- Box Office
German-Speaking Box Office, February 28, 2022
Uncharted reigns in its second week in theaters. In fact, this week’s box office seems like a deja vu all the way through sixth place, and there is not much shakeup in the rest of the German top ten, either.
Not surprisingly the live-action version of the PlayStation game remained on top. Wunderschön, too, held its position as number two and so did Death on the Nile in third place, Sing 2 in fourth, and Spider-Man: No Way Home and Moonfall in fifth and sixth, respectively.
With this much competition in German-speaking countries at the moment, it is commendable that Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast (with Judi Dench, Caitriona Balfe, and Jamie Dornan), his very personal story of a little boy living through the religious unrest of the 1960s debuted in seventh place, despite being shot in black and white, a reason for many to regard it as a small arthouse movie. No doubt its strong debut has to do with the seven Oscar nominations it received last week.
The other new release, King Richard starring Will Smith, made it into the top 10 albeit in last place. Which left number eight and number nine spots to the animation adventure Around the World in 80 Days and the Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson starrer Marry Me – Verheiratet auf den Ersten Blick .
It is, however, interesting to take a look at the box office in terms of Euros and visitors. Overall, it did not come close to last week. Uncharted experienced a drop of 20% with 650.000 tickets sold. For Karoline Herfurth’s dramedy Wunderschön the drop was 27%, still respectable in its fourth week of release in which the total of people flocking to the film reached 925.000 which means that the one million mark will be crossed in the coming days, a huge success for a German film. Equally stable and high up is Spider-Man: No Way Home – close to 4.5 million people have seen the caped crusader in only 11 weeks and its drop of 18% compared to the previous week is minuscule. It is Moonfall that descended 37% and last week’s hot starter Der Pfad (The Path) with a 41% as well as The King’s Man – The Beginning with a 50% minus that hurts most, with the latter getting kicked out of the top ten altogether.
There are a number of legitimate explanations for this development: carnival parades in a variety of big cities like Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz may have played a role. As did anti-war protests against Russia in many places and the number of people who stayed home watching the horrific developments in Ukraine on TV. Add to this only some of the counties have loosened the Covid-restrictions with a bigger opening only going into effect on March 4.
In Austria, the results and drops were less severe. With a very similar chart list – Uncharted ruled here as well- the overall minus was 26%. Sing 2 and Death on the Nile held steady in second and third, with Moonfall, Spider-Man, Wunderschön, Marry Me, Around the World in 80 Days, and Clifford, the Big Red Dog close behind.