Christmas is coming and that can only mean one thing: a near-complete takeover of family flicks at the nation’s cinemas. The Golden Compass held steady at the top of the charts, despite a hefty fall from its debut last week. Below it is Disney’s tongue-in-cheek fairytale Enchanted, with an encouraging start of £2.548 million from 471 screens – a good result, given that it’s not based on a familiar property, and the lead actors are little-known Amy Adams and TV’s Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy). Reviews were strong.
Third place is Bee Movie, which debuted with £2.281 million from 435 cinemas – although this includes preview takings of £923,000. Not counting previews, Enchanted scored a significant margin over its rival from DreamWorks Animation. The top five is rounded out with two more family films: Fred Claus, and new entrant Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. The latter got off to a shaky start, with £460,000 from 342 screens. But the Dustin Hoffman magical fable may pick up traction throughout the holiday period: hardly a first choice for many families, they may get round to seeing it at some point before the kids return to school.
Overall, these five family flicks did well, given competition on Saturday night from the final of the X Factor on TV. When schools break up for Christmas, many more cinema outings will be planned.
We Own The Night, fresh in with £441,000 from 264 screens, was the top film aimed at adults. The James Gray crime-thriller reunites the lead actors from his previous film The Yards: Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg. We Own The Night faces little fresh competition for its audience this Friday – the only two major new releases are St Trinian’s and Alvin And The Chipmunks – so it should continue to play solidly until Christmas.
The only other new entrant in the top 15 is Tamil-language remake Billa, which banked a nifty £51,000 from just ten screens, for an average just below that of the top three titles (all in the £5,000-£6,000 range).
As for the new specialist titles, Francis Ford Coppola’s poorly reviewed Youth Without Youth struggled with £8,200 from 13 screens. French film Chansons D’Amour – director Christophe Honore’s follow-up to Dans Paris – managed £5,600 from ten. Martha Fiennes’ Chromophobia – which played in the prestigious closing night slot of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, and has been awaiting release ever since – took £3,900 from seven sites. Polish re-release The Saragossa Manuscript scooped up £2,800 from a single screen. Documentary My Kid Could Paint That grossed £2,300 from a couple of theatres, as did French drama Comedy Of Power. In other words: fairly lean picking all round.
For only the second time in the last 12 weeks, overall the top 15 UK box-office was up on the equivalent weekend from 2006 – albeit in this instance by a paltry 2%. A few weeks ago, cinema takings were running at levels 50% down on like-for-like 2006 comparisons, partly because November last year benefited from such strong pictures as Borat and Casino Royale. A year ago this week, the highest new entries were Eragon and Déjà Vu, and the only big movie yet to come before year’s end was Night At The Museum. In 2007, we still have St Trinian’s (opening December 21) and then Will Smith in I Am Legend (Boxing Day). Cinemas noting the latter’s $76 million opening in the US this weekend will be licking their lips at the prospect of major blockbuster success over here.
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