‘Hamnet’ nears £15m, tops UK-Ireland box office from £28m ‘The Housemaid’; ‘Shelter’, ‘Iron Lung’ in top five

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.37

Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet rose to top spot on its fourth weekend in UK-Ireland cinemas, narrowly usurping the excellent performance of domestic thriller The Housemaid.

Hamnet added £1.41m on its fourth session for Universal – a drop of just 29%, that took the film to a strong £14.8m total. Tracking above previous awards season titles The Favourite and Belfast at the same stage, its performance will reassure exhibitors that prestige titles can still bring in grosses well over £10m in the awards season corridor.

This past weekend, Hamnet has overtaken the box office totals of films including Pride & Prejudice  (£14.6m), Napoleon (£14.5m) and Schindler’s List (£14.4m).

Later today it will top the £14.9m of Zhao’s 2021 Eternals, to become the director’s highest-grossing film ever in the territory.

Despite losing top spot on its sixth weekend in cinemas, Lionsgate’s The Housemaid put in another excellent performance, dropping just 30% with £1.4m bringing it to a huge £28.4m total.

It has overtaken 2012’s The Hunger Games (£24.1m) to become Lionsgate’s fifth-highest-grossing release ever in the UK & Ireland; and should top The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 (£29.2m) within the next week, with La La Land (£30.6m) also in its sights.

Having started with £3.1m on the final weekend of 2025, The Housemaid has now taken more than nine times its opening weekend box office – an outstanding total, far beyond regular results of around four times the opening weekend.

Jason Statham action thriller Shelter was this weekend’s highest-grossing new title, taking £964,000 from 481 cinemas at a £2,004 average for Black Bear.

This opening is ahead of those of the previous two films starring Statham, 2025’s A Working Man  (£657,763 opening) and 2024’s The Beekeeper (£956,979).

Disney’s Zootropolis 2 held a top five spot on its 10^th weekend in cinemas, dropping just 17% with £854,934 taking it to £32.5m total. It is well clear of the £24.1m of 2016’s Zootropolis; and has overtaken animation comparisons The Incredibles  (£32.4m), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (£32m) and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (£31m).

YouTube sensation Iron Lung broke into the UK-Ireland top five with a £834,446 Friday-to-Sunday session. Written, directed, produced by and starring YouTuber Mark Fischbach (alias Markiplier), the film is based on a 2022 videogame of the same name, and sees a convict sealed inside a decaying submarine sent to investigate a desolate moon. Dave Shear of Shear Entertainment handled UK-Ireland bookings, with the film up to £948,731 including previews.

Takings for the top five dropped for the fifth consecutive weekend, down 25% to £5.5m. However, takings are up 26% on the equivalent weekend from last year. Cinemas will look to Disney horror Send Help replicating its strong international performance when releasing in the UK & Ireland from Thursday, February 5.

Primate, John Bishop film start

Avatar: Fire And Ash dropped out of the top five on its seventh weekend on release, with a 33% fall of £743,241. The Disney blockbuster is now up to £41.2m – well down on 2009 release Avatar, which was still top of the charts after seven weekends and ended on £94m.

Table tennis drama Marty Supreme added £688,613 on its sixth weekend for Entertainment Film Distributors – a drop of 31% that brought it to £14.8m total.

Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple dropped 49% on its third weekend in cinemas, with £612,439 bringing it to £6.9m for Sony. It will finish well down on the first of the 28 Years… films from last year, which made over £15m.

Monkey horror Primate started with £509,000 from 508 locations for Paramount, at a £1,002 site average. Johannes Roberts’ film took £150,000 in previews, for a £659,000 total, already beyond the £585,338 total of Roberts’ 2021 Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City and £508,890 of 2018 The Strangers: Prey At Night.

Bradley Cooper’s stand-up comedian story Is This Thing On?  opened to £434,545 for Disney, from 468 sites at a £929 average. The film, based on the life of UK comedian John Bishop, has £601,540 including previews.

Paramount animation The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants added £295,000 on its sixth weekend – a 22% drop that brought it to £8.2m total. It should pass the £8.6m of 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water before the end of its run, to become SpongeBob’s top-grossing UK-Ireland outing.

Kate Woods’ animal drama Kangaroo opened to £290,313 for Studiocanal, from 497 sites at a £584 location average. Including previews, the film has £292,208 in total.

South Korean thriller No Other Choice added £273,414 on its second weekend for Mubi – a 37% drop that brought it to £1.2m total.

Timur Bekmambetov’s AI-themed thriller Mercy took a 69% hit on its second weekend for Sony, with £187,334 bringing it to £1.1m total.

Philippa Lowthorpe’s H Is For Hawk fell just 29% on its second weekend for Lionsgate, adding £175,924 to hit £725,834 total. It has swooped past the £455,472 total of Lowthorpe’s previous feature Misbehaviour; although the cinema release of that film was cut short by the pandemic in 2020.

On its second weekend, Anurag Singh’s Bollywood war title Border 2 added £138,598 for AA Films UK, handled by Bakrania Media. The Indian film is up to £554,909.

Entertainment Film Distributors’ Return To Silent Hill added £136,774 on its second weekend – a 76% drop that brought it to £937,217 total.

Song Sung Blue starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson added £83,178 on its fifth weekend for Universal – a 36% drop that brought the film to £3.1m total.

Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, started with £73,101 from 99 cinemas at a £738 average for Altitude. Including previews, the film is up to £149,234

Bollywood crime drama Mardaani 3 opened to £65,930 for Yash Raj Films, from 90 sites at a decent £733 average.

Sony’s Anaconda slithered to £5.6m total, after a £61,441 sixth session, and has now taken more than four times the £1.4m total of the original 1997 film.

Hong Kong animation Another World from director Tommy Kai Chung Ng started with £52,555 for Central City Media.

With a profile boosted by eight Bafta nominations including best film, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value saw a 3% uptick at the box office for Mubi. The film put on £48,968 to hit £1.2m, beyond the £1.1m of Trier’s 2022 The Worst Person In The World.

The History Of Sound  starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor fell back 61% on its second weekend in cinemas for Universal, adding £44,164 to hit £342,604 in total.

Irish football drama Saipan is up to £876,688 for Vertigo Releasing and Wildcard Distribution, after a £32,132 session – its fifth in Ireland and second in the UK.

Hikari’s Rental Family starring Brendan Fraser added £29,562 on its third weekend in cinemas, and is up to £942,112 in total, with the £1m mark in sight with another couple of weeks of play.

UK boxing biopic Giant added £27,261 on its fourth weekend for True Brit Entertainment, and is up to £879,982 total.

John M. Chu’s musical sequel Wicked: For Good is reaching the end of its song after 11 weekends in cinemas. The Universal title added £18,130 on its latest session to hit £47.1m total – down on the £61.4m of the 2024 first film, but still a strong figure in the post-pandemic market, above musical titles including Mary Poppins Returns  (£44.6m) and Les Miserables  (£40.9m).

Kaouther Ben Hania’s docufiction The Voice Of Hind Rajab added £16,888 on its third weekend in cinemas for Altitude, and is up to £298,874 in total, with potential for further takings through its international feature nominations at the Oscars and Baftas.

BFI Distribution’s re-release of Vernon Sewell’s 1962 crime drama Strongroom took £3,577 this weekend, and has £4,758 including previews.

Paris Hilton documentary Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir brought in £2,520 this weekend for CinemaLive.

• London Film Critics’ Circle Awards selects 2026 winners