‘Send Help’ rescues UK-Ireland box office with £1.3m opening on flat weekend; ‘Stray Kids’ collects £1.1m

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.36

Disney horror Send Help opened top of the UK-Ireland box office with £1.3m, on a flat session as cinemas awaited the rollout of Wuthering Heights next weekend.

Playing in 560 cinemas, Send Help took a £2,382 location average. The film has £1.6m including previews.

K-pop group concert film Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience took second place in the chart, with a £1.1m weekend for Universal. It played in 457 locations, taking a £2,371 average.

The film, following two concerts by K-pop stars Stray Kids in LA from summer 2025, topped the global chart this weekend.

The Housemaid posted another strong weekend for Lionsgate, falling just 34% on its seventh session. It added £927,723, and is less than £2,000 away from the £30m mark, in a stunning overall result for Lionsgate.

It is the distributor’s fourth-highest-grossing title of all time in the territory, behind only The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (£34.2m), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1  (£31.1m) and La La Land (£30.6m), and should overtake the latter two within the next fortnight.

Last weekend’s number one Hamnet added £828,633 on its fifth session – a 42% drop that brought it to £16.6m for Universal. It has overtaken the £16.2m total of fellow 2026 awards contender Sinners; as well as topping previous awards title Belfast  (£15.6m), and approaching Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite (£17m).

Zootropolis 2 posted a strong hold on its 11^th weekend in cinemas for Disney, falling just 29%. The Oscar- and Bafta-nominated sequel added £603,667 to hit £33.2m, taking it above animated titles Sing 2  (£33m) and Shrek Forever After (£32.7m) and just behind Mufasa: The Lion King  (£33.5m).

Takings for the top five dropped to the lowest level since early November, falling 13% to £4.8m. Exhibitors will be looking for a big opening from Warner Bros’ Wuthering Heights next weekend to get numbers headed in a positive direction.

Audiences love Supreme

Black Bear’s Shelter starring Jason Statham dropped 50% on its second weekend, with £479,000 bringing it to £1.9m total. It has already passed the totals of previous Statham films Expend4bles (£1.8m) and A Working Man  (£1.9m).

Marty Supreme continues its strong box office run through a seventh weekend for Entertainment Film Distributors. The Timothee Chalamet-starring title dropped 37%, with £431,662 taking it to £15.6m total, ahead of films including Mission: Impossible 3  and Meet The Parents  (both £15.5m)

Avatar: Fire And Ash dropped 50% on its eighth weekend for Disney, with £377,537 taking it to £41.8m total, above The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies  (£41.3m) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom  (£41.6m).

YouTube-inspired hit Iron Lung added £361,939 on its second weekend, distributed by Shear Entertainment. This 57% drop brought it to a strong £1.7m total.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple leads Sony’s slate, having added £254,644 on its fourth weekend. This 58% drop brought it to £7.5m total, around half of the £15m total of last year’s 28 Years Later.

Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? fell back 59% on its second weekend for Disney, with £179,210 contributing to a £1.1m total to date.

Horror franchise title The Strangers – Chapter 3 started with £178,989 for Lionsgate, from 287 venues at a £624 average. This was just behind the £180,233 start of 2018’s The Strangers: Prey At Night, and down on the £452,507 start of 2024’s The Strangers - Chapter 1 and £331,535 start of last year’s Chapter 2.

Johannes Roberts’ horror Primate leads Paramount’s slate, adding £173,000 – a 66% drop – on its second weekend for a £1.1m total.

No Other Choice became director Park Chan-wook’s highest-grossing film ever in the UK and Ireland on its third weekend in cinemas. It added £169,459 – a 38% drop – to reach £1.5m, topping the £1.4m of 2017’s The Handmaiden. The milestone was part of a strong weekend for Mubi, with No Other Choice also becoming the distributor’s highest-grossing non-English language title in the territory, ahead of Perfect Days  (£1.4m).

The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants added £149,000 on its seventh weekend in cinemas for Paramount – a 49% drop that brought it to £8.4m, close to the £8.6m of 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water.

Philippa Lowthorpe’s H Is For Hawk crossed the £1m mark after posting another good hold on its third weekend for Lionsgate. The drama dropped just 21% with £140,518 and is just over the £1m mark.

Animal feature Kangaroo added £95,252 on its second weekend for Studiocanal, and is up to £473,096 total.

UK independent animation The Scarecrows’ Wedding started with £60,403 for Magic Light Pictures.

My Father’s Shadow, the directorial debut of Screen Star of Tomorrow Akinola Davies Jr., started with £58,452 for Mubi – the biggest opening for a limited release this weekend, with an £872 average from 67 sites. Including previews, the Cannes 2025 title has £95,374.

With Hamnet also in cinemas, Universal opened Aneil Karia’s Hamlet starring Riz Ahmed to £52,878. The film started in 178 locations, taking a £309 site average. Including previews, it has £54,669.

Universal’s Song Sung Blue starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson added £50,655 on its sixth weekend, and is up to £3.2m.

Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value added £45,632 on its seventh weekend in cinemas for Mubi – a drop of just 7%. The Oscar- and Bafta-nominated film is now up to £1.3m total.

Indian historical drama Border 2 may have dropped back 67% on its third weekend for AA Films UK, but its £45,375 session still contributed to a decent £635,406 total.

Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague fell 47% on its second weekend for Altitude, with £39,000 contributing towards £356,000 total.

Mercy starring Chris Pratt dropped 81% on its third weekend for Amazon MGM, handled by Sony. It put on £35,766 for a £1.2m total.

Sony’s Anaconda added a further £30,098 on its seventh weekend in cinemas, and is up to £5.7m total.

The History Of Sound starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor added £27,831 on its third weekend – a 37% drop for Universal that brought it to £411,890.

Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights Of Hero starring Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, Nicholas Galitzine and Charli XCX started with £18,778 for Vue Lumiere, from 134 sites at a £140 average. Including previews and festival screenings, the film has £80,149.

Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut The Chronology Of Water opened to £18,210 for BFI Distribution, from 27 sites at a £674 average. Including previews and festival screenings the release is up to £35,973.

Hikari’s Rental Family added £16,381 on its fourth weekend for Disney – a 45% drop that brought the Brendan Fraser-starring film to £981,598.

Irish football drama Saipan added £14,159 for Vertigo Releasing and Wildcard Distribution, on its third weekend in the UK and sixth in Ireland. The film is up to £921,054 total.

Event cinema release R.E.M. X Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. took £13,332 this weekend, after a Thursday event day release that gives it a £51,735 total to date for CinemaLive.

Twinless, which won the audience award in the US Dramatic section at Sundance 2025, started with £11,714 for Park Circus. The film has £20,903 including previews and festival screenings.

T A P E Collective opened Cherien Dabis’s Sundance 2025 title All That’s Left Of You to £9,300 from 17 sites, at a £547 average. Including previews, the film has £22,475.

Shepherd documentary The Shepherd And The Bear opened to £4,572 from 10 sites at a £457 average for Conic, on limited shows.

Radiance Films’ 4K restoration of Richard Rush’s The Stunt Man took £1,258 last week from screening at London’s Prince Charles Cinema, with further venues booked for the coming weeks.

Hong Kong animation Another World is up to £75,633 after two weekends on release for Central City Media.

• Strong January brings 18% year-on-year increase at UK-Ireland box office