Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie got off to a fantastic start on its first weekend, pulling in $5.8 million for Fox Searchlight to make it the biggest U.K. opening of a British film since Spectre last fall.
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Mandie Fletcher directed Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (originally titled Just Awesome and Ab Fab: The Movie), a female buddy crime comedy, written by Jennifer Saunders, based on the popular TV series Absolutely Fabulous.
It stars Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, June Whitfield (in her final role) and Jane Horrocks, reprising their roles from the series.
The tale centers on the drug-addicted, alcoholic PR agent Edina Monsoon and her best friend-codependent Patsy Stone, on the run from the authorities after suspicion that they might have killed supermodel Kate Moss.
The film serves as a de facto series finale for the show.
With a predominantly female-targeted audience, the comedy overcame any competition from the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, which saw matches played every evening, although minus England, whose team was unceremoniously booted out of the competition on Monday.
But the film didn’t do enough to dislodge Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets, which stayed No. 2 with a second-week haul of $6.6 million for a 10-day total of $22.2 million.
The studio also secured the third position with Central Intelligence, which debuted with $4 million, the same level as Spy, Knight and Day and The A Team.
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie opened in the U.S. on July 22.
Credits:
Directed by Mandie Fletcher
Produced by Damian Jones, Jon Plowman
Written by Jennifer Saunders, based on Absolutely Fabulous by Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French
Music by Jake Monaco
Cinematography Chris Goodger
Edited by Anthony Boys, Gavin Buckley
Production companies: Fox Searchlight, BBC Films, DJ Films, TSG Entertainment
Saunders & French Productions
Distributed by 20th Century Fox (UK)
Fox Searchlight Pictures (US)
Release date: 29 June 2016 (London); 1 July 2016 (UK), 22 July 2016 (US)
Running time: 91 minutes
Box office $39.2 million
