| Rank | Film (distributor) | Three-day gross (Oct 6-8) | Total gross to date | Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | The Exorcist: Believer (Universal) | £1.7m | £1.92m | 1 |
| 2. | The Creator (Disney) | £1m | £4.2m | 2 |
| 3. | Saw X (Lionsgate) | £953,798 | £3.8m | 2 |
| 4. | The Great Escaper (Warner Bros) | £590,265 | £593,149 | 1 |
| 5. | A Haunting In Venice (Disney) | £558,724 | £7.9m | 4 |
GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.22
Universal’s franchise horror The Exorcist: Believer has topped the UK-Ireland box office on its opening weekend, with a £1.7m start.
Playing in 545 sites, the film took a £3,029 average. Believer’s £1.7m opening is the biggest opening figure for an Exorcist film to date, topping the £1.2m total of 2004’s Exorcist: The Beginning.
It is down on the £2.7m opening of Universal’s other recent Blumhouse Productions reboot, 2018’s Halloween, and the £2.1m of 2022’s Halloween Ends; although just ahead of the £1.6m of 2021’s Halloween Kills.
The Creator held second spot for Disney, falling 45% with a second weekend above the £1m mark. Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi is up to £4.2m total.
Last weekend’s number one Saw X posted a £953,798 second weekend - a 50.5% drop on its opening. The Lionsgate title is now up to £3.8m; it overtook the lifetime gross of 2021’s Spiral: From The Book Of Saw on its opening weekend, and is now chasing down the £5m of 2017’s Jigsaw, the next-lowest-grossing of the franchise.
Oliver Parker’s The Great Escaper starring Michael Caine and the late Glenda Jackson started with £590,265 from 616 sites at a low £958 site average. Including previews, the film has £593,149.
Disney’s former number one A Haunting In Venice added £558,724 on its fourth session – a 45% drop that took it to £7.9m total, within reach of the £8m of 2022’s Death On The Nile.
Takings for the top five dropped by over a fifth (22.6%), down to £4.8m – also down 13.1% on the equivalent weekend last year. Cinemas will hope the official release of Paramount’s Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie will bring families back to cinemas next weekend; plus Trafalgar Releasing’s eagerly-anticipated Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film.
Oppenheimer tops Barbie
For Sony, Denzel Washington-starrer The Equalizer 3 added £174,347 on its sixth session – a 46.1% drop – and is up to £8.2m, already the highest-grossing of the three Equalizer films.
The Nun II added a further £160,587 for Warner Bros on its fifth session, dropping a further 61.6% amid strong horror competition to reach £6.2m.
Ken Loach’s reported final film The Old Oak held reasonably well on its second weekend for Studiocanal, dropping just 38% with £129,278 taking it to £570,782.
On its second weekend in cinemas, Trafalgar Releasing’s event cinema title A Little Life put on a further £120,526, and is up to a strong £1.2m, with screenings booked until Wednesday, October 11.
Lionsgate’s Expend4bles suffered a hefty 64.8% drop on its third weekend with £99,841 taking it to £1.7m.
Studiocanal’s Sundance romantic drama Past Lives added £95,198 – a 38.3% drop – and is up to a decent £2.3m from five weekends.
Matt Johnson’s tech drama BlackBerry opened to £89,468 for National Amusements, playing in 270 sites and taking a £331 average. Including previews, the film is up to £117,268.
Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense added £81,680 on its second weekend – a 56.2% drop – and is up to £527,83 for A24.
After 12 weekends in cinemas, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has topped the single-weekend takings of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Nolan’s Universal historical drama took £64,299 – a 35% drop – to reach almost £58m; while Gerwig’s Warner Bros’ blockbuster added £57,881 – a 56% fall – to hit £95.4m. Barbie is the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time in the UK and Ireland, with Oppenheimer in 28th place.
Signature Entertainment’s animation The Canterville Ghost dropped 46% across its third weekend, adding £56,283 to hit a £340,357 total.
For All The Anime, anime title Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.01 Thrice Upon A Time opened to £52,642 from 133 sites at a £396 average.
Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem added £46,400 – a 37.6% drop – to reach almost £10m from 10 weekends in cinemas. The studio also has Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie in cinemas with the film reaching the top five last time out; but with the official release not until this Friday, October 13, Paramount is not releasing preview figures until next weekend.
Yash Raj Films’ Jawan is the second Indian film to cross the £3m barrier in the UK and Ireland, adding £35,736 on its fifth session to edge past that landmark.
This weekend MetFilm Distribution and Vertical Entertainment released Guy Nattiv’s Golda starring Helen Mirren, taking £31,113 and £44,570 including previews. The film concerns the response of Israeli prime minister Golda Meir to the 1973 Yom Kippur war; screenings went ahead as planned on Saturday and Sunday following the attacks by Hamas in Israel.
A statement from MetFilms, the film’s UK production company Qwerty Films and Vertical Entertainment said, “This is – unfortunately – an extraordinary moment for audiences to watch this film, and we are deeply conscious of the echoes and resonance that this story holds on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war in which it is set, and in light of events in Israel and Gaza this weekend. We want to acknowledge the distress, fear, and anxiety that the horror that has unfolded this weekend represents for the many people in the region and in the UK directly or indirectly impacted by these events. Our hearts and minds are with them all.”
Singaporean comedy The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan opened to £23,312 for Trinity Film, and has £37,269 including previews.
Controversial child trafficking drama Sound Of Freedom added £17,651 on its sixth session in cinemas, and has £2.1m in total for Angel Studios.
On its fifth weekend in cinemas, Universal’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 added £15,287 and is at £1.4m total – well down on the £13.6m of the first film and £4m of the second title.
Disney’s Elemental added £15,000 on its 14th weekend in cinemas, and is up to £18.4m total.
Dogwoof’s Ukraine war documentary 20 Days In Mariupol started with £3,128, and has £16,797 including previews.
With the new title now topping the chart, Warner Bros’ re-release of William Friedkin’s 1973 The Exorcist added a further £1,158 and has £139,963 in total.
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