Sneaky previews for Transformers 4 and How To Train Your Dragon 2 lead to a flat weekend at the UK box office
The winner
When is a film preview not a preview but in fact a full release that's pretending to be something else? The question came up when Bad Neighbours "previewed" every single day from Saturday 3 May, before "opening" on Friday 9 May. And it arises again with the case of Transformers: Age of Extinction, which is set to open this Thursday, 10 July. That official release date now seems a moot point, since it began previewing on Saturday 5 July, and continues to do so.
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Since Age of Extinction has not yet officially opened in the UK, the film is absent from the box-office chart (see below). Instead, the six days of previews will be added to the next official reporting period (11-13 July) and included in the film's opening-weekend number next week. According to trade reports, Age of Extinction in fact picked up £4.7m on Saturday and Sunday, enough to power the film comfortably to the top of the current UK weekend chart.
The previous Transformers film, 2011's Dark of the Moon, generated a similar £4.2m in previews, although these were earned on the Wednesday/Thursday immediately prior to release. The previews helped Dark of the Moon open with £10.73m (a five-day figure). Since Age of Extinction will ultimately appear with box office correlating to nine days of play in cinemas, we can expect its debut number to land far north of Dark of the Moon's.
Distributor Paramount agrees that England's early exit from the World Cup is a factor in its aggressive strategy, encouraging more days of previews than might otherwise have been the case. The tactic has also ensured six days of play for Age of Extinction before most UK newspapers review in their print editions this Friday 11 July – this may have been a consideration, or just an accidental consequence, felicitous or otherwise.
The runner-up
Nestling at No 4 in the official UK/Ireland box-office chart is How to Train Your Dragon 2, with weekend takings of £475,000, as it continues its run in Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, according to reports, the film really took £2.6m at the weekend, including Friday-Sunday previews in England and Wales. Cumulative box-office for Dragon 2, per the official chart, is £1.46m. In fact, total box-office earned so far, including all the previews in England and Wales, is believed to be £5.8m. The extra £4.3m will be added in next time, which will send Dragon 2 shooting up the box-office chart.
This peculiar reporting policy ensures that Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie holds on to the top spot for a second weekend, leading a weak field in which no other film cracked £1m in takings.
The debutant
Can Melissa McCarthy open a movie? The breakout ensemble player in Bridesmaids, McCarthy bounced directly into movie vehicles created to develop her as a leading actress: Identity Thief, with Jason Bateman, and The Heat, with Sandra Bullock. Now, with Tammy, McCarthy moves to centre-screen, in a film she co-wrote (with husband Ben Falcone, who directs) and produces (with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay).
Backers New Line/Warner Bros have done their best to position Tammy as a mainstream, laugh-packed Melissa McCarthy comedy, effectively exploiting the film's notable comedy set piece in a trailer. Viewed in this context, the film's £466,000 UK opening from 338 cinemas is a significant disappointment. Identity Thief began with £1.31m including £111,000 in previews. The Heat kicked off with £2.5m, including £910,000 in previews.
An alternative view is that Tammy is not, in fact, a mainstream, laugh-packed Melissa McCarthy comedy. Had the film been made by, say Fox Searchlight, and positioned as a quirky US comedy road movie, box-office expectations may have been more appropriately modest. Tammy shares three actors (Toni Collette, Allison Janney and Nat Faxon) with Fox Searchlight's The Way Way Back. That film opened last August with £532,000 from 307 cinemas, including £132,000 in previews.
The arthouse market
If your local independent cinema is playing mainstream fare, don't be too surprised. There are no arthouse films in the top 10, unless you count Jon Favreau's crossover indie comedy Chef, in seventh place. Landing at No 11 is Swedish dark comedy The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, with an OK £103,000 from 86 sites. Normally, you'd expect a film in specialised play to debut with a screen average of £2,000-plus, but recently that's rarely been the case. The 100-Year-Old Man is adapted from the novel by Sweden's Jonas Jonasson. Indie crime drama Cold in July, in 13th place, falls 64% from the previous weekend. Belle, a place below it, drops 51%.
A bewildering profusion of fresh contenders (see Other openers, below) fought for oxygen but struggled to present themselves as must-see theatrical propositions. Lisle Turner's Herefordshire-set Here and Now picked up some encouraging reviews but phrases including "creditable feature debut" and "heartfelt and good-looking film" (both the Guardian) were evidently not received by cinemagoers as an urgent call to action, and a gross of £1,255 from three cinemas resulted. Spanish time-travel comedy The Year and the Vineyard seemed to lack obvious selling points, and managed just £311 from a single venue.
Two more-mainstream offerings nestle at the very foot of the Other openers chart: Goddess and Vampire Academy. The former, featuring Ronan Keating's big-screen debut, grossed £129 from four cinemas. The latter, receiving a token release after a disappointing US result in February, managed £111 from a single venue. Vampire Academy did not appear on the Film Distributors Associates' official list of July 4 cinema releases, and was not reviewed by newspaper critics. Since the theatrical outing does not appear to have been conceived to generate extra publicity ahead of next Monday's DVD release, it's possibly a contractual obligation.
The future
Thanks to the exclusion of extensive Age of Extinction and Dragon 2 previews, the official UK box-office has hit a predictable low point: the lowest tally for the top 15 films since the middle of October 2013 (a weekend where no film managed £1m), and the second-worst-grossing frame of the past year. Next week, box office should bounce back in spectacular fashion, with the arrival of Transformers, the nationwide expansion of Dragon, plus the addition of all those juicy preview numbers. Two indie alternatives also look enticing: Begin Again, from Once director John Carney; and Richard Linklater's innovative Boyhood, filmed over 12 years. Buzzy Boyhood, in particular, is almost certain to revive the sickly arthouse sector.
Top 10 films July 4-6
1. Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie, £2,188,761 from 529 sites. Total: £9,299,344
2. The Fault in Our Stars, £961,640 from 506 sites. Total: £8,605,638
3. 22 Jump Street, £663,228 from 403 sites. Total: £16,554,354
4. How to Train Your Dragon 2, £475,270 from 136 sites. Total: £1,459,256
5. Tammy, £471,429 from 338 sites (New)
6. Maleficent, £448,697 from 437 sites. Total: £17,364,817
7. Chef, £192,601 from 339 sites. Total: £1,099,247
8. Walking on Sunshine, £160,402 from 330 sites. Total: £890,844
9. X-Men: Days of Future Past, £118,008 from 204 sites. Total: £26,856,504
10. Edge of Tomorrow, £115,500 from 158 sites. Total: £7,601,860
Other openers
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, £102,570 (including £6,818 previews) from 86 sites
Don Giovanni: Glyndebourne, £32,205 from 57 sites (live event)
Bobby Jasoos, £30,754 from 30 sites
The Anomaly, £17,712 from 63 sites
Cycling with Molière, £12,683 from 22 sites
A Hard Day's Night, £9,935 from 10 sites (rerelease)
Mr Morgan's Last Love, £9,585 from four sites
Lekar Hum Deewana Dil, £6,697 from 20 sites
Arima Nambi, £1,325 from four sites
Here and Now, £1,255 from three sites
Love Eternal, £866 from one site
The Year and the Vineyard, £311 from one site
Goddess, £129 from four sites
Vampire Academy, £111 from one site
Thanks to Rentrak
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