‘Avengers Endgame: Encore’ tops UK-Ireland box office; ‘Heart Of The Beast’, ‘Sense And Sensibility’ make top five

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Avengers Endgame: Encore topped the UK-Ireland box office with a £4.1m opening weekend, as new releases Heart Of The Beast and Sense And Sensibility refreshed the top five titles.

Disney’s Avengers Endgame: Encore took a strong £7,678 average from 537 cinemas. The film is an extended version of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, with four extra scenes, and is building momentum for the franchise ahead of Avengers: Doomsday on December 18.

The original Endgame release made £88.7m, and is currently the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time in the territory.

Sony’s Resident Evil, number one on the previous weekend, dropped 47% on its second session with £2.2m. The horror title is up to £8.6m lifetime, making it comfortably the highest-grossing title in the franchise ahead of the £4.8m of 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D.

David Ayer’s action adventure Heart Of The Beast starring Brad Pitt opened to £1.5m from 553 sites at a £2,794 location average for Paramount. This is in a similar range to the £1.9m start of 2022’s Bullet Train starring Pitt. Heart Of The Beast has £2.1m including previews.

Sense And Sensibility started with a slightly lower £1.5m for Universal, from 725 sites at a £2,060 average. It is in a similar range to the £1.6m opening of fellow Jane Austen adaptation Emma from 2020, although down on the £2.5m full start of Joe Wright’s 2005 Pride & Prejudice.

Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom posted a strong hold on its second weekend for Studiocanal, falling just 22% with £816,000. The stop-motion animation is up to £2.5m, tracking behind the totals of 2015’s Shaun The Sheep Movie  (£13.8m) and 2019’s Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon  (£7.1m).

Takings for the top five titles leapt 22% from the previous weekend to £10.2m, going above the £10m mark for the first time since the August 21-23 session. The top five figure is also up almost 50% on the equivalent weekend from last year, as an encouraging box office summer continues into autumn. Wide releases looking to continue the good feeling into October include Warner Bros’ Digger starring Tom Cruise, and Sony’s Verity with Anne Hathaway.

Pressure  drop

Studiocanal’s Pressure starring Andrew Scott added £577,000 on its third session, a 46% drop that brought it to £5.7m lifetime.

On its 11^th weekend in cinemas, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey put on £365,000 for Universal – a drop of 38% that brought it to £86.7m, currently the 10^th highest-grossing film ever in the territory.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day  dropped 45% on its ninth weekend in cinemas, with £312,100 for Sony. The summer blockbuster is up to £99.5m as the third highest-grossing film of all time in the territory.

Bad Apples starring Saoirse Ronan added £263,000 on its second weekend via Paramount – a 40% drop, for a £1.1m total to date.

Na Hong-jin’s Cannes Competition title Hope began with £208,000 for Neon, with distribution handled by Picturehouse Entertainment. Including previews, the action title has £220,000.

Horror Insidious: Out Of The Further added £75,400 on its sixth weekend, a 61% drop that brought it to £7.9m for Sony. Another couple of weeks in cinemas could still see it overtake the £8.1m of 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door to become the highest-grossing title in the six-film franchise.

Paramount’s Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie is proving to have a long tail, adding £56,000 on its eighth weekend to reach £6.4m. It is the third highest-grossing of the Paw Patrol films to date.

The De Gaulle features proved strong holdovers for Entertainment Film Distributors. De Gaulle: Part 2 – Liberté added £54,300 with a 16% drop, the lowest in the top 25, and a £180,000 total after two weekends.

Universal animation Minions & Monsters added £42,200 on its 13^th weekend in cinemas, taking it beyond the £20m mark after a long tail.

Toy Story 5 has now been in cinemas for 15 weekends. The Disney-Pixar animation put on £31,600 on its latest session, and has reached £58,500.

Studiocanal re-release Manhunter: The Final Cut started with £30,800, from 187 sites at a £165 location average.

De Gaulle: Résistance rose 5% for Entertainment Film Distributors on its fifth weekend, with £27,800 bringing it to a healthy £529,000.

Action adventure The Vvaan began with £25,800 for Bakrania Media, from 71 sites at a £369 average.

Action title Runner added £24,600 on its third weekend for Entertainment Film Distributors, with the 83% drop taking it to £842,000 lifetime.

Louis Paxton’s The Incomer added £15,200 on its fourth session for Universal, and is up to £448,000 lifetime.

Disney’s Moana  brought in £13,600 on its 12^th weekend in cinemas, and is up to £14.7m, having recovered from a slow start with a lengthy tail.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s Cannes title Her Private Hell  opened to £13,500 for Mubi, from 56 sites at a £241 average. Including previews, the genre title has £22,500.

A24’s Tony, released in cinemas by Picturehouse Entertainment, is up to £2.1m after a £13,000 seventh weekend in cinemas.

AA Films UK’s Mirzapur: The Movie put on £10,200 on its fourth weekend in cinemas, released by Bakrania Media. The Indian action drama is up to £439,100 total.

Social media satire Babystar  opened to £953 through Metis Films, from 15 sites at a £64 average. Including previews, Joscha Bongard’s film has £1,500.

Bakrania Media’s comedy-drama Mitrata started with £470 from three cinemas at a £78 average.

Cannes premiere Rehearsals For A Revolution, about the history of Iran, made £225 from a limited release through Sony.

Vue Lumiere’s release of double-bill animation We’re Going On A Bear Hunt and The Tiger Who Came To Tea made £55,121 including previews.

Tina Gharavi’s drama Shadows Of Beirut made £1,690 from 14 sites at a £120 average, including previews, for Buff Studios.

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