UK-Ireland box office preview: ‘The Choral’, ‘Predator: Badlands’ lead new releases

Sony’s UK drama The Choral is the widest new release in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend, followed by Disney’s Predator: Badlands.

Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral opens in 650 locations. Ralph Fiennes is among the cast of this Toronto premiere about a choral society in Yorkshire that has to recruit teenage boys after the men are enlisted into the First World War. Further cast includes Roger Allam, Mark Addy, Alun Armstrong, Robert Emms, Lyndsey Marshal, Ron Cook, Amara Okereke and Emily Fairn.

It is written by Alan Bennett, whose last collaboration with Hytner - 2015’s The Lady In The Van – debuted with £2.3m from 540 venues for an impressive £12.7m across its run. The producer is regular Hytner and Bennett collaborator Kevin Loader of the UK’s Free Range Films. 

Predator: Badlands is launching in 581 venues. Dan Trachtenberg directs the seventh title in the live-action Predator series, which stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. 

The franchise’s last entry was 2018’s The Predator, which opened with £1.7m from 550 sites. This was slightly down on the previous title - 2010’s Predators, with a £2.2m debut.

Predator: Badlands follows a young outcast predator who finds an unlikely ally and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.

Starry indies 

Elsewhere, Paramount is opening children’s animation A Paw Patrol Christmas in 561 sites.

Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love opens in 271 locations via Mubi. Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson star in the Cannes premiere about a mother experiencing post-partum depression.

Daniel Day-Lewis returns to the big screen in Anemone, directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis, which Universal is launching in 161 cinemas.

Andrea Riseborough, Brenda Blethyn and Jason Watkins star in UK drama Dragonfly which Conic Film is launching across 62 locations.

Indian drama Haq is opening in 42 sites via Bakrania Media.

Black Bear is releasing US drama Train Dreams in 21 cinemas ahead of its Netflix launch later this month. Clint Bentley’s film stars Joel Edgerton as a logger and railroad worker in 20th-century America.

In event cinema, Trafalgar Releasing opens La Boheme - Met Opera 2025 tomorrow (November 8) in 195 sites and screens La Fille Mal Gardee - ROH, London 2025 in 240. CinemaLive has K-pop music documentary Twice: One In A Million while League Of Legends World 25: Finals screens on Sunday (November 9) through Piece Of Magic. 

Belen, Argentina’s entry for best international feature at the Oscars opens across two locations for MetFilm.

Dartmouth Films is rolling out Josh Appignanesi’s documentary Colossal Wreck which centres around Dubai hosting the climate conference Cop23.

Fellow documentary Going To The Dogs also begins rolling out in cinemas via Tull Stories.

Further releases include Dogma: Resurrected! via Vertigo; animation In Your Dreams via Netflix; UK thriller Odyssey via Icon Film Distribution; Greek documentary The Marbles via Guerilla Films; and Hong Kong documentary Four Trails via UK-China Film Collab.

• The Brit 50: the leading documentary and animation companies in the UK