‘Ghosts: The Possession of Button House’ Tops U.K. Box Office With £2.4 Million

Lionsgate U.K.'s horror-comedy "Ghosts: The Possession of Button House" opened at No. 1 in the U.K. and Ireland, taking £2.4 million ($3.2 million) over its debut weekend. It beat two other new releases into the top three, confirming a crowded frame where horror, comedy and animation split the audience.

Warner Bros.' DC horror thriller "Clayface" landed second with $2.6 million. Amazon MGM Studios' comedy "Ali G: Who Iz I?" took third with $1.7 million in its opening session.

How the rest of the chart shook out

Black Bear's animated fantasy "Wildwood," directed by Travis Knight, opened fourth with $1.36 million. Paramount's "Street Fighter," last week's chart leader, slipped to fifth in its second weekend, adding $1.35 million for a $5.6 million cumulative total.

• Universal's animated "Forgotten Island" placed sixth in weekend two: $1.2 million, $3.7 million total.
• Sony's psychological thriller "Verity," the Colleen Hoover adaptation, added $857,067 in its fourth frame for a $14.4 million running total.
• Universal's supernatural horror "Other Mommy" earned $576,822 in session three, lifting its gross to $6.2 million.
• Mubi's "Fatherland" debuted at No. 9 with $264,083 from 86 locations.
• Studiocanal's "Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom" closed the top 10 with $408,893 — wait, precisely $408,089 — in weekend six, for a $6.1 million cume.

The specialist story: Pawlikowski's record

"Fatherland" is the quiet headline for arthouse watchers. Its $3,144 per-site average was the fourth highest among new releases. Add preview screenings and the drama's opening reached $415,017 — surpassing "Cold War" to become director Paweł Pawlikowski's biggest-ever launch in the territory.

What does that change for Mubi? It signals the distributor can still open a prestige European auteur title wide enough to set records, even against three commercial debuts above it.

Mubi also platform-launched the documentary "Making Marie Antoinette" across six sites, taking $1,737 for the weekend and a $24,355 cume. The staggered rollout expands ahead of Park Circus' re-release of Sofia Coppola's 2006 "Marie Antoinette" on Nov. 13 — a deliberately timed pairing.

What's coming this week

Mid-week event programming starts Tuesday with Trafalgar Releasing's broadcast of the Royal Ballet's "Manon," followed Wednesday by music documentary "Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back to the Beginning," directed by Ben Wainwright-Pearse across 100+ locations.

Friday brings four wide rollouts across 300+ locations:

• Disney's mountain survival documentary "Everest: The Other Side," directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
• A24's dark comedy "Primetime," directed by Lance Oppenheim, starring Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo and Phoebe Bridgers
• Black Bear's comedy "Wicker," directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, with Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage and Elizabeth Debicki
• Kaleidoscope Entertainment's family comedy "Arnie & Barney," directed by Sean Heuston

Also arriving Friday: Universal's "I Love Boosters," directed by Boots Riley and starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Demi Moore and LaKeith Stanfield; Action Xtreme's "Bad Day at the Office" (100+ screens); Munro Films' documentary "Peter Asher: Everywhere Man," directed by Dayna Goldfine and Daniel Geller (100+ sites); and a 20th anniversary 4K restoration of "Pan's Labyrinth" (100+ locations).

Specialized and international debuts include BUFF Studios' "City of Masks" (Andrea M. Catinella), Picturehouse Entertainment's "Nightborn," Netflix's "Gentle Monster" (Marie Kreutzer, with Léa Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve), Studiocanal's "Animol" and Metis Films' "In the Shadows." BFI Distribution opens a 4K restoration of Ken Russell's "The Devils," starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed, on 25+ screens, while Studiocanal bows the 25th anniversary 4K re-release of Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko" with Jake Gyllenhaal on 25+ locations.

The weekend closes Saturday with Trafalgar Releasing's event-cinema presentation of "BTS World Tour 'Arirang' in Sao Paulo: Live Viewing." With that slate, "Ghosts" faces immediate pressure to hold its crown.