The robustly reliable family market propelled the latest production from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment to the top of the UK box office, with £2.3m for the weekend period for The House With a Clock in Its Walls, and £3.37m including previews from the previous Saturday and Sunday. Local distributor Entertainment One should be content with that result.
The film faced the challenge of a 12A certificate, which might have put off some families with younger children. However, a cast including Jack Black and Cate Blanchett, with Eli Roth in the director’s chair, might have helped to position the film more appealingly for an adult audience. Source material is John Bellairs’ 1973 novel of the same title – the first in a series of 12 books featuring the orphan Lewis Barnavelt.
The film opened in the US with $26.6m (£20.2m), so the UK number is in line with that outcome. Recent Amblin productions include Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Ready Player One, The Post, A Dog’s Purpose and The BFG. The last of those titles seems the most relevant yardstick for this new film, but the huge local popularity of author Roald Dahl invalidates the comparison. The BFG began in the UK with £5.29m in July 2016.
