FOR 22 YEARS
US release: 9th January 2026What were the big movies hitting the UK box office over the last 30 year?
Each week we present a rundown of the UK box office chart headlines on this same week from last year to 1990.
No. 1 movie: - Joker which had been at the top for 4 weeks and with a total gross of £46.7 Million it was also the top total grossing film.
Highest Debut: - Terminator: Dark Fate directed by Tim Miller and starring Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger which entered the box office at number 2.
Longest run: - Downton Abbey which had been on the box office for 7 weeks.
No.1 movie: - Hotel Transylvania 2 which had been at the top for 2 weeks.
Highest debut: - Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension directed by Gregory Plotkin and starring Chris J. Murray and Brit Shaw which entered the box office at number 3.
No. 1 and top total grossing: - Minions which had taken £46.7 Million over 15 weeks of release.
No. 1 and Highest debut: - Paranormal Activity 2 starring David Bierend and Brian Boland and directed by Tod Williams
No. 1 and top total grossing: - The Other Guys which had taken £8 Million over 6 weeks of release.
No. 1 movie: - Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit which had been at the top for 2 weeks and with a total gross of £16.7 Million it was also the top total grossing film.
Highest Debut: - Nanny Mcphee directed by Kirk Jones and starring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth which entered the box office at number 2.
Longest run: - Pride And Prejudice which had been on the box office for 6 weeks.
No. 1 and highest debut: - What Lies Beneath starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Katharine Towne and directed by Robert Zemeckis
No. 1 and top total grossing: - Snatch which had taken £12.1 Million over 8 weeks of release.
No. 1 and highest debut: - Nine Months starring Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore and directed by Chris Columbus
No. 1 and top total grossing: - Batman Forever which had taken £20.7 Million over 14 weeks of release.
No. 1 movie: - Ghost which had been at the top for 4 weeks and with a total gross of £21.1 Million it was also the top total grossing film.
Highest Debut: - Goodfellas directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta which entered the box office at number 4.
Longest run: - Die Hard 2: Die Harder which had been on the box office for 11 weeks.
The original Terminator film came out of no-where, it was the second film by the young fledgeling director James Cameron and it was fresh and exciting and had a story that was clever and captivated audiences.
The follow up came 6 years later and with the hype and incredible (for the time) special effects the film was going to be a hit, Arnold Schwarzenegger was at the height of his fame.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day was a massive box office hit, which had a good story, despite some plot holes, with over the top exciting action and it went on to gross over $500 Million globally which adjusted for inflation would be about $1.2 Billion today.
After that the rights to the franchise moved all over the place, then in 2003 we suddenly got Terminator 3: Rise Of THe Machine, and despite the film having fairly good reviews, starring Schwarzenegger and grossing over $400 Million globally it felt more like a stand alone movie than part of the series.
Then the big trouble started and we got Terminator Salvation in 2009, directed by McG and starring Christian Bale the film reportedly had a very troubled shoot and with Schwarzenegger on California Governor duties he didn't star just appearing as a computer generated Terminator towards the end for a brief second or 2.
Despite this negativity of both the film and the plot it still grossed nearly $400 Million, but the series was stagnating and each film was grossing less and less as each film went on.
The series needed a reboot and in 2015 Schwarzenegger came back and director Alan Taylor tried to get a feeling of the origin film in a reboot that mixed the story from The Terminator changing the time line and creating a new path for the series, but things were too confusing and the film flopped and talk of a followup ended.
It must have seemed like the ideal situation, bring back Schwarzenegger, bring back Linda Hamilton as the original Sarah Connor, and to top it off bring back the original creator James Cameron to write the story and produce the movie, he's too busy directing Avatar 2 so passed that duty off to Deadpool director Tim Miller.
What we have here then is series fatigue, after the 2015 reboot promise the paying public and fans have simply lost hope in trying to get a film which brings back the memory of the first 2 films, Dark Fate does not do this.
Then we have the talent, Arnold Schwarzenegger is no where near the star he was in 1991, arguably the biggest, and he is no longer the mean looking muscle machine he once was, then Linda Hamilton who rarely appears in films these days so do audiences know who she is or connect with her? Then James Cameron, after Avatar, which granted was the biggest film ever until this year, is hardly a household name anymore, these elements don't make for a must see movie.
The original 1984 story has now been told again and again in the Terminator movies, how many time can the story of a robot sent from the future to kill someone who is in turn protected by another person/machine sent from the same future, despite how much you mix things up, audiences are clearly bored of this rehashing in each reboot.
Special effects today have to have the WOW factor to sell a movie, Terminator 2 had it, but its harder to do in a day and age when almost anything is possible and sadly Dark Fate simply fails to have it.
The film reportedly had a troubled post production with director Miller and writer/producer Cameron disagreeing over the edit, and it shows, it leaves you feeling like you have just watched a disjointed movie when you leave the cinema.
Finally, and maybe this is a personal thing, the title, Dark Fate is a bit cheesy and doesn't come close to Judgment Day or even Salvation, Rise of the Machines was even a good sub title. A title shouldn't matter but it has got to sell the film, Genisys was not good and Dark Fate is even worse.
The movie will struggle to make $300 Million at the global box office, this in a day and age when tentpole movie are expected to take over a Billion is not good enough, the series future is looking bleak and it could be this is the last nail in the coffin.
There is one last hope that might bring the series back! If James Cameron can find a story somewhere within that is different but keeps within the Terminator universe, and if he decides to direct the movie himself we may just get a 7th movie, its a big ask with his involvement in the Avatar films, but this might mean we get a good few year before another movie, no bad thing.
Like many other long running series, Alien for example, the series won't just lie back and enjoy the success it's had, we most likely will see another movie in the series but it will be for another generation, and once we have forgotten the bad box office run of Terminator: Dark Fate.
The US box office is having the quietest November in many years and this weekend an all new top 4 has Midway topping the chart on its debut albeit with one of the lowest takes for a top film, last weeks number 1, Terminator: Dark Fate, fell to number 5 on its second weekend.
Directed by Roland Emmerich the World Way II drama hits the top of the US box office with a very low for America $6.4 Million.
The film has performed better than expected for the studio and with little in the way of positive reviews once the late November and December big hitters are released the film will disappear quickly.
Not performing as expected the sequel to 1980's The Shining enters the US box office with $5.2 Million.
With Halloween well out of the way and a busy period coming this will make its way onto home video quite quickly and unfortunately will slip out of the box office.
A lot of publicity has hit this Christmas hit and the new film from director Paul Feig lands at number 3 this weekend with a gross of $4 Million.
The movie is being heavily publicised for its use of music from Wham! and the late George Micheal, especially the track Last Christmas which the film shares a title, this could see a boost more towards Christmas itself but it may as easily burn out quickly.
Starring John Cena a former WWE star the makers of this film must be looking for the kind of success that Dwayne Johnson has had but the film lands at number 4 this week with $3.5 Million.
There is no denying that the new Terminator movie, which had large expectations, simply hasn't re-ignited the once mighty franchise despite bringing back Linda Hamilton.
The film falls this week to number 5 with a weekend gross of $2.8 Million with a total gross in America now $40.4 Million.
The movie is falling fast and it will be lucky if it gets to $100 Million at the US market.
The DC Villain movie falls out of the top 5 this weekend but its the highest total grossing movie on the US top 10 with an amazing $306.8 Million after 6 weeks of release.
The new Terminator movie makes its debut at the top of the US box office this weekend, but its not all good news for the long running franchise as the films debut gross of one of the lowest of the series.
Despite the mostly positive reviews and the reuniting of Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, not to mention the story written by original writer James Cameron the film did not not the box office alight on its debut weekend.
The film took just $29 Milllion despite making its debut at the top of the box office and unless there is some late interest in the film it will be the lowest grossing movie in the franchise outside the first film.
The DC villain movie has ended up being a mega smash for Warner Bros. and this week the film takes $13.9 Million on its 5th weekend.
This brings the films total US gross to just shy of $300 Million, the film is the top total grossing movie on the chart this week.
Disney's sequel movie continues to pull in audiences, no doubt helped by the marketing and Halloween, this week it grosses $12.1 Million for a gross of $84.3 Million after 3 weeks of release.
Making its debut at number 4 this week is director Kasi Lemmons period drama which takes $12 Million with little fan fare.
The animated version of the 60's TV show falls to 5 this week with $8.5 Million for a $85 Million total after 4 weeks.
At the start of the weekend the big money would have been on Terminator: Dark Fate to top the UK box office this weekend but the new franchise film actually came nowhere near Joker which easily keeps the top spot for a fourth straight week.
The Todd Philips directed movie has done far better at the box office than studio Warner Bros. could ever have expected and this week spends its fourth weekend at the top as its weekend grosses show no sign of slowing too much as it takes £3.5 Million over the weekend.
The films total UK gross is now at £46.7 Million after 4 weeks of release, this puts the film at number 4 on the 2019 top grossing films list, ahead of Disney bog hitter Captain Marvel.
The movie has also broken into the top 50 all time UK movies as it slides past 2017's The Greatest Showman to become the 48th top grossing film in the UK.
The movie is also the top total grossing film on the box office this weekend.
All hopes are on this movie to save the Terminator franchise since the disastrous box office performance of Terminator Genisys.
The new movie which brings Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor back into the mix makes its debut at number 2, the same as Genisys, the bad news is that the film, 4 years later, can only bring in £2.8 Million, less than the £3.7 Million of the previous movie.
This is worrying for the franchise as this was, once again, supposed to re-boot the series and bring it back to the glory days of The Terminator and T2, but the signs suggest it could be dead before its arrived.
Disney's high budget sequel falls to 3 this weekend with a gross of £2.1 Million, this takes the films total to £7.5 Million after 2 weeks of release.
On the Monday - Sunday weekly chart the film remains at number 2 having grossed £4.2 Million over the week.
A new animated adaptation of the spooky, Kooky family hits the box office at number 4 this weekend with a debut gross of £2.1 Million.
Falling to number 5 is the latest Aardman animated movie which takes £1 Million for the weekend and £3.3 Million in total after 2 weeks.
The movie about the posh British house is at number 15 this weekend, its has the longest run at 7 weeks and has taken £27.3 Million.