Warner Bros’ Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim and Sony’s Kraven The Hunter will battle it out at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend.
Launching in 520 cinemas, The War Of The Rohirrim is an animated feature set 183 years before Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Those titles were major box office successes, all opening with over £11m each and collectively grossing £181.7m in the UK and Ireland.
Brian Cox leads the voice cast as Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan, who must defend the ancient stronghold of Hornburg from the ruthless Dunlending lord. Gaia Wise, Lorraine Ashbourne and Billy Boyd also lend their voices while Kenji Kamiyama directs.
Following closely behind is Sony’s Kraven The Hunter in 508 locations.
It is the lowest location opening of all six films in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe. The first was 2018’s Venom which landed in 546 sites, followed by 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage (596), 2022’s Morbius (620) and this year’s Madame Web and Venom: The Last Dance which opened in 572 and 622 locations, respectively.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars in Kraven The Hunter which tells the supervillain’s origin story as his complex relationship with his father forces him down a path of vengeance. Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott and Russell Crowe also star in the feature directed by J. C Chandor.
The Sony titles have proven a mixed bag at the UK and Ireland box office. Venom: Let There Be Carnage had the strongest opening with £6.2m back in 2021 while earlier this year, Madame Web debuted with just £1.3m. With weak reviews and the likes of Wicked and Gladiator II still filling cinemas, Kraven: The Hunter is likely to open closer to the latter end.
Queer love
Luca Guadagnino’s Queer launches in 213 cinemas for Mubi. Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey lead the Venice premiere about an American ex-pat and a young student who embark on a romance in 1950s Mexico City.
In event cinema, Trafalgar Releasing has encore screenings of Cinderella – ROH, London 2024 in 250 sites after opening Tuesday (December 10).
Picturehouse Entertainment opens Timm Kröger’s black-and-white thriller The Universal Theory in 31 venues. The film, which premiered at Venice in 2023, follows a young physicist who meets a mysterious pianist who knows things about him he’s never told anyone before.
An all-star cast lends their voices to the latest adaptation of A Christmas Carol which screens in 30 cinemas on Sunday (December 15) via Munro Films. Directed by Jacqui Morris, Charles Dickens’ iconic characters are portrayed by dancers and voiced by actors including Andy Serkis, Carey Mulligan, Martin Freeman and Daniel Kaluuya.
Dogwoof opens The Bibi Files, a documentary exploring the corruption charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in three locations.
Further releases include Mexico’s Oscar entry Sujo via Beam Films; the Simona Kossak biography via Magnetes Pictures; and From Roger Moore With Love documentary via Dartmouth Films.
Key holdover titles remain Wicked, Moana 2 and Gladiator II.
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