Amy Winehouse biopic Again To Black units a brand new widest UK-Eire opening report for Studiocanal, beginning its run in 719 websites.
The movie beats the distributor’s earlier report – February launch Depraved Little Letters – by 33 venues. It’s also the widest opening of the yr, beating Warner Bros’ Dune: Half Two by two websites.
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson from a script by Matt Greenhalgh, Again To Black depicts the lifetime of music icon Winehouse, from her early profession by way of her turbulent relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, and her creation of seminal 2006 album Again To Black.
The movie stars 2023 Display Star of Tomorrow Marisa Abela as Winehouse, alongside Jack O’Connell as Fielder-Civil, Eddie Marsan as Amy’s father Mitch, and Lesley Manville as her grandmother Cynthia.
It’s Taylor-Johnson’s second music biopic from 4 characteristic movies, after her 2009 debut characteristic Nowhere Boy, which opened to £148,833 and completed on £1.4m.
That movie was additionally written by Greenhalgh, who had beforehand written 2007’s Management, about Pleasure Division singer Ian Curtis, which opened to £252,426 and ended on £1.2m.
The huge launch mixed with Winehouse’s enduring standing as a musician and superstar will guarantee the next whole for Again To Black. It stays to be seen whether or not it may method the heights of current music biopics Bohemian Rhapsody (opened: £9.5m; closed: £55.4m) from 2018 about Freddie Mercury and Queen, or Rocketman (£5.3m; £23.5m) from 2019 about Elton John.
Extra not too long ago, Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love is as much as £17m from eight weekends and continues to be in cinemas.
Again To Black is the second main characteristic movie about Winehouse, who died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 aged 27. Asif Kapadia’s documentary Amy opened to £523,192 and grossed £3.8m by way of Altitude in 2015, in addition to profitable the Oscar and Bafta for finest documentary.
Taylor Johnson scored a field workplace hit along with her second characteristic, 2015’s Fifty Shades Of Gray (£35.1m whole).
Struggle breaks out
Leisure Movie Distributors is opening Alex Garland’s Civil Struggle, set in a dystopian United States of America the place a workforce of journalists race to succeed in Washington DC earlier than insurgent factions descend upon the White Home.
The movie premiered at SXSW final month, and stars Nick Offerman, Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson.
It’s a fourth characteristic as director for UK filmmaker Garland, who wrote the novel on which Danny Boyle’s 2000 The Seaside was based mostly, then wrote the scripts for Boyle’s 28 Days Later and Sunshine.
His first directorial effort was 2014’s Ex Machina (£2.9m whole), for which he was Oscar-nominated for finest authentic screenplay; whereas he has subsequently directed 2018 journey horror Annihilation and 2022’s Males.
Indian titles proceed to make their mark at UK-Eire cinemas, with Yash Raj Movies’ motion thriller Bade Miyan Chote Miyan one of many widest new titles of the weekend in 217 websites.
The Hindi-language title stars Indian icons Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff and Prithviraj Sukumaran. Translating as ‘Massive Grasp, Little Grasp’, it follows two troopers who workforce as much as recuperate a stolen weapon from a masked madman who desires to destroy India.
The movie took £50,337 from previews on Wednesday, April 10.
Additionally in cinemas from India this weekend is Zee Studios’ Maidaan, the story of Syed Abdul Rahim, Indian nationwide soccer workforce supervisor.
Arthouse favourites
Curzon is beginning Ilker Catak’s German drama The Lecturers’ Lounge in 37 websites. A Berlinale Panorama premiere from final yr, it was Oscar-nominated for finest worldwide characteristic movie, in addition to profitable 5 prizes finally yr’s German Movie Awards together with excellent characteristic movie and finest director for Catak.
The movie follows a trainer who decides to unravel the matter when one in every of her college students is suspected of theft.
MetFilm Distribution is opening Milad Alami’s Opponent, additionally a Panorama 2023 choice, in 10 websites; whereas New Wave Movies has Victor Erice’s Spanish-Argentine drama Shut Your Eyes additionally in 10 cinemas.
Emma Westenberg’s Bleeding Love (beforehand You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder), starring father-daughter duo Ewan and Clara McGregor, begins by way of Icon Movie Distribution; whereas Cody Hartman’s US title Unsinkable, an enquiry into the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, begins in 22 cinemas, distributed independently.
Park Circus is conducting its newest repertory launch, opening Lynne Ramsay’s Bifa- and Bafta-winning 1999 title Ratcatcher in 13 websites.
Regardless of the huge unfold for Again To Black, there can be house for holdovers together with Common’s Kung Fu Panda 4 and Warner Bros’ Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which have exchanged blows atop the chart up to now fortnight; and Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, additionally a former primary.
