| Rank | Film (distributor) | Three-day gross (Jan 6-8) | Total gross to date | Week |
| 1. | Avatar: The Way Of Water (Disney) | £5.9m | £57.3m | 4 |
| 2. | Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Sony) | £1.4m | £6.3m | 2 |
| 3. | Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical (Sony) | £1.2m | £23.9m | 7 |
| 4. | A Man Called Otto (Sony) | £1.1m | £1.1m | 1 |
| 5. | Andre Rieu In Dublin 2023 (Piece Of Magic) | £775,000 | £775,000 | 1 |
GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.22
Avatar: The Way Of Water topped the UK-Ireland box office for a fourth successive weekend, as indie titles Aftersun and Corsage held well as counter-programming options.
The Way Of Water dropped 23% on its previous weekend, with £5.9m taking it to a £57.3m cume from 24 days in cinemas.
That is well ahead of the first Avatar film at the same point, which took close to £4.8m on its fourth weekend for a total near £41m from 25 days in early 2010.
The Way Of Water has now entered the top 30 highest-grossing films of all time in the UK and Ireland at number 30; it will look to push on towards the first film’s strong £94m total – currently sixth on the all-time list.
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody posted a fine hold for Sony, dropping less than 1% on its second weekend with £1.4m bringing it to £6.3m from 15 days in cinemas – enough to push it up to second place.
It overtook another Sony title, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical, which dropped 40.9% on its seventh weekend in cinemas with £1.2m taking it to £23.9m total.
Sony had three titles over the £1m mark in the top five, having opened Marc Forster’s A Man Called Otto to £1.1m from 641 sites at a £1,699 average.
Dutch violinist and event cinema favourite Andre Rieu proved a reliable draw again at the box office with Andre Rieu In Dublin 2023. Piece Of Magic Entertainment took approximately £775,000 from 640 sites from a Saturday release followed by Sunday encores.
Final figures for the weekend are still to come; over 500 encores are still to play, with the release pitching towards a final total over £900,000. Rieu’s highest-grossing concert release remains 2020’s Andre Rieu: 70 Years Young, which took over £2m, also for Piece of Magic.
Takings for the top five were £10.3m – down just 11.5% on last weekend’s total. With strong showings from both blockbuster and independent titles, it represents a positive start to the year for the theatrical exhibition sector.
Aftersun scorches
Universal opened Chinonye Chukwu’s historical race drama Till to £288,132 from 420 sites, at a £686 average. Including previews, the film has £327,496.
Disney’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dropped 38% on its ninth weekend in cinemas, adding £270,000 to reach £33.9m. It is now the 14th -highest-grossing of 30 Marvel Cinematic Universe films to date, with the first film’s £50.8m in fifth place on that list.
Disney animation Strange World dropped 50% on its seventh weekend, with £141,000 taking it to a £3.56m total.
The Menu, another Disney release through the company’s Searchlight Pictures arm, served up a fine 30% increase on its eighth weekend, with £136,000 bringing it to £3.86m total.
Charlotte Wells’ UK-US feature Aftersun brought in a massive 107% increase on its eighth weekend in cinemas, with £91,279 taking it to almost £1.3m. This was its best weekend since its third weekend in cinemas; further awards success could push an already strong performance beyond the £1.5m mark.
It is now Mubi’s highest-grossing release of all time in the UK and Ireland, overtaking The Worst Person In The World and Decision To Leave - two other 2022 releases that have topped the £1m mark for the distributor.
Picturehouse Entertainment’s Corsage fell just 11% on its first weekend, adding a decent £78,000 to reach £397,500. Word-of-mouth seems strong on the film, which had its best day of the entire release to date on Saturday, January 7 with £37,000.
Vertigo Releasing opened Richard Hughes’ action title The Enforcer starring Antonio Banderas to £71,878 from 129 sites at a £557 average.
Disney’s Searchlight Pictures awards contender The Banshees Of Inisherin went up 13.8% on last time, with £42,500 taking it to a decent £9.2m cume. Awards success could still see the film break the £10m barrier before the end of its run.
Carla Simon’s Berlinale 2022 Golden Bear winner Alcarràs opened to £26,735 from 31 sites at an £862 average – a healthy result for an independent title in the post-pandemic landscape. Including previews, the film has £41,402.
Minions: The Rise Of Gru added £26,003 on its 28th weekend in cinemas for Universal, reaching a £46.9m total. Universal’s festive horror Violent Night put on a further £20,142, and is up to £3.8m from six weekends.
Sundance 2022 title Piggy started with £7,663 from 17 sites for Vertigo Releasing, and has £8,272 including previews.
BFI Distribution’s release of Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic Rashomon brought in a strong £27,710 from just 18 locations, for an excellent £1,539 location average. The film is one of 30 Kurosawa features playing in a retrospective of the Japanese filmmaker throughout January and February.
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