The disappointment: Fantastic Four
In the 10 years since Fox presented the first of the two Tim Story-directed Fantastic Four films, it’s fair to say that the value of the association with the Marvel brand has only increased. Fox’s X-Men franchise continues to flourish, Sony took just under $1.5bn worldwide with its two Amazing Spider-Man films, and Disney has proved with The Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man that Marvel success is not limited to the Avengers portfolio of characters. So, the logic went, a rebooted Fantastic Four, with Chronicle director Josh Trank at the helm, an appealing sounding cast led by Whiplash’s Miles Teller, plus the growing cachet of the Marvel brand, must surely add up to an audience-pleasing proposition. A brief glance at the UK box office Top 10 (see below) suggests the new Fantastic Four has done OK – after all, it’s sitting there in the top spot, with a gross of £2.69m. But that would be misleading.
Preview takings of £817,000 have been added in to that figure. Without them, Fantastic Four recorded a weekend total of £1.87m, only enough for third place, behind Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Inside Out. Nor do comparisons with the previous attempt at Fantastic Four flatter the new film. The first Story-directed effort kicked off with £3.13m plus £415,000 in previews in July 2005, when cinema ticket prices were 30% lower than they are today. It’s sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer began with £4.14m in June 2007.
A big difference this time around is the speed at which audience’s word travels on a film. In 2005, and even in 2007, Facebook was in its infancy. As it turns out, when word did start circulating, audiences didn’t hugely care for either of those Fantastic Four films, and Rise of the Silver Surfer managed an uninspiring 2.99 times its opening weekend number in the UK with its lifetime total of £12.38m.
This time around, Fox faced a perfect storm of negative buzz, which intensified when Trank suggested in a tweet that he wasn’t happy with, and wasn’t responsible for, the film that was delivered to cinemas. Although that tweet was soon deleted, its expression represented one more negative cue. Fantastic Four currently enjoys a 4/10 rating from users of IMDb and a 27/100 score at MetaCritic. Social media platforms are now providing a corrective, with some users suggesting the film isn’t quite the anticipated disaster, and is entertaining for the younger end of the target audience.
Chart veteran 1: Jurassic World
Celebrating its ninth week in the Top 10, Jurassic World has now grossed £63.3m. The weekend saw it rise another place in the all time box office chart, overtaking The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring to nab eighth position. (Adjusted for inflation, it would be a whole other story.) Jurassic World now looks unlikely to ascend any further in the all-time chart, since seventh-placed Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has £66.1m. (The top six films of all time in the UK are Skyfall, Avatar, Titanic, Toy Story 3, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Mamma Mia!)
Chart veteran 2: Minions
With £41.8m to date, Minions has just overtaken the highest-grossing release of 2014, which was The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, with £41.3m. Which means that so far this year three films (the others are Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron) have grossed more than 2014’s biggest hit. That tally is likely to rise to five by the time Spectre (arriving in October) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (December) have ended their runs. Minions grossed £1.8m over the past seven days, and is currently declining by about 50% each week. On that basis, it looks unlikely to match the box office of the Universal Illumination franchise’s top performer, Despicable Me 2.
Rival animation Inside Out now stands at £22.8m, after 17 days of play. That puts it ahead of the lifetime of Pixar’s Brave (£22.2m) and in spitting distance of WALL-E (£22.9m). Next in its sights: Toy Story (£24.3m, including the 3D rerelease) and Ratatouille (£24.8m).
The arthouse alternatives
Creeping back into the Top 10 in its sixth week of release, Amy took another £96,000 at the weekend, for a cumulative total of £3.25m. That was enough to take Amy past director Asif Kapadia’s own Senna (£3.17m), previously the fourth-biggest non-concert documentary at the UK box office, behind Fahrenheit 9/11 (£6.55m), Deep Sea 3D (£3.40m) and March of the Penguins (£3.31m). Amy should have no problem overtaking both Deep Sea and Penguins, thereby becoming the second-biggest non-concert documentary of all time in the UK. If concert films are included, only two have grossed more than any of the above-mentioned titles: Michael Jackson’s This Is It (£9.80m) and One Direction: This Is Us (£8m).
Landing in 12th place in the weekend chart is The Diary of a Teenage Girl, with £81,000 from 80 cinemas, including £3,200 in previews. Distributor Vertigo faced the challenge of having a film with potential teen appeal, but an 18 certificate that denied access to a big chunk of that audience. Reviews were enthusiastic, including a five-star rave in The Guardian. Acclaimed Spanish cop drama Marshland achieved a similar screen average with £37,100 from 32 sites, including previews of £2,600. Despite very strong reviews, smart genre film The Gift didn’t get much traction at independent cinemas. Playing overwhelmingly in multiplexes, Joel Edgerton’s directorial debut grossed £585,000 from 333 venues.
The record-breaker
With £3.75m so far, Secret Cinema’s presentation of The Empire Strikes Back had become the biggest ever box office hit in the event cinema category, overtaking its own Back to the Future event last year (£3.54m). The Empire Strikes Back is currently 58 days into its 100-date run. Secret Cinema is somewhat anomalous in the event-cinema category, which usually means a live performance beamed into multiple cinemas – such as the National Theatre’s War Horse, currently No 3 in the chart with £2.93m. Secret Cinema involves the showing of a film as part of the immersive interactive visitor experience, and in a single location, and really deserves a box office chart all its own.
The future
To nobody’s great surprise, takings are a calamitous 53% down on the equivalent weekend a year ago when The Inbetweeners 2 stormed to the top of the box office with a whopping £12.5m including previews. Cinema bookers will be hoping to improve this weekend with the arrival of a range of titles, including The Man from UNCLE, Guy Ritchie’s reboot of the 60s TV show starring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer; Trainwreck, the lauded Judd Apatow-directed comedy written by and starring Amy Schumer; Adam Sandler comedy Pixels, which trades off nostalgia for 80s video games; Absolutely Anything, a Simon Pegg comedy featuring a voice cast of Monty Python members; and Mistress America, the latest US indie from the creative partnership of Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig.
Top 10 films, 7-9 August
1. Fantastic Four, £2,686,176 from 539 sites (new)
2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, £2,408,562 from 581 sites. Total: £11,047,842
3. Inside Out, £1,957,627 from 623 sites. Total: £22,808,206
4. Southpaw, £793,255 from 416 sites. Total: £5,748,548
5. The Gift, £584,552 from 333 sites (new)
6. Ant-Man, £565,319 from 457 sites. Total: £14,422,296
7. Minions, £516,174 from 559 sites. Total: £41,803,599
8. Secret Cinema: The Empire Strikes Back, £261,750 from one site. Total: £3,752,940
9. Jurassic World, £178,441 from 288 sites. Total: £63,331,890
10. Amy, £95,725 from 103 sites. Total: £3,249,507
Other openers
The Diary of a Teenage Girl, £81,185 (including £3,168 previews) from 80 sites
Marshland, £37,108 (including £2,572 previews) from 32 sites
Max, £38,901 from 118 sites
The Rape of Lucretia – Glyndebourne 2015, £29,796 from 36 sites (event cinema)
Bangistan, £21,647 from 22 sites
Manglehorn, £14,756 from 23 sites
52 Tuesdays, £6,428 from 16 sites
Death of a Gentleman, £5,757 from two sites
A Doctor’s Sword, £3,998 from two sites (Ireland only)
Hard to Be a God, £2,894 from seven sites
Jaanisaar, £1,227 from eight sites
War Book, £905 from three sites
• Thanks to Rentrak
