Studiocanal and Sky Cinema’s feature animation Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom and Sony’s horror title Resident Evil are the key new releases in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend.
The Beast of Mossy Bottom is opening in 647 locations via Studiocanal after previews last weekend brought in £452,154. The Aardman animation is the third Shaun the Sheep feature, which was originally a TV series, and the widest opening in the film franchise. Shaun The Sheep Movie debuted with £2.1m from 509 sites back in 2015, followed by Farmageddon in 2018, which grossed £1.1m from 588 sites.
Steve Cox and Matthew Walker direct The Beast Of Mossy Bottom which is set on Halloween Eve when a science experiment goes wrong and ends up unleashing what the locals think is a wild beast.
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is opening in 608 venues for Sony. It is the eighth film to adapt the Japanese video game and the second reboot following Paul W S. Anderson’s franchise. The highest-grossing film was 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, which took £1.7m in its opening weekend.
A more accurate comparison may be Cregger’s last feature, Weapons, which topped the box office for three weekends in a row last summer after opening with £2.6m from 630 venues for Warner Bros. Its total gross clocked in at around £11.8m.
Austin Abrams, who also starred in Weapons, leads Resident Evil as a medical courier tasked with delivering a package to a remote hospital and finds himself caught in the middle of a mutation outbreak.
Saoirse Ronan takes a bite of the apple
Paramount is launching Jonathan Etzler’s UK thriller Bad Apples in 443 sites. Saoirse Ronan stars as a primary school teacher who keeps butting heads with one of her students. Produced by Pulse Films, it frst premiered at Toronto in 2025 before playing San Sebastián and BFI London film festivals.
Ronan will be the big draw here – her last film, 2024 drama The Outrun, opened in the top five with £397,526 from 300 sites and ended on £2.3m for Studiocanal.
Anime Ltd is re-releasing the 1995 Japanese animation Whisper Of The Heart in 165 venues.
Entertainment Film Distributors is releasing the French hit De Gaulle: Part 2 – Liberte in 122 sites. Part one, Resistance, opened earlier this month with £100,000 from 150 sites and had reached £394,000 by September 15. Part 2 centres on the military leader and statesman’s life between the years of 1943 and 1944 as De Gaulle becomes an icon of the French Resistance during World War Two.
In event cinema, Trafalgar Releasing has Twenty Years Of The Met In Cinemas: An Anniversary Celebration screening in 99 cinemas from Saturday (September 19). The film features highlights from the opera company’s 185 on-screen performances over the past two decades.
Mubi is screening Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore? for one night on September 18 in 52 cinemas, ahead of its release on the platform.
The similar concert film, Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger, opened second last weekend with £1.6m, for Disney.
Lance Hammer’s Berlinale award-winner Queen At Sea sails into 52 locations for Curzon. The UK drama stars Juliette Binoche as a woman navigating her mother’s dementia. The drama won the Silver Bear jury prize and best supporting performance prize for Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall when it premiered at Berlin. It is produced by The Bureau.
Documentaries coming out this weekend include The Cycle Of Love, about Indian-Swedish artist P. K. Mahanandia, via Dogwoof; 50 Years Of Punk via Screenbound Pictures; Sharon Walia’s The Route To Cappyness via Move Over Productions and The Watergate Caper: Richard Nixon and the Death of the American Dream via 22 Films.
Further releases include Colombian crime drama Barrio Triste via Other Parties and Scotland-set romantic comedy Premature via Sonorous Films.
Warner Bros Practical Magic 2 and Studiocanal’s Pressure are the key holdover titles.
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