Disney’s Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, opens wide in around 700 sites across the UK and Ireland this weekend.
Timothee Chalamet plays the US musician from 1961, when the Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door singer was an unknown 19-year-old, freshly landed in New York from Minnesota. James Mangold directs the Searchlight title, with Elle Fanning and Edward Norton also in the cast.
Music biopics have – for the most part – performed robustly at the UK-Ireland box office of late. Studiocanal’s Amy Winehouse film Back To Black opened to £2.7m in April of last year and finished on £12.3m. Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love opened to £4.2m in February, eventually crossing the £17m mark.
Entertainment Film Distributors Robbie Williams film Better Man, hasn’t made quite so much noise at the box office so far, opening to £1.3m at the end of last year. It has now passed the £5m mark.
Universal’s horror revamp Wolf Man, starring Christopher Abbot and Julia Garner, and directed by Leigh Whannell, opens in 524 locations this weekend. Horror stalwart Jason Blum produces.
Whannell previously directed The Invisible Man, also produced by Blum – a low-budget horror which went on to gross $144.5m (£118.5m) worldwide. In its first weekend in the UK-Ireland in 2020, it opened in the top spot, with £2.2m, from 582 locations.
Wolf Man is up against Universal’s horror Nosferatu, which will be on its third weekend of release, having opened to £3.1m and brought in a confident £8.8m to-date.
Panda Bear In Africa is at 303 sites for Miracle/Dazzler. The family animation follows a panda as it travels from China to Africa to save his kidnapped best friend, a dragon. Richard Claus and Karsten Kiilerich direct.
A second panda-themed film, Trinity Film/Cine Asia’s Chinese action comedy Panda Plan, is out in 29 sites in the UK (not in Ireland). Jackie Chan plays himself in a rescue operation of a beloved zoo panda, with Luan Zhang directing.
Trafalgar has event title Offenbach’s The Tales Of Hoffmann at around 200 locations in the UK only, re-playing the opera after Wednesday’s (January 15) as-live showing.
Altitude has two films out this weekend – Toronto premiere William Tell, that stars Claes Bang as the legendary Swiss marksman and directed by Nick Hamm out at 135 sites, and six venues for Audrey Diwan’s San Sebastian opener Emmanuelle, loosely inspired by the 1967 French-language novel of the same name, that later became a series of sexually-charged 1970s French films.
Curzon is opening Robert Zemeckis’s study of lives across time, Here, headlined by Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, in 132 cinemas. It is set in one location in Pennsylvania and seen through the perspective of a fixed camera over the course of more than 100 years.
AA Films UK is releasing Abhishek Kapoor’s Azaad at 58 cinemas. It’s set in 1920s India, where a young stable boy bonds with a horse.
Modern Films is releasing Italian filmmaker Maura Delpero’s Second World War title Vermiglio in 30 sites. The film is Italy’s entry to the international Oscar category and debuted at the Venice Film Festival last september.
Cinema Live has replays of event cinema title Tomorrow X Together: Hyperfocus In Cinemas at four venues on Saturday. The K-Pop concert showed as-live on Thursday (January 16).
Verve Pictures is re-releasing Brian Clemens’ 1974 vampire cult classic Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter at one site this weekend, then at 17 from January 22.
Further new releases this weekend are Central City Media’s Alone No More, Zee Studios’ Emergency and Dreamz Entertainment’s Sankrathiki Vasthunam.
Key holdovers include Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, Universal’s Nosferatu, Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 3, Studiocanal’s We Live In Time and Entertainment Film Distributor’s Babygirl.
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