UK box office, June 25-27: Fast & Furious 9 takes the fast lane to a pandemic-era record

Vin Diesel sequel delivers biggest opening of Covid era

The middle of an international football tournament is not normally the time to open a big Hollywood blockbuster with male appeal, but Universal defied conventional wisdom with the UK and Ireland release of Fast & Furious 9. The studio’s strategy has been rewarded: F9 has debuted in the territory with ￡4.84m for the three-day weekend period, and ￡6.01m including last Thursday, which was the first day of release.

Those numbers are both records for the pandemic era, beating Tenet. Christopher Nolan’s brain scrambler opened last August with a three-day ￡3.29m and a five-day ￡5.36m.

The success of Fast & Furious 9 has helped drive UK and Ireland box office overall to ￡8.97m for the weekend period, and ￡10.3m including previews. That’s likewise a record for the pandemic era, and the first ￡10m weekend since early March 2020.

F9 topped the worldwide box office at the weekend with a $109m session, including a $70m opening weekend in North America. Global total is a robust $405m. While the film has an awfully long way to go to catch the $1.16bn of Fast & Furious 8, there are many key markets yet to open (such as France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan), and of course cinemas are operating under various capacity restrictions.

What is clear is that there is global appetite for cinema on the big screen, even if that means observing protocols such as wearing masks inside theatres. What’s also clear is that an exclusive theatrical window does work to drive up cinema box office – these numbers wouldn’t have reached their heights had Fast & Furious 9 been simultaneously available in the home. Cinema operators will be optimistic that even sunnier uplands await when existing restrictions in England are - hopefully - lifted on July 19.

Peter Rabbit 2 pulls ahead of chasing pack

Given the oft-told story of the tortoise and the hare, it’s perhaps ironic that Peter Rabbit 2 is performing more like a very steady plodder at the UK and Ireland box office. There the film is, six weeks after release, holding firm at number two. Over recent weeks, titles such as The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, A Quiet Place Part II and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard have all topped the official chart, but all have now drifted lower in the chart, while the rabbit holds its ground.

Peter Rabbit 2 grossed ￡832,000 in its sixth weekend of play, a decline of 26% from the previous session – the gentlest fall of any title in the UK and Ireland Top 10. Total so far is ￡16.4m, which is the second-biggest haul of the pandemic era, after Tenet with ￡17.5m.

Peter Rabbit faces negligible competition for the family audience – at least in the cinema. Disney chose to place Pixar’s Luca exclusively on its Disney+ service. Disney’s Cruella, which is available both in cinemas (where it’s grossed ￡7.80m so far) and in the home, has a 12A certificate and an older audience skew. Animation Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, adapted from the 1980s Spanish-Japanese animated TV series (and in turn inspired by the Alexandre Dumas classic tale The Three Musketeers) is also in the mix. The film opened at the weekend with ￡114,000 from 479 cinemas, and ￡212,000 including previews.

Also in the current Top 10, A Quiet Place Part II is the third-biggest film of the pandemic era, with ￡9.57m so far. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (￡8.38m) is the fourth biggest of the pandemic era, Cruella is fifth, Fast & Furious 9 is sixth, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard is eighth, Godzilla Vs Kong ninth and In The Heights 10th. In other words, eight of the ten biggest hits of the past year were all released since cinemas reopened in May.

Supernova leads charge for indie cinema

The second-highest new entry in the UK and Ireland weekend chart arrives courtesy of Supernova – starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci as a gay couple visiting friends and family in the Lake District. The trip is bitter-sweet: early-onset dementia for Tucci’s writer character means this will be their last holiday together.

Supernova debuted with ￡194,000 from 353 cinemas for the weekend period, and ￡246,000 including previews. For comparison, The Father began a few weeks ago with a bigger ￡360,000 for the weekend period (and ￡397,000 including previews) from a very wide 626 sites. The Father had the advantage of a successful awards campaign, which netted Best Actor and Adapted Screenplay Oscar and Bafta wins – respectively for Anthony Hopkins and for Florian Zeller and co-writer Christopher Hampton.

The Supernova outcome is a big step up in box office for actor-turned-filmmaker Harry Macqueen, whose self-funded debut Hinterland grossed ￡4,645 in total in 2015, according to Comscore data. If the micro-budget Hinterland only served to put Macqueen’s name on the map, and help persuade the likes of Firth and Tucci to appear in his second feature, it has proved a wise investment.

After a very strong hold in its second session, The Father took a tumble in its third, but the ￡1.60m so far will still be seen as a strong result for distributor Lionsgate. The total is already 4.4 times the opening weekend number, and the film’s run is far from over. As is often the case for films with an older audience skew, The Father’s success has not been all about the opening weekend, with numbers holding up strongly in midweek, and over an extended period.

The future

While both Scotland and Wales have now been eliminated from the Euros, England remain a contender. Were the team to beat Germany this evening, England would play a quarter-final on Saturday in Rome – the worst possible day of the week from the perspective of cinema operators. Still, beating Germany remains a big “if”.

The biggest title released this coming weekend is Freaky, which offers a horror twist on the body-swap comedy as a high school teen (Big Little Lies’ Kathryn Newton) swaps frames with a lanky, middle-aged serial killer (six-foot-six Vince Vaughn). For independent cinemas, there will be more excitement for Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, which won the Oscar for International Feature Film and Bafta for Film Not in English Language. Mads Mikkelsen stars as one of four male high school teachers who all decide to test the theory that life is better lived with a small and steady amount of alcohol in the bloodstream. Alternatives include Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges in French Exit (adapted from the novel by Patrick deWitt) and Last Man Standing, which is Nick Broomfield’s latest exploration of the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, following 2002’s Biggie and Tupac.

Bigger dividends await cinema operators next week, with the arrival on July 7 of Marvel’s Black Widow, starring Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh.

Top 10 Films June 25-27

1. Fast & Furious 9, ￡6,014,132 from 594 sites (new)

2. Peter Rabbit 2, ￡831,981 from 608 sites. Total: ￡16,352,734 (6 weeks)

3. In the Heights, ￡689,041 from 632 sites. Total: ￡2,385,356 (2 weeks)

4. A Quiet Place Part II, ￡595,834 from 539 sites. Total: ￡9,568,499 (4 weeks)

5. Cruella, ￡463,370 from 525 sites. Total: ￡7,803,916 (5 weeks)

6. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, ￡446,546 from 513 sites. Total: ￡2,604,362 (2 weeks)

7. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, ￡298,174 from 369 sites. Total: ￡8,382,304 (5 weeks)

8. Supernova, ￡245,715 from 353 sites (new)

9. Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, ￡212,334 from 479 sites (new)

10. The Father, ￡134,499 from 426 sites. Total: ￡1,597,464 (3 weeks)

Other openers

Fatima, ￡6,569 from 36 sites

Nashville (4k restoration), ￡5,140 from 5 sites

Sweat, ￡4,655 from 19 sites

The Filmmaker’s House, 1,906 from 9 sites

Sparkling: The Story of Champagne, ￡856 from 1 site

A Space in Time, ￡75 from 1 site

Thanks to Comscore (@cSMoviesUK)

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