‘F1’ takes UK-Ireland box office lead with £4.9m

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.37

Warner Bros’ F1 is the weekend’s biggest success, speeding to the UK-Ireland box office top spot with £4.9m from 710 locations.

This gives it a site average of £6,901. Including previews, its UK-Ireland total is £7.1m.

Joseph Kosinski’s racing drama sees Brad Pitt play a reluctant mentor to a rookie young driver played by Damson Idris. Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon and Sarah Niles also star, with a healthy dose of cameos from Formula 1 drivers and icons. Apple TV+ has distribution rights for streaming. The film has taken around $144m globally so far, putting it in pole position to be the streamer’s biggest ever box office hit.

Last week’s number one, Sony’s Danny Boyle-directed 28 Years Later, has landed in second place with £2.4m from the weekend, and a £9.7m total.

Universal’s live-action How To Train Your Dragon brought in just shy of £2m in its third weekend, pushing its total up to £15.9m, and edging it closer to the original 2010 animated film’s £17.4m total.

Disney’s original animation Elio topped up its total with £766,000 from its second weekend, and has now grossed £2.1m.

On its sixth weekend, Elio’s Disney stablemate Lilo & Stitch brought in a respectable £539,000. Its cume is now £35.1m.

Universal’s horror sequel M3GAN 2.0, helmed by returning director Gerard Johnstone, opened to £508,947 from 539 locations, for a site average of £944. This is behind the first film in the sinister doll franchise, which opened to £2.4m in its first weekend in January 2023, going on to take £7.2m.

Healthy holdovers

Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’s sixth weekend brought in £325,000. Its total is now £25.5m, catching up on the highest-grossing film of the franchise, Dead Reckoning Part One, which grossed £26.6m in July 2023.

Black Bear’s The Salt Path continues to make positive strides with £141,277 from its fifth weekend, plumping up its total to £7.4m.

AA Films UK’s Indian basketball drama Sitaare Zameen Par scored £111,137 in its second weekend, now with a total of £449,159.

Sony’s Karate Kid: Legends added £108,142 on its fourth weekend, for a cume figure of £5.4m.

Universal’s word-of-mouth hit UK comedy The Ballad Of Wallis Island dropped 34% in its fifth weekend on release, taking £88,232, for a total of £1.5m.

Lionsgate’s Ballerina added £65,115 in its fourth weekend, with the John Wick spin-off up to £3.3m overall. 

Trafalgar Releasing added £52,607 from Peppa Meets The Baby Cinema Experience, now with a total of £2.2m after five weekends on release.

Warner Bros’ Final Destination: Bloodlines added £50,290 in its seventh session, for a £12m total.

Paramount’s 30th anniversary re-release of Clueless brought in £46,000 from 354 cinemas (with most showing one-off screenings) for a site average of £130.

Moviegoers’ Indian horror Maa, directed by Vishal Furia, opened to £31,822 from 106 cinemas, for a site average of £300.

Universal’s The Phoenician Scheme dropped 52% in its sixth weekend on release, bringing in £27,050. The Wes Anderson-directed comedy is now on a UK-Ireland total of £3.1m.

Studiocanal’s 40th anniversary re-release of Akira Kurosawa’s Ran brought in £19,584 across 45 locations, for a site average of £435.

Picturehouse’s From Hilde, With Love opened to £14,000 from 34 sites, for a location average of £412. With £5,000 from previews, its total stands at £19,213. Andreas Dresen directs the German biopic of anti-Nazi revolutionary, Hilde Coppi. 

T A P E Collective’s Sudan, Remember Us opened with £3,014 from five cinemas, for a site average of £603. The documentary played at Venice and Toronto. Hind Meddeb directs the film, set amid the civil war in Sudan. 

Verve Pictures’ Chicken Town opened to £2,350 from 20 screens, for a site average of £118. Including previews, it has taken £5,247. Richard Bracewell’s film follows two school friends who join forces with an old man who accidentally started a weed farm and attracted the attention of a local criminal family.

Also debuting this weekend: Trafalgar’s Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful; Dartmouth Films’ Love & Trouble; Dreamz Entertainment’s Kannappa; Big Picture Film Club’s Fighters; and Signature Entertainment’s Words Of War.

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