Today’s GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.21
| Rank | Film (Distributor) | Three-day gross (Aug 9-11) | Total gross to date | Week |
| 1 | The Lion King (Disney) | £4.4m | £59.9m | 4 |
| 2 | Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw (Universal) | £2.9m | £12.8m | 2 |
| 3 | Toy Story 4 (Disney) | £1.9m | £58.7m | 8 |
| 4 | Blinded By The Light (eOne) | £855,042 | £964,612 | 1 |
| 5 | Spider-Man: Far From Home (Sony Pictures) | £720,000 | £34.5m | 6 |
Disney
The Lion King topped the UK box office chart for a fourth consecutive week, setting a 2019 record of 24 consecutive days in the number one spot.
It dropped just 16% on its previous weekend, grossing £4.4m across the three days to hit £59.9m to date after less than four weeks. That figure makes it the second-highest grossing title of 2019 behind another Disney release, Avengers: Endgame, which has grossed £88.7m. It has also broken into the top 20 titles of all time in the UK, currently in 19th place.
The 24-day run in top spot beats the previous record for this year of 18 days, by Disney’s Aladdin. That film is still in UK cinemas, taking £92,000 on its 12th weekend for £36.5m to date – the fifth biggest total of the year.
In a strong week for Disney, Toy Story 4 scored an uptick of 19% on its eighth weekend, taking £1.9m and hitting £58.7m as the third biggest total of the year. It is now the second highest-grossing animated film of all time behind the £74.1m of 2010’s Toy Story 3, and the 20th highest-grossing of all time.
Universal
On a weekend when many titles benefitted from poor weather and all schools being on summer holidays, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw suffered the biggest hit in the top 20, falling 40% to take £2.9m. It has £12.8m to date, out-grossing the first three titles in the series and approaching the £13.7m of 2009’s number four Fast & Furious.
However it will struggle to get close to the takings of the three most recent films, the lowest total of which was 2013’s Fast & Furious 6 with £25.3m.
Still finding a tune after seven weeks is Yesterday, which dropped just 5% with a £354,335 weekend and £12.8m cume. The Secret Life Of Pets 2 took £32,320 for £19m total.
eOne
Gurinder Chadha’s Bruce Springsteen-themed drama Blinded By The Light achieved a top five spot with a £855,042 opening. It averaged a reasonable £1,572 from 546 locations, and took £964,612 including previews.
This is below the openings of several other Chadha films including 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham (£2m), 2004’s Bride & Prejudice (£1.7m), 2008’s Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging (£929,246) and 2017’s Viceroy’s House (£909,697).
However it represents an acceptable result for an independent title in a crowded summer box office; eOne will hope good word-of-mouth delivers a strong tail.
Sony
Two Sony holdovers fared well over the weekend in the UK. Spider-Man: Far From Home became the highest-grossing title in the Spider-Man franchise, with £720,000 (16% drop) taking it to £34.5m and past the £33.6m of 2007’s Spider-Man 3.
Angry Birds 2 fared even better, dropping just 2% with a £683,000 weekend and £2.3m total, although it won’t get up to the £10.7m of the 2016 first film.
Studiocanal
Animated title Playmobil had a slow start, taking just £375,894 from 519 sites for a £724 average. With several animated titles already well into their runs, Studiocanal will hope that audiences find their way to the figurines in the coming weeks.
Warner Bros
Horror Annabelle Comes Home dropped a slim 20% on its fifth weekend, taking £223,000 for £6.2m.
Teen drama The Sun Is Also A Star struggled to £60,000 from 223 sites on opening.
Altitude
Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans fell just 13% on its third weekend, taking £203,107 to take it past the £2m mark.
20TH Century Fox
Canine car comedy The Art Of Racing In The Rain opened to £197,009 from 384 sites – a £514 average.
Lionsgate
Another film about a dog, The Queen’s Corgi, jumped past the £2m mark on its sixth weekend, with a 102% increase on the previous session bringing in £105,867.
Dogwoof
Marianne & Leonard: Words Of Love, about the late musician Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ibsen, dropped just 9%, taking £65,000 for £472,047 to date.
Entertainment Film Distribution
Midsommar was another title to benefit from strong audience numbers this weekend, dropping just 1% with £58,454 taking it to £2.6m. The Current War added £52,442 for £1.1m to date.
Picturehouse Entertainment
Sophie Hyde’s drama Animals, led by Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat, took £57,880 from 80 sites on its second weekend, a drop of just 24%. It is now at £238,845 in total.
Wildcard Distribution
Documentary Gaza took £13,983 across the weekend from 10 locations, with previews taking its full opening to £19,172.
Curzon
Ritesh Batra’s drama Photograph took £11,904 on its second weekend for £72,758 to date.
BFI Distribution
A 4K restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 noir Notorious took £26,261 from 11 sites including one preview of £1,142.
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