'No Time To Die'

Source: Universal Pictures

‘No Time To Die’

Rank Film (Distributor) Three-day gross (Oct 8-10) Total gross to date Week
1 No Time To Die  (Universal) £15.2m £52.6m 2
The Addams Family  (Universal) £2m £2m 1
3 Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings  (Disney) £556,579 £20.5m 6
The PAW Patrol Movie  (Paramount) £126,000 £8.3m 9
5 The Many Saints Of Newark  (Warner Bros) £125,000 £1.9m 3

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.36

Universal’s No Time To Die has surged to £52.6m from just 11 days in cinemas, comfortably retaining the UK-Ireland box office lead on its second weekend.

The film took £15.2m from Friday to Sunday, for a drop of 27.6% on its opening three-day session.

This is a decent hold in the context of such a stellar first weekend. It is slightly below the £16.1m second weekend of 2012’s Skyfall, which fell 20%; but still ahead of the £13.2m second weekend of 2015’s Spectre, which fell 33% – although Spectre had played for 14 days by the end of its second weekend, compared to No Time To Die’s 11.

It has already surpassed the £51.2m total of 2008’s Quantum Of Solace, and will overtake the £55.6m of 2006’s Casino Royale today or tomorrow.

With Skyfall and Spectre having grossed £103.2m and £95.2m respectively, the £100m final result is still in play for No Time To Die, although it will need to repeat similar holds in the coming weekends.

No Time To Die’s second-weekend location average was £19,575 – down on last weekend’s £27,231, but still more than double that of any other wide release title in the past few years.

Universal also swooped in for second place in the market, with a strong start of just over £2m for The Addams Family 2. Playing in 595 sites, the film took an average of £3,376 per location. It is just below the £2.1m opening of the first film, released pre-pandemic in October 2019; Universal will be aiming for a final result in the region of that film’s £9.9m.

This is another suggestion that box office conditions are returning to normal; exhibitors and distributors alike will be glad that cinemas are able to bear the presence of two wide-release titles at once.

Shang-Chi #2 for the year

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings c Disney

Source: Disney

‘Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings’

Former number one Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings posted a 29% drop on its sixth weekend, with £556,579 taking it to £20.5m total. The Disney title has now passed Peter Rabbit 2 as the second highest-grossing title of 2021, behind only No Time To Die.

It has also become the 16th of 25 Marvel Cinematic Universe films by total gross, overtaking 2013’s Thor: The Dark World  (£20.1m) and coming up on 2010’s Iron Man 2   (£21.2m) and 2016’s Doctor Strange  (£23.2m).

Paramount’s PAW Patrol: The Movie held fourth spot in the chart, dropping 49.8% with £126,000 taking it to £8.3m from a lengthy nine weekends.

It just pipped Warner Bros’ The Many Saints Of Newark to that spot; The Sopranos prequel fell 47.3% on its third session, with £125,000 taking it to a £1.9m total.

Disney’s Free Guy, another former number one, fell back 59.8% on its ninth weekend with £108,567 taking it to a £16.8m total – good numbers for a rare original blockbuster.

Elsewhere on Universal’s slate, Candyman added £73,892 to reach £5.1m; Respect put on £41,828 to hit £2.1m; The Croods 2: A New Age added £35,847 for £9.9m; and Spirit Untamed put on £28,458 for £3.4m.

Playing primarily in its native Ireland, Rachel Carey’s Deadly Cuts made a strong start, with £51,194 from 79 sites across Ireland and Northern Ireland. This was enough for third place in the Irish box office behind No Time To Die and The Addams Family 2, and was the biggest opening weekend for an Irish film in Ireland since The Hole In The Ground in 2019, and the biggest for an Irish female director since Aisling Walsh’s Song For A Raggy Boy in 2003. 

The film also played in eight locations in England, for which takings are still to come.

Also for Warner Bros, Malignant added £24,000 and has £1.45m; while Space Jam: A New Legacy went up £20,000 for £12.86m.

Disney’s Jungle Cruise is closing out after 11 weekends in cinemas, with £19,024 taking it past the £12.5m mark.

Chinese film Cloudy Mountain opened to £8,286 including previews for Trinity Film, at an average of £319.

Blue Dolphin Films’ Romantic Road took £1,253 from the one site to report so far.

Playing at 81 locations on Saturday, October 9, event cinema release Boris Godunov – Met Opera 2021 took £29,679 at an average of £367.