As cinemas strong Autumn continues 5 films open in the Top 20 at the Irish Box Office, including a brand new number one.
The weeks lowest new entry in at 17 is Woody Allen’s latest love-letter to Europe, the imaginatively titled To Rome With Love. Subtle Woody, subtle. Taking 15,567 from 11 locations To Rome With Love sees a significant decline in box office compared to Allen’s last film Midnight in Paris, which opened at roughly the same time last year in the same number of venues but managed to take €47,895 opening weekend, for a collective €350,000 8 week stint in the Top 20. Midnight in Paris had much stronger word of mouth and Oscar buzz which helped fuel its run, sadly To Rome With Love does not look like having the same kind of staying power.
The weeks second lowest new entry is Sony’s Premium Rush at a very disappointing 13. Despite boasting strong performances from stars on the rise Joseph Gordon Levitt and Michael Shannon, and garnering favourable critical reaction, Premium Rush had a very low per venue average of just €742. This coupled to a modest circulation of 25 venues saw Premium Rush take just €18,562 and marks the second week in a row that a Sony picture underperformed after last week’s That’s My Boy.
In at 6 with a surprisingly large opening haul of €53,879 is The Sweeney. It would appear that Irish audiences, like our cousins from across the sea, are suckers for a good British action film. Given that marketing for the film was comparitively light compared to the big studio films, and many were wary of any remake of the classic TV show that is still fondly remembered eOne must be very pleased with the €1,171 per venue average the film has made.
The week’s second highest new entry is Hope Springs at 3. Aimed at an older audience than the rest of the films in the Top 20 Hope Springs had the weeks 4th highest per venue take with €1,692 for an impressive €94,731 overall figure. Meryl Streep continues to be a big draw at the box office and with Lawless performing strongly Momentum now has 2 of the Top 3 for probably the first time ever. Strong word of mouth should see Hope Springs remain in the Top 20 for a few weeks to come.
Last but not least of the new entries is ParaNorman, which goes straight in at 1 with a very strong €149,224 from 66 venues. A stop-motion delight ParaNorman should be and is a big hit with families, who need not be deterred by the “horror” element as the film is no scarier than an average Scooby Doo episode and offers bags and bags of fun. It is refreshing to see quality animation rewarded at the box office and while ParaNorman‘s number 1 spot is slightly surprising it is also very welcome. The run up to Hallowe’en should see this continue to do well for at least the next 6 weeks.
This week’s highest per venue box office of the wide releases goes once again to Lawless, which suffered just a 12% drop off in making €2,503 per venue. Given the myriad of other options available at cinemas these days a 12% drop is simply astonishing and shows that well-crafted films can continue to draw crowds once the opening hype is gone. Proving this notion, Anna Karenina also had a minor drop off of 13% in falling from 2 to 4 on the chart. Elsewhere the The Dark Knight Rises per venue take increased from €1,165 to €1,590 despite the film entering its 9th week in the charts, while Ted also increased from €1,055 to €1,078 per venue.
The most impressive art-house/independent film of the week was again The Imposter which took a gargantuan €5,336 from its single venue.
The big loser this week was Dredd 3D, which despite great reviews and strong word-of-mouth dropped 44% and out of the Top 10. The market for 18 rated comic-book films is not huge, so this is not entirely unexpected.
Next week the Brad Pitt starring Killing Them Softly is out, alongside Now is Good, starring Dakota Fanning. These 2 will do strongly but I expect to see ParaNorman remain on top.
Weekend of 14th September, 2012 – 16th September, 2012
Rank |
Title |
Distributor |
Locations |
Weeks in Chart |
Weekend Amount € |
Running Total € |
| 1 | ParaNorman | UNIVERSAL | 66 | 1 | 149,224 | 149,224 |
| 2 | Lawless | MOMENTUM | 46 | 2 | 115,155 | 361,968 |
| 3 | Hope Springs | MOMENTUM | 56 | 1 | 94,731 | 94,731 |
| 4 | Anna Karenina | UNIVERSAL | 37 | 2 | 66,655 | 224,598 |
| 5 | Brave | DISNEY | 65 | 7 | 59,513 | 1,647,986 |
| 6 | Sweeney, The |
eONE | 46 | 1 | 53,879 | 71,777 |
| 7 | Total Recall | SONY | 53 | 3 | 48,076 | 481,266 |
| 8 | Ted | UNIVERSAL | 38 | 7 | 40,996 | 3,993,682 |
| 9 | Dredd 3D |
ENTERTNMT | 38 | 2 | 40,869 | 156,646 |
| 10 | Three Stooges, The | 20TH FOX | 55 | 4 | 30,540 | 333,011 |
| 11 | Watch, The | 20TH FOX | 28 | 3 | 26,971 | 485,752 |
| 12 | Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days | 20TH FOX | 55 | 7 | 23,256 | 1,008,702 |
| 13 | Premium Rush | SONY | 25 | 1 | 18,562 | 18,562 |
| 14 | That’s My Boy | SONY | 28 | 2 | 18,156 | 81,582 |
| 15 | Dark Knight Rises, The | WARNER | 11 | 9 | 17,485 | 5,479,191 |
| 16 | Possession, The | LIONSGATE | 26 | 3 | 16,370 | 188,814 |
| 17 | To Rome With Love | SONY | 11 | 1 | 15,567 | 15,567 |
| 18 | Bourne Legacy, The | UNIVERSAL | 16 | 5 | 14,538 | 1,115,807 |
| 19 | Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax | UNIVERSAL | 29 | 8 | 9,699 | 1,040,435 |
| 20 | Imposter, The | PICT/REV | 1 | 4 | 5,336 | 62,174 |
Source: Rentrak. Correct as of 18th September 2012.