| Paddington in Peru | |
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 UK theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Dougal Wilson |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by |
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| Based on | Paddington Bear byMichael Bond |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Erik Wilson |
| Edited by | Úna Ní Dhonghaíle |
| Music by | Dario Marianelli |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 106 minutes[1] |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $75–90 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $192.1 million[4][5] |
Paddington in Peru is a 2024live-action animatedadventurecomedy film directed byDougal Wilson and written byMark Burton, Jon Foster, andJames Lamont. It is the third installment in thePaddington film series, which are based on thePaddington stories byMichael Bond. The film starsHugh Bonneville,Emily Mortimer,Julie Walters,Olivia Colman,Antonio Banderas andBen Whishaw as the voice of Paddington. The film sees the Brown family travelling through the Peruvian jungle to find Paddington's aunt Lucy.
The film entered development in February 2021, and the titlePaddington in Peru was announced in June 2022. It is the feature film debut of Wilson.Principal photography took place between July and October 2023, in the United Kingdom, Colombia and Peru.
Paddington in Peru was released in cinemas in the United Kingdom byStudioCanal on 8 November 2024. It grossed $192 million and received positive reviews from critics. A fourth film is in development.[6]
Paddington receives a letter from the Home for Retired Bears inPeru, informing him that his aunt Lucy deeply misses him and is acting strangely, so Paddington and his adopted family, the Browns, decide to travel to Peru to visit her. Upon arrival, the Browns learn from the Reverend Mother that Lucy has gone missing in thejungle, leaving behind only her glasses and her bracelet. Paddington finds a map in Lucy's cabin indicating that they should start their search at a place called Rumi Rock; Mrs. Bird and the Reverend Mother stay behind and the Reverend Mother gives Mrs. Brown a pendant for good luck.
The Browns look to hire a boat to travel down the river, meeting riverboat captain Hunter Cabot and his daughter Gina. Hunter notices Paddington's bracelet and informs the family of thelost city ofEl Dorado, a mythical place that is said to contain the gold offered byancient Peruvians to the jungle spirits; travellers in search of El Dorado typically begin their searches at Rumi Rock, but do not return alive. Hunter is driven by the ghosts of his ancestors to find gold at any cost and wishes to hijack the trip to find El Dorado himself; he and Gina argue about continuing the journey, with Gina wanting him to turn back. In response, Hunter throws Gina off, but then falls overboard himself, causing the boat toshipwreck.
Paddington gets separated from the family and stumbles upon Rumi Rock, where he finds Hunter waiting for him. Following roars that Paddington believes are calls and responses from himself and Lucy, Hunter and Paddington duly set off in search of El Dorado and Lucy. Gina locates the Browns and explains her father's motivations and family history; they set out to find Paddington and save him from Hunter. Mrs. Bird grows suspicious of the Reverend Mother and discovers a secret room where she reveals that the pendant that she gave to Mrs. Brown is actually a tracker. Now knowing their location, Mrs Bird and the Reverend Mother fly a plane to rescue the Browns.
After reaching the summit of an Incan fort, which contains a coin slot for an emblem on Paddington's bracelet, Hunter attacks and chases Paddington, but the Browns arrive just in time to save him. The Reverend Mother reveals herself to be Clarissa Cabot, Hunter's long-lost cousin who was thought to be deceased, also wishing to find El Dorado. Clarissa reveals that she staged Lucy's disappearance to entice Paddington to come to Peru, and then holds the Browns and Gina at gunpoint, but Hunter intervenes by incapacitating Clarissa, thus removing his visions of his ancestors. The Browns use Paddington's bracelet to enter El Dorado, where they find Lucy, who explains that El Dorado is anorangery where Paddington was born and that her bracelet was originally Paddington's when she found him, used by the bears of El Dorado. Paddington bonds with the other bears makingmarmalade, but he chooses to return to London with the Browns.
In the aftermath, Hunter reconciles with Gina and gives up his obsession for gold, Clarissa is sent to theNorth Pole to become a real nun and work at the Home for RetiredPolar Bears, much to her dismay, and several El Dorado bears visit Paddington in London and are named after other London rail stations. Paddington and the bears visit Phoenix Buchanan in prison, where Buchanan, believing that he will soon be released, plans a production of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" starring the El Dorado bears.
Hugh Grant (credited as Phoenix Buchanan) reprises his role from thesecond film as Phoenix Buchanan in acameo appearance.[7]
In June 2016, the then StudioCanal CEODidier Lupfer [fr] stated that the studio was committed to making a thirdPaddington film.[8] In November 2017,David Heyman toldDigital Spy that though the script for a third film had not been developed, discussions about locations, ideas and scenes had already begun.[9] In November 2018, Heyman noted that a third film was likely to happen, but thatPaul King would not be back to direct, though he would still be involved in a prominent creative capacity.[10] In February 2021,Paddington 3 officially began development.[11]
In July 2021, StudioCanal announced thatPaddington 3 would begin shooting in the first quarter of 2022. The story for the third film was written by King,Simon Farnaby, andMark Burton, and the screenplay by Burton, Jon Foster andJames Lamont.[12] The story was influenced by theWerner Herzog filmsAguirre, the Wrath of God andFitzcarraldo, due to such films showcasingPeru's incredible variety of landscapes, crazy geology, friendly people and its mysteriousInca mythology, with a Peruvian legend underlying the whole plot and the characters donning traditional-looking clothes in the ruralAndes despite contending with modernmopeds andmobile phones.[13] In June 2022, the film's titlePaddington in Peru andDougal Wilson as director were announced, withprincipal photography now set to begin 2023. It is the feature film directorial debut of Wilson, who previously directed commercials and music videos.[14] In February 2023,Paddington voice actorBen Whishaw stated that he had yet to read a script and was unsure whether development was continuing.[15] By April, the film was confirmed to still be in development.[16]
In June, it was announced that Whishaw,Hugh Bonneville,Julie Walters,Jim Broadbent,Madeleine Harris,Samuel Joslin andImelda Staunton were set to reprise their roles from the previous films, withOlivia Colman,Antonio Banderas,Rachel Zegler andEmily Mortimer added to the cast. Mortimer replacedSally Hawkins who played Mrs Brown in the first two films.[17][18]
Filming commenced in the United Kingdom on 24 July as planned,[19] despite reports that it was delayed due to the2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[20] The film was also shot in Colombia and Peru. Filming began without Zegler as she had left for the United States to participate in picketing during the strike;[19][21] Carla Tous later took over the role of Gina Cabot, as Zegler was unable to commit due to the strike.[22] Filming was completed in October 2023.[23]
Queen Elizabeth II briefly appears in the film in a framed photograph with Paddington, taken from the short film featuring the two produced for thePlatinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.[24][7]Michael Bond also appears briefly on a stamp in a letter Paddington receives at the start of the film.
Hugh Grant reprised hisPaddington 2 role of Phoenix Buchanan in apost-credits scene due to Wilson, while acknowledging he couldn't be in the film's story due to the setting, and the crew loving him and feeling it was a "Paddington thing" to do for the title character to forgive Buchanan. Grant loved the idea and helped them write the scene.[25]
Visual effects for the film were provided byFramestore.[26] The music was composed byDario Marianelli, who previously composed the score for the second film.[27]
In a brand tie-in,Jo Malone released a limited edition Paddington-themed marmalade cologne in early July 2024.[28]
The song "Adventure" byYoasobi was used as the theme song for the Japanese release of the film.[29][30]
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A series of Paddington statues were placed across parts of the UK and Ireland from early October to promote the film.[31][32] This initially took place in 23 locations.[33]
In the early hours of 2 March 2025 on Northbrook Street inNewbury, Berkshire, the home town of Michael Bond, the front half of one of these statues was removed from its bench by Daniel Heath and William Lawrence, engineers who had been based atRAF Odiham. They took the half of the statue back to the base in a taxi, temporarily posting it onFacebook Marketplace before hiding it in Lawrence's car where it was found by police. The half of Paddington on the bench was covered, partly to prevent it upsetting children. At Heath and Lawrence's trial, the judge said their actions were "the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for." They were ordered to carry out unpaid work and each pay £2,725 to cover repair costs.[34][35]
Paddington in Peru had its world premiere in London on 3 November 2024,[36] and was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 8 November.[37] It was originally set to be released in the United States and other territories on 17 January 2025,[38] until it was delayed in the United States to 14 February.[39]
In May 2023,StudioCanal sold a majority of territories including North America toSony Pictures for distribution. StudioCanal holds the distribution rights for the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, the Benelux and Poland, while Sony will distribute the film elsewhere except for China, Japan and Russia.[40][41]
Paddington in Peru grossed $45.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $146.4 million in other territories (including $48.2 million in the United Kingdom), for a worldwide total of $192.1 million.[4][5]
In the United Kingdom,Paddington in Peru had the biggest opening weekend for a British film sinceNo Time to Die in 2021, earning £9.65 million ($12.4 million), the highest opening ofthe franchise.[42] Additionally, the film had the third highest UK opening of 2024, behindDeadpool & Wolverine (£17.2 million) andInside Out 2 (£11.3 million).[42]
In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongsideCaptain America: Brave New World and was projected to gross $15–17 million from 3,890 theaters in its four-day opening weekend.[3] The film made $5.1 million on its first day, including $600,000 from Thursday previews. It went on to debut to $13 million (and a total of $16 million over the four days), finishing second behindBrave New World.[43] In its second weekend the film made $6.5 million (a drop of 49%), finishing in third.[44] It dropped out of the box office top ten in its sixth weekend.[45]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 93% of 189 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Paddington in Peru whisks away cinema's politest bear to a fresh setting under new creative stewardship, delivering a most agreeable adventure for the whole family."[46]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[47] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, the same as the first two films, whilePostTrak reported an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars.[48]
Peter Bradshaw ofThe Guardian awarded the film 3 stars out of 5 while stating: "This Paddington threequel is a perfectly decent bet for the holidays, and never anything other than entertaining, but the gag density has thinned out and removing Paddington fromBlighty, though making perfect narrative and dramatic sense, and in tune with the franchise's admirable opposition to parochialism and xenophobia, is a slightlyshark-jumping move, like a special episode of a TVsitcom that takes the cast to theCosta del Sol."[49]
Stewart Heritage inThe Guardian considered the film, compared to earlier Paddington films, "a bit of a damp squib ... [but] leagues better than any of the recent live-action Disney remakes". He commented that there was a moment where the film "touched greatness", a mid-credit sequence where a huge number of bears introduce themselves to Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant). According to the film's director, Grant wrote much of that scene himself. Heritage commented that Grant (a former writer of radio advertisements) has written several scenes in films he appeared in, very successfully.[50]
During the Brand Licensing Europe 2024 convention in London, Canal+ announced it was working on a fourthPaddington film, estimated to be released in 2027 or 2028.[6]
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