opened to £51,790 from 170 locations, and has £62,712 including previews.

Bollywood romance Puaada fell 46% on its second session, with £37,680 taking it to £156,114.

In animation releases, National Amusements’ Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams opened to £36,962; while Conni And The Cat brought in £1,048 from 54 cinemas for Munro Films.

Studiocanal’s Last Letter From Your Lover added £15,459 and is up to £686,901 from three weekends – well down on the £9.7m of previous Jojo Moyes adaptation Me Before You.

Irish cancer comedy The Bright Side opened to £10,885 in 36 sites in Ireland alone.

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