For the first time since March, four movies all grossed more than £1 million in a single weekend. Leading the pack by some margin is The Incredible Hulk, with a solid £3.25 million opening weekend from 484 cinemas. This includes £533,000 from Thursday previews. The figure compares with a £3.53 million opening for Ang Lee’s Hulk, five years ago. Although Marvel and Universal will have successfully targeted a family audience, especially households where children were too young for Hulk in 2003, it’s questionable whether a broader adult demographic is ready for a new attempt at an Incredible Hulk film franchise.
Battling it out for the runner-up spot were Sex and the City and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The relative success of the movies on different days of the weekend tells its own story: the frisky fashion femmes were way ahead on Friday (£699,000 to £375,000); the pictures were pretty close on Saturday; and Indie convincingly won Sunday (£623,000 to £378,000). Clearly, Sex and the City is playing well on evenings to adult audiences, while Indiana Jones is cleaning up with families on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
Sex and the City was marginally ahead overall, with £1.788 million, compared to Crystal Skull’s £1.76 million. Since one week ago, Sex and the City has closed the gap with its rival to the tune of £1.5 million: clear evidence that it is winning the war on weekday evenings. However, having released a mere six days after Indie, it remains over £15 million behind – with £20.32 million, as against £35.59 million. When the dust has settled, it is highly unlikely it will have caught up.
The fourth big hitter in the chart is M Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, with £1.632 million from 390 theatres. This is a significant improvement on the UK opening of his ill-fated 2006 release, Lady in the Water: £453,000. Shyamalan’s previous film to that one, The Village, debuted with £2.95 million in 2004. In 2002, his Signs opened here with £3.77 million.
Four other new releases landed in the top 15, but all at the bottom end. Best was Tamil flick Dasavatharam, which took £127,000, including some previews, from 19 screens. Glossy French romantic comedy Priceless, set on the pretty Riviera, was just behind with £125,000, also including some preview takings, from 61 cinemas. Indian comedy Mere Baap Pahle picked up £102,000 from 31 sites. And finally, critically acclaimed US indie flick In Search of a Midnight Kiss scored £53,000 from its 28 locations. The last of these benefited from a highly visible poster campaign on London’s Underground, so this figure might be considered slightly soft.
Lower down the chart – much lower – Oscar®-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side opened on two screens, picking up just over £1,500. Indian film Summer 2007 showed up on our report with £1,200 from seven cinemas. Japanese oddity Memories of Matsuko picked up just under £900 from its single location. British drama Irina Palm managed under £600 from two sites. As for Numb, starring Friends’ Matthew Perry, which played just at London’s ICA cinema, we were unable to elicit any figures for it.
With both The Incredible Hulk and The Happening entering the market, overall the top 15 films were 18% up on the previous weekend, and 2% up on the equivalent weekend from 2007, when Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer opened at the top with an impressive £4.14 million. This Friday, cinemas take a modest breath from blockbuster fare, with new films including The Edge of Love, The Ruins, Teeth and Adulthood slogging it out for audiences looking for an alternative.
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