UK Box Office: April 15-17 2016 - THE JUNGLE BOOK Swings Into Number 1, EYE IN THE SKY Opens High

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 The reign of The Ice Queen and The Evil Queen didn't last long as The Jungle Book roared into the box office with a massive $14 million debut. Eye in the Sky debuted at number 3 with the kind of debut a film like Midnight Special should have seen - Eye in the Sky opened with $1.5 million+. Further down the top 10, some smaller films were able to crack the box office - Fan, The Spark and Criminal all took 7th, 8th and 9th respectively.

Here are the top 10 films this week!
1. The Jungle Book - $14.07 million - Week 1 - NEW - Total: $14.07 million
2. Zootropolis - $1.60 million - Week 4 - Down 52% - Total: $29.41 million
3. Eye in the Sky - $1.58 million - Week 1 - NEW - Total: $1.58 million
4. 
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - $1.41 million - Week 4 - Down 56.4%  - Total: $50.22 million
5. Eddie the Eagle - $1.13 million - Week 3 - Down 36.8% - Total: $10.34 million
6. 
The Huntsman: Winter's War - $919,412 - Week 2 - Down 78.6% - Total: $6.26 million
7. Fan - $606,139 - Week 1 - NEW - Total: $0.61 million
8. The Spark - $399,933 - Week 1 - NEW - Total: $0.40 million
9. Criminal - $352,892 - Week 1 - NEW - Total: $0.35 million
10. Kung Fu Panda 3 - $350,785 - Week 6 - Down 60.5% - Total: $18.92 million

The Winner
Before this weekend, it was clear that The Jungle Book was going to take the top spot but nobody knew how big this was going to open. The Jungle Book opened with a massive $14 million which puts it almost on par with the opening of the final Hunger Games film - that shows how big this film is! This is much higher than the debuts of Cinderella and Oz: The Great and Powerful. It is slightly higher than Maleficent but slightly slower than Alice in Wonderland - both of those films were HUGE hits. The Jungle Book has received the strongest reviews for a live action Disney fairytale yet which also suggests it will have good word of mouth and strong holds. The Jungle Book should easily be able to crack $35 million and possibly $40 million - could it hit the milestone of $50 million though? Only time will tell. It does have competition from Captain America: Civil War in a few weeks so it should make the most of time before then. The Jungle Book is another film in the nostalgia craze that has paid off. 

The New Entries (Top 10)
Other than The Jungle Book, the highest new entry (from spaces 2-10) this week is Eye in the Sky. The Helen Mirren drama opened at number 3 with a strong $1.58 million - for a film that has had very minimal marketing besides from 1 TV interview, this is very impressive - not many people knew about this film a month ago. The film also had a strong per location average, grossing approximately $3,700 from each of the 428 locations. Eye in the Sky has received strong reviews and is the next film that will probably benefit from targeting the older audience. I assume this film will hold well and I could see it making $5 million.

Foreign films like Fan were able to really mix up the box office this week. This film debuted at number 7 with an impressive $605,000 from just 109 locations - that is a $5,561 location average! The film holds an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes which suggests a bright future. However, films like this don't really expand further even though they perform strongly. Fan might be around next weekend due to lack of competition - $2 million seems a likely closing point. 

Another foreign film to crack the top 10 was The Spark. Two Indian films in the top 10 both with strong debuts in the same week! - fantastic! The Spark had the second strongest per location average out of all of the top 10 - it grossed approximately $8,700 from each of its 46 locations. That is a marvellous debut. I would think that The Spark should expand slightly next week to around a 100 locations but you never know with this type of film. It opened at number 8 with $400,000 so anything above $1 million is a win really. 

Hollywood's third wide release this weekend couldn't compete with India. Criminal opened at number 9 with $350,000. The film was only released in 277 locations which is a semi-wide release but its per location average of $1,274 is nothing to write home about. This has performed on par with 2015's Self/Less which actually didn't crack the top 10 but was another Ryan Reynolds flick - unfortunately Deadpool has not converted Reynolds into a box office draw. Criminal holds a 28% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes which isn't a good sign - this film won't be around for long - if it reaches $600,000, it'll be lucky. 

The Biggest Drop
As predicted, The Huntsman: Winter's War was the film to see the biggest drop this week. Now, nobody expected its second week drop to be this big though. Last weeks number was a Monday-Sunday total whereas this is just Friday-Sunday so that makes it look a little less bad. Winter's War fell from 1-6, dropping a massive 78.6%! The film grossed $920,000 this weekend which brings its total to $6.26 million. This is exactly on par with 2015s Paper Towns which had a similar release and opened at number 1 but fell 78.6% to number 8 last August. Paper Towns ended up with $5.2 million in the UK so Winter's War has already passed that but I think $10 million will be a stretch for this film now. This big fall could also be down to poor reviews, Jungle Book being direct competition  as it is a live action fairytale and the fact that its target audience are now back at school with less free time. 

The Best Holdover
From finding itself in the Biggest Drop category last week, Eddie the Eagle sees the strongest hold this week. To be fair, the whole top 10 didn't really hold well this week due to a big opening from The Jungle Book. Eddie the Eagle managed to only drop 36.8% though which is pretty impressive. The film took in $1.13 million and has now made $10.34 million in the UK - the 13th film to crack that milestone so far this year. There is literally no competition next week so this film should continue to hold well - Eddie the Eagle could go as far as $12-15 million. 


It's going to be a quiet week next weekend but look out for FRIEND REQUEST!

See You Soon!

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