‘Thunderbolts*’ strikes at UK-Ireland box office with £5m for first place; ‘Sinners’ soars

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Disney’s Thunderbolts* struck top spot at the UK-Ireland Bank Holiday weekend box office, with a £5m Friday-to-Sunday opening, as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners continued to soar.

Playing in 668 locations, Thunderbolts* took a £7,446 average. Including previews and Monday 5 screenings, the film – which was ‘retitled’ The New Avengers this weekend in a marketing stunt – has £7.8m.

Its three-day start is the 31^st-highest of 36 Marvel Cinematic Universe titles to date, ahead of 2015’s Ant-Man (£4m) and behind 2011’s Thor (£5.4m).

Warner Bros’ Sinners scored an outstanding 4% increase across its previous weekend, with £2.5m enough to keep it in second place for a third session. The vampire horror starring Michael B. Jordan is now up to £11.3m total, overtaking Creed II (£10.1m) which Coogler wrote, and nearing Creed III (£14.3m) which he wrote and produced.

Despite coming out two weeks later, Sinners topped the weekend takings of A Minecraft Movie. The Warner Bros stablemate added £2.1m on its fifth session – a slim drop of 17% that takes it to £54.1m total. It will pass the £54.9m of 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie this week to become the highest-grossing videogame adaptation ever.

Warner Bros made it three titles in the top five, with Ben Affleck-Jon Bernthal action title The Accountant 2 adding £636,852 – a 30% drop that brought it to £1.9m total.

Sony horror Until Dawn added £331,788 on its second weekend – a 41% drop that brought it to almost £1.3m total.

Takings for the top five increased a strong 29% to £10.5m, and are up 58% on the equivalent weekend from last year – further good news for cinemas after a strong April. 

More to follow.

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