Guardian Box Office Analysis

Guardian columnist Charles Gant gives a weekly analysis of the UK box office

Sausage Party has retained the top spot at the UK box office with a weekend gross of £1.22m, the fight for second have beena close-shave between Ben-Hur and Don’t Breathe, with Ben-Hur winning by just under twenty thousand, with £1.05m from 509 cinemas, but that number includes Wednesday and Thursday previews totalling £265,000. Strip those out, and Ben-Hur’s tally falls to £783,000. earned all its £1.03m opening number from the three-day weekend period.Don’t Breathe is shaping up to be highly profitable. Production budget is a reported $10m, and the film has already grossed $67m in the US. The UK opening number isn’t anything special – Warners’ Lights Out debuted a few weeks ago with £1.13m – and was probably hit by the sunny weather on Sunday. On the other hand, rain on Saturday gave all films a boost.Ben-Hur’s weekend takings of £783,000 would have put it in fifth place for the weekend period, behind Sausage Party, Don’t Breathe, Bad Moms and Kubo and the Two Strings. Production budget is a reported $100m.Even if previews are added to Ben-Hur’s opening tally, 56 films have opened bigger in the UK so far in 2016, and its box office is far from the blockbuster numbers it needs to achieve profitability. US box office is a calamitous $26m so far, but foreign is helping to stem the losses, with decent numbers in Brazil and Mexico.

DON'T BREATHE'S FINANCIAL SUCCESS, CASTING?

Jane Levy is known for her roles on TV in Shameless and the leading role in Purgatory. Her big role in terms of box office success had been with Alvarez's 2013 supernatural horror film Evil Dead. After that she was in indie productions such as About Alex.

The film industry lives on franchises, but Ben-Hur demonstrates that the remake side is critically and financially not that successful.

GUARDIAN'S VERDICT ON BEN-HUR'S BOX OFFICE

"Ben-Hur’s weekend takings of £783,000 would have put it in fifth place for the weekend period, behind Sausage Party, Don’t Breathe, Bad Moms and Kubo and the Two Strings. Production budget is a reported $100m.Even if previews are added to Ben-Hur’s opening tally, 56 films have opened bigger in the UK so far in 2016, and its box office is far from the blockbuster numbers it needs to achieve profitability. US box office is a calamitous $26m so far, but foreign is helping to stem the losses, with decent numbers in Brazil and Mexico."

CRITICS

Ben-Hur

The production values are credited but in terms of narrative it is not being well received.

Don't Breathe

The critics positively commenting on the narrative and production values.

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