US release: 10th October 2017
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$0 As the year 2023 rolls on into January there are movie new releases this weekend, but none were good enough to topple Avatar: The Way of Water from the top of the UK box office.
The highest new movie of the weekend is A Man Called Otto which is new at 4, also in the top 5 is the latest cinema event Andre Rieu: In Dublin 2023.
Further down the chart is Till which is new at 6 with £327,496, the action movie The Enforcer~2022 is new at 12 with £71,836 and finally there is a re-entry at 15 for Shrek, the 2001 animated hit movie which take £44,199.
The sequel movie to Avatar takes £5.8 Million on its 4th weekend of release which is a small 25% drop over last weekend.
The movie has taken a UK total of £57.2 Million, which almost by default makes it the top movie of 2023, and although its not the top movie released in 2022 it is catching Top Gun: Maverick and has grossed almost the same at that movie 4 weeks into its box office run.
The original movie has taken £41 Million 4 weeks into its run so this movie is well ahead of that and is set to out gross the 2009 film.
The bio-pic of Whitney Houston remains at number 2 for a second weekend with a gross of £1.3 Million, a 58% drop over its debut last weekend.
This gives the movie a total gross of £6.2 Million after 2 weekends of release.
The musical version of the Roald Dahl story Matilda remains at number 3 this weekend with a gross of £1.1 Million, a drop of 42%.
The movie has been a massive hit in the UK with a 3 week run at the top and after 7 weeks, all inside the top 3, the movie has taken £23.9 Million.
Highest new movie this weekend
Highest new movie of the weekend is the latest from Tom Hanks which is a remake of the Swedish movie A Man Called Ove from 2015.
THe movie takes £1.1 Million on its debut weekend of release in the UK.
No stranger to the box office, Andre Rieu's latest live concert offering where he is performing live in Dublin lands at number 5 this week.
The event movie takes £715,986 in screenings starting from Saturday 7th which is about on par with the violinists last concert Andre Rieu's 2022 Maastricht Concert: Happy Days Are Here Again which took £798,706 in August of 2022.
Giving Sonic the hedgehog 2 only a single weekend at the top of the UK box office, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore makes its UK debut at the top.
Also new this week is The Outfit from director Graham Moore which is new at 7 with £96,600 and Compartment No 6 from Juho Kuosmanen which enters at 12 with £42,999.
UK box office top 5 weekend breakdown 8th - 10th April 2022
This third in the series of movies that serve as a prequel to the Harry Potter movies, starring Eddie Redmayne as the Beasts finder Newt Scamander the series has turned into an origins movie for Albus Dumbledore played in this series by Jude law.
The movie opens with a gross of £5.8 Million which is well below the last movie in the series Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald with an opening of £12 Million and the first movie in the series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which took £15 Million on its opening.
This series of movies has not touched the heights of the Harry Potter series which started 20 years ago with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone which took £15 Million on its debut and ended with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 which took £23 Million.
The movie is the 10th top movie of the year so far, and will end up most likely in the top 5, but it is debatable if Warner Bros. will see this as good enough to continue the movies in what should have been a 5 movie series.
The blue speedy hedgehog which made its debut at number 1 last weekend falls to number 2 on its second weekend of release with £2.9 Million, a 42% drop over last weekend.
this gives the movie a total UK gross of £10.6 Million after 2 weeks of release, this is more than double the take of the first movie at the same point of release.
The movie is the 6th top film of 2022 and at this rate bound to do even better.
Proving to be a smash hit is the latest movie from the DreamWorks animated stable which this weekend takes £1.1 Million, a 51% drop over last weekend, taking the movies total UK gross to £4.8 Million.
Sony's Spiderverse movie drops to number 4 this weekend with £740,336, a massive 77% drop over last weekend.
This gives the movie a total gross of £5 Million after 2 weekends of release, it will most likely drop out of the top 5 next weekend and end its run with about £7 Million.
Its not been good for the super villain movie especially after the success last year of Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Dropping to number 5 this weekend The Caped Crusader takes £623,866 on its 6th weekend of release, a 48% drop over last weekend, giving the movie a total of £39 Million.
The movie is the top movie of 2022 so far, an honor it will loose in the coming weeks, but the film has been a success for Warner Bros. in fact it has been more successful tha Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice from 2016 which took £35 Million over its total 6 week run.
It has not been as successful though as Joker~2019 from 2019 which had taken £54 Million 6 weeks into its run on its way to £58 Million total.
The original Terminator film came out of no-where, it was the second film by the young fledgeling director James Cameron and it was fresh and exciting and had a story that was clever and captivated audiences.
The follow up came 6 years later and with the hype and incredible (for the time) special effects the film was going to be a hit, Arnold Schwarzenegger was at the height of his fame.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day was a massive box office hit, which had a good story, despite some plot holes, with over the top exciting action and it went on to gross over $500 Million globally which adjusted for inflation would be about $1.2 Billion today.
After that the rights to the franchise moved all over the place, then in 2003 we suddenly got Terminator 3: Rise Of THe Machine, and despite the film having fairly good reviews, starring Schwarzenegger and grossing over $400 Million globally it felt more like a stand alone movie than part of the series.
Then the big trouble started and we got Terminator Salvation in 2009, directed by McG and starring Christian Bale the film reportedly had a very troubled shoot and with Schwarzenegger on California Governor duties he didn't star just appearing as a computer generated Terminator towards the end for a brief second or 2.
Despite this negativity of both the film and the plot it still grossed nearly $400 Million, but the series was stagnating and each film was grossing less and less as each film went on.
The series needed a reboot and in 2015 Schwarzenegger came back and director Alan Taylor tried to get a feeling of the origin film in a reboot that mixed the story from The Terminator changing the time line and creating a new path for the series, but things were too confusing and the film flopped and talk of a followup ended.
It must have seemed like the ideal situation, bring back Schwarzenegger, bring back Linda Hamilton as the original Sarah Connor, and to top it off bring back the original creator James Cameron to write the story and produce the movie, he's too busy directing Avatar 2 so passed that duty off to Deadpool director Tim Miller.
What we have here then is series fatigue, after the 2015 reboot promise the paying public and fans have simply lost hope in trying to get a film which brings back the memory of the first 2 films, Dark Fate does not do this.
Then we have the talent, Arnold Schwarzenegger is no where near the star he was in 1991, arguably the biggest, and he is no longer the mean looking muscle machine he once was, then Linda Hamilton who rarely appears in films these days so do audiences know who she is or connect with her? Then James Cameron, after Avatar, which granted was the biggest film ever until this year, is hardly a household name anymore, these elements don't make for a must see movie.
The original 1984 story has now been told again and again in the Terminator movies, how many time can the story of a robot sent from the future to kill someone who is in turn protected by another person/machine sent from the same future, despite how much you mix things up, audiences are clearly bored of this rehashing in each reboot.
Special effects today have to have the WOW factor to sell a movie, Terminator 2 had it, but its harder to do in a day and age when almost anything is possible and sadly Dark Fate simply fails to have it.
The film reportedly had a troubled post production with director Miller and writer/producer Cameron disagreeing over the edit, and it shows, it leaves you feeling like you have just watched a disjointed movie when you leave the cinema.
Finally, and maybe this is a personal thing, the title, Dark Fate is a bit cheesy and doesn't come close to Judgment Day or even Salvation, Rise of the Machines was even a good sub title. A title shouldn't matter but it has got to sell the film, Genisys was not good and Dark Fate is even worse.
The movie will struggle to make $300 Million at the global box office, this in a day and age when tentpole movie are expected to take over a Billion is not good enough, the series future is looking bleak and it could be this is the last nail in the coffin.
There is one last hope that might bring the series back! If James Cameron can find a story somewhere within that is different but keeps within the Terminator universe, and if he decides to direct the movie himself we may just get a 7th movie, its a big ask with his involvement in the Avatar films, but this might mean we get a good few year before another movie, no bad thing.
Like many other long running series, Alien for example, the series won't just lie back and enjoy the success it's had, we most likely will see another movie in the series but it will be for another generation, and once we have forgotten the bad box office run of Terminator: Dark Fate.
It has taken Avengers: Endgame 13 weeks, and in that time it has broken almost every box office record, but this weekend it gets the biggest prize of all and beats Avatar to become the highest grossing movie of all time.
Avatar released in 2009 has held the honor for the last 10 years with a total gross of $2.789 Billion from its initial release and all subsequent releases but Avengers: Endgame hits a gross of $2.790 Billion this Saturday.
There was a time when it was thought the gross would never be beaten and despite the former top grossing movie Titanic getting a re-release and pushing its gross over $2 Billion and Star Wars: The Force Awakens having a good go back in 2015 neither were good enough.
There is every possibility that the total global gross will continue to grow and although it seems unlikely now who knows it could be the first film to get to $3 Billion.
Although the gross of the film has beaten Avatar the ticket sales, or adjusted for inflation as its often known as, is still a way from Avatar which would have grossed $3.273 Billion were it released today, although Gone With The Wind from 1939 is still on top of that list.
It is only a matter of time before we get the first $3 Billion film, and hence beating Avenger: Endgame but for the time being Disney and Marvel can enjoy this mighty task.
The pull of Disney's Aladdin live action was far too great for the British public and the film stays at the top of the UK box office for a second weekend leaving Godzilla to enter the box office at number 2.
The Guy Ritchie directed movie stays at the top with a weekend gross of £4.8 million which pushes its total UK gross to £19.7 million.
The film is doing well for a Disney live action remake although not as well as Beauty And The Beast which by its second weekend has taken nearly £40 million.
With this in mind the Genie movie should end up somewhere near the £35 million mark which should mean its Guy Ritchies top film to date and it could become Will Smiths top UK film to date.
The Monster movie sequel was a favourite to hit the top of the box office this week but with a £3.5 million debut it wasn't quite good enough.
The film lands at number 2 this week which is half that of Gareth Edwards 2014 film, even more worryingly this is lower than Roland Emmerich 1998 film which landed at number 1 with £4.1 (not adjusted for inflation).
The animated comedy stays at number 3 on its second weekend with a weekend gross of £2.9 million which pushes the films total gross to £11.8 million.
The film is running below the 2016 original which had taken £16 million by its second weekend of release.
The Elton John bio-film falls to number 4 this weekend with a gross of £2.4 million to boost its total to £11.9 million.
Despite the good reviews the film is not doing as well as Bohemian Rhapsody although with a high grossing top 4 this has effected its chart position although the Freddy Mercury film had made almost double on its second weekend of release.
The Nintendo property keeps its top 5 position this week, at number 5, with a weekend gross of £664,469 which pushes its total UK gross to £12.5 million.
The Marvel mega hit falls to number 8 this weekend, but still only in its 6th weekend the film has taken £86.9 million.