‘The Little Mermaid’ swims to first place at UK-Ireland box office with £5m debut

Disney’s The Little Mermaid topped the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, opening with just under £5m.

The live-action remake took in another £1.9m on bank holiday Monday to bring its total to £6.9m. Directed by Rob Marshall and starring Halle Bailey, The Little Mermaid opened in 732 locations over the weekend to give the film a site average of £6,803.

It’s a strong result for Disney considering recent live-action remakes have proved a mixed bag in post-pandemic times. In 2021, Cruella opened third at the box office with £1.5m while 2022’s Pinocchio and 2020’s Mulan both shifted to a streaming release. Prior to that, the 2019 remake of The Lion King debuted with £16.7m.

After only one week at the top, Universal’s Fast X has been knocked down to second place. The action blockbuster collected another £2.2m over the weekend. Taking in an additional £681,450 on Monday, the film’s total now stands at £10.9m and has just surpassed the equivalent total of the previous instalment in the car racing franchise – 2019’s Fast And Furious 9 which stood at £10.8m by week two.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume. 3 secured third place with £1.6m and now stands at £32.3m for Disney after four weeks of play. 

Still going strong in its eighth week is The Super Mario Bros. Movie which added another £290,897 for Universal. The film’s total now stands at £52.4m and sits within the top 40 highest-grossing films in the UK.

The only other new release in the top five this week was Warner Bros’ Hypnotic which took in £187,503 from 429 sites over the weekend (Fri-Sun). Starring Ben Affleck as a detective searching for his missing daughter, the film made a total of £238,150 including previews.

Book Club turns £1m page

Sony opened Finnish war drama Sisu to £126,818 (£180,536 total including previews and bank holiday). The 2022 Toronto title follows a former war commander who discovers gold buried in Lapland and must fight off Nazi soldiers for it.

Registering a 67% drop in its second weekend, Judy Blume adaptation Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret made £94,503 for Lionsgate, taking its total up to £656,500.

Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid took a similar drop of 69% in its second session as the psychological drama collected £63,163 for Sony. The film’s total stands at £451,497 so far.

Now on its sixth weekend, Studiocanal horror Evil Dead Rise made another £42,745 bringing its total to £5.4m. 

Universal’s Book Club: The Next Chapter crossed the £1m mark after adding £25,628 in its third weekend. The “girls trip” comedy-drama still has a long way to go to match the £4.2m cume of the first film 2018’s Book Club. 

Dropping just 49% in its third weekend, Picturehouse Entertainment’s The Eight Mountains made £19,740 and now has a cume of £213,847.

John Wick: Chapter 4 added £19,091 in its tenth session to bring its total to £17.5m.

Another new release, Eric Gravel’s Full Time made £16,599 in its opening weekend (£38,173 total) for Parkland Entertainment. The French drama, about a mother running late to an interview, opened in 38 locations. 

Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener opened with £15,189 for Vertigo. The drama, starring Sigourney Weaver and Joel Edgerton made a total of £25,557 including previews and the bank holiday.

Signature Entertainment’s animation My Fairy Troublemaker collected £14,514 in its opening weekend (£21,581 total).

Mubi’s Return To Seoul added another £9,014 in its fourth session to bring the Korean-French drama to a £260,175 cume. 

Studiocanal’s 4K restoration of David Lynch’s Inland Empire made £6,521 (£8,056 total). The 2006 psychological thriller stars Laura Dern as an actress who becomes too engrossed in a new role.

Seventh Art Distribution’s event release of Tokyo Stories scooped £3,818 over the weekend for a £33,186 cume.

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