Irish Box Office Report: May 07-09 2014

Bad Neighbours continues to reign supreme at number 1 in the Irish charts as audiences flock to the Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne and Zach Efron starring comedy. The anomaly of the film opening on a Saturday last week has been addressed, as for box-office recording purposes this weekend represents the official opening weekend. That means that the film essentially had 6 days of previews, or alternatively, a 9 day opening weekend! If you take it as the former, which we will, then this weekend’s haul of €374k is one of the top five openings of 2014. If you take it as the latter, which is ludicrous,  then the film had the most successful opening of any film in Ireland ever with €971,400 over the 9 day “opening weekend”.  Given that the film was out all week and had the bank holiday crowd last weekend the €5,944 per location average for days 7 to 9 is incredible, and represents just a 16% daily drop in takings.  With no direct competition in the comedy market until the Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore starring Blended on May 23rd,Bad Neighbours will certainly be miles ahead in the comedy box-office stakes by the time the highly anticipated A Million Ways to Die in the West and 22 Jump Street open.

Also holding strong at number 2 is Nick Cassavetes’ comedy The Other Woman. The film pulled in a further €94k in its third week in the charts, on the back of a 43% drop. With this and Bad Neighbours performing so strongly in the Irish charts it seems that comedy is the way to an Irish audiences hearts and wallets. The Other Woman has now taken its lifetime earnings up to €824k and will, almost certainly, pass the million mark before long.

Sticking at 3 in the charts is Sony’s comic-book movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The Marc Webb directed sequel dropped another 38% in its fourth weekend to keep pace with The Other Woman in also earning €94k from Irish cinema-goers.  Stateside the film saw a much greater drop as it fell 61% and to number 2 in the US box-office, earning $35.5m and bringing its total up to $147.9m. That’s significantly behind the $200.5m that The Amazing spider-Man had t the same point in its run and will likely see the film fall short of expectations and the $200m mark in the US. Globally the film is still performing strongly but keep an eye on the figures as they could influence the already established plans for the creation of the Amazing Spider-Man cinematic universe.

A new and Irish entry at number 4 is Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank. Good critical reaction and the presence of Irish superstar Michael Fassbender and new Star Wars star Domhnall Gleeson were not enough to see the film earn anywhere close to the numbers generated by recent release Calvary. Opening at less locations than that film, 34, despite boasting a credible €1,982 per-location average, saw the film take a solid, but unspectacular €67k in its opening weekend. Distributors Element will likely be hoping that word-of-mouth and the critical buzz will see the film emulate the momentum and longevity in the box-office that saw The Stag stay for weeks in the charts and on screens.

Rising one place to 5, and benefitting from the less than favourable summer weather of the weekend, was 20th Century Fox’s animated sequel Rio 2. The film dropped just 11% despite entering its sixth week in the charts, and added another €60k to the coffers as it moved past the million euro mark at the Irish box-office. In doing so it became the fourth animated feature of 2014 to make the milestone, after The Lego MovieMr. Peabody & Sherman, and Muppets Most Wanted.

Dropping two places to number 6 is Michael McDonagh’s Irish drama Calvary. The film represents the highest grossing Irish film of 2014, having earned just shy of €1.5m to date, and the fifth highest grossing release of 2014 in Ireland. This weekend’s returns represented a 50% fall compared to last weekends, but still say the film take another €54k.

Holding at 7 in the charts is another animated film in the shape of eOne’s 3D adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan. The film has failed to connect as strongly as other animated tales with Irish audiences, falling 36% in its second weekend to earn €41k. That takes it up to €185k, but is dramatically short of the year’s other animated releases.

The biggest percentage drop of the week, and representing a fall of three places in the charts, is Paul W.S. Anderson’s Pompeii at 8. The film’s audience, such as it was, came front-loaded to this as it plummeted 54% in taking a paltry €36k in its second weekend. Standing at €180k it will be long gone from the Irish charts before it ever sees a landmark.

At 9 is another of increasingly frequent box-office blips that are the Met Opera’s. This weekend saw the release of La Cenerentola in 12 locations around the country, with art-loving audiences contributing the second highest per-location average of the week at €2,357 for a €28k total.

Finally, holding up the charts, at number 10 is Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted. The film made another €21k off a 34% drop as it closes on €1.1m at the Irish box-office after 7 official weeks in the charts. As this is likely the last time we will see the film in the Top Ten we would like to offer a salute to Kermit and co. on an amazing run.

We hope Bad Neighbours has enjoyed its time at the top as a monster is coming in the guise of Gareth Edward’s Godzilla and it is sure to crush all opposition before it. Starring Brian Cranston, Juliette Binoche, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, and David Strathairn this epic retelling of the Japanese legend boasts a better cast than most summer blockbusters. It also comes on the foot of strong reviews, including 4 stars from us, and big expectations. Most studios have wisely steered clear of opening against Godzilla, so it is the smaller distributors and art-house films that make up the rest of the releases. In terms of box-office only The Two Faces of January is likely to make an impression on the Top ten, as it boasts Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst amongst its cast.

Rank Title
1 Bad Neighbours
2 Other Woman, The
3 Amazing Spider-Man 2, The
4 Frank
5 Rio 2
6 Calvary
7 Tarzan
8 Pompeii
9 La Cenerentola – Met Opera 2014 (Opera)
10 Muppets Most Wanted

Source: Rentrak