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Short answer
Ghosts: The Possession of Button House, a film spun from the BBC One sitcom Ghosts, opened at No. 1 in the UK and Ireland on 23-25 October 2026 with £2.4m from 642 cinemas, according to Screen Daily. That put it ahead of Warner Bros' Clayface, which took £1.9m from 576 sites the same weekend but opened at No. 1 in the US with $24,002,731 and $43M worldwide.
- What happened £2.4m, the top opening in UK-Ireland that weekend.
- Why it matters It is the sixth best comedy opening of 2026 in UK-Ireland and a test of whether a six-writer BBC sitcom can carry a cinema release.
- The caveat Clayface played fewer UK sites (576 against 642) at a lower site average (£3,350 against £3,827), but opened to about $24m from 3,458 theaters in the US (Box Office Mojo) and $43M worldwide (Deadline).
- What to watch The second weekend hold, the BFI's official weekend report, and whether a BBC broadcast window is announced.
Key facts
| UK-Ireland opening (23-25 Oct 2026) | £2.4m from 642 sites, £3,827 per site (Screen Daily) |
| Exact Fri-Sun gross | £2,458,995, certificate PG (25thframe.co.uk) |
| Opening with previews | £2.5m including £48k of previews (DCM) |
| Clayface in UK-Ireland | £1.9m from 576 sites, £3,350 per site; £2m with previews |
| Clayface in the US | $24,002,731 from 3,458 theaters (Box Office Mojo) |
| Greenlight date | 27 February 2026, by BBC Film, Lionsgate and BBC Studios |
What happened at the UK box office on 23-25 October?
Ghosts: The Possession of Button House took the top spot in UK and Ireland cinemas on its opening weekend of 23-25 October 2026. Screen Daily reported £2.4m from 642 sites, a site average of £3,827, with Lionsgate distributing. The UK tracker 25thframe.co.uk put the exact Friday-to-Sunday figure at £2,458,995. Add £48k of previews and the cinema advertising firm DCM gets to £2.5m.
Site average is weekend gross divided by the number of cinemas reporting. Screen Daily computes its £3,827 from its own gross figure, so dividing the 25thframe.co.uk total by 642 will not land on exactly that number. 25thframe.co.uk publishes the unrounded gross, and the BFI spreadsheet is the official record.
Screen Daily ranked it the sixth best opening for a comedy at the UK-Ireland box office this year. The weekend as a whole was busy: the top 10 grossed £10,477,775, and four new releases filled positions one to four. Behind Ghosts came Clayface (£2,011,764), Ali G: Who Iz I? (£1,344,873) and Wildwood (£1,022,599), per 25thframe.co.uk.
The BFI, which publishes the official weekend report, released its 23-25 October spreadsheet on 27 October covering the top 15 films plus all other British and new releases, Friday to Sunday, in pounds sterling.
What is Ghosts, and how did a sitcom end up in cinemas?
For readers outside Britain: Ghosts ran on BBC One from 15 April 2019 to 25 December 2023, five series and 34 episodes in total. It was created by the six-strong troupe known as Them There, the writers and performers behind Horrible Histories, and produced by Monumental Television with Them There. It picked up BAFTA nominations in 2021 for Scripted Comedy and Comedy Writer. The greenlight announcement claimed the finale reached 7.2 million viewers and was the UK's most-watched comedy of 2023.
The film was not part of the original plan. In the greenlight announcement, the creators said they thought they had said goodbye to Button House at the end of the final series and 'never planned to come back'. The six creators (Baynton, Farnaby, Howe-Douglas, Howick, Rickard and Willbond) are credited as writers and executive producers, according to Screen Daily, with director Simon Hynd, who directed 15 episodes of the series, behind the camera.
The financing shows how the film got made. On 27 February 2026, BBC Film, Lionsgate and BBC Studios gave Monumental Television, part of ITV Studios, the go-ahead, according to the greenlight announcement reported by Screen Daily. Lionsgate UK handles UK and Ireland cinemas; BBC Studios distributes worldwide. Filming began in March 2026 at West Horsley Place in Surrey. Lionsgate set the 23 October release date on 18 March, and the trailer followed on 23 June.
The premise, from Lionsgate's official page: the ghosts are adjusting to life without Alison and Mike when an amateur séance goes wrong and Julian seizes the chance to leave the grounds in the body of teenage ghost hunter Jack.
Did Ghosts really beat Clayface?
On the UK-Ireland Friday-to-Sunday number, yes. On every other measure the comparison needs qualifying. Clayface, from Warner Bros, opened with £1.9m from 576 sites in UK-Ireland, a £3,350 site average, rising to £2m with previews, according to Screen Daily.
Outside the UK, the order flipped. Box Office Mojo lists Clayface at No. 1 domestically the same weekend with about $24m from 3,458 theaters (Box Office Mojo), and Deadline headlined a $43M worldwide opening (Deadline). Variety, reporting the UK-Ireland chart in dollars, had Ghosts at $3.2 million, Clayface at $2.6 million and Ali G: Who Iz I? at $1.7 million.
The third-placed film is an unusual case. Amazon MGM marketed Ali G: Who Iz I? as a one-weekend-only cinema release, and it still took £1.3m from 458 sites. Screen Daily reports it will now stay on for holdover bookings next weekend. For context, Screen Daily lists Sacha Baron Cohen's earlier UK openings as £3.2m for Ali G Indahouse in 2002 and £6.2m for Borat in 2006.
| Film | UK-Ireland Fri-Sun | Sites | Site average | Distributor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghosts: The Possession of Button House | £2.4m | 642 | £3,827 | Lionsgate UK |
| Clayface | £1.9m | 576 | £3,350 | Warner Bros |
| Ali G: Who Iz I? | £1.3m | 458 | £2,838 | Amazon MGM |
How does it compare with other British TV shows turned films?
British TV hits often move to the big screen, with very different results. The record holder remains The Inbetweeners Movie, which opened with £13.2m from 455 sites in August 2011, the biggest-ever opening for a UK independent production and for a UK comedy, per Screen Daily. That £13.2m includes previews, so the nearest Ghosts figure is the £2.5m DCM total rather than the £2.4m Friday-to-Sunday number. Downton Abbey opened with £5.1m from 730 locations in September 2019 at a £7,087 site average.
Ghosts sits well below both. The closer comparison, and the one DCM reached for, is Dad's Army, the 2016 film of the classic BBC sitcom, which opened with £2.1m and finished its run on £8.7m. Ghosts' £2.5m with previews is above Dad's Army's £2.1m opening, though DCM does not say whether the 2016 figure included previews. Whether it follows a similar path depends on the second and third weekends, which no one can know yet.
One further ranking comes from a blog rather than a trade source. Nobody Knows Anything places Ghosts as the second-biggest British film opening of 2026 after The Magic Faraway Tree (£2.87m), ahead of Pressure (£2.05m), and puts the top-10 weekend 41.7% above the same 2025 weekend. Treat it as indicative, not official.
| Film | Year | UK opening | Sites | Final gross (where reported) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Inbetweeners Movie | 2011 | £13.2m (incl. previews) | 455 | not reported |
| Downton Abbey | 2019 | £5.1m | 730 | not reported |
| Dad's Army | 2016 | £2.1m | not reported | £8.7m |
| Ghosts: The Possession of Button House | 2026 | £2.4m | 642 | in release |
What does the number mean for the business and the CBS remake?
The budget has not been released. Chortle notes that some commentators have cited a figure around £4million, but attributes it to no one by name, so it stays in the unconfirmed column. Without a budget, nobody outside the production can say whether £2.5m in three days is comfortable or tight.
What is clearer is the shape of the deal. BBC Film is one of the three parties that greenlit the film, Lionsgate UK takes the UK and Ireland cinema window, and BBC Studios distributes worldwide. BBC Film director Eva Yates described the project as being for 'big and small screen alike', which reads as a nod to an eventual television run after cinemas, though no BBC One or iPlayer date has been announced.
The American remake is a separate business on a separate calendar. CBS's version premiered on 7 October 2021 with Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar; on 15 April 2026 CBS confirmed a 22-episode sixth season for midseason 2026-27, with Halloween and Ghostmas specials in the fall.
No US release plan for the British film has been announced. BBC Studios holds worldwide distribution, so any overlap between the two audiences is a question for its sales team, not for this weekend's chart.
What is not confirmed, and what to watch next
Not confirmed: the production budget, any US release plan for the British film, and any BBC One or iPlayer date. Confirmed: BBC Film, Lionsgate and BBC Studios back it, Monumental Television produces, and Alison Owen and Debra Hayward are credited as producers.
Two small corrections for anyone reading around the story. The 642 figure is sites, meaning cinemas, not screens. And Clayface is a Warner Bros release, not a Marvel film.
- Second weekend, 30 October to 1 November: the hold against Ali G: Who Iz I?, which is now staying in cinemas, and the other new releases.
- The BFI's official weekend report for 23-25 October, which is the primary document for the UK numbers.
- Any announcement of a BBC broadcast or iPlayer window for the film.
- Air dates for the CBS remake's Halloween and Ghostmas specials, which CBS has not yet announced.
FAQ
How much did the Ghosts film make on its opening weekend?
Screen Daily reported £2.4m from 642 UK and Ireland sites. The Friday-to-Sunday figure was £2,458,995; with £48k of previews the total was £2.5m.
Is the Ghosts film based on the BBC or the CBS show?
The BBC one. It is written and executive produced by the six creators of the BBC One series, directed by Simon Hynd, and produced by Monumental Television for BBC Film, Lionsgate and BBC Studios. The CBS remake, which premiered in 2021, is a separate production.
Did Ghosts beat Clayface overall?
Only in UK-Ireland. Clayface took £1.9m there from 576 sites, but opened at No. 1 in the US with $24,002,731 from 3,458 theaters (Box Office Mojo) and $43M worldwide (Deadline).
When will the Ghosts film be on TV?
No broadcast date has been announced. BBC Film's Eva Yates said the film is for 'big and small screen alike', but neither the BBC nor Lionsgate has confirmed a television or iPlayer window.
What was the budget of Ghosts: The Possession of Button House?
It has not been released. Chortle reports that some unnamed commentators have cited around £4million, which remains unconfirmed.
Sources
- BFI weekend box office figures (23-25 Oct 2026 report)
- Lionsgate Films UK – official film page
- Box Office Mojo – US weekend Oct 23-25 2026
- Screen Daily – UK-Ireland box office 23-25 Oct 2026
- DCM – weekend box office note
- Chortle – Ghosts film tops box office
- Screen Daily – greenlight / financing
- TheWrap – CBS 2026-27 schedule
Figures change. Check the primary sources above.