The winner #1: Sing Illumination Entertainment’s Sing stormed to the top of the UK box office, taking £10.48m including previews of £4.20m. For context, the biggest-grossing animations last year were Pixar’s Finding Dory and Illumination’s own The Secret Life of Pets. Finding Dory opened with a stunning £8.12m on its way to a total of £42.9m (the fifth biggest movie of 2016), while Pets began with £9.58m, ending up with £36.3m (10th biggest film of 2016). If sequels – and spinoffs such as Minions – are ignored, you’d struggle to find many animated films that have opened bigger in the UK than Sing. Pixar’s Inside Out (2015) kicked off with £7.38m, which is bigger than Sing’s number if its previews are ignored. Up began with £6.41m, which is marginally ahead of the Sing three-day-weekend number. Frozen, the biggest hitter ever from Disney Animation, started out with a modest £4.70m. Warners’ The Lego Movie debuted with £8.05m including previews of £2.16m – smaller than Sing, whichever way you look at it. The winner #2: T2 Trainspotting While T2 Trainspotting was unlucky enough to be releasing in the same week as a major animation, its debut of £5.15m would typically be more than enough to top the UK box office. It’s hard to point to a sequel that has similarly scored with audiences after so long (almost 21 years). George Lucas’s first Star Wars prequel being the obvious flag bearer, although it was only 16 years between Return of the Jedi (1983)…more detail
