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.
This weekend, Friday 25th October 2019, there are 5 new films released in the UK looking to hit the box office, but can it challenge Joker for the top spot?
First up at cinemas this week is Terminator: Dark Fate, an movie directed by Tim Miller who also directed Deadpool in 2016 which grossed £37.6 Million.
It stars Linda Hamilton who last starred in Easy Does It (2019).
The film also stars Arnold Schwarzenegger who last appeared in Conor Mcgregor Notorious (2017).
Next on this weeks new release schedule is The Addams Family.
This new movie stars Oscar Isaac who's last film was At Eternitys Gate (2019)
It also stars Charlize Theron who appeared in Long Shot (2019).
The film is brought to us by 2 time director Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon.
Next up this week is Black And Blue which is directed by Deon Taylor who directed Supremacy in 2014.
It stars Naomie Harris and Mike Colter.
Also this week there is Countdown from director Justin Dec marking a directorial debut,
The film features Elizabeth Lail and Jordan Calloway in starring roles.
The long list of new releases continues with The Last Black Man In San Francisco which is directed by Joe Talbot which is a directorial debut.
It stars Jimmie Fails and Jonathan Majors.
Check back on Monday to see where these cinema releases end up on the Weekend Box Office Chart.
-Come back next week when there are 3 new releases. -
Starring for the first time since Terminator 2: Judgement Day Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton Terminator: Dark Fate has been given a 15 age rating in the UK.
The movie is directed by Tim Miller this time, although original series director James Cameron has come up with the story and claims this is the first true sequel to 1992's Terminator 2.
It is 27 years later and Hamilton's Sarah Connor is still trying to rid the world of Terminators, while Schwarzenegger's Terminator seems to be living in a hut in the forrest, and has aged 27 years!
All will be revealed when the movie is released on 23rd October 2019.
The BBFC have given the film a 15 rating for strong violence, bloody images, language while it has a runtime of 128 minutes (2 hours and 8 Minutes), the movie was passed uncut.