Lionsgate’s “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” narrowly took the No. 1 spot at the British and Irish box office, with an opening gross of 2,384,018 pounds ($3,132,924), according to ComScore.
Paramount’s The Running Man was a close second, also reaching £2,383,269 (about $3,131,904), but there was little difference between the two de facto chart-topping pictorial debuts.
Disney’s “Predator: Badlands” fell to third place but remained a solid favorite, pulling in $1.2 million in its second frame for a total of $5.6 million. Studiocanal’s new film “Nuremberg” came in fourth with $1.2 million, while Sony’s animated feature “Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution” rounded out the top five with $1.1 million. All of these are counted as cumulative box office revenue.
Further down the chart, Sony’s “The Choral” ranked No. 6, adding $800,000 in its second weekend to reach about $3.4 million. True Brit Entertainment’s “Christmas Karma” came in at No. 7 with $500,000. In eighth place, Paramount’s “Regretting You” collected $500,000 for a total of $7.8 million. Paramount’s family spinoff “Paw Patrol Christmas” increased its No. 9 spot by $300,000 for a total of $700,000, while Universal’s sci-fi thriller “Bugonia” cracked the top 10 with less than $300,000 for a total of $3.5 million.
This week sees a range of releases in the UK and Ireland, starting with Tuesday’s La Traviata – OperaGlass Works 2025, distributed by 606 Distribution. The filmed staging adds another operatic element to this year’s growing pipeline of event cinema titles.
On Thursday, Dreamz Entertainment released the Telugu film “Premante”, expanding its South Asian representation for the week ahead of two major national releases to crowded Friday corridors. Universal Pictures will release Wicked: For Good, the big-screen sequel to Jon M. Chu’s Wicked series starring Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum. With over 300 locations, it’s one of the widest opening events of the week.
Sony Pictures counters with Sisu: Road to Revenge, an action-revenge thriller directed by Jalmali Helander starring Jorma Tomira, Richard Brake and Stephen Lang. It also landed widely on Friday, with the title rolling out on more than 300 sites.
Vue Lumière is releasing “The Thing With Feathers” starring Benedict Cumberbatch, while BFI Distribution is releasing “The Ice Tower” directed by Lucille Hadjihalilovic, starring Marion Cotillard and Clara Pacini. MusicFilmNetwork presents Session Man – The Nicky Hopkins Story, a documentary that introduces this famous pianist through interviews with contributors including Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Albert Lee, and Pete Townshend.
Additional releases include the war epic “120 Bahadur” from Bakrania Media. Horror “Game” by Verve Pictures. CBeebies Panto 2025: Cinderella is family-friendly. Altitude’s horror “The Carpenter’s Son,” headlined by Nicolas Cage. Zee Studios International’s raunchy comedy ‘Mastiii 4’. “Stringer: The Man Who Took the Picture” on Netflix. Miracle/Underground/Rocliffe’s “Testimony”. and “Eko” by Dreamz Entertainment.
The week concludes on Saturday with another operatic event cinema title “Arabella – Met Opera 2025” by Trafalgar Releasing.
