My experiment with exploring global box office numbers continues. I think I’ll eventually start looking at numbers beyond North America and the U.K., but I’m trying to get a hold on what the U.K. numbers mean first.
British box office numbers are not as readily available as North American ones, but it seems that the previous weekend’s figures are available by midweek. So here’s how this past weekend shaped up:
1. Tropic Thunder: $2.4 million (2nd week)
2. Taken (NEW): $2.1 million
3. Righteous Kill (NEW): $1.4 million
4. Death Race (NEW): $1.2 million
5. Mamma Mia!: $1.1 million
Tropic Thunder dropped only 47 percent in its second week in the U.K., and I think it’s fair to guess that just as in the U.S., a second-week drop of less than 50 percent indicates good worth of mouth from first-weekend attendees, and probably some repeat business.
The thriller Taken, starring Liam Neeson as a man searching for his kidnapped daughter, was supposed to open in the U.S. around the same time it opened in the U.K., but it’s been pushed back to early 2009. Could be that the early reviews from the U.K. weren’t promising: U.K. critics have graded it as 50 percent Fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, but even the positive reviews there sound like damning with faint praise. The excerpts from the reviews there certainly make it sound like a throwaway post-award-season winter movie.
[numbers via The Hollywood Reporter]
