A busy weekend of 15 new releases sees stop-motion title Wildwood set widest release records for both distributor Black Bear and US animation studio Laika.
Directed by Laika CEO Travis Knight, Wildwood opens in 655 cinemas, which is the biggest opening ever for Black Bear, and widest a Laika film has ever played in UK-Ireland.
The film, which had its world premiere at BFI London Film Festival this month, follows a young girl into the forests outside Portland on a quest to find her kidnapped brother. UK animation filmmaker Chris Butler wrote the screenplay, based on Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s 2011 novel.
Wildwood is a sixth feature for Portland-based Laika, which began with Coraline in 2009, opening to £1.4m and closing on £8.7m. 2012’s ParaNorman scored a solid £6.4m from a £1.3m start; before 2014’s The Boxtrolls recorded a £1.3m opening and £8.9m total, a lifetime record for the studio; although a 2024 Coraline re-release took £3.6m, giving it a higher combined total.
Its subsequent titles Kubo And The Two Strings (£3.3m total) and Missing Link (£3.6m) have dropped back slightly. Wildwood is the company’s biggest production to date with a 15-year development, and is the longest stop-motion film ever at 131 minutes; Black Bear will be hoping this scale is reflected at the box office. The highest-grossing stop-motion film ever in the UK & Ireland is Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, with £32m in 2005.
Lionsgate is launching Ghosts: The Possession Of Button House in 642 cinemas. The film is a continuation of the cult 2019-2023 TV series, following a group of ghosts from different historical periods who share a country house with its new occupants.
UK talents Charlotte Ritchie, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Lolly Adefope, Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby and Martha Howe-Douglas are among those reprising their roles from the TV series; with the film produced by Alison Owen and Debra Hayward for Monumental Television, with Andy Brunskill and Alison Carpenter.
The Inbetweeners is the high mark for UK comedy TV shows spun off into film in recent decades, with the 2011 first film opening to £8.6m and ending on a huge £45m, the 2014 second following with £8.1m and £33.4m, and a third now in production for Netflix. Other highlights include Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, which took £16.1m in 2016; and Ali G InDaHouse, which took £10.3m in 2002. A new film for Sacha Baron Cohen’s character, Ali G: Who Iz I?, is also out this weekend through Amazon MGM Studios.
Clay and Klara
Clayface, the third film in the relaunched DC Universe franchise, starts this weekend in 572 cinemas through Warner Bros. This is the first feature to centre on the DC Comics character, with James Watkins’s film depicting a rising Hollywood star who descends into revenge-fuelled madness when his body is transformed into clay.
Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie lead the cast; both were previously named Screen Stars of Tomorrow, in 2012 and 2017 respectively. Superman, directed by DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn, got the relaunched franchise off to a decent start last year with a £7m opening and £28.1m total. However, Supergirl struggled earlier this year, opening to £2.1m and closing out around £5.8m.
Taika Waititi’s Klara And The Sun, an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 sci-fi novel, starts in 370 cinemas through Sony. Jenna Ortega leads the cast as the titular android who tries to bond with the sick girl for whom she was purchased; with Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Aran Murphy, Natasha Lyonne and Steve Buscemi alongside her.
It is a ninth directorial feature for Waititi, whose leading two titles are his Thor blockbusters, 2015’s Ragnarok (opened: £7.2m; closed £31.1m) and 2022’s Love And Thunder (£9.1m; £37.6m).
Families with young children have new animation options this weekend. Kazoo Films is starting Verena Fels’ Germany-Austria co-production Monster Mia, about a young girl who starts at a monster academy as the only human, in 353 sites; while Paramount has Enrique Gato’s Spanish production Tad And The Magic Lamp in 502 cinemas. Disney is also running its pre-school Disney Junior Cinema Club screenings in 568 sites on Saturday 24.
Mubi double
There is space for independent titles, including two from Mubi. Documentary Making Marie Antoinette, directed by the late Eleanor Coppola about her daughter Sofia’s directing of 2006’s Marie Antoinette, starts in six cinemas. It will have a staggered rollout over the coming weeks, ahead of a 20th anniversary restoration of the original film from November 13 through Park Circus.
Mubi also has Fatherland in 85 cinemas, a widest opening so far for writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski, written with Henk Handloegten. The story of the relationship between writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika at the height of the Cold War won Pawlikowski the shared best director prize at Cannes.
The film has since enjoyed an extensive festival run including Sydney, Munich, Karlovy Vary, Sarajevo, Telluride and London, and should continue its acclaim into awards season, especially for Pawlikowski and Sandra Huller’s performance as Erika. Bafta- and Oscar-nominated Cold War is the director’s box office peak, with £1.1m in 2018.
Films not in the English language include Lee Chang-dong’s Venice Competition entry Possible Love, which is an awards contender as South Korea’s entry to the best international feature Oscar, for Netflix. Also out are Bollywood adventure Udta Teer on 78 screens through Moviegoers Entertainment; and comedy Godday Godday Chaa 2 through Zee Studios – the first film took £136,000 in 2023.
Glimmerama is opening Jeanie Finlay’s documentary All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea, about a fisherman in North East England; while Park Circus is re-releasing 1996 horror Scream in 302 sites across the week, and Exposure has documentary Children Of The Wicker Man, in which Justin Hardy investigates his father Robin’s making of The Wicker Man.
Event cinema releases this weekend include Scottish Ballet reimagining of Romeo And Juliet titled These Violent Delights, which opened in 27 sites on Wednesday and plays in three sites this weekend. Trafalgar Releasing has BTS World Tour ‘Arirang’ In Buenos Aires in 231 sites on Sunday; with a mini-festival of other K-pop concert films in 40 sites the day before. The distributor is also playing Noel Coward’s comedy play Fallen Angels in 355 cinemas across the weekend, having opened on Thursday.
Paramount’s Street Fighter and Universal-DreamWorks animation Forgotten Island lead the holdovers, with Amazon MGM Studios’ Colleen Hoover adaptation Verity looking to cross £10m this weekend.
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