Thriller prequel A Quiet Place: Day One heads the openers at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, starting in 660 cinemas through Paramount.
That figure is up on the 526 sites for 2018’s A Quiet Place, which began with £2m from 526 sites at a £3,788 site average.
It is also an increase on the 561 sites of 2021’s A Quiet Place Part II, which was one of the first major releases following the long cinema closures at the start of that year. Part II started with £2.25m at a £4,012 average, providing an impressive increase from the first title in the challenging theatrical climate.
A spin-off prequel to the first film, Day One follows a terminally ill woman during the early stages of an invasion in New York City by blind aliens with an acute sense of hearing. Lupita Nyong’o leads the cast alongside 2018 Screen Star of Tomorrow Joseph Quinn, with Djimon Hounsou reprising his role from Part II.
Michael Sarnoski is writer-director on the film, having replaced Jeff Nichols, who departed the project in October 2021 due to creative differences. It is US director Sarnoski’s second feature, after indie drama Pig, which took £179,274 through Altitude in 2021.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Cannes 2024 Competition title Kinds Of Kindness opens in 470 cinemas through Disney, produced by its Searchlight Pictures label plus Element Pictures and Film4.
Lanthimos is a decent box office draw for an arthouse director, bringing in a huge £17m for 2019’s The Favourite after a £2.2m opening; and achieving a decent £7.6m for Poor Things earlier this year after a £1.6m opening.
Both of those titles were buoyed by significant awards buzz, with Olivia Colman and Emma Stone respectively winning the Oscar-Bafta-Globe best actress triple. A quick post-Cannes release prevents Kinds Of Kindness from building that same momentum, although it will look to benefit from the presence of Stone and castmates Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn.
The tripartite film tells stories about a man seeking to break free from his path; a police officer questioning if his wife is real; and a woman searching for a prophesied individual.
Indian record
Nag Ashwin’s sci-fi action-adventure Kalki 2898 AD opens in 450 cinemas through Dreamz Entertainment – a record wide opening for an Indian film, topping the 350 sites of Paramount’s Laal Singh Chaddha in 2022.
Produced by India’s Vyjayanthi Movies, Kalki is the first instalment in a planned cinematic universe inspired by Hindu mythology. The first film is set in a post-apocalyptic world in the titular year, as a select band of refugees attempt to save the unborn child of a lab subject.
It is the most expensive Indian film ever made, with a $72m (₹600 crore) production budget and Indian megastars Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone leading the cast. Kalki is produced in the Telugu language, but will be released in multiple Indian languages in the UK and Ireland.
As a yardstick, Laal Singh Chaddha made £867,159 in 2022; with its wider release and blockbuster aims, Dreamz will look for Kalki to cross the £1m mark across its run.
A second Indian feature, family drama Nadanna Sambhavam, starts in 72 sites through Yash Raj Films.
Warner Bros is opening Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga Chapter One, another Cannes premiere in an out of Competition slot. The film is the first in a proposed trio of westerns, chronicling the 15-year span of pre- and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west.
Costner stars in and directs the film, having co-written the screenplay with Jon Baird and Mark Kasdan. Further casts include Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone and Ella Hunt.
Independent releases this weekend include Lina Soualem’s documentary Bye Bye Tiberias, in 43 sites across its first week through T A P E Collective. A Venice 2023 premiere in the Special Events section, the film chronicles several generations of the family of Soualem’s mother, Palestinian actress and Succession star Hiam Abbass. Backed by the Doha Film Institute and developd at its Qumra lab, the film won the Grierson award for best documentary at BFI London Film Festival last year.
Miracle/Dazzler is starting animated title A Greyhound Of A Girl, a Berlinale 2023 premiere, in 238 cinemas; while Bulldog Film Distribution has Niels Arden Oplev’s Danish drama Rose in four sites; and Dogwoof is opening AI documentary Eternal You, about the avatars that allow people to speak to loved ones who have died.
In repertory cinema, Park Circus is opening a restoration of Sidney Lumet’s 1976 television news drama Network in 115 cinemas; while in event cinema, CinemaLive will play the Riverdance 25th Anniversary Show in 269 cinemas on Sunday, June 30.
After two strong sessions, Disney’s Inside Out 2 should have enough to hold top spot for a third consecutive weekend; while Universal’s The Bikeriders will look to hold well after opening at £1.1m last time out.
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