Disney’s performing arts comedy Theater Camp and Universal comedy-horror The Blackening will look to end the five-week run of Barbie atop the UK-Ireland box office, with Oppenheimer also threatening to take top spot following strong holds.
Opening in 352 cinemas, Theater Camp is a comedy about the eccentric staff of a rundown theatre camp in upstate New York, who must band with the founder’s son to keep the facility afloat.
Directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman in their feature directorial debuts, it debuted at Sundance Film Festival in January, where Disney took global rights to the film through its Searchlight Pictures label.
Gordon, Lieberman, Noah Galvin and Dear Evan Hansen star Ben Platt wrote the film, which stars Platt, Gordon, Galvin and Ayo Edebiri. Gordon is best known for her on-screen work to date, including supporting roles in Shiva Baby and Booksmart, and in season two of TV’s The Bear.
Universal is starting Tim Story’s The Blackening in 365 cinemas, following a world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival last September in the Midnight Madness strand.
Written by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins, the film follows seven friends on a weekend trip, who end up trapped in a cabin with a killer. It is a 15th feature for US director Story, whose two highest-grossing films are the pair of supehero titles he directed in the mid-00s, Fantastic Four (£12.7m in 2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (£12.4m in 2007).
The mid-range site numbers will make it a challenge for either title to overhaul long-running favourites Barbie and Oppenheimer. Barbie has typically dropped around 40% week-on-week; a similar hold this time would put it above £1.6m for the weekend – likely enough to hold off Theater Camp and The Blackening.
The greater challenge to the Barbie supremacy may be long-time number two Oppenheimer, which crossed £50m last time out and could still end as Christopher Nolan’s highest-grossing film of all time (currently Dunkirk with £56.8m). Oppenheimer has held better than Barbie on each of their four holdover weekends so far; at the current rate, it should overtake the weekend-on-weekend takings within the next few weeks.
Another title that will challenge at the top of the charts is Piece Of Magic’s event cinema release Andre Rieu’s 2023 Maastricht Concert: Love Is All Around. Playing on 609 screens on Saturday and 665 sites across the whole weekend, the latest concert film from the Dutch violinist will look to continue his unparalleled event cinema success: previous releases have grossed £2m in 2020, £1.9m and £1.8m in 2019, £1.7m in 2018 and £1.6m in 2016. A similar performance could be enough to take the number one spot for the weekend.
Scrapper fights for space
Independent titles have had to fight for space this summer with the Barbenheimer dominance. This weekend, Picturehouse Entertainment’s Sundance 2023 title Scrapper has secured 95 sites – the widest opening for the distributor since The Souvenir Part II in February 2022.
Written and directed by Screen Star of Tomorrow 2020 Charlotte Regan, Scrapper is a magical realist story about a 12-year-old girl living alone in a London flat, whose estranged father turns up and forces his way into her life.
Lola Campbell stars alongside 2017 Screen Star Harris Dickinson, while 2021 Star Molly Manning Walker – director of 2023 title How To Have Sex – is cinematographer on Scrapper.
Curzon continues its recent partnership with German director Christian Petzold, opening his Berlin 2023 Competition entry Afire in 30 cinemas. The director’s highest-grossing title to date in the UK and Ireland is Phoenix, which took a decent £198,076 from a £25,321 start through Thunderbird Releasing in 2015.
Another German director, Maximilian Erlenwein, has a new title out this weekend: thriller The Dive, in 190 sites through Vertigo Releasing. The title stars Louisa Krause and Sophie Lowe as two sisters who go diving at a beautiful, remote location; only for one of them to be trapped beneath a rock, leaving the other to fight for her sibling’s life.
MetFilm has Louis Garrel’s Cannes 2022 out of competition title The Innocent, starring Garrel and Noemie Merlant, in 42 cinemas from today (Friday 25); while Miracle/Dazzler has ballet drama The Red Shoes: The Next Step in 38 sites; and Altitude is conducting a limited release for Nicholas Maggio’s crime thriller Mob Land.
Non-English language titles out this weekend include King Of Katha through Zee Studios; while back catalogue releases including Training Day with Denzel Washington, in 111 sites across its first week.
Barbie and Oppenheimer will head the holdovers for a sixth successive weekend; while Warner Bros’ Blue Beetle and Meg 2: The Trench will look to stay as near the £1m mark as possible.
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