‘Peter Rabbit 2’ holds UK box office crown as ‘Cruella’ opens third

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.42

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway held top spot at the UK box office for a second weekend, as results held firm from last week’s good start despite sunny weather across much of the territory.

The Sony animation-live action hybrid took £2m across the weekend – a 47% drop on its previous session, which is a reasonable result given the climate, taking £3,512 on average from 606 locations. It added a further £737,434 on Bank Holiday Monday for £8.2m after 15 days in cinemas. 

With schools now breaking for half term across most of the UK, the film will look to perform strongly on every day in the coming week.

Warner Bros’ horror franchise title The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It opened in second spot for the Friday to Sunday period, taking £1.9m from 475 locations for the highest per-location average of the weekend at £3,946. With a further £399,510 on Monday plus previews, the film has £3m in total; it won’t reach the £10.5m and £11m totals of the first two films in the series, but given those were both pre-social distancing measures, the third film has made a decent start.

Disney’s Cruella landed in third spot on its first weekend with £1.5m from 522 locations for a £3,588 location average. It has £1.9m total after a further £422,613 on Monday, when it overtook The Conjuring 3 but fell behind previews for A Quiet Place Part II. The film launched simultaneously in cinemas and on Disney+ on Friday, indicating that the dual launch does not fully negate the theatrical appetite among audiences.

Nomadland, another Disney release, dropped 64% on its first weekend for a £179,011 Friday-Sunday session, and has £1.5m after 15 days in cinemas. It will be the lowest-grossing Oscar best picture winner in the UK since 1990’s Driving Miss Daisy; however it is also the only one to be released in socially-distanced venues, as well as having a prior Disney+ release.

Raya And The Last Dragon added £66,655 at the weekend and has £359,644 in total.

Sony also took fourth spot in the weekend chart with Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. The anime title, which broke box office records in Japan last year, took £302,928 on Friday to Sunday at an average of £902, and has £693,081 in total through Monday. The Unholy rounded out Sony’s weekend titles, adding £38,045 (an 85% drop) for £565,775 after two weekends.

Godzilla Vs. Kong held a top five spot for Warner Bros, taking £254,000 across the weekend – a 68% drop - and reaching £1.8m in total. Tom & Jerry The Movie added £79,460 at the weekend for £458,408; while Mortal Kombat put on £52,967 for £475,000 total and Those Who Wish Me Dead added £51,000 for £482,000.

Lionsgate’s Spiral: From The Book Of Saw dropped 68% on its first weekend, adding £156,292 to reach £1.2m to date. the previous Saw titles have all landed in the £5m-£8m range, making this a useful metric for how box office takings for franchise titles may change.

Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow opened to £21,619 for Mubi, from 40 locations at an average of £540. Including Monday’s figures and previews the film has £34,604; it will launch on Mubi’s streaming platform on July 9. 

Earwig And The Witch, the first release from Danny Perkins’ Elysian Film Group Distribution, opened to £10,781 from 83 locations, and has £14,763 including the Bank Holiday.

Ira Sachs’ Cannes 2019 title Frankie starring Isabelle Huppert opened to £9,445 on the weekend from 42 locations at a £225 average. With previews and Monday’s results the film is up to £15,992.

Bohemia Media released Zebra Girl in nine locations - eight of them on Friday only - taking £615.

• A Quiet Place Part II scares up $70m worldwide; Cruella delivers $37.4m