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The All-Time 30 Highest Grossing Films in the United Kingdom

By Dustin Rowles | Box Office Round-Ups | August 12, 2012 |

By Dustin Rowles | Box Office Round-Ups | August 12, 2012 |


The numbers were as expected this weekend for the Bourne reboot, with Jeremy Renner, a decent action movie with the worst MacGuffin at the center of it since Crystal Skull (pills? Really? No wonder Matt Damon made fun of Gilroy’s script). The $40.2 million was short of the opening weekends for Supremacy ($52 million) and Ultimatum ($69 million), but it wasn’t a bad start for the franchise and bodes well for Renner’s future as an action star. It will, however, have to perform well here and overseas to recoup its $125 million budget (before marketing).

Meanwhile, Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis’ The Campaign over-performed a bit, putting up $27 million, and Meryl Streep’s Hope Springs put up a little over $20 million since it opened on Wednesday. Notably, 70 percent of The Campaign’s audience was over 30, and 70 percent of Hope Spring’s audience was over 40. The $20 million for Hope Springs on top of the $45 million overall haul for Exotic Marigold Hotel also once again demonstrates the box-office power of older audiences. If you’ve ever been to a afternoon matinee at a indie theater, you’ll no doubt notice a ton of blue hairs in the audience. If you don’t see them, you’ll no doubt hear them, as they’re always asking their moviegoing partner, “What did he say?”

The Dark Knight Rises, meanwhile, fell from the top spot, landing at number three. It’s overall haul so far is $390 million, and it should pass the $400 million mark next weekend. It’s the 15th highest grossing film of all time in North America, and should finish in the top 10.

It won’t, however, place as high in the UK, which is the focus of this week’s box-office list. Not so surprisingly, the all-time box office over in the United Kingdom largely resembles our own North American box-office. Where their all-time list is interesting, however, is in where it differs from our own. Their top three films are the same as ours, for instance, although The Avengers (which is called Avengers Assemble in the UK) and Titanic are flip-flopped. Expectedly, the James Bond films also play better over in the UK: They have two in their top 30 all time, while those same two Bond films are at numbers 71 and 75 in America. Meanwhile — our number 12 film of all time, Hunger Games — does not place in their top 30. Then again, we have two Transformers films in our top 30, and none are placed in the UK’s top 30. Likewise, while they do well in the UK, their Batman movies don’t do as well as in the United States.

The five most interesting outliers in the UK compared to the US are Mamma Mia (#6 vs. #251); The Full Monty (#15 vs. #1,394), The King’s Speech (#26 vs. #273); The Inbetweeners (#28 vs. Not Yet Released in the US), and Bridget Jones Diary (#30 vs. #814).

Here is the full list. The numbers are in pounds.

1. Avatar — £93 million

2. Marvel Avengers Assemble — £82 million

3. Titanic — £79 million

4. Toy Story 3 — £73.4 million

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 — £73 million

6. Mamma Mia — £69 million

7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone — £63 million

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring — £63 million

9. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King — £60 million

10. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers — £57 million

11. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace — £56 million

12. Casino Royale — £55 million

13. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — £54 million

14. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 — £52 million

15. The Full Monty — £52 million

16. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest — £51 million

17. Quantum of Solace — £51 million

18. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — £50 million

19. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — £49 million

20. The Dark Knight Rises — £48.5 million

21. The Dark Knight — £48 million

22. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — £48 million

23. Shrek 2 — £48 million

24. Jurassic Park — £47 million

25. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — £45 million

26. The King’s Speech — £45 million

27. Toy Story 2 - £45 million

28. The Inbetweeners Movie — £45 million

29. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — £43 million

30. Bridget Jones’s Diary — £42 million