Universal’s action blockbuster Ambulance will look to end the three-session run of The Batman on top of the UK-Ireland box office chart this weekend; whilst Mubi sets The Worst Person In The World as one of its biggest-ever openings.
Directed by Michael Bay, Ambulance stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza Gonzalez, in a story about two robbers in LA who steal an ambulance after their heist goes awry. It opens in 595 locations.
Ambulance is the 15th film directed by the polemical Bay; it is his first for Universal, meaning he has now worked with six major studios: Sony, Disney (through Buena Vista Pictures), Warner Bros, Paramount, Netflix and now Universal.
Bay’s debut feature, 1995’s Bad Boys, opened to £866,215, closing on £5.1m. He has subsequently made a succession of action titles, including 1998’s Armageddon (opened: £2.7m; closed: £16.5m) and 2001’s Pearl Harbor (£3.1m; £13.4m).
The director has found his greatest box office success with five Transformers movies between 2007 and 2017, the highest-grossing of which was 2011’s third title Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (£10.7m; £28.1m).
Ambulance sees him return to cinemas after his first title for a streamer, 2019’s 6 Underground, debuted solely on Netflix.
While known primarily for dark dramas such as Donnie Darko, Zodiac, Prisoners and Nocturnal Animals, Gyllenhaal has also appeared in blockbuster titles including 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow (£7.3m; £25.2m); 2010’s Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time (£1.4m; £8.9m) and as the villain Mysterio in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home (£14.2m; £37.3m).
Worst Person aims to emulate US success
Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World has the biggest ever opening for a non-English language title for Mubi, starting in 126 locations (the company’s widest of all releases is Annette, on 147 sites).
The film debuted in Competition at Cannes 2021, where Renate Reinsve won the best actress award for her role as Julie, a young woman discovering who she really is while navigating troubled waters in her love life and career.
Reinsve has received further plaudits for her role since Cannes, with nominations in Best Actress categories at the European Film Awards and Bafta Film Awards. She was in the running for, although ultimately missed out on, a Best Actress nomination at this weekend’s Oscars. However, the film has been recognised in two categories: Best International Feature Film, and Best Original Screenplay.
Mubi will be hoping to emulate the film’s US performance from its February 11-13 full opening weekend, where it had an impressive location average of $5,212 (£3,850) from 49 sites through Neon.
Early signs are promising: when Mubi hosted three preview screenings last month, the film topped this average with over £4,000 per screening. It has reached £51,555 in total previews heading in to the weekend.
The film is the third in Trier’s Oslo trilogy; the previous two received limited releases – Reprise (£1,797 total gross) in 2007 and Oslo, August 31st (£13,384) in 2011.
RRR strong previews
A key title to look out for this weekend is Bollywood action drama RRR, about two revolutionaries and their journey away from home before they started fighting for their country in 1920s India.
Released by Dreamz Entertainment, the film took £237,128 from 136 sites on Thursday previews, at a strong average of £1,744.
Dreamz will play versions in five different languages spoken amongst the Indian diaspora: Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada.
Sony is playing Iris Shim’s supernatural horror Umma starring Sandra Oh in 137 locations. With dialogue in English and Korean, the film follows a woman and her daughter living on a quiet American farm. When the ashes of the woman’s estranged mother arrive from Korea, she becomes haunted by her fear of turning into her mother.
In horror titles, Wildcard Distribution is debuting Brendan Muldowney’s Glasgow FrightFest title The Cellar in 26 cinemas across Ireland and Northern Ireland; while Lightbulb Film Distribution has Broadcast Signal Intrusion in 10 UK locations.
Signature has South Korean international Oscar entry Escape From Mogadishu in two sites; with two sites also for Dartmouth Films’ The Tinderbox, Gillian Mosely’s documentary about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
With Mother’s Day on Sunday 27, documentary Duty Free, about a son who takes his mother on a bucket list adventure to reclaim her life, plays in two locations, released by the producers; while Cosmic Cat is debuting The Hermit Of Treig, a documentary about Ken Smith, who lived in a hand-made cabin in the Scottish Highlands for almost 40 years without electricity or running water.
Vertigo Releasing has a 20th anniversary re-release of Andrew Dominik’s Chopper in two sites; while in the event cinema realm, Trafalgar Releasing will play Don Carlos – Met Opera 2022 in 140 venues on Saturday 26, with a further eight across the following week.
The Batman will look to stave off the challenge of Ambulance to maintain top spot; while other key holdovers are eOne’s The Phantom Of The Open, which has improved on its opening weekend performance with second place in the midweek charts; and Sony’s anime Jujutsu Kaisen 0.
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