US release: 24th June 1977
£6 Thousand 
$0 
$0 The long awaited screen adaptation of the hit stage show Wicked~2024 has been given a PG age rating in the UK for mild threat, discrimination
The movie stars Cynthia Erivo who has previously been seen in Widows and Luther: The Fallen Sun, it also stars Ariana Grande who has been seen in Dont Look Up and Hairspray Live
After going through many potential directors the movie is directed by Jon M. Chu who has previously helmed Justin Bieber Never Say Never and Crazy Rich Asians.
Movie Synopsis
An aspiring sorcerer finds acceptance at a magical school until higher authorities try to misuse her powers.
BBFC certificate breakdown.
Last weekend Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was at the top of the North American box office, there are 6 new releases this weekend, will any of them top the US box office this weekend?
Check out other new releases from around the world.
Here are this weeks new releasesCheck back on Monday to see what new movies made it onto the Weekend Box Office Chart.
In this period of time when there are no new movies (just yet) getting released and studios are re-releasing 'classic' catalogue films in an attempt to get people back to movie theatres a 19 year old Harry Potter movie tops the global box office this week.
We are still a couple of weeks away from the much anticipated Tenet, being championed as the saviour of cinema, so the box office is largely filled with re-releases and low budget horror movies, and with China and Japan seemingly getting back to something near normal there are many films from those territories doing very well.
Here is the top 5 worldwide weekend breakdown 14th - 16th August 2020.
The first Harry Potter movie (replace Philosopher's for Sorcerers outside the UK) gets a 4K 3D rerelease in China and take $13.6 Million in the process making it the top gross global movie of the weekend.
The movie up to Sunday had taken a global gross of $996.1 Million but after a blockbuster Monday at the box office the movie has now taken over a Billion dollars in global grosses.
The Will Smith and Martin Lawrence buddy cop movie get a Chinese release and takes $3.2 Million on its opening weekend meaning its a re-entry on the global box office at number 2.
The movie has now taken $424.6 Million globally since its release back in mid January of 2020.
Doraemon is a long running animated series in Japan and this week the latest movie in the series goes up to number 3 with a weekend gross of $2.6 Million.
The movie directed by Kazuaki Imai has now taken $15.5 Million in global grosses.
Acclaimed Chinese director Hu Guan's war epic is at number 4 this week as his latest movie makes its debut in China with a weekend gross of $2 Million.
Christopher Nolan's 2014 movie about space travel across the galaxy falls to number 5 with a global gross of $1.7 Million taking to movies total gross to $710.5 Million.
Harry Potter And The Cursed Child was written as a stage show and it was promised it would always stay that way, the book that was released soon after the West End production opened was in play form not novel, but the signage for the play has just recently been changed to reflect that of the movies so does this mean that a movie version is in the works?
The original sign was not unique and in many ways reflected that of the original publications in the UK, whereas the logo used on the movies was closer to that of the original US version, and the new logo was presented on Broadway first in a full Time Square takeover and on Back To Hogwarts Day.
The change has had a lot of fans angry about this claiming that the story is seperated from the Harry Potter cannon and this marks that seperation, but why would there be this change?
The obvious conclusion is that there is a movie version on the way, Warner Bros. owns the movie rights to the series and have been a partner to Harry Potter Theatre which produces the stage show.
The rumours have been denied by everyone including J.K. Rowling who posted some cryptic tweets, but are they just not telling the absolute truth because it's not time to announce it yet?
Sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places #HarryPotter #CursedChild pic.twitter.com/TQb68Wtqiz
— J.K. Rowling (@jk-rowling) September 5, 2019
For Warner Brox. who have made Billions of dollars from the series want that money to keep rolling in, The Fantastic Beasts series had a promising start but last year Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald didn't do as well as they would have liked.
The theme park area at Universal Studios are doing well, and are keeping the franchise alive, but there needs to be a new movie for Warner Bros. that fans can sink their teeth into.
Rowling could write a whole new set of Harry Potter centric stories especially for the screen, but she will need to please the fans, and she has always stated after the books she wont revisit Harry Potter and his world again.
She keeps tight control over everything Harry Potter, but she could commission a new writer/screenplay write to come up with some new stories, The Cursed Child was written by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany with Rowling only providing the story, so this is ground she has been down before.
As much as this is something which may be explored in the future, why bother when you have a tried and tested story already there and waiting for a screen version to be produced, its Harry Potter, its already written and it would most likely take over a Billion dollars at the box office.
Also it would bring the story to the fans who either dont go to the theatre, it is a niche past time which although having the boy who lived as brought more more bums on seats to theatre in the same way the books got people reading again you are still making inaccessible to some.
I am going to stick my neck out and say there will be a movie version of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child in the long run, there is just too much of a money making opportunity there for Warner Bros., and as the film is already in 2 parts I am sure it can be dragged out to a trilogy, a 3 Billion plus grossing trilogy.
This week The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey nudges it's way past the $1 Billion world box office taking mark making it 15th film that has made it past the milestone.
This is an interesting group of films but the group is becoming less and less elite as time goes on, like the magic $100 million mark of time past.
The first film to manage the feat was Titanic back in 1998, and it held the record as the only film to have done it until 2003 when The Return of the King managed it. Since then, and with the introduction of 3D where you are charged more for your ticket, we have had 13 other films make the grade.
Of the 15, 8 had a 3D releases as well as a 2D release, 4 were released in 2012, 2 have made over $2 Billion, 1 made it over the billion mark after it's 3D re-release last year, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and 1 was released in about 6 different formats.
The $1 Billion club is bound to grow and grow so chart watchers are now looking for the next flurry of films to make over $2 Billion, a hard task of which only 1 film has truly made it without a re-release, but that had a 3D tax, Avatar.
These figures are not adjusted for inflation in ticket prices, this is a hotly debated subject, but it is generally accepted that the highest grossing film of all time if ticket sales had always been at today's prices would be Gone With the Wind, whic would today gross $3.2 Billion at the box office, in fact the top 15 would look something more like this