‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ opens with £2.4m at UK-Ireland box office; ‘The Housemaid’ stays top

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Zombie horror 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple opened to a healthy £2.4m at the UK-Ireland box office as The Housemaid continued its excellent run by holding on to top spot.

Lionsgate thriller The Housemaid added £2.8m on its fourth weekend – a drop of just 20% on its previous session.

Paul Feig’s film took just 8% less than its opening weekend, with the film demonstrating strong staying power in a competitive market.

The film is up to a hefty £22.6m, more than seven times its opening weekend. It is Lionsgate’s sixth-highest grossing film of all time in the territory, behind the four original The Hunger Games films and La La Land; and should overtake the original The Hunger Games  (£24.1m) in the next week.

Universal’s Hamnet posted the best hold in the top five this weekend, falling just 15% on its second session with £2.6m.

The film is up to a strong £8.4m already, above current awards contenders Sinners, One Battle After Another and Marty Supreme  at the same stage, as well as previous awards titles The Favourite and A Complete Unknown, and topping the £7.6m cume of Poor Things.

Nia DaCosta’s The Bone Temple started with £2.4m from 666 sites at a £3,633 site average for Sony. This was down on the £3.9m start and £5,483 average of last year’s 28 Years Later; although The Bone Temple’s 18 rating will have put restrictions on audience figures, compared to the 15 for 28 Years Later.

It is a second-biggest box office opening for US director DaCosta, behind 2023’s The Marvels  (£3.5m). The film took £3.4m including previews.

Former number one Avatar: Fire And Ash added £1.7m on its fifth session for Disney – a 35% drop that brought it to £38.3m. For comparison, previous title The Way Of Water was still top on its fifth weekend, with a £4.2m session and £63.5m running total, on its way to a £77.4m lifetime.

Entertainment Film Distributors’ Marty Supreme was another awards contender to post a decent hold, falling 29% across its fourth session.

The Timothee Chalamet-starring film added £1.5m to reach £11.9m total, and will overtake the £12.4m of last year’s A Complete Unknown, also starring Chalamet, this week.

The top five titles all made over £1m for the fourth weekend in a row, as January continued its good form for UK-Ireland exhibitors. Total top five takings were £11m – down 11% on the previous weekend, but still up 52% on the equivalent weekend from last year.

Rings still rule them all

Disney’s Zootropolis 2 may have dropped out of the top five, but still made a strong £980,656 on its eighth weekend in cinemas, falling just 21%. The family animation is up to £30.4m total, well ahead of the £24.1m of the 2016 first film.

Warner Bros put all three original The Lord Of The Rings films back in cinemas this weekend, with first film The Fellowship Of The Ring leading the box office takings with £473,378 across the three days. It made £63m on its original 2001 release.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants added £467,000 on its fourth weekend for Paramount – a drop of just 24%, with the family animation now at £7.4m and hoping to catch the £8.6m of 2015’s The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water.

Hikari’s Rental Family starring Brendan Fraser started with £358,416 from 405 sites at an £885 average, and has £521,718 including previews for Disney.

Sony’s Anaconda slid in a further £300,918 on its fourth weekend – a 43% drop that brought it to £5.2m total.

Song Sung Blue put on £228,916 on its third weekend for Universal – a 50% drop that brought the Hugh Jackman- and Kate Hudson-starrer to £2.5m total.

Rowan Athale’s Giant added £159,473 on its second weekend in cinemas for True Brit Entertainment – a 55% drop that brought the UK independent title to £703,464 total.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers brought in £153,267 for Warner Bros, with the film having made £57.6m from its original 2002 run. Third filmThe Return Of The King took £119,405, in addition to £61.1m on its original 2003 run.

Trafalgar Releasing’s latest opera rollout La Traviata made £100,000 at the weekend, and has £446,000 including midweek shows.

Wicked: For Good remains in cinemas after nine weekends, dropping 60% on its latest session for Universal with £85,394 taking it beyond the £47m mark.

Fresh from a triumphant weekend at the European Film Awards, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value has topped £1m at the UK-Ireland box office. It added £70,831 to its total for Mubi on its fourth weekend – a 35% drop.

Dutch-Belgian made animation Miss Moxy started with £36,827 for Miracle Comms, from 271 screens at a £136 screen average, mainly screening early on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Indian crime drama Dhurandhar has been a breakout non-English language success of the last two months for Moviegoers Entertainment. The film added £34,168 on its latest session – a 49% drop that brought it to just shy of £3m, as the fourth-highest-grossing Indian film ever in the territory.

Hong Kong adventure comedy Back To The Past added £18,635 on its third weekend for Trinity Film/CineAsia – a 59% drop that brought it to a £442,263 cume.

Indian fantasy adventure The Raja Saab added £2,093 on its second weekend for Prathyangira Cinemas, and has £276,688 in total.

UK documentary Becoming Victoria Wood is up to £67,474 for Dartmouth Films.

• 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple starts with $29m at global box office; Avatar: Fire And Ash passes $1.3bn