Entertainment Film Distributors’ seafaring sequel Fisherman’s Friends: One And All receives the widest opening of any title at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, starting in 645 locations.
Directed by Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft, One And All is a sequel to Chris Foggin’s Fisherman’s Friends, about 10 Cornish fisherman who gain a record deal with their album of sea shanties.
The sequel sees the group struggle with their second album after the highs of performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.
Fisherman’s Friends opened to £1.2m from 506 locations in March 2019, at an average of £2,297. It went on to a decent £7.4m total.
Leonard and Moorcroft were writers on the first film alongside Piers Ashworth, with the trio taking on writing duties again here.
The directing pair have previously written and produced 2017 comedy Finding Your Feet (opened: £918,107; closed: £5.9m) and Noel Coward adaptation Blithe Spirit, again with Ashworth, which was released online during the pandemic.
With its inspiration from the eponymous real-life folk music group and the performance of the first film, EFD will hope to push One And All to similar figures – aided by the lack of blockbuster competition.
Sony is opening anime franchise title Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in 508 locations; the film sees the Red Ribbon Army from Goku’s past return with two new androids to challenge him and his friends.
The Dragon Ball franchise was created in 1984, and has produced 24 feature films. Only two of these have received UK-Ireland theatrical releases: 2015’s Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F (£196,219 total), and 2019’s Dragon Ball Super: Broly (£1m total). This is the first to be released by a major studio in the territory; Sony will hope to push it to a new record for the series.
US actress Isabelle Fuhrman reprises her role as Esther in Signature Entertainment’s Orphan: First Kill, having first played the part in 2009’s Orphan. That film, released by Studiocanal, opened to £570,146 from 285 locations, going on to £2.6m; the sequel starts in 327 sites, and will be aiming for similar figures.
Peccadillo Pictures is debuting Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s romantic comedy Anais In Love in 13 sites, and simultaneously on streaming platforms. The film, which debuted in Critics’ Week at Cannes this year, follows a broke 30-year-old woman who falls for a new man – as well as for his female partner.
Mubi is starting Julie Ha and Eugene Yi’s documentary Free Chol Soo Lee, about a Korean immigrant wrongly convicted for a Chinatown gang murder and the efforts to free him, in 20 locations. The film debuted at the online Sundance Film Festival in January.
Picturehouse Entertainment is starting Lee Haven Jones’ BFI-backed Welsh-language horror The Feast, which debuted at SXSW in March 2021; Studio Soho Distribution is opening documentary Girls Can’t Surf; while Netflix has a limited release for Babak Anvari’s I Came By, one of the first titles commissioned by head of UK features Fiona Lamptey.
Further titles include Dogwoof documentary My Old School in 35 locations; plus non-English language titles Mama’s Affair in 19 sites through Trinity Film; and Paapan through DJ Tech.
Paramount has a re-release of the 4k director’s cut of 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 425 locations.
Key holdovers this weekend include Universal’s Nope, which took top spot on debut last weekend; plus previous number ones Bullet Train, DC League Of Super-Pets and Minions: The Rise Of Gru.
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