An adaptation of a stage musical about a studious schoolgirl has topped Black Panther: Wakanda Forever from the top of the U.K. box office.
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical took $5 million in its opening weekend for Sony Pictures, more than half the overall box office. From director Matthew Warchus and based on his own hugely successful Royal Shakespeare Company production (which itself was based on Dahl’s beloved children’s book), the film earned an estimated 50 percent more than the Blank Panther sequel, five times that of fellow new opener Strange World. At current exchange rates, it is 60 percent ahead of The Greatest Showman, which also opened during the holiday corridor.
Starring Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch and newcomer Alisha Weir (as Matilda), the film — a Netflix and Sony/Tristar partnership from Working Title and the Roald Dahl Story Company — has been given an exclusive theatrical release in the U.K. and Ireland by Sony, just under two months after it opened the BFI London Film Festival in early October. It lands on Netflix across the rest of the world Christmas Day.
Directed by Warchus, Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical is produced by Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan for Working Title, Jon Finn (Billy Elliot), and Luke Kelly of The Roald Dahl Story Company. Screenwriter Dennis Kelly, who wrote the stage production, adapted it for the big screen, with original music and lyrics by Tim Minchin.
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