£17.2 Thousand
$0
$22.9 ThousandAfter bypassing a theatrical release, which upset a number of fans, the long awaited sequel Hocus Pocus 2 becomes the biggest debut for the streaming platform Disney+ to date.
The movie which is a follow up to the 1993 movie Hocus Pocus was released onto the platform on Friday 30th September and heads up their Halloween season.
The movie stars Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker who all reprise their roles as the Sanderson Sisters, a trio of witches who crave for the souls of children.
The original movie was not a hit on its release but has over the last 30 years become a massive hit raking up views over the October Halloween season each year.
It's a shame than the movie never got a theatrical release as cinemas are struggling for big hits at the moment as there has not been an event movie released in a long time, this would have had a £3 - £5 Million debut easily.
Disney seems intent on pushing its streaming service which new movies like this and its 150 Million + subscribers makes it one of the largest streaming platforms.
Thank you to the magical Hocus Pocus community for making #HocusPocus2 the #1 film premiere on #DisneyPlus to date! pic.twitter.com/mGRbScYHzf
— Disney+ (@DisneyPlus) October 4, 2022
A new poster has been released for upcoming movie Minions: The Rise of Gru which can seen in full if you scroll down this page.
Synopsis for Minions: The Rise of Gru
It's the 1970s and a twelve year old Felonius Gru is growing up in your average suburbs. He is a fan of a supervillain supergroup known as the Vicious 6 and wants to join them and when they get rid of their leader, legendary fighter Wild Knuckles, Gru seizes the opportunity and goes for the vacant position. After Gru steals from them he becomes their enemy and the epitome of evil himself. Gru turns to Wild Knuckles for help and soon discovers he needs a little help himself from the little yellow men.
Check out the Salty Popcorn movie page for more information on this upcoming film.
A new trailer and poster has been released for upcoming movie Free Guy both of which can be seen below.
Starring among others Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer the movie is directed by Shawn Levy and it has a release date of 11th December 2020.
At the moment this will be the next 'big' release at cinemas with most 2020 blockbusters moving to 2021, All thats left after this movie is Death On The Nile, Dune then Wonder Woman 1984 all of which also have December release.
2020 has had EVERYTHING, so why not the new #FreeGuy trailer too? In theatres December 11. pic.twitter.com/PAlROT8qsQ
— 20th Century Studios (@20thcentury) October 5, 2020
Are video games real? Free City is an open world ono-line game like Grand Theft Auto or Fortnite and Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is one of the world non-player character (or NPC, a character that humans cant play with) who is working as a simple bank teller in the game.
Thanks to some programmers who inserted a bit of code into the game Guy becomes aware of his world being a video game and sees an opportunity to become the hero, instead of a nobody.
With the developers wanting to shut the game down Guy must race against the odd to stop this from happening.
Check out the movie page for more information on this film.
There�s a poster too. #FreeGuy is in theatres December 11. pic.twitter.com/oPR8QSwE0o
— 20th Century Studios (@20thcentury) October 5, 2020
Cinemas closed back in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and since then many movies have had their release date changed or gone directly to VOD at a premium rate, the movie Tenet has for a long time been seen as the movie that will reopen cinemas and bring audiences back.
After a couple of release date changes the movie is here and with this event many more cinemas are re-opening, with safety precautions in place.
With the pandemic still an issue in the US the movie still has another couple of weeks before its release but cinemas are reopening far slower there.
Here is a rundown of this weeks movies, and I suspect one of them will replace one the current number one film, Unhinged, from the top of the box office chart.
Check back on Monday to see if these new releases enter the UK Weekend Box Office Chart.
An agreement between cinema chain AMC and film distribution giant Universal Studios has seen cinema release window shrink to 17 days after release.
Before the coronavirus pandemic the release window was 75 days, but the cinema closures gave Universal an opportunity to test direct to VOD which they did with Trolls World Tour and it would seem it was a success.
Universal threatened to release new movies simultaneously on VOD and cinema for which AMC, who owns UK cinema chain ODEON, threatened to no longer show their films.
As the two have a synergy of sorts they have come to an agreement and the window has shrunk from 75 days to 17, so the cinema chains have about 2 and a half weeks to make their money.
It will be interesting to see how this works in reality as the film on VOD, or box office VOD, it changes per platform, will be in the £20+ ($19+) region, and for a movie to watch at home when the normal rental price is in the £6 ($5) region.
The boundaries can be moved but clearly Universal in in control and they will do whatever brings them the most amount of money.
Watch this space, but lets hope the movie theatre will still be with us in the future, Steven Spielberg famously claimed home video tapes would kill the cinema experience and refused to release E.T. for many years on VHS, it ended up helping to boost the industry, lets hope the same can happen here and the two can find their space in the market.