Irish Box Office Report: May 14-16 2014

We have a new film at the top of the Irish charts this week as Godzilla roars in to take the number 1 spot. Gareth Edward’s monster remake smashed all opponents and crushed box-office records on route to the third biggest opening weekend of 2014, taking a gigantic €469,174 from Irish audiences. That’s an incredible €7,109 at each of its 64 locations, and is more money than the other 9 films in the Top Ten combined! While The Wolf of Wall Street and The Lego Movie opened bigger earlier this year Godzilla has taken a firm grip of the crown for the summer blockbusters, earning almost €100k more than Captain America: The Winter Soldier or The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Godzilla opened on Thursday so has already made €560k from its four days in Irish cinemas. each of the other two big openers cruised past €3m so it’ll be interesting to see if the increased competition of the summer will hamper Godzilla‘s chances of repeating the feat. Even if it cannot, the film had a $93m opening weekend stateside Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. have already announced a sequel. So expect more monster mayhem soon.

Down a spot to 2 from last weeks number one is Universal’s smash-hit comedy Bad Neighbours. Fine weather and the pull of Godzilla saw the film’s take fall 50%. That was still good enough for €187k, which takes its lifetime earnings to €1.3m. With over $145m worldwide from an $18m budget it’s Universal who are really laughing.

Also down one at 3 is 20th Century Fox’s fist summer comedy The Other Woman. This too saw a steep drop of 41%, but still managed an impressive fourth week total of just under €56k. That moved the film to €935k so the €1m mark will be passed in the next 2-3 weeks.

The might of Godzilla has also pushed one of its more direct competitors down to number 4, as The Amazing Spider-Man 2 dropped 54% to take €768 at each of its 55 locations. That added €43k to the coffers to stand the film at 1.69m. While the US box-office for this Spidey outing has disappointed the international figures are edging it closer to the original’s take. Sadly, for now, it’s the least successful of the 5 films to date, despite the 3D boast and the massive marketing campaign.

At 5 its 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Animations colourful animated sequel Rio 2. Now in its seventh week the film took another €36k from Irish audiences.

The only other new entry of the week sees StudioCanal’s The Two Faces of January nab the number 6 spot. The film is based on the Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name and stars the very talented Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst. Neither of these stars are bankable in their own right, and this is not one of the Ripley novels so the €29k opening is about what could be expected. As the film was limited to 20 locations it did manage the third biggest average of the week with a respectable €1,473 per location.

Still doing remarkable business and at number 7 is John Michael McDonagh’s Sligo-set dark-comedy-drama Calvary. The film managed €28k in its sixth week as it continued to find favour with its native audience. That’s €1.545m to date for those keeping track.

Another Irish entry, but falling 4 places to 8 is Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank. Despite the favourable critically reaction and the pull of Michael Fassbender in the leading role the film’s quirky tone seems to have destined it for cult rather than blockbuster status. In only its second week the film suffered a massive 60% drop in taking just €27k. That saw the film move to €131k overall, which is less than a tenth of what Calvary has managed so far. Abrahamson’s future is safe as he’s already lining up his next two films but he really would have hoped for better returns from this one.

At 9 and still hanging on in the charts is the 3D animated reimagining of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan. The film earned almost €21k in its third weekend as it reached €212k at the box-office. This is the lowest haul of a widely opened animation so far this year so Tarzan doesn’t have much to beat his chest about.

Holding up the charts and sticking at number 10 is Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted. Now in its 11th week in the charts (3 preview, 8 official) the film fell a further 47% to take €11k. That pushed the film past €1.1m securing its place in the top-grossing titles of 2014.

Hopefully Godzilla is enjoying his time on top of the charts as a film opens Thursday that is certain to take the crown from him. That film is Bryan Singer’s return to the X-Men franchise, X-Men: Days of Future Past. This film unites the cast of X-Men: First Class and X-Men: The Last Stand in a time-travelling adventure that pits both sets of mutants against a formidable robot army. Singer’s last X-Men film, X2: X-Men United, earned $407m globally and 20th Century Fox have high hopes that this will eclipse that. So confident are they of success that the follow-up film X-Men: Age of Apocalypse is already pencilled in for 2016. The shadow of X-Men: Days of Future Past is large, but Adam Sandler thinks he can find room in the sun as his newest comedy Blended is the only other big opener of next weekend. This film sees him reteam with his 50 First Dates co-star Drew Barrymore. Also out, and likely to draw the younger crowd, is the feature film version of a beloved childhood TV character in Postman Pat: The Movie. Stephen Mangan voices Pat, with Ronan Keating providing vocals for this adventure that sees Pat embark on a Britain’s Got Talent type show.

Rank Title
1 Godzilla
2 Bad Neighbours
3 Other Woman, The
4 Amazing Spider-Man 2, The
5 Rio 2
6 Two Faces Of January, The
7 Calvary
8 Frank
9 Tarzan
10 Muppets Most Wanted

Source: Rentrak