The streets are paved with golden-orange marmalade for Paddington In Peru – is the bear poised to be the UK’s next box office phenomenon?
Paddington In Peru has led an otherwise quiet weekend at the UK and Ireland box office, taking £9.65m to make it the third-largest opening of the year – and the biggest take-home from a British production since No Time To Die in 2021.
It’s some way behind Bond’s (not Michael, the other one) £25.9m, of course, and Deadpool & Wolverine (£17.2m) and Inside Out 2 (£11.3m) outstrip poor Paddington in 2024. But with the departure of the Wizarding World franchise from the big screen after the muted reception for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore, and with 007 himself still on an extended vacation, anything approaching a genuine financial hit from home-grown talent is welcome news.
The series’ third instalment also propels the franchise in the right direction, economically speaking, earning more in its opening weekend than Paddington 2 (£8.2m) or Paddington (£5.1m) despite less-than-stellar (though still largely polite) reviews. It’s good news for comedy fans, too, as the franchise continues to prove there’s still room for blockbuster chuckles on the big screen.
Whether In Peru can repeat the trick when it opens in the US in January is another matter. Paddington 2 arrived Stateside as something of a dud in 2018, grossing just $40.9m over the whole of its run. The new film’s release plan looks very similar to its predecessors (if it ain’t broke, we suppose), with a UK debut a full two months before cracking America, but benefits from the extensive Paddington 2 mythmaking which has gone on in the intervening years.
Read more: Paul King before Paddington | The alternative comedy roots of cinema’s favourite bear
Since the Harry Potter franchise supercharged the UK with an enviable collection of modern soundstages and VFX powerhouses, the local industry has struggled to recreate the kind of success associated with the fantasy juggernaut. Though US productions from Barbie to Marvel have certainly kept crews busy in the interim, the number of British-born commercial hits has remained low.
