Elemental, the latest Disney-Pixar animation collaboration, is the widest opening title at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, which sees reduced location numbers due to the immediate closure of six sites in the Empire Cinemas chain.
The chain, which has 14 cinemas and 129 screens, is entering administration, with venues at Bishop’s Stortford, Catterick Garrison, Sunderland, Swindon, Walthamstow and Wigan all closing today.
Elemental will therefore start in 625 venues, down slightly from its anticipated number. Directed by Peter Sohn, Elemental is set in a city where fire, water, land and air element residents live together; and follows a pair of the first two, who make a connection despite their inherent differences.
It is the 27th feature film from the Disney-Pixar partnership, which began with 1995 hit Toy Story (opened: £3.4m; closed: £22.3m). The most recent title, 2022’s Lightyear, opened to £3.7m and ended on a soft £7.6m; while the three previous releases, Turning Red, Luca and Soul, all debuted on Disney+ during the pandemic.
The last non-franchise Disney-Pixar collaboration to break the £10m mark in the UK and Ireland was Coco, which opened to £5.2m and ended just shy of £19m in 2018.
Having worked on titles including The Iron Giant, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, Elemental is Sohn’s second feature as director after 2015’s The Good Dinosaur. He also sits on the senior creative team at Pixar.
For audiences looking to escape the sunshine to head into the darkness, Sony is opening Insidious: The Red Door in 485 cinemas. The film is the feature directorial debut of horror icon Patrick Wilson, who is also the lead actor in the series. The fifth instalment in the series, created by Leigh Whannell, sees the Lambert family go deeper into The Further than ever before to put their demons to rest once and for all.
The highest-grossing Insidious film to date is the second entry, which took £7.2m from a £2.9m start in 2013 through eOne. The most recent title was Insidious: The Last Key, which opened to £1.8m in 2018 and is ranked third by total gross for the series with £5.3m.
Coughing starts
On the weekend it is hosts Sundance Film Festival: London at its flagship Picturehouse Central venue, Picturehouse Entertainment is releasing Quentin Dupieux’s Cannes 2022 Midnight Screening title Smoking Causes Coughing in UK 37 sites. The 11th feature from Dupieux – also known by his musical stage name Mr. Oizo – follows a team of five superheroes on a compulsory retreat to strengthen cohesion in their group. Picturehouse previously released Dupieux’s Deerskin to £70,431 in 2021.
Limited releases from independent UK distributors this weekend include Shamira Raphaela’s documentary Shabu, in 18 cinemas through T A P E Collective; Edward Lovelace’s documentary Name Me Lawand, in 20 sites through BFI Distribution; The Damned Don’t Cry, from Lynn + Lucy director Fyzal Boulifa, in 23 cinemas through Curzon; and theatre-film hybrid I Am Kevin through 606 Distribution.
National Amusements is starting 40-minute family title The Octonauts And The Big Summer Adventure in 70 cinemas.
In event cinema, Trafalgar Releasing is playing concert film Odesza: The Last Goodbye Cinematic Experience in 44 cinemas this evening (Friday 7); while CinemaLive’s Rudolph Nureyev’s Don Quixote is in 60 cinemas on Sunday, July 9.
Despite a soft start last weekend, Disney’s Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny will expect to hold the box office lead; with Sony’s Spider-Man: Across The SpiderVerse and Universal’s Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken among other key holdovers.
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