‘The Outrun’ opens in UK-Ireland box office top five; ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ hits £21m, ‘Megalopolis’ starts in sixth

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Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun scored a top five spot on its opening weekend at the UK-Ireland box office; as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice held top spot for a fourth successive weekend, and Megalopolis opened outside the top five.

Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice added £1.8m – a slim drop of just 27.2%, that brings it to just shy of £21m. It is now the eighth-highest-grossing 2024 release, and should move up to fifth place before the end of its run for Warner Bros.

Universal thriller Speak No Evil also posted a good hold on its third session, falling just 21% with £641,119. The James McAvoy-starring film is just below £4m, outperforming several recent Blumhouse Productions films in the territory, including Afraid (£450,000), Imaginary (£2m) and Night Swim (£1.4m).

Mubi’s The Substance posted the best hold for a non-family title in the top 20, dropping just 19% on its second weekend with £420,495 and moving up to third place. Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes 2024 Competition entry is up to almost £1.5m from two sessions, shaping up to be an independent hit for the autumn. 

Ellen Kuras’ Lee Miller biopic Lee starring Kate Winslet added £400,612 on its third session for Studiocanal – a 27.9% drop that brought it to a £2.8m cume.

Studiocanal also opened Fingscheidt’s The Outrun to £397,526 from 300 sites, at a strong £1,325 site average. Including previews the film, starring Saoirse Ronan and produced by 2014 Screen Star of Tomorrow Sarah Brocklehurst’s Brock Media with Arcade Pictures’ Dominic Norris, Ronan and Jack Lowden, has a healthy £449,025 start.

Francis Ford Coppola’s epic Megalopolis opened just outside the top five, taking £357,047.

More to follow.

• BFI London Film Festival unveils 2024 Competition juries