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The U.K. may have just had the hottest August since records began but, in more positive news, it also had the hottest August at the box office in almost a decade.
Thanks to the incredible performances of both “Spider-Man:
Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” a total of $161.3 million was earned at the box office that month, according to new figures from Rentrak, the highest since 2018’s record-breaking August with $201.7 million.
Of course, three recent years were hit by the pandemic and its impact on production, with 2020’s August sitting at a paltry $22 million, 2021’s at $87.9 million and 2022’s at $85.4 million. But as the world burned outside, this year’s bumper summer was clearly a major relief for cinemas and the industry at large as it still looks to recover following recent seismic shifts.
(Comscore’s official numbers do state that 2024’s August reached $163.1 million and 2019’s $167.9, those were counted as five-week periods as the company’s months run from the first Friday to the last.)
“The Odyssey,” which released July 17, ended August with U.K. earnings of $108.6 million, easily Christopher Nolan’s most successful film on home soil by some margin and still number 2 in the box office after seven weeks. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” meanwhile, released on July 29 and, five weeks on, still sits atop the box office with total earnings of $126.8 million. It’ll likely top “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($131. 7 million) as the highest-earning Marvel film in the U.K. by the end of September.
Of course, the U.K. hasn’t been the only market to benefit from the colossal earnings of the two biggest films of the year so far. Even after just a few weeks in the box office, on Aug 10 they had helped the U.S. hit the summer milestone of $4 billion domestically for only the second time in the post-pandemic era.
