Dune Dethrones No Time To Die In The UK

DUNE-MOVIE-REVIEW

The dominance of 007, James Bond in No Time To Die is over, just before the end of a month-long run, Warner Bros. Pictures sci-fi epic Dune takes top spot at the UK box office this weekend.

With an opening of just shy of £5 million, it has a running total (including Thursday previews) of £5.9m for the opening.

No Time To Die entering its fifth weekend ahead is still packing the audiences in with £4.6m taken this past weekend.

The film now sits in 8th position for the all-time top-grossing films in the UK already with £78m. That sits it just behind Titanic (£79m) and Skyfall, Spectre sit in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

It’s fair to assume No Time To Die will head towards and most likely hit the £100m mark even as the weeks go on, Bond films have tremendous legs compared to other films.

The 25th Bond release has now surpassed £380m ($525m) worldwide with the international gross making up for 70% of the revenue. The average is 80% which we can expect very soon.

Whilst in the US it has taken £86m ($120m), it also boasts £3.1 ($4.3m) in Denmark, £12.3m ($17m) in France, £33m ($46m) in Germany £10.8m ($15m )in Japan and £6.5 ($9m) in Russia.

No Time To Die is no longer Number 1 in the UK thanks to Dune

Read more: 5 Movies You Should Watch This Christmas

Another new debutant this week, The French Dispatch took an estimated £850k which is a strong start for a Wes Anderson film, especially in the pandemic era.

Meanwhile from Sony, Venom: Let There Be Carnage suffered a 60% drop over the half-term weekend with £2.5m, and sits on a total of £11.2m so far. A drop was always expected especially amongst competition this holiday break.

In the US, Dune (whereby it predicted the decision will be made on its domestic gross before green lighting a sequel) took a respectable £29 million ($40m) upon opening.

Bearing in mind the film has was also released day and date with HBO Max in the US it’s a strong start but arguably has been affected largely by its streaming release.

However, it is the biggest weekend opening for any Warner Brothers film release that also has a streaming release since the announcement last December which is surely a positive sign.

The film now sits on a £160m ($221m) gross worldwide which will only fuel speculation of a sequel and it also opened with £15m ($22m) in China.

The market power of China to Hollywood blockbusters can be a mouth-watering enticement for studios.

However due to the outbreak of COVID-19 infections and restrictions the Chinese box office overall this weekend with a total of $69m overall.

Eyes stay locked on China as we head closer to its debut of No Time To Die, and whether or not Marvel’s The Eternals will play at all in November.

Do any of these numbers surprise you?

What do you think of the news?

Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!


 

What do you make of this story? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages! And if you enjoy listening to film podcasts, why not check out our podcasts, Small Screen Stories and Small Screen Film Club wherever you get your podcasts!




There are no comments

Add yours

Have your say...