Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” was the dominant force at the U.K. and Ireland box office with a mighty £10.3 million ($13.2 million), per numbers from Comscore.
The Tom Cruise vehicle opened on Monday, July 10, instead of a traditional weekend slot. Even with just the July 14-16 weekend numbers, the seventh instalment in the franchise scored £6.3 million, comfortably making it the No. 1 film in the territory.
In second place, Disney’s “Elemental” collected £2.4 million in its second weekend for a total of £6.6 million. Another Disney title, “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,” whipped up £1.7 million in third place in its third weekend for a total of £16.3 million.
In its second weekend, Sony’s “Insidious: The Red Door” scared up £1.5 million in fourth place for a total of £5.1 million. Rounding off the top five was Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse,” which in its seventh weekend, swung to £687,116 for a total of £28.8 million.
There were no other debuts in the top 10.
The upcoming weekend is a humongous one for the territory with Warner Bros.’ “Barbie,” directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, opening against Universal’s “Oppenheimer,” directed by Christopher Nolan, with an equally mighty cast of Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh and Kenneth Branagh. Both films are opening wide across more than 300 locations.
The so-called “Barbenheimer” weekend could be impacted with a timely release aimed at the kids’ market. With the school holidays kicking in, Signature Entertainment is opening family adventure “The Secret Kingdom” wide, also across more than 300 screens.
With an eye on the pre-school market, National Amusements is releasing “CoComelon: Best Of Episodes,” where the popular small screen property will see, for the very first time, JJ and his friends singing and dancing their way on to the big screenin a best of collection. The theatrical release will feature popular nursery rhymes and songs from the CoComelon library. The lyrics will appear on the bottom of the screen and audiences will be encouraged to sing and dance along.
Dogwoof has a quieter but equally important release from documentary auteur Mark Cousins, “My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock.”
