Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Jan 3-5) Total gross to date Week 1. Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney) £3.3m £20.7m 3
| Rank | Film (distributor) | Three-day gross (Jan 3-5) | Total gross to date | Week |
| 1. | Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney) | £3.3m | £20.7m | 3 |
| 2. | Nosferatu (Universal) | £3.1m | £5.3m | 1 |
| 3. | Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (Paramount) | £2.7m | £18.7m | 2 |
| 4. | Moana 2 (Disney) | £1.8m | £38.2m | 6 |
| 5. | We Live In Time (Studiocanal) | £1.7m | £2.8m | 1 |
GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.25
Robert Eggers’ vampire horror Nosferatu scared up a £3.1m opening weekend at the UK-Ireland box office, with an impressive £5.3m start including previews; as Mufasa: The Lion King held top spot.
Holding the crown for an impressive third consecutive weekend, Mufasa: The Lion King dropped just 23% across its latest outing with £3.3m. Barry Jenkins’ CGI prequel has £20.7m in total, and while it won’t challenge the colossal £76m of the 2019 CGI title, it will overtake the £22.6m of the original 1994 animation within the next week, for Disney.
Universal title Nosferatu took a powerful £4,920 location average from 622 sites. Its £1.3m takings on Saturday, January 4 was the biggest Saturday result for a horror title since the pandemic; while the film has already topped the total runs of 2024 horror titles The Substance (£3.9m) and Trap (£3.8m).
The £5.3m total opening is bigger than any 2024 horror title including Alien: Romulus (£3.7m), and the second biggest since the pandemic, just behind Five Nights At Freddy’s (£5.4m).
Nosferatu is already Eggers’ highest-grossing film, ahead of 2022’s The Northman (£4.7m), 2020’s The Lighthouse (£1.4m) and 2016’s The Witch (£1.2m).
London’s BFI Imax was the highest-grossing Nosferatu site, accounting for 2% of its total Friday-Saturday takings; with total Imax share running at a powerful 12%.
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is up to £18.7m for Paramount, after a 37.1% drop on its second official weekend saw it bring in £2.7m. The film will catch the £19.3m of 2020’s Sonic The Hedgehog within the next week, and may still overtake the £27m of 2022’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 across its run.
Disney’s Moana 2 posted a good hold on its sixth weekend, falling just 21% with £1.8m taking it to £38.2m total. It will overtake the £39.6m of Dune: Part II within the next week to become the fifth-highest-grossing 2024 release.
We Live In Time sneaked a top five spot on its opening weekend for Studiocanal, with £1.7m across its first Friday-to-Sunday. Playing in 691 sites, it took a £2,415 site average. John Crowley’s romantic drama, starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, has £2.8m in total having opened on New Year’s Day.
Can Wicked go top?
Wicked added £1.7m on its seventh weekend in cinemas for Universal – a 39% drop, and just £10,385 behind We Live In Time. Jon M. Chu’s musical extravaganza is now up to £57.3m, and still retains a chance of overtaking Inside Out 2’s £59.2m to become the highest-grossing 2024 film release.
Robbie Williams biopic Better Man added £925,006 on its second weekend in cinemas – a slim 26.4% drop that took it to £3.8m for Entertainment Film Distributors.
Paddington In Peru put on a further £674,456 on its ninth session, a slim drop of just 17.7%. Studiocanal’s flagship title is now up to a vigorous £34.9m, close to the £38m of 2014’s Paddington.
Gladiator II has topped the takings of 2000’s Gladiator. Director Ridley Scott’s sequel added £295,000 on its eighth weekend in cinemas – a 47.5% drop that brought it to £31.4m for Paramount, just ahead of the £31.3m of Gladiator.
Papal palaver proved popular again this weekend, as Edward Berger’s Conclave dropped just 22% on its sixth session. The Black Bear film added £286,000 to hit a decent £6.2m cume.
RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys posted a powerful £80,364 opening from just 76 sites for Curzon, at a £1,057 location average. Including previews, the awards contender has £125,739.
Polish action title Diabel opened to £41,485 from 96 sites at a £432 location average for Magnetes Pictures.
Queer put on £31,000 for Mubi on its fourth weekend – a 47.9% drop that brought it to £733,000 total.
Justin Kurzel’s thriller The Order starring Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult added £28,000 on its second weekend in cinemas, and is up to £160,000 for MetFilm Distribution.
Elysian Film Distribution’s re-release of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away added £27,613 on its second session, to hit a £160,425 total. The film made £1.1m on its original 2003 run through Studiocanal.
Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winner Anora added £25,327 on its 10th weekend in cinemas – a 27% drop – and has just below £2m in total for Universal. The studio also has animation The Wild Robot in cinemas, which saw a 210% escalate across the final weekend of the school holidays with £24,889 bringing it to £13.8m from 12 sessions.
Kraven The Hunter is falling away after four weekends for Sony, adding £24,267 on its latest session to hit £1.5m total.
Indian action thriller Baby John added £11,460 on its second weekend, to hit a £158,158 total for Bakrania Media.
After taking £8,916 on its event release on January 1 and 2, Asif Kapadia’s docufiction title 2073 is up to £25,577 total through Altitude, and will roll out across further sites throughout January.
BFI Distribution’s release of Luchino Visconti’s 1960 crime drama Rocco And His Brothers took a respectable £8,602 from just five sites, at a £1,720 average.
Warner Bros has three titles closing out their runs at the start of the modern year: animation Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim with £8,553 and £958,893 total; the Interstellar re-release with a further £1,325; and Red One with £1,089 for £8.2m.
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