UK box office suffers second worst week of the year because of the weather and the World Cup

Good weather and international football are not conducive to achieving a strong box office.

Several films learnt that the hard way this weekend as the UK recorded its second lowest ticket sales of the year so far because so many people were outside enjoying the sun or inside watching the World Cup.

Sicario 2: Soldado was the top earner of the new releases (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom retained the top spot) but its final total was much lower than had been expected. The Benicio del Toro-led sequel had received several rave reviews but it wasn’t enough to get bums on seats, or people interested enough in the follow-up to the 2015 original.

Released into 532 cinemas, it made just £614,000, according to the Guardian, compared to Sicario’s opening weekend of £1.38 million three years ago.

Tag came number three at the box office despite earning £15 million when it opened in the Us a few weeks earlier. The Jeremy Renner-led film took £475,000 from 446 cinemas failing to catch up to the predicted £1.5 million sales figures.

It wasn’t plain sailing for Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin’s Adrift either which earned £405,000 after opening in 463 UK sites compared to $11.6 million in the States, while Disney’s Patrick, took just under £300,000 at 511 cinemas. That’s about 58 tickets sold per location.

There’s another week left of the World Cup, with the final taking place on Sunday July 15, so these numbers may drop exponentially and this week’s new releases are likely to suffer too.

Margot Robbie’s Terminal is having a limited release this weekend and we’ll also see Nick Broomfield’s Whitney documentary hit cinemas too.

Ideal Home, starring Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan, will also head to cinemas along with the Rob Brydon-led British comedy Swimming with Men, horror prequel The First Purge and basketball comedy Uncle Drew.

The following two weeks will see the releases of Ant-Man and the Wasp and Incredibles 2, which both have already been released across the pond.

Clearly, Disney staggered the films’ releases to ensure the company’s standard of topping the box office doesn’t slip because of the football, but if the British heatwave continues it may still put a dampener on sales.

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