World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
The UK-Ireland chart, A Plantation Act turns 100, Resident Evil’s China hold, and Eric Bauza & Walter Koenig Boldly Go to the Undiscovered Country.
Morning, all. Yesterday I promised you the UK-Ireland chart, and here it is. Plus there’s a very special centenary and we say farewell to a Star Trek legend.
UK and Ireland box office: Lionsgate’s Ghosts: The Possession of Button House topped the weekend chart with £2.4 million from 642 cinemas, a respectable £3,827 average and the sixth-best opening for a comedy this year. Clayface was second with $2.6 million (about £1.95 million), its best market outside North America, followed by Amazon MGM’s Ali G: Who Iz I? in third with £1.3 million. Despite being advertised as a one-weekend-only cinema release, it will now stay open for holdover bookings, although the opening is down on Sacha Baron Cohen’s previous outings. Laika’s Wildwood was fourth with $1.36 million (about £1 million), a record number of cinemas for its UK distributor, Black Bear.
A hundred years of Hollywood sound: On 27 October 1926, 100 years ago today, Al Jolson’s Vitaphone short A Plantation Act had its Hollywood premiere at Sid Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, three weeks after its New York debut at the Colony Theatre on 7 October, where it accompanied the feature The Better ‘Ole. It was Jolson’s first film, a ten-minute short that included a talking segment as well as songs, and it was a hit with audiences a year before The Jazz Singer. When Warner Bros. decided to promote the feature as Jolson’s talkie debut, the short was withdrawn and long thought lost, and it was later restored by the Vitaphone Project and released on DVD with the feature. Jolson performs in blackface, as he did in The Jazz Singer, something which is obviously considered racist and wrong today but was fully accepted at the time.
The Far East: Resident Evil holds on in China: In mainland China, Resident Evil was number one for a third consecutive weekend with RMB 37.6 million ($5.6 million), taking it to $64.8 million since its 5 October opening, which makes it the third-biggest Hollywood film of the year in China, behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. The wider market had a miserable weekend, though, with just $18.6 million, the fourth-lowest of the year, and the year-to-date total of $4.7 billion is down 29.1% on 2025. Meanwhile, the Tokyo International Film Festival opened yesterday with Zeze Takahisa’s Sukiyaki, and runs until 4 November.
The Nordics: The Nordic Council Prize ceremony takes place in Helsinki this evening, where – no surprise – Norway’s Sentimental Value, which has already been named the Film Prize winner, will be honoured.
Eric Bauza, 1979–2026: The Emmy-winning voice actor, who was the modern voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, has died suddenly, aged 46, his family announced on Sunday night. He voiced characters in this year’s film Coyote vs. Acme and was heard in Forgotten Island, and was preparing to voice Daffy in Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical. Warner Bros. Television Group chairman Channing Dungey described him as a unique talent who helped to continue the legacy of Mel Blanc, and his fellow voice actors Jim Cummings and Vincent Martella paid tribute. It’s a terribly young age to lose someone who brought so much joy to audiences. Rest in peace.
Walter Koenig, 1936–2026: The beloved actor died on Sunday night, aged 90, his representative confirmed. Born in Chicago, Koenig was hired at the age of 30 to appeal to younger viewers and became Ensign Pavel Chekov in Star Trek, appearing in seven Star Trek films starting with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979 and including a key role for him in the classic Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that followed. In the 1990s he reinvented himself as the sinister psi cop Alfred Bester in Babylon 5, a role as far from Chekov as you can get. His co-star George Takei said “Walter was more than Chekov. He was a writer, a teacher, a thoughtful man, and a loyal friend. To the fans who loved him for so many years, thank you. He loved you too.” He is survived by his daughter, the comedian Danielle Koenig. His wife, the actress Judy Levitt, died in 2022. Rest in peace.
Birthdays: John Cleese, star of A Fish Called Wanda and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, turns 87 today, and Roberto Benigni, who won an Oscar for Life Is Beautiful, turns 74.
That’s all for today.
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