UK-Ireland top five, April 24-26 RankFilm (origin) DistributorApr 24-26 Total Week 1 Michael (US) Universal £8.4m £11.5m 1 2 The
| Rank | Film (origin) | Distributor | Apr 24-26 | Total | Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael (US) | Universal | £8.4m | £11.5m | 1 |
| 2 | The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (US) |
Universal | £1.1m | £34.4m | 4 |
| 3 | Project Hail Mary (US) | Sony | £834,109 | £31.9m | 6 |
| 4 | The Drama (US) | EFD | £503,310 | £9.2m | 4 |
| 5 | Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (US) | Warner Bros | £358,678 | £1.8m | 2 |
GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.36
Michael Jackson biopic Michael dominated the UK-Ireland box office chart on its opening weekend, with a forceful £8.4m start.
The Universal title took a huge £12,039 average from 709 locations. Having opened on Wednesday, April 22, it is up to £11.5m already.
Any of its three individual days across the weekend would’ve been comfortably sufficient to top the weekend chart, with a £3.3m Saturday as the peak. It is an impressive opening performance in the context of balmy weather across much of the weekend. The film’s top UK-Ireland site was the single screen at the BFI Imax in London.
The £8.4m three-day opening is the second biggest opening of the year, behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (£9.4m) earlier this month.
It is also the biggest opening ever for a music biopic, ahead of titles including Bohemian Rhapsody (£6.4m), Rocketman (£4m), Elvis (£4m), A Complete Unknown (£2.6m) and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (£1.4m).
The film accounted for 68% of the total UK-Ireland box office this weekend.
It was a Universal one-two this weekend, with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie adding £1.1m to hit £34.4m from four sessions, with a 57% drop. It is 27% down on the £47.2m of 2023 predecessor The Super Mario Bros. Movie at the same stage, but is still the highest-grossing release of 2026 to date, and has passed the totals of The LEGO Movie (a lower £34.4m) and Mufasa: The Lion King (£33.5m).
Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Project Hail Mary added £834,109 on its sixth weekend in cinemas – a 50% drop that brought it to £31.9m total, ahead of films including Slumdog Millionaire (£31.6m) and Gladiator (£31.3m). It is the highest-grossing Amazon MGM Studios title ever in the territory, with Sony handling distribution.
Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama suffered the biggest drop of its four-week run to date, falling 58% for Entertainment Film Distributors, but still posted a decent £503,310. The wedding drama is up to £9.2m, and should cross the £10m mark in the next fortnight.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy added £358,678 on its second weekend – a 63% drop that brought it to £1.8m total for Warner Bros.
Michael boosted takings for the top five up 54% on last weekend to 11.2m, with the figures also up a forceful 38% on the equivalent weekend from last year. The top five titles have cumulatively topped £10m on three out of four weekends in April, in what seems to be a decent month for the box office. Disney’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 will be the main competitor to Michael’s second weekend, opening on Friday, May 1.
Titles still to report weekend box office figures include A24’s Mother Mary.
More to follow.
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