UK Top Ten: ‘Elysium’ Hits The Top Spot

The box-office results for the big UK August bank holiday are in and it has been a bit of a result for Neill Blomkamp’s thrilling sci-fi actioner ELYSIUM, which has topped the box-office across the country for the three days. The film has managed to pull in £2.1 million to Monday, which is a touch more than the director’s debut DISTRICT 9, which opened in the UK to the tune of £1.9 million back in 2009. ELYSIUM has a significantly bigger budget to that of DISTRICT 9, but that’s a great figure for Sony as the film beat off some stiff competition in the last true summer weekend of 2013.

Hitting the number two spot over the damp weekend in the UK was WE’RE THE MILLERS, the Jennifer Aniston drug smuggling comedy which also stars Jason Sudeikis, Will Poulter and Emma Roberts. The film made £1.5 million over the three days, which, if you compare to the similarly themed HORRIBLE BOSSES, released here in 2011, it could be seen as a little disappointing as that movie grossed £2.1 million over a similar time frame. The films have similar budgets, around the $35-$37 million mark, and ‘Millers’ has already grossed over $114 million in the US, so this film is every bit the success for Warner Brothers, and another feather in the cap of the hugely successful Aniston in her newly found ‘dirty’ comedy series of roles.

At number three this week, and still doing well is Disney’s PLANES, coining the last of the school holiday money. The animation made another £1.1 million in GBP, taking its total UK tally to £4.3 million in just over a week out there.

Also doing well, despite the very negative reviews, is the Adam Sandler ensemble comedy GROWN UPS, which retains the number four spot from last week, grabbing another £678k in its third week in the charts.

Anticipation for THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES, was moderate, and the box-office take matches that despite the film, based on the books by Cassandra Clare, having a massive following. The film only managed to enter the UK charts at number five taking a disappointing £669k over the bank holiday, which will surely affect further outings in the planned franchise, despite the second movie in the series already being in pre-production. The film has also only managed to pull in just over $14 million on domestic soil, and it will have massive challenge ahead of it to pull back that $60 million budget.

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg’s 2 GUNS has pushed on over the week and sits at number six with £639k in receipts, just ahead of KICK-ASS 2 at number seven on the chart with £613k.

Three family movies round off the top ten with MONSTERS UNIVERSITY in seventh position in its seventh week out there and another £519k in the bank, DESPICABLE ME 2 in its ninth week on the chart with £556k and a grand total of £41 million, and finally THE SMURFS 2 at number ten, a huge hit for Sony with £546k over the three days and a total of £10 million total over its four weeks out there.

Other notable mentions were the Michael Bay film PAIN & GAIN, which opens properly this Friday, but in previews alone this weekend, the film took £270k and rested in the number 14 position. JURASSIC PARK 3D made £111k playing to 22 locations, but a huge disappointment was that of LOVELACE, which also opened this weekend. The Linda Lovelace biopic which played to 88 locations, brought in £84k, grinding to a halt at position number 21 on the chart, just behind fellow new release WHAT MAISIE KNEW, which resided at 20 with £94k, but playing in half of the locations to that of LOVELACE.

This week sees the hugely praised horror film YOU’RE NEXT open across the land (Wednesday 28th), as well as the Steve Carrell led THE WAY, WAY BACK (also opening on the 28th), and the massive concert documentary ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US 3D (opening on Thursday 29th August), which we expect to position high next weekend. The aforementioned PAIN & GAIN also opens on Friday 30th August with festival fave UPSTREAM COLOUR. See how they all fared next Tuesday.

Here’s this weeks chart in full.

1. ELYSIUM
2. WE’RE THE MILLERS
3. PLANES
4. GROWN UPS 2
5. THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES
6. 2 GUNS
7. KICK-ASS 2
8. MONSTERS UNIVERSITY
9. DESPICABLE ME 2
10. THE SMURFS 2