On a whim I looked up the box office of British-made The Magic Faraway Tree, assuming it was the usual sort of British dud we’ve become accustomed to. To my surprise it’s cast a spell to the tune of $23 million worldwide including $10 million in the UK and it’s still to open in most markets. And it got me thinking if perhaps British cinema was on the up and up.
We’ve been here before – too many times. From Colin Welland, Chariots of Fire Oscar unabashedly raised aloft declaring in 1982 that “The British Are Coming,” to every unlikely box office success from Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001) to Paddington (2014) being acclaimed as a sign that British cinema is not just on the mend but bouncing back to greater heights.
It’s true that Britain has spawned one of the few contemporary directors to carry genuine box office cachet in Christopher Nolas while Ridley Scott occasionally still strikes commercial gold – Gladiator II (2024) made some dough but it was a long way from The Martian (2015) ballpark. And we can shout about action heroes like Daniel Craig, Jason Statham and Gerard Butler and claim Irishman Liam Neeson as our own. Two out of three Spidermen – Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield – have a British connection.
Throw in Daniel Day-Lewis, Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Helen Mirren, Olivia Colman and Eddie Redmayne and we’re not short of actors dining at the very top Oscar table.
But getting them all to interact together for the good of British cinema seems an impossible task. By and large the country seems to be in the business of spawning false dawns. The list of flops is immeasurably long.
However, few would argue that in the past year or so British cinema has been enjoying something of a renaissance at the box office.
Emerald Fennell’s take on Wuthering Heights with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi knocked up $241 million worldwide (UK contributing $33 million). Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, with Renee Zellweger in retread, clocked up $140 million (and that’s without a U.S. release) including $62 million from the UK., Chloe Zhao’s Oscar-nominated Hamnet starring an Oscar-winning Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal was good for $106 million (UK – $25 million).
The world best-loved bear in his third iteration, Paddington in Peru, socked away $211 million (UK – $49 million) – a mere $1million behind Oscar-winner One Battle after Another.
Danny Boyle’s horror sequel 28 Years Later raced past $151 million including $21 million from the UK. The promised last hurrah, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, snapped up $103 million (UK – $24 million). Riz Ahmed as Hamlet took home $78 million.
That’s over $1 billion right there in global box office receipts.
In addition, blowing in under the radar have been unsung commercial successes like I Swear, already considered an Oscar contender for next year, with $11 million worldwide. Although threequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple disappointed it still stole away with $58 million. Except for truth being stranger than fiction The Salt Path wouldn’t have stalled at $21 million.
And let’s not forget Nolan’s next blockbuster The Odyssey with an all-star cast including Tom Holland is steaming home in the summer with Ridley Scott’s latest sci fi epic The Dog Stars due shortly after.
It’s worth noting that both Fennell and Zhao appear to have hit the current zeitgeist of female-friendly pictures. Although you could argue Wuthering Heights comes with an inbuilt IP, no movie version has been a commercial hit in over 80 years since the Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in William Wyler’s 1939 version. Commercially, Hamnet is within touching distance of the most recent of that genre, The Drama and Reminders of Him, while Wuthering Heights has taken in three times as much as either.
No doubt Emerald Fennell can now write her own ticket. If British cinema is on the brink of a renaissance, much depends on what she does next.
The Magnificent 60s 