Dreamz Entertainment’s action drama RRR started in third place at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, recording the highest opening weekend for an Indian film in the past two years.
Having taken £238,313 from previews on Thursday, the film followed up with a £411,891 weekend. Playing in just 150 locations, it brought in £2,746 per site – an outstanding result for a non-English language title.
Directed by S.S. Rajamouli, RRR is a fictional story of two revolutionaries who journey away from home before fighting for their country in the 1920s, has £650,204 in total. The film was made in the Telugu language, of which the cinema industry is known as Tollywood; Dreamz also made versions available in Indian languages of Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada in the UK and Ireland.
RRR was a rare bright spot in a flat weekend for the box office, caused both by sunny weather across much of the country and a lack of new titles.
The Batman held top spot for a fourth consecutive weekend, dropping just over 50% with £1.7m taking it to a £35.6m total.
It has now topped the totals of superhero films Suicide Squad (£33.63m) from 2016 and Spider-Man 3 (£33.55m) from 2007; and is coming up on Warner Bros stablemate Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (£36.6m) from 2016 and Iron Man 3 (£37m) from 2013.
Universal’s Michael Bay-directed Ambulance started with £520,999 from 595 sites at an average of £876 – a rare occasion when a wide release title has opened to under £1,000 per site.
Sony’s Uncharted added £349,000 on its seventh weekend – a 41.8% drop – and is up to £23.2m.
Warner Bros’ The Nan Movie added £289,502 – a 48.8% drop – on its second weekend, with £289,502 bringing it to £1.1m total.
Takings for the top five were at £3.2m – down 40.7% on the previous weekend’s £5.4m. Exhibitors will be looking for next weekend’s Morbius, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and The Bad Guys for a revival.
Worst Person proves popular
eOne’s The Phantom Of The Open held better than most titles, dropping 44.4% on its second weekend with £219,000 bringing it to £1.1m.
Sing 2 fell 58.7% on its ninth session, finally dropping out of the top five with £174,095 bringing it to £32.1m total.
Sony’s Jujutsu Kaisen 0 dropped 69.7%, adding £155,500 to reach a decent £1.2m from two weekends.
Joachim Trier’s Oscar-nominated Cannes 2021 premiere The Worst Person In The World recorded the biggest opening for a Mubi release, grossing £142,012 from 126 sites at a strong average of £1,136. Including previews, the film has £193,112.
Ti West’s horror X leads Entertainment Film Distributors’ (EFD) slate, and added £78,966 (a 65.3% drop) to reach £485,743 from two sessions.
On the weekend when writer-director Kenneth Branagh won the Oscar for best original screenplay, Belfast added £53,884 – a fall of just 14.7%, an excellent result in the context of the weekend. It now has £15.2m, solidifying its position as the highest-grossing black and white film of all time in the UK and Ireland.
Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to inch towards No Time To Die’s spot as the third-highest-grossing film of all time in the territory. The Sony-Marvel blockbuster added £44,900 to reach £96.3m; it needs another £500,000 to overthrow James Bond, which it will look to take before the DVD, Blu-ray and 4K HD release on April 4.
Dog added £44,843 for EFD, and is at £3.3m from six weekends.
On its seventh weekend in cinemas, Disney’s Death On The Nile dropped 56.2%, with £37,935 taking it to £7.9m total.
Sony opened horror Umma to £22,796 from 137 sites, at an average of just £165 per site. Including previews the film has £35,692.
Bollywood crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi added £16,000 and is up to £685,000 from five weekends.
Curzon’s Paris, 13th District added £6,919 on its second weekend and has £83,504 in total.
Released by 606 Distribution, preview bookings continue for Elie Grappe’s Swiss-French drama Olga, about a Ukrainian gymnast, with proceeds going to charities supporting the Ukraine relief effort. The film added £6,529 this weekend and is at £28,851 in total, and will have played 465 cinemas by the end of its preview run. The full release is on June 3 this summer.
Having played well for its first four weeks, Pathe’s The Duke experienced a sharp drop, falling 97.5% on its previous session with £5,651 taking it to £4.8m total.
Signature Entertainment’s Korean title Escape From Mogadishu opened to £666 from two locations, and has £3,936 including previews. Lightbulb Film Distribution’s Broadcast Signal Intrusion pulled in £609 from seven locations, and has £1,266 including previews.
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