‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ fights off ‘The Naked Gun’ to hold UK-Ireland box office lead, crossing £15m

Disney’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps held off the challenge of Paramount’s The Naked Gun to top the UK-Ireland box office for a second weekend.

First Steps added £3.1m on its second weekend – a 49% drop that brought it to £15.4m total. It has already taken more than five of the 36 Marvel Cinematic Universe films to date, and will top Ant-Man (£16.3m), Iron Man (£17.4m) and Ant-Man And The Wasp  (£17.8m) in the next week.

The Naked Gun  opened to £1.82m from 632 sites at a £2,880 average, with a few sites still to report. Among comedy comparisons, its opening is just above 1998’s Rush Hour and 2014’s Nativity 3 (both £1.81m), which ended on £7.4m and £7.6m respectively.

Animation The Bad Guys 2 posted a decent hold on its second weekend, falling just 19% with £1.33m taking it to £4.9m total. It is unlikely to catch the £13.7m of 2022’s The Bad Guys, but could still bring in a decent amount for Universal.

Studio stablemate Jurassic World Rebirth also performed well on its fifth weekend, dropping just 20% with £1.27m. The dinosaur feature is up to £31.6m, currently the fifth-highest-grossing of seven Jurassic Park films and with 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion  (£35.1m) still within reach.

Both The Bad Guys 2 and Rebirth overtook Superman in the charts, with a 34% drop to £1.26m taking Warner Bros’ film from second to fifth on its third weekend. It is up to £24.3m total, behind only three of the fifteen titles from the previous DC Extended Universe.

Takings for the top five dropped a pointed 26% compared to the previous weekend, to £8.8m. Although July box office was up on last year, exhibitors will need Disney’s Freakier Friday to perform well next weekend to keep the run going.

Sony horror slate

Horror Bring Her Back from Talk To Me directors the Philippou brothers started with £499,877 from 499 cinemas at just over £1,000-per-cinema. Including previews throughout last week, the film has £1.2m in total for Sony.

Indian romance Saiyaara continues to thrive for Yash Raj Films, adding £489,484 on its third weekend – a drop of just 3%. With over £2m in total, it is now the highest-grossing Indian film of the year.

F1: The Movie starring Brad Pitt continues its race through a sixth weekend, adding £485,798 – a 25% drop that brought it to £20.8m for Warner Bros.

Paramount’s Smurfs smuggled together £353,000 on its third weekend, with a 27% drop bringing it to £3.8m total – well down on the £17.4m total of 2011’s The Smurfs.

Sony horror I Know What You Did Last Summer added £195,150 on its third weekend – a 48% drop that brought it to £2.5m total.

Universal live-action adaptation How To Train Your Dragon dropped 38% on its eighth weekend in cinemas, with £184,568 taking it past £22m. It will end as the second-highest-grossing film in the franchise, behind 2014’s How To Train Your Dragon 2.

28 Years Later, Sony’s third horror title currently in cinemas, added £94,671 on its seventh weekend, and is up to a powerful £15.4m.

Disney animation Elio has now been in cinemas for seven weekends, and held well on its latest session, dropping just 17% with £85,000 taking it to £4.7m total.

Bollywood sequel Son Of Sardaar 2 started with £72,004 for Moviegoers Entertainment, from 133 sites at a £541 average.

Entertainment Film Distributors’ The Legend Of Ochi opened to £71,412.

Despite now being available on digital platforms, Lilo & Stitch is still in cinemas after 11 weekends, and added £58,000 on its latest session for Disney to hit £36.9m total – the third-highest-grossing release of the year.

James Griffiths’ music comedy-drama The Ballad of Wallis Island posted an excellent 8% enhance on its previous weekend in cinemas, and has now been showing for 10 weekends. The Universal title added £49,489 to pass £2.2m.

Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson comedy Friendship added £42,000 on its third weekend, and is up to £525,000 for Paramount.

Curzon’s 4K remaster of Milos Forman’s 1984 Amadeus added £22,409 on its second weekend and has £107,585 in total.

Irish romance Four Letters Of Love added £17,610 on its third weekend for Vertigo Releasing, and has £221,638 in total.

Concert film BTS Army: Forever We Are Young opened to £16,673 for Trafalgar Releasing, and has £35,809 including preview screenings.

Vertigo Releasing also opened Petra Volpe’s Berlinale Special title Late Shift to £14,569 from 30 sites at a £486 average; with £16,827 including previews.

Anime Ltd’s re-release of Mamoru Hosoda’s 2009 anime Summer Wars took £10,485 from Saturday and Sunday alone.

Warner Bros’ re-release of The Goonies put on £9,709 on its second weekend and has £194,421 in total.

Park Circus’s re-release of Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette made £9,329, a slight enhance on the £7,243 from a 2021 re-issue of the film.

Dreams, Dag Johan Haugerud’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner and the first UK-Ireland release from his Dreams Sex Love trilogy, started with £6,866 from 21 sites at a £327 average for Modern Films. Including previews, the release has £9,009.