Ghosts: The Possession of Button House, the film spin-off of the BBC sitcom, was the No. 1 film in the UK and Ireland over the weekend of 23–25 October, taking £2.4m ($3.2m) from 642 cinemas for Lionsgate, according to weekend figures Screen published on Monday 26 October. With previews it stands at £2.5m.
Key facts
- Ghosts: The Possession of Button House (Lionsgate): £2.4m from 642 sites, £2.5m with previews
- Clayface (Warner Bros. Pictures): £1.9m opening, £2m with previews, No. 2
- Ali G: Who Iz I? (Amazon MGM Studios): £1.3m from 458 sites, No. 3
- New releases took four of the top five places, 23–25 October
- Conversion at the ECB reference rate of 23 October: £1 = $1.34
New titles crowded out the holdovers. Four of the top five were new releases, and two of them came from British television comedy: one from a BBC ensemble sitcom, one from a character Sacha Baron Cohen first played on Channel 4 in 1998. For distributors dating films around half-term, the weekend showed how much opening space a familiar comedy brand can still claim against a studio franchise film.
The top five
| Rank | Film | Distributor | 23–25 Oct | Total | Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ghosts: The Possession of Button House | Lionsgate | £2.4m | £2.5m | 1 |
| 2 | Clayface | Warner Bros. | £1.9m | £2m | 1 |
| 3 | Ali G: Who Iz I? | Amazon MGM Studios | £1.3m | £1.3m | 1 |
| 4 | Street Fighter | Paramount | £1m | £4.3m | 2 |
| 5 | Wildwood | Black Bear | £983,000 | £1m | 1 |
Source: Screen, 26 October. Gross box office in pounds for the UK and Ireland combined, Friday to Sunday, not distributor revenue; totals include previews. Screen does not name its data provider or say whether these are final figures. The BFI’s official weekend figures, compiled from Comscore data, were not yet out for 23–25 October when this was published.
Ghosts averaged £3,827 a site. Simon Hynd, who directed 15 episodes of the series, directs the film, and the original ensemble returns. Monumental Television, the ITV Studios company behind the series, produced it, and BBC Film presents it with BBC Studios (worldwide distribution and sales), the BBC said in February and July.
Clayface, the third film in the relaunched DC Universe, took £1.9m from 576 locations (£3,350 a site) and £2m with £82,000 of previews. That matches the $2.6m UK and Ireland figure in the Sunday studio estimates reported by Deadline. In North America it opened at No. 1 on an estimated $24m, as our weekend report on the Clayface opening showed, and Deadline put its global start at $43m, top of the worldwide chart.
Ali G stays for a second weekend
Ali G: Who Iz I? was marketed as a one-weekend cinema release. After opening on £1.3m from 458 sites (£2,838 a site), it will stay in UK and Irish cinemas for holdover bookings next weekend, Screen reports. When Amazon MGM Studios released the trailer on 25 August, Deadline reported that the film would open in cinemas around the world on 23 October and that it is Baron Cohen’s first feature as director.
Screen ranks it the sixth-best comedy opening in the market this year, well below Baron Cohen’s earlier releases. Ali G Indahouse opened on £10.3m in 2002, Borat on £6.2m in 2006, and Brüno (2009) and The Dictator (2012) on about £5m each. Those are nominal figures, not adjusted for ticket-price inflation.
Wildwood and the rest of the chart
Laika’s Wildwood, directed by the studio’s CEO Travis Knight, opened at 655 sites, Black Bear’s widest release yet in the UK and Ireland, Screen reports. It took £983,000 (£1,501 a site), or £1m with previews, after its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. Black Bear’s US distribution chief is also preparing to leave, as our report on Benjamin Kramer’s planned exit set out.
Last weekend’s leader, Paramount Pictures’ Street Fighter, fell to fourth on £1m and a £4.3m total. Below the top five, Universal Pictures’ Forgotten Island slipped 25% in its second weekend to £938,000 (£2.9m total), and Sony Pictures’ Resident Evil added £229,000 in its sixth weekend for £14.2m. Resident Evil is still No. 1 in mainland China, as our China weekend report showed.
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, which StudioCanal releases for Sky, rose 16% in its sixth weekend to £307,000, a lift Screen puts down partly to the start of the school half-term holidays. Screen says the film is now the highest-grossing Sky Original in cinemas, ahead of Ellen Kuras’s Lee (£4.5m), the previous record holder. Screen did not give Shaun the Sheep’s running total. Mubi opened Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland (Vaterland) on £198,000 from 86 sites, or £310,000 with previews. Dogwoof’s Gaza documentary NAZA fell 23% in its second weekend to £134,000, for £548,000 overall.
What the figures don’t show: screen counts beyond site totals, admissions and year-to-date comparisons with 2025.
Our reading
A television brand with a settled cast outgrossed a DC franchise film this weekend, and on a higher site average: £3,827 against £3,350. For buyers of British comedy outside the UK, the two titles point different ways: Ghosts is a local proposition sold through BBC Studios, while Ali G: Who Iz I? was planned as a worldwide cinema release from the start.
A title booked for a single weekend is not built for a long run, so for Ali G the holdover is the clearer signal of exhibitor demand. The second weekend will show how much of the Ghosts audience was a fan-base rush and how many screens Ali G keeps. The BFI’s figures will then settle this weekend’s ranking.