FILM VERSION OF THE WOMAN IN BLACK IS MOST SUCCESSFUL UK HORROR IN 20 YEARS
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London Theatre Direct
The recent high-profile film version of long running play The Woman In Black has snatched its third week at the top of the UK box office. It has managed to gross over £15 million in the short time since it opened in cinemas and has now been certified the biggest selling horror film since records began twenty years ago.
It has already surpassed previous biggest films The Others, Shaun of The Dead, Interview With A Vampire and Bram Stoker's Dracula and sales are still solid. It has also racked up an impressive $50 million dollars (£31.4m) in the US in just 25 days of release. The film's total production budget was just $13 million (£8.2m).
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe leads the cast, no doubt helping increase the film's target audience, but it has also been well received by critics and audiences alike. He plays a grieving widower tormented by a mysterious ghost and the film marks the return of successful 1970s film studio Hammer Film Productions who have produced it. The film version also stars Janet McTeer, Ciaran Hinds and the lead actress in recent surprise TV smash Call The Midwife, Jessica Raine. The film adaptation was penned by Jonathan Ross' wife Jane Goldman.
Word of mouth about the film has also had a dramatic knock on effect on sales for the West End version of the original play, currently showing at the Fortune Theatre . The show has been in residence there since 1989 after transferring from the Stephen Joseph Theatre-In-The-Round in Scarborough where it opened in 1987. It is the second longest running play in West End history after The Mousetrap. The stage version was adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from Susan Hill's 1983 horror fiction novel of the same name.
Book Woman In Black tickets online now.