| Rank | Film (distributor) | Three-day gross (Jan 27-29) | Total gross to date | Week |
| 1. | Avatar: The Way Of Water (Disney) | £2.1m | £70.7m | 7 |
| 2. | Pathaan (Yash Raj) | £1.4m | £2m | 1 |
| 3. | Plane (Lionsgate) | £1.1m | £1.2m | 1 |
| 4. | The Fabelmans (eOne) |
£1m | £1.1m | 1 |
| 5. | M3GAN (Universal) | £749,355 | £6m | 3 |
GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.24
Bollywood action title Pathaan stormed the UK-Ireland box office with a £1.4m session landing it in second place for the weekend, behind only seven-time chart topper Avatar: The Way Of Water.
With £550,768 already in the bank from Wednesday and Thursday previews, Pathaan broke the record for highest single-day takings for an Indian film in the territory on Saturday, with £555,554.
Its total is now just shy of £2m for Yash Raj Films, and it stands an excellent chance of usurping the £2.7m of 2013’s Dhoom 3 to become the highest-grossing Indian film of all time in the UK and Ireland.
Avatar: The Way Of Water dropped just 24% on its seventh weekend in cinemas for Disney, with £2.1m bringing it to a £70.7m total. It has now topped the UK-Ireland chart for seven consecutive weekends – just one behind the eight-week run of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet from autumn 2020, when a limited number of films were on release due to the pandemic.
It is now the 16th -highest-grossing film of all time in the UK and Ireland, just behind 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War (£70.8m). It is still ahead of the first Avatar film’s £65.1m at the same stage; although the first film took a notably higher £4.9m on its seventh session, and showed a lengthy tail on its way to a £94m total.
Lionsgate opened Gerard Butler action title Plane to £1.1m across the weekend at a £2,162 location average. Including previews, the film has just below £1.2m.
That was enough to see it past Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, which started with £1m over the three days at a £1,494 location average for eOne, and has just below £1.1m including previews.
Doll horror M3GAN held a top five spot for a third consecutive weekend, dropping 45% on its previous session with £749,355 taking it to just short of £6m – another low-input, high-output success for Jason Blum’s Universal label Blumhouse Productions.
Top five takings dropped for a sixth consecutive weekend, down 32.4% on two weeks ago to £6.4m, and down 52.4% on mid-December when The Way Of Water was released. This is indicative of current box office reliance on super-sized blockbusters; the next such title is Disney’s Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania on February 17.
All The Beauty shines
Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood epic Babylon added £661,000 on its second weekend, dropping 49.9% on its start, to reach a £2.6m total.
On its 10th weekend in cinemas, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical led Sony’s slate, adding £522,693 to reach a strong £26.4m total.
Also for Sony, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody put on £458,930 on its fifth session. Having started with a £1.4m weekend, it has now crossed the £10m barrier with a £10.5m total, again demonstrating the durability of music biopics.
Playing on Friday, January 27 only, Trafalgar Releasing’s event cinema title Billie Eilish: Live From The O2 took an impressive £329,407 from 256 sites at an average of £1,287 per cinema.
Sony’s A Man Called Otto added £326,198 on its fourth session, and is up to a £4.4m total.
Trinity Film’s The Wandering Earth II opened to £288,929 from just 58 cinemas, at an excellent £4,982 average. This represents the best opening for a Chinese-language film for over 15 years. The film has £385,959 in total.
TÁR starring Oscar nominee Cate Blanchett dropped 32% on its third weekend, with £248,237 taking it to a £1.5m cume.
On its third weekend in cinemas, Sam Mendes’ Empire Of Light dropped 54% for Disney, adding £202,760 to reach a £3.3m cume.
Warner Bros’ horror Unwelcome opened to £94,231 at the weekend at a £281 location average, and has £118,322 including previews.
Disney’s Strange World fell 24% on its 10th session, with £67,878 bringing it to £3.9m.
Laura Poitras scored her best UK-Ireland opening this weekend with Venice Golden Lion winner All The Beauty And The Bloodshed. Released by Altitude, the film took £64,757 at a £1,079 location average. This marks a strong result for an 18-rated documentary – and is the highest start for such a title since Waltz With Bashir in 2008. The film has £87,369 including previews.
Buoyed by a second-most nine Oscar nominations, Disney’s Searchlight Pictures title The Banshees Of Inisherin saw a 10% uptick at the box office, adding £44,763 to reach a solid £9.4m total – and has now been in cinemas for an impressive 15 weekends.
Disney stablemate Black Panther: Wakanda Forever dropped 52% on its 12th weekend in cinemas, adding £40,626 to reach £34.3m – the 14th -highest-grossing of 30 Marvel Cinematic Universe films to date.
Fresh from an Oscar nomination for 2020 Screen Star of Tomorrow Paul Mescal, Mubi’s Aftersun has now topped £1.5m, after a 40% increase across its 11th weekend in cinemas added £40,018.
Playing mainly as an event cinema release on Thursday, January 26 when it took £489,281, National Theatre Live’s The Crucible added a further £33,831 across the weekend, to bring its total to date to £523,112.
Mark Jenkin’s Cornish folk horror Enys Men added £17,115 on its third session, and is up to a £256,808 total.
Universal’s Till is closing out after four weekends in cinemas, with £13,047 bringing its total to £799,278.
Mubi’s Holy Spider added £10,782 on its second weekend, and is up to £96,190.
Bulldog Film Distribution’s four-site release of January took £1,579, with a £2,579 total including a preview screening.
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