GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.24

Audiences shelled out a further £7.6m on Universal animation The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as the blockbuster dropped just 14% on its opening session to comfortably hold the UK-Ireland box office lead.

Mario increased its Sunday takings by 9% compared to its opening session with over £2m on that day alone, boosted by the end of the school Easter holidays.

The film is already up to a huge £35.9m total and is tracking to finish as one of the big hits of the year; it will enter the UK-Ireland top 100 highest-grossing films of all time within the next week, and should easily finish within the top 50 by the end of its run.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves dropped just 27% on its third Weekend, with £1.2m. The eOne action-adventure title is now up to a healthy £10.8m.

John Wick: Chapter 4 added £823,064 on its fourth session for Lionsgate, falling 36.7%. It is up to £14.9m, as comfortably the highest-grossing title in the franchise ahead of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’s £10.4m from 2019.

Ben Affleck’s Air floated a further £722,822 on its second weekend for Warner Bros – a drop of just 10.5%. The film is now up to £2.8m.

Universal comedy horror Renfield started with £680,661 from 594 sites, for an average of £1,129.

Takings for the top five were down 16.2% to just shy of £11m. That still represents a decent result and the second-highest weekend since February 20-22; with all five titles based on previous material or characters, promoting original content into these spots remains the challenge for the industry.

Mummies dearest

Makoto Shinkai’s anime Suzume opened to a strong £469,100 from 404 sites for Sony, bringing in a location average of £1,161.

Sony also had the second weekend of Julius Avery’s The Pope’s Exorcist starring Russell Crowe, which fell 39.1% with £420,029 bringing it to £1.7m.

Amid animation competition from Mario, Warner Bros’ Mummies scored an outstanding 59.7% increase, adding £276,541 on its second weekend to hit £2.4m.

Warner Bros’ Shazam! Fury Of The Gods dropped 33.9% on its fifth weekend, with £104,354 taking it to a £5.9m cume – less than half of the £13.4m of 2019’s Shazam!.

In event cinema, opera Der Rosenkavalier is up to £90,522 through Trafalgar Releasing, predominantly from its Saturday 15 event day.

Universal’s Puss In Boots: The Last Wish scratched out another £81,182 on its 11^th weekend – a 10% increase on its previous session, which brings it to £25.6m total.

Creed III  added £76,773 on its seventh weekend – a 45.6% drop – and is up to £14.2m, well clear of the £5.9m total of 2016’s Creed and £10.1m of 2018’s Creed II.

Paramount’s Scream VI  scared up a further £76,000 on its sixth weekend and is now up to £7.6m – on a par with last year’s Scream.

Mia Hansen-Love’s One Fine Morning opened to £57,315 for Mubi from 61 sites at a decent £940 location average. Including previews, the film has £82,446, and will today pass the total of Hansen-Love’s 2022 Bergman Island to become the director’s highest-grossing title in the UK and Ireland.

Allelujah added £50,044 on its fifth weekend, dropping 32.1%. The Pathe title is now up to £3.4m.

Rye Lane has crossed the £1m mark for Disney’s Searchlight Pictures label. The film, directed by Screen Star of Tomorrow 2021 Raine Allen Miller, added £48,916 – a drop of just 19% – on its fifth weekend to close in on a £1.1m cume.

Action thriller Assassin Club starring Henry Golding and Noomi Rapace opened to £43,000 from 219 sites at an average of just £196 for Paramount.

With his new film Killers Of The Flower Moon confirmed for next month’s Cannes Film Festival, a re-release of Martin Scorsese’s 1980 classic Raging Bull took £27,981 for Park Circus – up on the £25,663 total of a 20th-anniversary re-release in 2000 by Content Films.

Picturehouse Entertainment’s Cairo Conspiracy opened to £27,000 from 41 sites at a £659 average. Including previews, the film has £45,427.

Hlynur Pálmason’s Cannes 2022 title Godland added an extra £22,629 on its second weekend, falling just 5.8%. It now has £107,564 in total for Curzon; which also saw Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts hit £106,280 in total this week.

Animation Little Bear’s Big Trip added a further £5,797 on its second weekend for Signature Entertainment, and is up to a £106,121 cume

God’s Creatures starring Paul Mescal added a further £13,224 on its third weekend in cinemas in Great Britain. It is up to a £190,600 total for BFI Distribution.

Curzon’s Three Colours: Red took £13,094 from 32 sites on its opening weekend. It was the third re-release of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s trilogy; the trio have grossed £77,512 in total over the past month, with further bookings to come.

Signature Entertainment’s sci-fi LOLA added £3,593 on its second weekend, and is up to a £22,376 cume.

Eva Vitija’s Patricia Highsmith documentary Loving Highsmith opened to £3,540 from 16 sites through MetFilm Distribution, and has £7,868 including previews.