| Rank | Film (distributor) | Three-day gross (Sep 29-Oct 1) | Total gross to date | Week |
| 1. | Saw X (Lionsgate) | £1.92m | £1.92m | 1 |
| 2. | The Creator (Disney) | £1.89m | £2.2m | 1 |
| 3. | A Haunting In Venice (Disney) | £1m | £6.8m | 3 |
| 4. | Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (Paramount) | £988,525 | £1.1m | - |
| 5. | The Nun II (Warner Bros) | £418,694 | £5.9m | 4 |
GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.21
Lionsgate’s torture horror Saw X cut into top spot at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, with a sharp £1.93m opening.
From 552 locations, Saw X took a £3,464 average – a strong start for an 18-rated film. It is the sixth-highest-grossing opening of the 10 Saw films to date, down on the £3.6m start of 2010’s Saw 3D; but is more than double the £782,930 start of 2021’s Spiral: From The Book Of Saw, the only other title from the franchise released since the pandemic.
Gareth Edwards’ original sci-fi The Creator opened to £1.89m for Disney, taking a £2,907 average from 646 sites. The film, about a soldier who finds a secret weapon in a war between humans and artificial intelligence, has £2.2m in total including previews on Thursday, September 28.
Former number one A Haunting In Venice fell to third place for Disney, adding £1m on its third session – a decent hold, falling just 32%. Directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, the Agatha Christie adaptation is up to £6.8m; it won’t catch the £24.2m of 2017’s Murder On The Orient Express, but should surpass the £8m of last year’s Death On The Nile.
Saturday and Sunday previews in 569 cinemas were enough for Paramount’s Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie to secure fourth spot, with £988,525 at the weekend and £1.1m in total. The animated franchise title topped the international chart this weekend, and officially opens in the UK and Ireland on Friday, October 6.
Warner Bros’ horror The Nun II rounded out the top five with a £418,694 fourth weekend, a 36% drop, and is up to £5.9m – down on the £11.4m total of the 2018 first film.
Takings for the top five rose 56.4% on last time out, reaching £6.2m – only the second time they have risen since Barbie and Oppenheimer came out on July 21, and the first time they have crossed £6m since August 21. The figure is still well down on the £34.4m mark from the Barbenheimer opening weekend; cinemas will look to a glut of horror titles in the run-up to Halloween to provide further increases.
A lot of Life
Sony’s The Equalizer 3 dropped just 33% on its fifth weekend in cinemas, adding £323,247 to reach £7.9m.
An event cinema release of Ivo van Hove’s play A Little Life brought in £312,904 for Trafalgar Releasing, including £209,058 on Sunday, October 1. The filmed play has £875,840 in total having debuted in cinemas last week.
Lionsgate’s Expend4bles took a further £283,545 – a 62.8% drop – and is up to £1.4m from two weekends, likely to finish as the lowest-grossing of the Expendables series (currently The Expendables 3 with £3.9m in 2014).
Craig Gillespie’s Toronto 2023 title Dumb Money dropped 46% on its second weekend for Black Bear Pictures, adding £221,150 to reach a £1m total.
Ken Loach’s latest film The Old Oak opened to £208,351 for Studiocanal, playing in 225 sites and taking £918 per site. This is down on the openings of Loach’s recent titles I, Daniel Blake (£444,800) and Sorry We Missed You (£363,849). Including previews, the film has £232,473.
The remastered release of Jonathan Demme’s 1984 Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense drummed up a healthy £186,643 from predominantly evening shows for A24, and has £317,632 including previews.
Back in 574 cinemas for Disney, animated classic Toy Story took £169,272 at the weekend, topping up the film’s £22.4m total box office.
Studiocanal’s Sundance 2023 title Past Lives dropped just 28% on its fourth weekend in cinemas, adding £154,364 to reach a decent £2.1m total.
Barbie added £131,424 on its 11th session for Warner Bros; it is now up to £95.3m, and enters the top five highest-grossing films of all time in the territory, overtaking the £95.2m of 2015 James Bond film Spectre.
Signature Entertainment’s family animation The Canterville Ghost held well on its second weekend, dropping just 17% with £104,443 taking it to a £270,281 total.
Magnetes Pictures, distributor of Polish-language titles, opened In-Laws 2 to £99,077 from 112 sites, at a 762 site average.
Christopher Nolan’s Universal blockbuster Oppenheimer is now up to £57.9m, overtaking The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers in the all-time chart with a further £96,332.
Ahead of the wide release of The Exorcist: Believer next weekend, Warner Bros’ re-release of William Friedkin’s 1973 horror The Exorcist took £80,442 from 135 sites at a £229 average.
Bollywood titles
Indian action thriller Jawan dropped 49% with a further £76,400 on its fourth weekend through Yash Raj Films, leaving it just shy of £3m and as the second-highest-grossing Indian film ever in the UK and Ireland (behind Pathaan’s £4.4m earlier this year).
For Paramount, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem fell 36% on its ninth session, adding £74,317 to reach £9.9m total.
Warner Bros’ re-release of The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King in an extended version took £72,358, mainly through Saturday screenings. The extended version of the film has £465,689 at the box office, in addition to the £61.1m from the original film’s release.
Park Circus’ 30th anniversary re-release of Hocus Pocus brought in £66,713; while Disney’s Elemental has now been in cinemas for 13 weekends, and dropped 24% this time out with £45,374 taking it to £18.4m.
With multiple Indian titles available to audiences, action film Kannur Squad opened to £46,581 through RFT Film; comedy Fukrey 3 opened to £41,890 for AA Films; comedy Gaddi Jaandi Ae Chalaangan Maardi started with £37,889 for WHS; and horror-comedy Chandramukhi 2 began with £36,942 for DG Tech.
Angel Studios’ controversial child-trafficking drama Sound Of Freedom dropped 36% on its fifth session, adding £39,619 to hit £2.1m.
For Universal, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 put on £38,840 to reach £1.4m; while The Lesson fell 50% across its second weekend with £10,983 taking it to £123,148.
Vertigo UK’s animation Rally Road Racers dropped 48% with £35,334 taking it to £295,210 from two sessions.
Elysian Film’s Irish drama Ballywalter held well on its second weekend, falling just 27% with £29,240 adding up to a £126,319 total.
Signature Entertainment’s Rise Of The Footsoldier: Vengeance added £19,708 on its third weekend in cinemas, and is up to £364,087 – the highest-grossing film in the Footsoldier series, ahead of 2021’s Origins with £287,555.
Two Warner Bros titles are closing out their cinema runs: Blue Beetle, adding £17,579 on its seventh weekend to reach £4.6m, and Meg 2: The Trench, putting on £14,842 on its ninth session to hit a strong £13.1m – not far off the £15.9m of the first film.
For Trinity Film, Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms added £10,244 on its second weekend to hit £51,700.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is another film finishing its theatrical run, adding £10,000 on its 12th weekend for Paramount to hit £26.5m.
Central City Media’s Hong Kong thriller Where The Wind Blows opened to £2,166 from 20 cinemas.
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