Olivia Wilde’s thriller Don’t Worry Darling heads the new films at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, with attention finally turning to the film itself after several weeks of extraneous gossip.
The Warner Bros film is opening in 697 cinemas, making it the widest opening in the territory for a film directed by a woman – ahead of the 691 locations of Olivia Newman’s Where The Crawdads Sing in July.
It will then expand to 783 cinemas in the UK and Ireland across its first week (704 in UK, 79 in Ireland).
Written by Katie Silberman, Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke, Don’t Worry Darling stars Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in the story of a 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community. The housewife starts to worry that his glamourous company could be hiding disturbing secrets.
Don’t Worry Darling premiered out of competition at Venice Film Festival three weeks ago, where months of rumour and gossip, much of it unrelated to the content of the film, came to a head at the press conference.
The film is Wilde’s second feature as director, after 2019 comedy Booksmart. That film opened to £634,452 through eOne, going on to a £1.5m total. It was nominated for best screenplay at the Baftas, and was a hit on the US awards circuit, winning best first feature at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Speaking on US chat show The Late Show on Wednesday, Wilde addressed the imbalance of how male directors are treated compared to their female colleagues.
“They’re praised for being tyrannical; they can be investigated time and time again; it still doesn’t overtake conversations of their actual talent, or about the film itself,” she said. “This is something we’ve come to expect. It is just very different standards that are created for women and men – in the world at large, we’re not just talking about Hollywood.”
Paradise found
After a dry summer that has seen seven consecutive weeks of decline, the number and strength of the titles this weekend is an encouraging sign for cinemas.
Universal romantic comedy Ticket To Paradise heads into its first weekend in the UK, having delayed its opening from last Friday until Tuesday due to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
The film went ahead with its opening in Ireland last weekend, and from those screenings plus Tuesday to Thursday in the UK has grossed £1.1m. It will play in 695 sites this weekend across both territories.
Ticket To Paradise stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts as a divorced couple who travel to Bali to stop their daughter making the same mistake they made 25 years ago.
It is the fourth film from British director Ol Parker. Having worked as a writer on BBC series Grange Hill early in his career, Parker broke through as writer of two The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films. He then directed 2018 ABBA sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which opened to £9.7m and grossed a huge £65.6m – currently the 20th -highest-grossing film of all time in the UK and Ireland.
Ticket To Paradise is the fifth time Clooney and Roberts have appeared on-screen together; their biggest collaborations remain the first two Ocean’s films – 2002’s Ocean’s Eleven (opened: £5.1m; closed: £26.5m) and 2005’s Ocean’s Twelve (£3.4m; £12.6m).
Republic Film Distribution is acting as a service distributor this weekend for Prime Video, for Lena Dunham’s Catherine Called Birdy.
Starting in 10 locations ahead of a Prime Video launch on October 7, the film is adapted by Dunham from Karen Cushman’s book of the same name, and is produced by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for the UK’s Working Title.
Screen Star of Tomorrow 2021 and Game Of Thrones alumna Bella Ramsey stars as Birdy, a 14-year-old girl in medieval England navigating life and avoiding the suitors her father has in mind.
Parkland Entertainment is starting New Zealand drama Juniper starring Charlotte Rampling in 94 sites. The film follows a self-destructive teenager who is suspended from school and asked to look after his feisty alcoholic grandmother as a punishment.
Modern Films has Toronto 2021 title Silent Land in 22 locations. Directed by Aga Woszczynska, the film has been on an extensive festival tour over the past year, including Zurich, Chicago, Thessaloniki, Goteborg and New Horizons.
Blue Finch Films is starting Antonia Campbell-Hughes directorial debut It Is In Us All in 10 sites this weekend, with five further bookings to follow. A 2011 Screen Star of Tomorrow as an actor, Campbell-Hughes shot the film during changing lockdown restrictions in 2020, before a world premiere at SXSW earlier this year. Cosmo Jarvis and Rhys Mannion star in the story of a self-destructive man whose perspective on life is challenged by a violent car crash involving a local boy.
Avatar returns
Disney’s re-release of 2009 blockbuster Avatar may feature near the top of the box office charts on Monday, with anticipation high ahead of the December 16 opening of sequel Avatar: The Way Of Water and the original playing in a substantial 537 locations this weekend.
With £94m, Avatar is currently the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time in the territory; substantial figures over its two-week-only cinema run could see it go as high as third (No Time To Die with £98m).
Further new releases this weekend include Bollywood romantic thriller Chup in 40 sites through Moviegoers Entertainment; Hong Sang-soo’s Cannes 2021 title In Front Of Your Face in 10 sites through New Wave Films;Raj Patel and Zak Piper’s documentary The Ants And The Grasshopper through Dartmouth Films; and Sidney Poitier documentary Sidney through Apple TV+.
New titles should clear out several holdovers from cinemas; but more recent releases such as Disney’s See How They Run, and the expansion of Universal’s David Bowie doc Moonage Daydream should still find audiences.
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