Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman’s The Roses opened at No. 1 in the U.K. and Ireland with an estimated £2.1 million, leading a frame energized by multiple new entries and a high-profile reissue, according to industry data. The dark comedy, released by Disney’s specialty division, finished ahead of a 50th-anniversary release of Jaws, which resurfaced to second place across the territory.
Exhibitor schedules indicate The Roses launched broadly, with trade guidance listing 694 locations, while Jaws’ anniversary engagement occupied a similarly wide footprint at roughly 688 sites—an unusual split that helped keep overall traffic lively as summer tapered off.
The U.K.–Ireland result arrives as a bright spot for the film’s global rollout. In North America, The Roses posted a softer start amid a crowded Labor Day corridor, trailing a returning chart-topper and the Jaws reissue in weekend rankings—an outcome that underscored the title’s appeal skewing stronger in Britain and Ireland at launch.
Directed by Jay Roach from a screenplay by Tony McNamara, the feature is a modern take on Warren Adler’s marital warfare tale, with Cumberbatch and Colman playing a successful couple whose partnership unravels in escalating, caustic skirmishes. The ensemble includes Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon; U.K. openings followed the film’s late-August U.S. release.
The market context has been unusually competitive for a domestic comedy, with legacy titles drawing premium-format bookings and late-summer holdovers still attracting ticket buyers. Even so, the £2.1 million debut puts The Roses in a strong early position for word-of-mouth expansion in the U.K. and Ireland, where the film’s leads have deep audience recognition and the distributor has pursued extensive on-the-ground promotion during festival season. Weekend charts provided by a major box-office tracker list The Roses as the top title for Aug. 29–31 across the territory.
