Weekend box-office – 27th of December 2014 to 9th of January 2015 – will the Five Armies battle off competition?

We weren’t here last week so we’ll be covering the past two weeks of box-office results. So far, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings/Hobbit films have been a financial phenomena, reaching the combined takings of nearly $5 billion but there’s was an evident slip up between An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug. The Battle of the Five Armies is billed as the defining chapter of the series but it might not be destined for the same commercial glory as it’s heading up the competition of musical remake Annie and fantasy sequel Night at the Museum 3. Last week, we predicted it’d top the chart but let’s see what went down in the past two weeks.

US:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Director: Peter Jackson – $54.7 million
2. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – Shawn Levy – $17.1 million
3. Annie – Will Gluck – $15.9 million
4. Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott – $8.1 million
5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – $7.9 million

UK:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson – £5.4 million
2. Paddington – Paul King – £2.5 million
3. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – Shawn Levy – £1.9 million
4. Dumb and Dumber To – Bob and Peter Farrelly – £1.8 million
5. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith – £0.7 million

And here’s the results for the second week.

US:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson – $40.9 million
2. Into the Woods – Rob Marshall – $31.1 million
3. Unbroken – Angelina Jolie – $30.6 million
4. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – Shawn Levy – $20.2 million
5. Annie – Will Gluck – $16.5 million

UK:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson – £4.2 million
2. Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott – £2.6 million
3. Paddington – Paul King – £2.6 million
4. Annie – Will Gluck – £2.3 million
5. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – Shawn Levy – £1.6 million

While these figures do appear disappointing (and they are a major step down from previous instalments), the Hobbit films this succeeds both had pre-Christmas releases. During the holidays, there’s no rush to see new releases at the weekend so this conclusion to the series will still be raking in cash mid-week. Unbroken and Into the Woods’ $30 million+ entries are promising. Night at the Museum and Annie had seemingly crushing openings but they’ve somehow increased takings in Week Two. Biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings too had similar concerns but it has stills reached global grossings of $150 million and out to regain double its budget, eventually.

Here are our predictions for next week.

US:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson
2. The Woman in Black: Angel of Death – Tom Harper
3. Into the Woods – Rob Marshall
4. Unbroken – Angelina Jolie
5. The Gambler – Rupert Wyatt

UK:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson
2. The Woman In Black: Angel of Death – Tom Harper
3. Birdman – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
4. Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott
5. Paddington – Paul King

Evangeline Lilly and Orlando Bloom in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, this week’s US and UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 20th to 26th of December 2014 – will Exodus evict Hunger Games?

Following the classics Blade Runner, Alien and Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s more recent financial success has varied. Both action epic Robin Hood’s mediocre takings of $320 million and crime thriller The Counselor’s measly $70 million but Prometheus ($400 million) proves the seventy seven year old Brit’s staying power in cinema. His new star studded biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings has clocked a budget of $140 million so it’ll be a major feat to reflect success in that. Its week of release sees it battling few other competitors but that may not guarantee its own success. We predicted its triumph last week but let’s discover what really happened.

US:

1. Exodus: Gods and Kings – Director: Ridley Scott – $24.1 million
2. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – $12.7 million
3. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith – $7.2 million
4. Top Five – Chris Rock – $6.9 million
5. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams – $6.1 million

UK:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson – £9.8 million
2. Paddington – Paul King – £2.9 million
3. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – £1.1 million
4. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith – £1.1 million
5. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum – £0.5 million

Exodus’ debut is by no means a flop but this certainly is sub-par; hopes of crossing the $300 million threshold aren’t promising. Comedy Top Five, directed by and starring Chris Rock, is the only new entry of the week. In the UK, The Hobbit’s final instalment The Battle of the Five Armies makes its debut and has marginally surpassed The Desolation of Smaug’s takings. This is a greatly pleasing sign ahead of its US release. Paddington, Hunger Games 4 and The Imitation Game all slip places. This week I’ve scored an impressive 7/10.

US:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson
2. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – Shawn Levy
3. Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott
4. Annie – Will Gluck
5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

UK:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson
2. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – Shawn Levy
3. Dumb and Dumber To – Bob and Peter Farrelly
4. Paddington – Paul King
5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence

Christian Bale in Exodus: Gods and Kings, this week’s US number one.

Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, this week’s UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 29th of November to 5th of December 2014 – will the Mockingjay soar to victory?

With the year drawing to a close, Michael Bay’s sci-fi sequel Transformers: Age of Extinction is still the leader of the pack in the year’s highest grossing films, despite its critical thrashing. Space exploration epic Interstellar slightly missed the financial mark a couple of weeks ago, beaten off by Disney animation Big Hero 6, and likely won’t pose a threat to Bay. The third Hobbit instalment is on the way but the production most likely to knock it off the top spot is Mockingjay, the penultimate Hunger Games film. After Catching Fire’s $850 million takings last year, big things are expected. Last week’s predictions followed suit but let’s see what goes down.

US:

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Director: Francis Lawrence – $121.9 million
2. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams – $20.1 million
3. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – $15.3 million
4. Dumb and Dumber To – Bob and Peter Farrelly – $14.1 million
5. Gone Girl – David Fincher – $2.8 million

UK:

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – £12.7 million
2. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum – £2.1 million
3. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – £2 million
4. Nativity 3: Dude Where’s My Donkey – Debbie Isitt – £1.5 million
5. Mr Turner – Mike Leigh – £0.4 million

Unsurprisingly, Mockinjay has made the US’ biggest opening weekend of the year but this is actually a franchise low (The Hunger Games made $152 million; Catching Fire was $158 million). These figures are hardly disappointing but they still call to question what went wrong: the awkward November release date seems unlikely as Catching Fire performed better in the same conditions. Maybe the mix bag of reviews threw off some of the non-die hard fans. If it tracks anything like the previous instalment it’ll have hit big but won’t have the same successful longevity as Guardians of the Galaxy and’ll halt before the $900 million mark.

Both Big Hero 6 and Interstellar have held their ground while crass comedy sequel Dumb and Dumber To makes a massive drop from first to fourth. In the UK, Mockingjay has made a similarly stunning debut. Wartime drama The Imitation Game retains second place and Interstellar slips to third place. This week I’ve scored a poor 2/10.

US:

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
2. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith
3. Horrible Bosses 2 – Sean Anders
4. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
5. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams

UK:

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
2. Paddington – Paul King
3. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
4. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum
5. Horrible Bosses 2 – Sean Anders

Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, this week’s US and UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 22nd to 28th of November 2014 – will Interstellar outsmart Dumb and Dumber To?

Christopher Nolan’s intended Zeitgeist event movie Interstellar arrive to a hefty but muted $50 million debut last week having lost out to Disney’s animation Big Hero 6. The mammoth runtime and complex science may have alienated audiences, the same ones who’ll enjoy the light relief of comedy sequel Dumb and Dumber To. We did predict last week that Dumber would succeed but the twenty year gap between this and the original is going to be a strain.

US:

1. Dumb and Dumber To – Directors: Bob and Peter Farrelly – $36.1 million
2. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams – $34.7 million
3. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – $28.3 million
4. Beyond the Lights – Gina Prince Bythewood – $6.2 million
5. Gone Girl – David Fincher – $4.6 million

UK:

1. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – £3.8 million
2. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum – £2.7 million
3. Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey – Debbie Isitt – £1.8 million
4. Mr Turner – Mike Leigh – £0.7 million
5. The Drop – Michael R Roskam – £6.3 million

Dumber To has won out in a fairly quiet week at the American box-office while Interstellar is well on its way to $100+ million domestically. New drama Beyond the lights makes a surprise entry at four. Nolan’s sci-fi has also held its ground impressively in the UK, against Benedict Cumberbatch’s wartime biopic The Imitation Game, maligned festive sequel Nativity 3 and well performing Tom Hardy thriller The Drop. This week I score 4/10.

US:

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
2. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
3. Dumb and Dumber To – Bob and Peter Farrelly
4. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams
5. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum

UK:

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
2. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
3. Get on Up – Tate Taylor
4. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum
5. What We Do in the Shadows – Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi

Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber To, this week’s US number one.

Matthew MacConaughey in Interstellar, this week’s UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 15th to 21st of November 2014 – will Nolan journey to victory with Interstellar?

In this decade Christopher Nolan has become of master of the epic event movie. Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception and The Dark Knight Rises are among some of the most acclaimed films of all time and the latter three grossed around $3 billion between them. Nolan’s new work, a space exploration blockbuster titled Interstellar with an all star cast led by Matthew MacConaughey and Anne Hathaway, should therefore be a commercial goldmine but a 170 minute runtime and the complications of modern physics might be enough to throw off mainstream American audiences, who may well opt for Disney’s charming new animation Big Hero 6. Last week we suspected that Nolan would we but we’d better see what occurs at the box-office.

US:

1. Big Hero 6 – Director: Don Hall, Chris Williams – $56.2 million
2. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – $47.5 million
3. Gone Girl – David Fincher – $6.2 million
4. Ouija – Stiles White $5.9 million
5. Fury – David Ayer – $5.6 million

UK:

1. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – £5.4 million
2. Mr Turner – Mike Leigh – £1 million
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman – £0.7 million
4. Gone Girl – David Fincher – £0.7 million
5. Fury – David Fincher – £0.7 million

Nolan’s work has arrived in second but still with a greatly healthy $50 million. Based on this, it ought to surpass $500 million worldwide. Disney’s follow up to the billion dollar Frozen has won the weekend but I think will eventually lose to Interstellar. Gone Girl has leapt up a place and taken its total to over $300 million globally. This week has proved that the UK might be less alienated by Interstellar’s advanced scientific themes but it’s most surprising that biopic Mr Turner has risen to second place after a bumpy start last week. This week I’ve scored 3/10.

US:

1. Dumb and Dumber To – Bob and Peter Farrelly
2. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
3. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams
4. Foxcatcher – Bennett Miller
5. Gone Girl – David Fincher

UK:

1. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan
2. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum
3. Mr Turner – Mike Leigh
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman
5. Gone Girl – David Fincher

The characters of Scott Adsit and Ryan Potter in Big Hero 6, this week’s US number one.

Matthew MacConaughey, Anne Hathaway and David Gyasi in Interstellar, this week’s UK number one.

Avengers: Age of Ultron teaser, Goyer speaks about Batman vs. Superman, Lawrence to cameo in Dumb and Transformers 4 pic

You’re likely to have been following the recent movie studio war between Marvel and DC. The latter had a major victory with Christopher Nolan’s brilliant Dark Knight trilogy. The Dark Knight and TDK Rises both made over a billion dollars and were critical successes but things turned around in the last 12 months or so. The last two Marvel films (Joss Whedon’s Avengers Assemble in 2012 and Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 this year) both reached the $1 billion mark and are the 3rd and 5th highest grossing films of all time while DC and Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel reached a largely impressive but not record breaking $662 million. Both of the cinematic franchises are lining up a film for 2015 that’ll most likely be the biggest yet for both of them. Today’s two major news stories are investigating those two films: The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Batman vs. Superman.

First, it’s off to the stellar cast of Age of Ultron: Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Aaron Taylor Johnson (Quicksilver), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Cobie Smulders (Agent Maria Hill), Samuel L Jackson (Nick Fury), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and James Spader (Ultron) plus rumoured stars that could reprise their roles Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Clark Gregg (Agent Phil Coulson) and Anthony Mackie (Falcon). We’ve finally been allowed to get the trailer for Joss Whedon’s superhero sequel. It was first aired at this summer’s 2013 San Diego Comic-Con but the deal with promoting a project at SDCC is that it’s exclusive to the fans that go and not, until months after, available to those who didn’t attend. Our Avengers 2 preview is a little spoilerific on the front of Iron Man 3 so don’t read on in case you haven’t caught up with the latest Marvel/Disney adventure.

Filming for Ultron doesn’t begin until February next year so this trailer is more of a mood piece than anything else but it does give us more of a glimpse at the plot. In the comics, Ultron is the accidental creation of Ant-Man/Hank Pym but Joss Whedon and Marvel Films president Kevin Feige have stepped out to say that Pym doesn’t feature in their story and we won’t see him until Edgar Wright releases his action sci-fi Ant-Man (July 31st 2015). We could expect a big reveal moment for Pym in one of Marvel’s trademark post-credit sequences but their going to have to adjust Ultron’s sinister origin. The trailer shows an Iron Man helmet being dented, smashed and scorched until it forms the head of Ultron. It’s probably metaphorical but, after Tony’s retirement in Iron Man 3, Stark may still be tinkering in secret with his many contraptions. I’m guessing that one becomes the megalomaniac and robotic Ultron. This inspires Stark to build a new suit and reunite with the rest of the Avengers in order to destroy Ultron before he does the same to the world.

David S. Goyer is the genius behind the scripts and stories of The Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel and Blade and his hoping to transfer all that superhero goodness into Zack Snyder’s DC mash-ups: Batman vs. Superman and Justice League. We don’t know anything about the latter but the former is something a bit closer on our radar. Ben Affleck (Batman), Henry Cavill (Superman), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Laurence Fishburne (Perry White) and Diane Lane (Martha Kent) are all set to star and Goyer has spoken out.

“One of the things that’s been fun for us is we’re a bit further along than I think people realise.” So, a story of sorts must be in place and he could be referring to that they’re far enough along to be thinking about Justice League. On the subject of fan pressure from the millions of Bat-fan’s out there, he says “We’re conscious of the fan point of view when we’re working on these things but you can’t let yourself be paralysed by that. At the end of the day you still have to create something, and if you try to think about what the fans would like, you stop being creative. It’s sort of like, where does it end? You have to write the story that you want to write and hope that people want to see it.”

We’ve got a couple of news snippets just to finish off. We’ve got confirmation that Oscar winning The Hunger Games, Winter’s Bone and Silver Linings Playbook star Jennifer Lawrence will cameo in Dumb and Dumber To. Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne will be returning with their original stars (Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels) and original directors (the Farrelly brothers) for the sequel that’s now got some surprise guests. Jennifer Lawrence will be in a fairly limited supporting role, the younger version of Kathleen Turner’s character. Rob Riggle (The Hangover, 21 Jump Street) will also appear as a pair of twins.

Finally, Transformers: Age of Extinction has unveiled a still from the film. Mark Wahlberg, Jack Reynor and Nicola Peltz all star in this first new shot from the fourth instalment in Michael Bay’s mega-franchise. Find out more in our 2014 Future Films preview page. By for now!

The Avengers: Age of Ultron – May 1st 2015

Batman vs. Superman – July 17th 2015

Ant-Man – July 31st 2015

Dumb and Dumber To – late 2014

Transformers: Age of Extinction – July 10th 2014

Jim Carrey shows Dumb and Dumber To pic, Pitt on World War z sequels and Josh Brolin came close to Batman

First there was Dumb and Dumber, an above average comedy with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in roles that, originally, were to be played by Nick Cage and Gary Oldman. Harry and Lloyd returned in the ill fated sequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd which completely dumped the original actors resulting in a mess of a film. Now a third attempt and appeared to win back fans of the series. Dumb and Dumber To seems to be forgetting that Dumberer ever happened in a plot that involves both Christmas and Dunne travelling the country looking for someone that they can get a new kidney from.

Jim Carrey has posted up a first pic of preparation for a film we can only now confirm is greenlighted. Shooting will begin in 15 days from now and here’s the toothy pic.

Brad Pitt’s zombie epic World War Z was predicted to be a flop. The press attempted to confirm as the biggest flop of the summer before it was even released. Indeed it was doomed to fail after so many writers were brought in to find a suitable ending, multiple endings were shot and only one chosen in the editing room and the budget eventually ballooned up to $190 million with even more spent on marketing. Suddenly, things turned around. The decent reviews prompted excellent takings reaching $536 million. A sequel is most likely on the cards.

“We’re certainly talking about it, yes,” Brad Pitt tells Variety. “We have so many ideas on the table from the time we spent developing this thing and figuring out how the zombie worlds work. We gotta get the script right first to determine if we go further.”

Ben Affleck’s Batman casting didn’t spark as love for Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel sequel as much as either would of wanted. Josh Brolin was the favourite for the former half of Batman vs. Superman and it’s now confirmed that Brolin was approached by Snyder for the role of The Dark Knight.

On the subject of the controversy of “Batfleck” who we now know wasn’t Snyder and team’s first choice, he said “I’ve never seen such a global reaction in my life. I feel for him, truly. I would not want to be him right now. The reaction becomes so personal. It’s like “I wish he was dead.” And you’re like, ‘What? Dude, seriously? This guy is just working like you are. He’s doing the same thing you are. He’s trying to make the best choices he can.”

Please comment your opinions on Batfleck and Dumb and Dumber To. What should the next World War Z by called? Current favourites are World War O (followed by the sequels O, M, B, I, E)

Dumb and Dumber To has no announced release date but will most likely come out for the 20th anniversary in 2014

World War Z 2 could be out 2016

Batman vs. Superman is out July 17th 2015