{"id":344766,"date":"2025-12-31T14:06:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/344766\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T14:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:06:13","slug":"fire-and-ash-leads-u-k-ireland-holiday-box-office-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/344766\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire And Ash’ Leads U.K., Ireland Holiday Box Office Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDisney\u2019s \u201cAvatar: Fire And Ash<\/a>\u201d held the No. 1 position at the U.K. and Ireland box office for a second weekend, adding \u00a36.1 million ($8.2 million) and lifting its total to \u00a320.8 million ($28 million), according to Comscore. The threequel comfortably dominated the Christmas corridor, outperforming a packed slate of holiday newcomers.<\/p>\n

\n\tLionsgate U.K.\u2019s erotic thriller \u201cThe Housemaid<\/a>,\u201d starring Sydney Sweeney<\/a> and Amanda Seyfried, debuted in second place with $6 million, marking one of the strongest adult-skewing openings of the Christmas corridor. Paramount\u2019s \u201cThe Spongebob Movie: Search For Squarepants\u201d followed in third, launching with $4.1 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney\u2019s \u201cZootopia 2<\/a>\u201d moved to No. 4 in its fifth weekend, earning $2.1 million for a cumulative $30.4 million, while Entertainment Film Distributors\u2019 newcomer \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d opened at No. 5 on $1.9 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tSony\u2019s \u201cAnaconda\u201d arrived in sixth place with $1.7 million, edging ahead of Universal\u2019s \u201cWicked: For Good,\u201d which placed seventh. The musical added $1.1 million to bring its total to $60.3 million, cementing its status as one of the year\u2019s biggest performers.<\/p>\n

\n\tFurther down the chart, Moviegoers Entertainment\u2019s Bollywood blockbuster \u201cDhurandhar\u201d ranked eighth with $343,000, pushing its cumulative gross to $3.4 million. Mubi\u2019s \u201cSentimental Value\u201d opened at No. 9 on $339,000, narrowly ahead of Berkshire Dreamhouse\u2019s Malayalam-language comedy \u201cSarvam Maya,\u201d which rounded out the top 10 with $228,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first major wide release of 2026 arrives on Thursday, Jan. 1, with Universal rolling out musical drama \u201cSong Sung Blue\u201d across more than 300 locations. Directed by Craig Brewer, the film stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso opening Thursday is Viavix\u2019s Hong Kong drama \u201cNo Time for Goodbye,\u201d directed by Don Ng and starring Lam Yiu-Sing and Kitty Yu. <\/p>\n

\n\tFriday, Jan. 2, sees Picturehouse Entertainment releasing Ira Sachs\u2019 docudrama \u201cPeter Hujar\u2019s Day,\u201d while BFI Distribution opens Frederick Wiseman\u2019s culinary documentary \u201cMenus-Plaisirs: Les Troisgros.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tTrinity Filmed Entertainment\u2019s historical science fiction film \u201cBack To The Past,\u201d directed by Ng Yuen-fai and Jack Lai and starring Louis Koo, Jessica Hsuan and Raymond Lam, opens on 25-plus sites.<\/p>\n

\n\tPark Circus brings two high-profile anniversary releases to cinemas: animated hit \u201cHappy Feet\u201d returns for its 20th anniversary across 100-plus locations, while David Lynch\u2019s \u201cBlue Velvet\u201d marks its 40th anniversary with a similarly scaled reissue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney\u2019s \u201cAvatar: Fire And Ash\u201d held the No. 1 position at the U.K. and Ireland box office for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10194,96,2839,9298,54188,56,54,55,50457],"class_list":{"0":"post-344766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-sydney-sweeney","12":"tag-the-housemaid","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-zootopia-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}