The winner: Night School
This year has delivered number-one hits with family comedies (such as Peter Rabbit) and action comedies (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Deadpool 2), but has until now failed to produce a straight-ahead comedy that topped the UK box office chart. I Feel Pretty, which landed in second place in early May, came closest.
So Universal will be pleased to have nabbed the box office crown at the weekend with Night School, pairing proven box office star Kevin Hart with hot comedy talent Tiffany Haddish. The film began at UK cinemas with £1.60m from 452 cinemas – one of the lower grosses for a chart-topping film this year, it should be acknowledged.
The number compares with a £1.16m debut (and £1.58m including previews) for Haddish’s breakthrough movie Girls Trip last year – on that occasion, she was the least familiar to British audiences of the four principal female stars, acting alongside Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Regina Hall. Hart was last seen in ensemble comedy Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and before that he was paired with Dwayne Johnson in Central Intelligence. The last film where his name was the biggest draw was Ride Along 2, co-starring Ice Cube, which began with £2.14m in January 2016.
The classy alternative: The Wife
In what was a notably quiet week for new releases, Picturehouse Entertainment established The Wife as the major new arthouse title of the week – squarely targeting upscale and older audiences with this tale of the long-suffering wife (Glenn Close) of a feted novelist (Jonathan Pryce) as they travel together to Stockholm to collect the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Grossing £336,000 from 119 cinemas, and £393,000 including previews, The Wife scored the second-highest site average in the Top 10, behind only Night School. Sony Pictures Classics, which has the film in the US, is mounting an Oscar campaign for Close, in which she will compete with the likes of A Star Is Born’s Lady Gaga, The Favourite’s Olivia Colman, Roma’s Yalitza Aparicio and Can You Ever Forgive Me’s Melissa McCarthy.
The homegrown hit
While The Wife is a film with a clearly defined audience in the UK, the same can be said for The Intent 2: The Come Up. This prequel to 2016’s The Intent is written, directed and produced by Femi Oyeniran and Nicky Slimting Walker – who also appear in the film alongside the likes of Adam Deacon, Ashley Chin, Justin Clarke (aka rapper Ghetts) and Dylan Duffus.
While the first Intent was very modest at the UK box office, grossing just £16,300 over the course of its lifetime, the more glossily executed follow-up – which extends the action from east London to Jamaica – benefited from a bigger push from distributor Vertigo. Gross after 10 days is a very impressive £317,000, with the film performing particularly well in London and Birmingham.
The strong hold: A Simple Favour
Declining more gently than any other film in the top 10 is Paul Feig’s A Simple Favour, starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively and Crazy Rich Asians’ Henry Golding. Takings fell by a relatively slim 24% from the opening frame – suggesting that the film is earning decent word-of-mouth among UK audiences. Box office after ten days is £3.41m.
The market
September has ended with yet another session where takings were down (by 20%) on the equivalent weekend from 2017 – it’s been the same story with every single weekend this month. So far, 2018 has been an up-and-down year, battered by the summer heatwave and World Cup football, and surging thanks to breakout hits such as The Greatest Showman and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. After the disappointing September, salvation appears to be immediately at hand, with the arrival on October 3 of Tom Hardy in Marvel’s Venom and Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born, which won significant critical and audience acclaim at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. They are joined on Friday by Rowan Atkinson in Johnny English Strikes Again. If those three films don’t collectively revive the market, it’s in trouble.
Top 10 films September 28-30
1. Night School, £1,596,378 from 452 sites (new)
2. The House with a Clock in Its Walls, £1,547,626 from 552 sites. Total: £5,521,152 (2 weeks)
3. A Simple Favour, £1,001,620 from 529 sites. Total: £3,407,225 (2 weeks)
4. Crazy Rich Asians, £731,157 from 518 sites. Total: £4,819,713 (3 weeks)
5. The Nun, £659,153 from 452 sites. Total: £10,597,539 (4 weeks)
6. King of Thieves, £619,529 from 527 sites. Total: £4,976,640 (3 weeks)
7. The Wife, £392,635 from 119 sites (new)
8. The Predator, £334,322 from 417 sites. Total: £4,569,791 (3 weeks)
9. Disney’s Christopher Robin, £299,288 from 515 sites. Total: £14,225,959 (7 weeks)
10. Mile 22, £287,226 from 359 sites. Total: £1,420,868 (2 weeks)
Other openers
Sui Dhaaga, Made in India, £114,644 from 77 sites
Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, £93,784 from 32 sites
Juliusz, £69,403 from 72 sites
Soft Cell: One Final Time, £66,078 from 168 sites
Parahuna, £21,513 from 11 sites
Skate Kitchen, £19,545 from 61 sites
Devadas, £13,254 from 11 sites
Pataakha, £5,913 from 12 sites
Redcon-1, £5,714 from 15 sites
The Meeting, £4,284 from 7 sites (Ireland only)
Two for Joy, £3,371 from 13 sites
The Gospel According to André, £1,749 from 6 sites
Anchor and Hope, £1,425 from 4 sites
Hello, Mrs Money, £979 from 7 sites
Fat Buddies, £629 from 8 sites
• Thanks to comScore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.
