Trolls A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over, although it is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child.

U films should be set within a positive framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror. If a work is particularly suitable for pre-school children, this will be indicated in the ratings info.

BBFC

In a bid to promote its new streaming platform Paramount+ the studio today has announced that selected movies will be put exclusively on the platform between 30 and 45 days after release.

The new streaming platform is the latest home video on demand service to be launched alongside the likes of Disney+ from Disney which includes the likes of Pixar, Star Wars and marvel Cinematic Universe and HBO Max which is owned by Warner Bros.

During the last 12 months Disney and Warner Bros. have used their platforms to launch their titles that have had long delays, like Disney's Mulan, although often they have also given them a theatrical release in cities and countries where they are open, HBO Max has done it at no extra charge, Disney have charged a premium on top of the monthly fee.

During a press conference today (February 24th 2021) ViacomCBS chief Bob Bakish, who own Paramount and Universal studios laid out the plans for the new service which will take over from CBS All Access and their other streaming platforms.

The upcoming Mission:Impossible 7 and A Quiet Place Part II, both of which have suffered delayed releases because of the pandemic, are two title the CEO named which will be on the platform 45 days after an exclusive theatrical window.

Universal were the company last year that upset the cinema chains in the US when they announced they would shorted the exclusive window from 90 days to 30 days, and in a controversial move they put Trolls World Tour directly to video on demand (VOD).

Cinemas in the UK are going to open on or around May 17th and in the US cinemas are opening in different states as and when they can, the industry needs a hit movie in order to get people back into cinemas.

In China last weekend the movie Detective Cinamtown 3 was released which took over $300 Million on its opening weekend and to date has taken over $600 Million, challenging Avengers: Engame as the top grossing movie of all time.

China seems to cherish its industry and is doing all it can to make it thrive, so why is the same not happening in Europe and America?

As the UK has various different level of lockdown cinemas in some parts of the country are open while others have to remain shut so this weekends box office could be similar to recent charts.

There are 3 new films released in the UK and where available looking to hit the box office, but can they challenge last weekends top movie, Elf, for the number 1 spot?

The Prom

• The movie is directed by Ryan Murphy
• Ryan Murphy also directed Pretty/Handsome in 2008.
• It stars Meryl Streep who last starred in Let Them All Talk (2020).
• The film also stars James Corden who last appeared in Trolls World Tour (2020).
• Meryl Streep and James Corden appeared in Into The Woods (2015) together.

Superintelligence

• This new release stars Melissa McCarthy who's last film was The Kitchen (2019)
• It also stars Bobby Cannavale who appeared in The Jesus Rolls (2020).
• Melissa McCarthy and Bobby Cannavale appeared in Spy (2015) together.
• The film is brought to us by 4 time director Ben Falcone.

Dreamland

• The movie is directed by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte who directed As You Are in 2016.
• It stars Margot Robbie and Travis Fimmel.

Check back on Monday to see what new movies made it onto the Weekend Box Office Chart.

Next weeks there are 4 new movies

• Arkansas, Tuesday, 15th December
• Wonder Woman 1984, Wednesday, 16th December
• Let Him Go, Friday, 18th December
• Come Away, Friday, 18th December

The two big Chinese hits My People, My Homeland and Legend Of Deification are still the biggest films across the globe this weekend but The Wars With Grandpa and Greenland make good ground as they open in more countries.

Here is the global box office top 15 Quickview.

• Number 1 - My People, My Homeland (2 weeks)
• Highest debut - NONE
• Longest run - Trolls World Tour (24 weeks)
• Highest total gross - Tenet ($323,500,000)

This weeks global top 5 breakdown 9th - 11th October 2020.

My People, My Homeland

This Chinese smash sequel from directors Hao Ning and Sicheng Chen stays at the top for a second weekend with $41.1 Million, 73% down from last weekend.

This gives the movie a total gross globally of $312.1 Million.

Legend Of Deification

Remaining at number 2 for a second weekend is the animated tale from directors Teng Cheng and Li Wei which takes $11.3 Million, a 93% drop from last weekend.

The movie has now taken $163.2 Million globally, but its only been released in China so far!

Tenet

Loosing momentum but still at number 3, Christopher Nolans movie takes $9.8 Million over the weekend, a 31% drop, for a total of $323.5 Million.

The War With Grandpa

The Robert De Niro starring movie gets a US release this week and goes back up to number 4 with $9.8 Million, 86% up from last weekend, giving it a total global gross of $5.4 Million.

Greenland

The latest Gerard Butler movie is getting a direct to VOD release in many parts of the world but where it is out its doing well and goes up to number 5 this weekend with $2.8 Million, up 83%.

The movie has taken $29 Million globally after 10 weeks of release.

As is well documents the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating effect on the world has been the story of the summer, and in fact the year, and it has had the biggest impact on the box office ever.

Cinemas across the globe started closing down in the middle of March and didn't open again in the UK until early July, so the summer box office period of May till early September has been greatly effected.

Most of the Spring and Summer potential blockbusters got their release dates moved, at least once, including Mulan, A Quiet Place Part II, Tenet and Ghostbusters: Afterlife and some of them got a direct to VOD release, including Mulan!

Tenet did finally get a cinema release at the tale end of August and was just about the biggest film of the summer and when the movie theatres finally opened the box office continued where it left off with the Pixar movie Onward still at the top.

What you will also see in the list of top 10 movies for the summer is evidence that movie theatres used old catalogue titles to try and entice movie goers back hence Jurassic Park and Dirty Dancing showing up.

Here is a breakdown of the top 5 film of the summer box office 2020.

Tenet

Christopher Nolan potential big summer blockbuster had its difficulties on its way to the box office but it finally got a release on 28th August and was hailed as the saviour of the cinema.

The movie had a good start to its box office career and took £5.3 Million on its debut and took £10 Million over the Summer period.

In comparison the top film of summer 2019 was the The Lion King remake which took over £71 Million.

Onward

Disney's Pixar movie Onward was the top film on weekend of 13th March when cinemas closed and when they came back it was still the top movie, it has remained in the top 3 for every UK box office since.

Over the summer the movie took was has tuned out to be quite an impressive £1.6 Million.

Unhinged

After the top 2 potential blockbusters we start to get movies which would not have been big movies, but due to the lack of big blockbusters they got a lot of exposure, maybe still not taking as much as they would have done but having good box office runs.

This Russell Crowe movie was the first new movie to get released after the closures and benefitted from that, it has a big star name and got a decent amount of hype and exposure.

The movie took £1.4 Million over the summer period.

100 Wolf

Another movie which has had a decent box office run that would not have without the lack of blockbusters is director Alexs Stadermann likeable animation which took just over a Million pound over the summer.

Trolls World Tour

Perhaps the most controversial movie of the summer, the sequel movie was at the start of the summer the biggest movie to go direct to VOD that would have had a good box office run.

The cinema chains, especially the American company AMC which owns the ODEON chain in the UK objected to this move, this was at a time when the world didn't know how long the closures would last.

Despite the release onto VOD the movie still took a very respectable £745K at the UK box office, this is no where near tens of million it has taken on digital.

1. Tenet - £10,006,540
2. Onward - £1,666,470
3. Unhinged - £1,436,243
4. 100% Wolf - £1,026,699
5. Trolls World Tour - £754,093
6. The New Mutants - £686,407
7. Pinocchio - £685,332
8. Dirty Dancing - £541,863
9. Inception - £432,449
10. Jurassic Park - £347,981

An agreement between cinema chain AMC and film distribution giant Universal Studios has seen cinema release window shrink to 17 days after release.

Before the coronavirus pandemic the release window was 75 days, but the cinema closures gave Universal an opportunity to test direct to VOD which they did with Trolls World Tour and it would seem it was a success.

Universal threatened to release new movies simultaneously on VOD and cinema for which AMC, who owns UK cinema chain ODEON, threatened to no longer show their films.

As the two have a synergy of sorts they have come to an agreement and the window has shrunk from 75 days to 17, so the cinema chains have about 2 and a half weeks to make their money.

It will be interesting to see how this works in reality as the film on VOD, or box office VOD, it changes per platform, will be in the £20+ ($19+) region, and for a movie to watch at home when the normal rental price is in the £6 ($5) region.

The boundaries can be moved but clearly Universal in in control and they will do whatever brings them the most amount of money.

Watch this space, but lets hope the movie theatre will still be with us in the future, Steven Spielberg famously claimed home video tapes would kill the cinema experience and refused to release E.T. for many years on VHS, it ended up helping to boost the industry, lets hope the same can happen here and the two can find their space in the market.