Blue Story – in spite of losing lots of its screens on Sunday – has proven to be a surprise British hit.
As the controversy surrounding Vue’s decision to pull Rapman’s movie Blue Story from UK cinemas rumbles on, there’s a very welcome piece of good news for the film.
The movie is Rapman’s first full-length feature, and a UK-backed production that’s secured backing from Paramount Pictures. And on its opening weekend in the UK, it’s been revealed that it’s pulled in takings £1.3m. It opened in third place, beating the Chadwick Boseman-headlined opener 21 Bridges, and only being squeezed out by Frozen II and last week’s chart topper, Last Christmas.
Considering Blue Story is a debut movie with a relatively unknown cast, it’s performance would have been classed as strong anyway. But factor in the aforementioned decision from Vue to pull the film – as we’ve talked about in more detail here – and the takings are all the more remarkable.
This is a low budget film that’s not just holding its own, but is also set to return a profit. It remains to be seen what ongoing impact the noise surrounding the film has.
Vue is continuing to stand by its removal of the film from its venues, though. Chains such as Odeon and Cineworld are continuing to programme the movie. And given its box office, it should secure decent screen space for next weekend too.
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