Darkest hour focus features

Source: Universal Pictures

Darkest Hour

UK Top Five

Rank Film / Distributor Weekend Gross (Fri-Sun)Running Total Week
 1 Darkest Hour (Universal) £4.04m  £4.04m  1
 2 Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (Sony) £2.5m  £29.9m  4
 3 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Fox) £2.16m  £2.35m  1
 4 The Greatest Showman (Fox) £2.14m  £13.53m  3
 5 Coco (Disney) £1.88m  £1.88m P*

Today’s GBP to USD conversion rate - 1.38. *P = previews.

Universal

Gary Oldman-starring Churchill biopic Darkest Hour opened to a strong £4.04m from its 607 locations this weekend. Universal’s awards contender posted a hefty screen average of £6,656.

The debut is comfortably director Joe Wright’s best UK opening, far ahead of Pan (2015) on £2.74m and Pride & Prejudice (2005) on £2.53m. Pride & Prejudice remains his best total on £14.57m, ahead of Atonement (2007) on £12.4m, and Darkest Hour will be looking to surpass those figures, particularly as the film continues to attract awards buzz. Gary Oldman starrer Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy opened to £2.81m in the UK in 2011 on its way to £14.2m and a similar trajectory looks likely.

Pitch Perfect 3 added £837,973 over the weekend and now sits on £14.14m, still more than £3m shy of Pitch Perfect 2’s £17.4m total.

Sony

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle fell 35% to £2.5m this weekend, getting it up to a running total of £29.9m. The film has now surpassed the UK takings of recent Dwayne Johnson action hit Fast & Furious 8 (2017) which made £29.63m.

Horror sequel Insidious: The Last Key unlocked £1.84m from 401 sites across its opening weekend in the UK. That’s a better debut than the original film, which opened to £1.44m in 2011, albeit from fewer sites, and Insidious Chapter 3, which opened to £1,44m in 2015.

Chapter 2 posted a debut of £2.88m in the UK in 2013, finishing on £7.3m, a little ahead of the original’s £7.1m total. Chapter 3 bottomed out at £3.87m, and Sony will be hoping The Last Key will have the legs to surpass that total.

All The Money In The World fell 55%, taking £539,000 for a lifetime of £2.4m to-date.

Call Me By Your Name isn’t done yet. The critical hit added £25,000 for £1.4m to-date. The film has performed particularly impressively at London’s Curzon Soho, where it has now crossed £200,000.

Fox

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri opened to £2.16m from 484 sites, a decent average of £4,463. Including previews, the film’s total debut was £2.35m. Director Martin McDonagh’s previous film, Seven Psychopaths (), opened to £1.12m from 399 sites, including £301,551 in previews.

The Greatest Showman continues to run, falling a slim 27% this weekend (comfortably the smallest percentage drop in the top ten), with £2.14m. It now sits on £13.53m to date.

Ferdinand fell out of the top ten in its fourth weekend, posting £316,901 for a cumelative score of £8.81m.

Disney

Pixar animation Coco, officially opening this Friday [Jan 19], posted previews of £1.88m over Saturday and Sunday from 573 sites, landing fifth on the chart. 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi fell out of the top five in its fifth week, dropping 52% on its way to £1.71m over the weekend. It now sits on £79.87m, still a whisker behind Titanic’s £80.3m, which is fifth on the all-time UK chart.

eOne

Molly’s Game added £522,377 in its second week, a drop of 54%. The film sits on £3.38m to-date.

Studiocanal

Paddington 2 continues to tick over, adding a further £400,143 to move the film to £41.05m.

Altitude

A one-day event (Weds, Jan 10) for music doc Eric Clapton: Life In 12 Bars - featuring a live satellite broadcast of an interview with Clapton from London’s BFI Southbank broadcast into 254 cinemas around the country – grossed £171,718. On a limited release in 15 sites this weekend, the film added £11,308 for a cume total of £183,051.

The Florida Project continues to play well, impressively selling out seven showings at London’s Curzon Bloomsbury over the weekend. In total, it added £10,434 for a running cume of £889,888.

Eros International

Hindi-language boxing drama The Brawler, which premiered in Toronto, opened this weekend with £12,291 from 32 screens.

Arrow

Stéphane Brizé’s French-language drama A Woman’s Life opened to £5,341 from its six locations. Including previews, the film sits on £11,556.

Curzon

In its second week, Jupiter’s Moon added £5,668 and is up to £11,591.

On the horizon

Disney Pixar’s Coco has its full release on Jan 19 after previewing this weekend.

Studiocanal will be hoping Liam Neeson-starring action thriller The Commuter will arrive with a decent debut, while eOne has awards hopeful The Post