Film / Box Office
Box Office Chart: December 20-22 2019
1. Star Wars: The Rose of Skywalker £20,864,500 (new release)
2. Cats £3,207,471 (new release)
3. Jumanji: The Next Level £2,932,285 (£14,724,635, 2 weeks)
4. Frozen II £2,168,359 (£41,786,546, 5 weeks)
5. Last Christmas £807,105 (£16,946,763, 6 weeks)
6. Knives Out £430,200 (£9,685,710, 4 weeks)
7. Dabangg 3 £215,655 (new release)
8. It’s a Wonderful Life £147,766 (£831,739, 3 weeks)
9. Blue Story £56,775 (£4,316,055, 5 weeks)
10. Abominable £54,138 (£8,240,411, 11 weeks)
Chart copyright Comscore
That’s a decisive win for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, with more than £20m in the kitty over its opening weekend (including previews). But by the inflated standards of the franchise, it’s actually a bit of a flop, taking rather less than its predecessors The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi despite all that series-ending hype. What’s more, it’s not even the biggest opener of the year. Avengers: Endgame retains that crown by a comfortable margin. Taking the heat off The Force a bit is all the hoopla surrounding Cats, which brought joy to our hearts by attracting some of the worst reviews of 2019. This is actually doing rather better in the UK than in the US, suggesting either that (charitable explanation), rather like The Greatest Showman, audiences are enjoying it a lot more than critics, or (less charitable explanation) people are curious to find out whether it really is as awful and misguided as the reviews suggest.
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