Further Deatils Of Nativity 2's Opening Weekend At The Box Office

As we revealed on Monday, David's latest film,  Nativty 2 Danger In The Manger, had a brilliant opening weekend at the UK Box Office. It is No.3 in the charts and was the UK's best selling opening release of the weekend.

The Guardian say:

It may not have been a hit with the nation's critics, but Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger! proved comfortably the top new release at the UK weekend box-office, beating bigger-budget offerings starring Hollywood A-listers Cameron Diaz, Bradley Cooper and Jake Gyllenhaal. With an impressive opening of £1.61m, that's more than double the debut of the original Nativity! (£794,000) three years ago. Nativity! went on to accumulate £5.2m during its 2009 run, 6.5 times its opening, thanks to positive word-of-mouth among its target audience of families, and the natural tendency of Christmas-themed movies to sustain and build as the holiday approaches. A similar multiple would deliver a total above £10m for Nativity 2.

Debbie Isitt's original Nativity! flew relatively under the radar – the big festive movie that year was Disney's A Christmas Carol. But a 6 November release date for Robert Zemeckis's performance-capture animation meant many families were looking for fresh festive entertainment by December, creating a great opportunity for Nativity!. This year it's a different scenario, with Nativity 2 getting out a week ahead of the big Hollywood competition, DreamWorks Animation's Rise of the Guardians.

UK distributor eOne reports particularly strong results in Isitt's home town of Coventry, where the Nativity! films' fictional St Bernadette's primary school is located, and across the regions of Gateshead, Basildon, Trafford, Ashford, Sheffield, Didsbury and Milton Keynes. The original Nativity! is meanwhile riding high in the DVD charts, and has now sold a hefty 500,000 copies, despite being available only in limited windows for Christmas 2010, 2011 and again this year.

At Rotten Tomatoes, there is a notable disconnect between top critics (0% fresh), all critics (33% fresh) and site users (100% fresh, from 119 user ratings) on Nativity 2. Among newspaper critics, the London Evening Standard's Charlotte O'Sullivan and the Star on Sunday's Andy Lea are rare balanced voices in a sea of negativity.

BFI have full details of the weekend's stats:

ank	Title	Country of Origin	Weekend Gross	Distributor	% change on last week	Weeks on release	Number of cinemas	Site average	Total Gross to date
1	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2	USA	\£5,344,508	eOne Films	-66	2	559	\£9,561	\£26,979,458
2	Skyfall	UK/USA	\£3,809,893	Sony Pictures	-32	5	550	\£6,927	\£89,620,677
3	Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger!	UK	\£1,614,675	eOne Films	-	1	435	\£3,712	\£1,614,675
4	Silver Linings Playbook	USA	\£1,260,979	Entertainment	-	1	393	\£3,209	\£1,260,979
5	Gambit	USA	\£689,042	Momentum	-	1	380	\£1,813	\£689,042
6	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted	USA	\£637,130	Paramount	-34	6	504	\£1,264	\£21,405,074
7	End of Watch	USA	\£618,546	StudioCanal	-	1	278	\£2,225	\£618,546
8	Argo	USA	\£495,689	Warner Bros	-39	3	290	\£1,709	\£3,869,361
9	The Master	USA	\£201,844	Entertainment	-46	4	124	\£1,628	\£1,002,270
10	Jab Tak Hai Jaan	Ind	\£198,671	Yash Raj	-78	2	64	\£3,104	\£1,302,581
11	Hotel Transylvania	USA	\£123,159	Sony Pictures	-47	7	317	\£389	\£7,722,310
12	Amour	Aut/Fra/Ger	\£91,169	Artificial Eye	-21	2	40	\£2,279	\£287,839
13	Dr. Seuss' The Lorax	USA	\£63,648	Universal	397	18	163	\£390	\£7,693,671
14	Taken 2	Fra	\£48,586	20th Century Fox	-64	8	79	\£615	\£23,458,794
15	Son of Sardaar	Ind	\£33,828	Eros	-84	2	24	\£1,410	\£306,468