| Rank | Film (distributor) | Three-day gross (Jan 5-7) | Total gross to date | Week |
| 1. | Wonka (Warner Bros) | £3.8m | £53m | 5 |
| 2. | One Life (Warner Bros) | £1.7m | £3.3m | 1 |
| 3. | Anyone But You (Sony) | £1.1m | £3.4m | 2 |
| 4. | Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom (Warner Bros) | £933,334 | £8.2m | 3 |
| 5. | The Boy And The Heron (Elysian) | £794,881 | £3m | 2 |
GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.27
Warner Bros’ Wonka topped the UK-Ireland box office for a fifth consecutive weekend, crossing £53m total and continuing its rise up the all-time chart; while rom-com Anyone But You and animation The Boy And The Heron both found new audiences on their second weekends on release.
Paul King’s chocolate-coated musical added £3.8m – a drop of 43.1% on its previous weekend – to hit just over £53m. Wonka will pass The Super Mario Bros. Movie (£54.7m) to become the third-highest-grossing 2023 release within the next week; and should catch Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (£58.4m) to reach second place before the end of its run.
It is currently the 39th -highest-grossing film of all time in the UK and Ireland; should it reach £60m, it would be in 25th place.
This weekend’s highest-grossing opener was Warner Bros’ One Life, with £1.7m from Friday to Sunday, in 699 sites at an average of £2,470. Starring Johnny Flynn and Anthony Hopkins as the younger and older versions of Nicholas Winton, who helped to rescue hundreds of child refugees in the Second World War, the film has £3.3m in total following its opening on Monday, January 1.
Will Gluck’s romantic comedy Anyone But You increased its takings by an excellent 48.8% on its second weekend, adding £1.1m to hit a £3.4m total for Sony. The film, starring Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney, has been a breakout hit worldwide, with a $58.4m gross and counting against a reported $25m budget.
Warner Bros’ Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom added £933,334 – a 53.3% drop – on its third weekend, and is up to £8.2m.
Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy And The Heron was one of this weekend’s biggest success stories, taking £794,881 – an increase of 16% on its first weekend, and enough to make the top five.
Distributed by Elysian Film Distribution, its £2,632 site average vindicated its expansion to include Imax venues. The Studio Ghibli film has over £3m in total – an excellent result for a film not in the English language. The film took the Golden Globe for best motion picture – animation last night; this, plus awards success elsewhere, could further boost its theatrical takings.
Top five takings came in at £8.3m – a 26.9% drop on last time out, but still a decent post-holidays performance, with several titles showing better than earlier in their runs. Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and George Clooney’s The Boys In The Boat will look to keep the diverse offerings going next weekend.
Priscilla starts well
Priscilla has broken new ground for Sofia Coppola, with its full £1.3m opening the director’s biggest to date in the UK and Ireland. Its £642,404 Friday-to-Sunday session was the second-biggest for Coppola, behind the £796,933 of 2004’s Lost In Translation.
Priscilla has £1.3m in total for Mubi, having opened on Monday, January 1.
Disney animation Wish dropped 39% on its seventh weekend, with £625,343 taking it to £11.4m.
Black Bear Pictures’ Ferrari added £597,000 on its second weekend – a 41% drop – and is up to almost £3.3m total.
Universal’s Blumhouse horror Night Swim opened to £588,485 from 411 sites at a £1,404 average – down on the £3.2m start and £5,293 average of Blumhouse stablemate Five Nights At Freddy’s from October 2023.
Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes did take a 55.2% drop on its previous session; but still added £183,055 on its eighth weekend in cinemas, for a strong £17.9m total.
Anime Ltd’s Godzilla Minus One continues to perform well, adding £165,026 – a 36.1% drop – to reach £2.3m from four weekends.
Next Goal Wins has failed to score for Disney; the Searchlight Pictures football drama dropped 63% on its second session, with £159,080 taking it to £1.4m.
Former number one Napoleon added £138,642 on its seventh weekend - a 48.1% drop – to reach almost £14m for Sony; it is director Ridley Scott’s highest-grossing film since The Martian in 2015 (£23.7m).
Event cinema title Nabucco – Met Opera 2023/24 took £127,343 for the weekend, after a release on Saturday, January 6; this includes £114,832 from Trafalgar Releasing, which books for the UK only.
Indian comedy Dunki added £101,757 – a 53.1% drop – on its third weekend for Yash Raj Films, and has almost £1.6m in total.
Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn added £64,216 on its eighth weekend in cinemas to reach £5.4m. Its 37.7% drop was better than the market average, and indicated that its availability on Amazon Prime Video has not significantly compromised its theatrical viability.
A return to Imax venues saw Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer add £63,071 this weekend – a 575% increase on its previous session. The big winner at last night’s Golden Globes with five prizes including best picture – drama, it will now look to top up its £58.4m total across awards season, having been in cinemas for 25 weekends already for Universal.
Another multiple Golden Globe winner, Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall, upped its takings by 57.9%, with £36,916 bringing it to £1.6m – a good result for Lionsgate, with more to come throughout awards season.
Miracle/Dazzler’s Russian animation Cats In The Museum added a further £32,408 on its second weekend, and has £200,786 in total.
Universal’s Trolls Band Together is still in cinemas after 12 weekends, and added £23,721 to reach a £15.5m total.
Prasanth Neel’s Indian crime drama Salaar starring Telugu icon Prabhas added £19,186 on its second full weekend in cinemas, and has £612,950 in total for Dreamz Entertainment.
BFI Distribution opened Ali Catterall and Jane Giles’ documentary Scala!!! to £14,661 from 18 sites. The film, about London’s pioneering, transgressive Scala cinema, has £26,625 including previews.
Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves has crossed £300,000 for Mubi, with a further £4,989 taking it to £302,427.
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