My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Past Lives

Source: Universal Pictures International Switzerland/Sundance Film Festival

‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3’, ‘Past Lives’

Universal Pictures’ My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 is aiming to entice audiences this weekend as the widest new release in the UK and Ireland, opening  at 587 sites. 

The third in the franchise picks up just after the family patriarch Gus has passed away (actor Michael Constantine died in real life in 2021).

Cast including Nia Vardalos – who also directs the third instalment, and wrote the first two, and Sex And The City and And Just Like That… star John Corbett return.

Close behind is another sequel, US horror The Nun II, that Warner Bros has in 572 cinemas. It follows on from the first film The Nun, released in 2018 and opening to £3.4m, and is part of The Conjuring universe. Michael Chaves takes over from Corin Hardy as director. Taissa Farmiga is back as Sister Irene, sent to do battle with the demon who almost killed her four years previously.

Celine Song’s buzzy Sundance directorial debut Past Lives – which also topped Screen’s Berlin jury grid back in February – is opening in 216 sites for Studiocanal. The love story follows two childhood friends from South Korea who reconnect in New York, tracing their relationship when they’re roughly age 12, 24 and 36.

In re-releases, Park Circus has a 20th anniversary outing of Richard Linklater’s School Of Rock at 154 sites, while Curzon has Max Ophüls’s1950 romance comedy La Ronde in five cinemas.

Freshly released documentary fare includes Oscar Harding’s A Life On The Farm out at 10 sites. The doc follows Harding after he inherits a bizarre home movie from his late grandfather.

Blue Finch Film Releasing has Cathryne Czubek’s doc Once Upon A Time In Uganda, about a Ugandan self-taught filmmaker and the American fan who comes to meet him, at six sites this weekend, following a Wednesday night preview at 46 locations. More will be added next week. Also new this weekend is Kick Out!: The Newtown Neurotics Story, released by MusicFilmNetwork, that explores the cult 1980s Essex punk band Newtown Neurotics, and Man On The Run for Munro Film, about a $5bn dollar fraud that shook Malaysia’s financial stability, from director Cassius Michael Kim, at 10 venues.

Non-English language titles this weekend include Chinese hit crime thriller No More Bets for Trinity Film/Cine Asia, directed by Shen Ao, which has brought in almost $500m at the Chinese box office. It’s playing at 25 sites. Atlee Kumar’s Hindi-language thriller Jawan is out for Yash Raj Films, plus Pablo Larrain’s Chilean vampire horror El Conde for Netflix, at fewer than 25 sites.