UK-Ireland box office preview: ‘Asteroid City’ shoots for the stars in 347 cinemas | News – Armessa Movie News

Universal is opening Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City in 347 cinemas across the UK and Ireland this weekend, one month after the film premiered in Competition at Cannes Film Festival.

Anderson’s 11^th feature film follows a writer’s play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to a rural town, to compete in a junior stargazing event, where his worldview is forever changed.

The filmmaker has united perhaps his starriest cast yet for Asteroid City, including Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Maya Hawke, Rupert Friend, Jeffrey Wright, Live Schreiber, Tom Hanks, Matt Dillon, Jarvis Cocker, Steve Carell, Fisher Stevens, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldbum, Adrien Brody, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie and Tony Revolori.

Its 347-site release makes it the widest live-action opening of Anderson’s career, and third-widest in total after his two feature animations: 2009’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox in 482 sites (opened: £1.5m; closed: £9.3m) and 2018’s Isle of Dogs  in 472 sites (£1.6m; £6m).

His highest-grossing title in the territory remains 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which started with £1.5m from 284 sites at a strong £5,395 average, and finished on £11.5m. His last feature, 2021’s The French Dispatch, started with £869,206 from 315 sites at a £2,759 average, and ended on £4.2m.

Sony has the widest opening of the weekend, with Gene Stupnitsky’s comedy No Hard Feelings. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman, in the story of a woman employed to bring a 19-year-old man out of his shell before college.

It is the second feature for Ukrainian-born US filmmaker Stupnitsky, after 2019 Universal comedy Good Boys (£845,665; £3.2m). He also wrote 2009’s Year One and 2011’s Bad Teacher; and held multiple positions in the US adaptation of The Office, including writing 15 episodes, producing 14 and directing two 

No Hard Feelings is the second feature Lawrence has starred in and produced through her US firm Excellent Cadaver, after last year’s Apple drama Causeway.

Jesus freaks

Kova is distributing Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle’s US Christian drama feature Jesus Revolution, with 170 bookings to date. The film tells the true story of a community of teenage hippies in Southern California in the 1970s, who came to a spiritual awakening and converted to Christianity.

Curzon is opening The Super-8 Years, a documentary consisting of home videos by French writer Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot, in 25 sites following its Cannes Director’s Fortnight premiere last year; while Dogwoof has The Last Rider from Maiden director Alex Holmes in 21 sites – the story of US cyclist Greg LeMond’s comeback at the 1989 Tour de France.

Netflix, which does not provide location numbers, is putting animation Nimona  in cinemas this weekend following a screening at last week’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Studiocanal is playing a 50^th anniversary re-release of Robin Hardy’s classic horror The Wicker Man in 21 sites, after a 315-site one-day event on Wednesday 21.

Holdovers will likely dominate the top of the chart this weekend, including Warner Bros’ number one The Flash, Sony’s Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse  and Disney’s The Little Mermaid.