Brüno proves to be a box office hit
Sacha Baron Cohen’s much-publicised Brüno has taken the box office by storm, banking £5 million in its opening weekend.
Brüno’s box office success makes it the second highest opening weekend for an 18 certificate film behind Hannibal in 2001, which pulled in £5.6 million excluding previews.
The majority of top grossing box office films tend to be for a family audience with a U, PG or 12 certificate, so it is quite rare for an 18 to have done so well.
| Weekend Box Office Figures 10th-12th July 2009 | |||
| Rank | Film | Cert | Takings (£ million) |
| 1 | Bruno | 18 | 5.0 |
| 2 | Ice Age 3 | U | 4.7 |
| 3 | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | 12A | 1.4 |
| 4 | The Hangover | 15 | 1.2 |
| 5 | Public Enemies | 15 | 1.0 |
| 6 | My Sisters Keeper | 12A | 0.6 |
| 7 | Year One | 12A | 0.2 |
| 8 | Night at the Museum 2 | PG | 0.1 |
| 9 | Kambakkht Ishq | 12A | 0.1 |
| 10 | Shortkut | PG | 0.1 |
| Source: Nielsen EDI 10th-12th July 2009 | |||
Brüno, the gay Austrian fashionista, looks set to follow in the footsteps of Sacha Baron Cohen’s alter-ego Borat, which became the fifth highest grossing film of 2006 with £24.2 million.
The film follows Brüno and his assistant Lutz as they head to the US in search of fame after being fired from their Austrian fashion TV show for disrupting the Prada fashion show in Milan.
Brüno has caused quite a stir among some gay rights activists over the perceived negative way it portrays homosexuality.
However, the film’s distributor Universal pictures said the film is a satire that “uses provocative comedy to powerfully shed light on the absurdity of many kinds of intolerance and ignorance, including homophobia.”
Even so, Universal has decided to trim the original film by 1 minute and 50 seconds, removing some of the more lurid scenes, and will re-release it with a fifteen certificate in the UK from July 24.
The alternative version of Brüno, which will run alongside the unedited version, has been deemed more suitable for teenage audiences. And will, of course, make it even more money.
Weekend Box Office data is available each week within the Box Office section of Mediatel.co.uk’s Cinema Database, provided by Nielsen EDI / DCM. To view, please select Cinema from the menu.