‘The Fall Guy’ tops UK-Ireland box office with £3.2m opening; ‘Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace’ flies again

Rank	Film (distributor)	Three-day gross (May 3-5)	Total gross to date	Week
1.	The Fall Guy (Universal)	£3.2m	£4.9m	1
2.	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace  (Disney)	£1.2m	£1.4m	1
3.	Challengers  (Warner Bros)	£986,858	£4m	2
4.	Back To Black  (Studiocanal)	£770,973	£10.8m	4
5.	Kung Fu Panda 4  (Universal)	£562,659	£20.9m	6

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.25

Universal action comedy The Fall Guy opened top of the UK-Ireland box office with a £3.2m weekend.

Starting in 702 sites, the film brought in a £4,542 average from Friday to Sunday. The Fall Guy recorded its biggest day on the Bank Holiday Monday with £1.3m, and including last Thursday’s previews it is up to a £4.9m total.

A re-release of 1999’s Star Wars: Episdode I – The Phantom Menace brought in an impressive £1.2m for Disney. With a further £230,079 on Monday, the re-issue has almost £1.4m in total, in addition to the £56.4m from the original release. The combined figures push it back into the top 30 highest-grossing films of all time in the territory.

Last weekend’s number one Challengers added £986,858 for Warner Bros – a 36% drop on its first weekend. Including Monday, Luca Guadagnino’s tennis drama is up to almost £4m.

Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black added a further £770,973 on its fourth weekend – a 45.7% drop for Studiocanal. Sam Taylor-Johnson’s film now has a decent £10.8m total

Kung Fu Panda 4 held on to a top five spot on its sixth weekend, adding £562,659 – a 40.6% drop. The family animation is now up to £20.9m, overtaking 2008’s first title Kung Fu Panda to become the highest-grossing film in the franchise.

Takings for the top five rose for a second consecutive weekend, by 26.3% to £6.6m. While this increase is a positive sign, it will be of greater concern to cinemas that the figures are 53.9% down on the equivalent weekend from last year, when Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 boosted them to £14.4m. Disney’s Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes offers the best shot at improvement next weekend.

Love is the drug

Sony horror Tarot opened to £432,692 from 400 sites at a £1,082 average. Including previews and Monday, the film is up to £631,099.

Civil War rages on for Entertainment Film Distributors, adding £310,694 on its latest session – a 58.9% fall, with its total at £5.9m from four weekends.

Love Lies Bleeding, the second feature from 2018 Screen Star of Tomorrow Rose Glass, made a decent start with a £1,223 site average from 253 cinemas. The bodybuilding drama starring Kristen Stewart took £309,613 from Friday to Sunday, and has £410,002 for Lionsgate including the Bank Holiday. It topped the £263,671 start of Glass’ 2020 debut Saint Maud, although that film was released in the thick of the pandemic when many cinemas were closed.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire dropped out of the top five for Warner Bros, adding £301,057 on its sixth session to hit a £14.3m total. It will likely finish slightly short of the £16m of 1998’s Godzilla.

The event cinema release of Macbeth: Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma followed up its £215,408 opening on Thursday, May 2 with £184,758 at the weekend, and has £408,941 in total for Trafalgar Releasing.

Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire put on £122,299 on its seventh weekend, and is up to £15.4m – already the highest-grossing title in the franchise ahead of the 1984 first film Ghostbusters with £12.4m.

Universal horror Abigail added £116,515 on its third session – a 69.2% drop – and is up to £1.7m.

Former number one Dune: Part Two added £74,750 on its 10^th weekend in cinemas for Warner Bros, bringing it to a £39.4m total as the highest-grossing 2024 release.

Irish drama That They May Face The Rising Sun held well on its second session, dropping just 31.2% with £66,863. Released by Conic in England, Scotland and Wales, and Break Out Pictures in Ireland and Northern Ireland, the film has a decent £322,325 total.

Still in cinemas after 14 weekends, Universal’s anatine animation Migration added £40,241, and is up to £21.2m, ahead of animation comparisons including Big Hero 6 and Hotel Transylvania 2 (both £20.7m).

Signature Entertainment’s animation Butterfly Tale added £38,954 on its second weekend, and is up to £171,821.

Dev Patel’s Monkey Man added £36,771 on its fifth weekend in cinemas, and has £2.5m in total – a healthy result for a film originally headed to streaming via Netflix, before Universal picked it up.

Anime Ltd’s Spy X Family Code: White put on £35,647 on its second session, and is up to a £398,104 total.

Italian box office hit There’s Still Tomorrow added £32,789 for Vue Entertainment, and is up to £208,341 after two weekends.

Chinese animation Super Wings the Movie: Maximum Speed started with £32,319 at the weekend, and has £34,820 including Monday for Miracle/Dazzler.

Vertigo Releasing’s animation adventure Scarygirl added £15,666, and has £100,458 from two weekends.

Elene Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry started with £13,403 from Friday to Sunday for New Wave Films. Including Monday and preview screenings, the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight entry has £21,325.

Disney horror The First Omen put on £12,047 on its fifth weekend, and is up to £1.5m total.

National Theatre Live’s event cinema release of Nye starring Michael Sheen added £8,953, and is up to a strong £857,587 from two weekends. It has a further 700 screenings booked across the next week.

Boy Kills World fell away on its second weekend for Signature Entertainment, adding £6,871 to hit a £145,871 total.

Ordinary Angels starring Hilary Swank is slipping out of cinemas after two weekends for Sony, adding £2,777 to hit £93,295.

Universal’s I.S.S. is drifting out of cinemas after two weekends, adding £2,023 on its latest session to hit £47,099.

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