You might not expect him to talk, but certainly no one expected this: No Time to Die, in its fifth weekend, by beating out Denis Villeneuve's sandy sci-fi epic Dune back to the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office. The margin was laser-thin, with approximately £200,000 difference between the blockbuster heavyweights. No Time to Die is now the 6th-highest-grossing movie of all time in the U.K. and Ireland, replacing Avengers: Endgame.
No Time to Die earned a handsome £3.5 million ($4.7 million) in box office receipts. Dune, which had come first in its opening weekend, came in second with £3.3 million ($4.5 million) bringing it to a cumulative total of £13.2 million ($18 million). It might be something of a disappointing result for Warner Bros., who would have hoped that Dune could cling to the top - but $18 million in two Covid-era weeks is nothing to shake a stick at.
Warner will be glad, however, that their 20th anniversary re-release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the franchise classic that started it all, debuted in sixth with just over £960,000. In a slightly embarrassing turn of events, Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho bowed in eighth place, with a disappointing £731,000.
The news of No Time to Die's return to the number one spot comes just after the terrific report from the Film Distributors' Association that the U.K. and Ireland box office has topped £15 million for five consecutive weekends. The last time that happened, according to the FDA, was at the end of 2018. "Cinema is truly back, and we couldn't be happier about it," they said in a tweet. Neither could we - nor, we imagine, a certain martini-soaked spy!