Ghosts: The Possession of Button House Takes No. 1 in UK and Ireland
Ghosts: The Possession of Button House opened at No. 1 at the box office in the U.K. and Ireland, taking £2.4 million ($3.2 million) in its opening weekend, according to Variety.
The film is a continuation of the TV series Ghosts, which ran from 2019 to 2023. Lionsgate U.K. released it, and the studio launched it in 642 cinemas across the two countries, as Screen Daily reported in its weekend preview.
An opening weekend is the first three days of a film's run in cinemas, and it is the number that tends to set the tone for everything after. A strong start can keep a film on screens for weeks. A weak one can see it pulled to smaller auditoriums quickly. The figure also gives distributors an early read on whether audiences want to see a film at all.
Behind the new leader, the chart was tight. Clayface opened at No. 2 with $2.6 million, according to Variety, which puts it about $0.6 million behind Ghosts. Ali G: Who Iz I? debuted at No. 3 with $1.7 million. Three new releases in the top three, and the gap between first and second is less than a quarter of the winner's takings.
Box office charts in the U.K. and Ireland are ranked by ticket sales, so the order reflects what people paid to see each film over the weekend. Dollar figures are converted from pounds and euros at the rate Variety used, so the U.S. numbers will not match a sterling total exactly. Pound figures are the most direct measure for British and Irish cinemas.
For Lionsgate, the result is a first weekend at the top of this particular chart for a continuation of a series that had already built an audience on television. For cinemas, it means a new title to fill screens in the busy autumn period. For the audience, the choice this weekend was between a returning family of ghosts and a superhero-themed monster film, a new comedy, and a host of other releases already on the calendar.
Next weekend's chart will show whether Ghosts holds its audience or drops away. Weekend-on-weekend changes are usually the clearest sign of how word of mouth is moving through the crowd. Box office figures for the following weekend will come out soon after the weekend ends, and the chart will show where each title stands.
