Weekend box-office – 13th to 19th of September 2014 – can Guardians continue box-office reign?

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy completely conquered the fairly barren month of August and is now continuing its run into the early autumn. This week the sci-fi phenomenon is competing for its fourth week on top of the box office and once more there’s very little competition. To its credit it’s capitalising on a surprising financial slump. Meanwhile in the UK, comedic box-office disappointment Sex Tape makes its debut, hoping for a much needed recovery. Find last week’s predictions here.

US:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – Director: James Gunn – $10.2 million
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman – $6.5 million
3. If I Stay – RJ Cutler – $5.7 million
4. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield – $5.4 million
5. The November Man – Roger Donaldson – $4.2 million

UK:

1. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan – £1.4 million
2. Lucy – Luc Besson – £1.2 million
3. Before I Go to Sleep – Rowan Joffe – £0.8 million
4. The Hundred Foot Journey – Lasse Halstrom – £0.7 million
5. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – £0.7 million

The Guardians have done what no film this year has done: four weeks at the number one spot at the US box office, defying the worry that it’d be Marvel’s undoing. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is continuing impressive form while Let’s Be Cops is proving to be a sleeper hit. Pierce Brosnan’s spy thriller The November Man was intended to be a franchise starter but these numbers go against its favour. The UK saw three new entries, of which Sex Tape is number one. The film’ll be pleased with these statistics but it’ll hardly lift the spirits of a dismal box-office run. Star studded drama thriller Before I Go to Sleep has received a fairly mediocre reception also. This week I’ve scored a disappointing 3/10.

US:

1. Dolphin Tale 2 – Charles Martin Smith
2. No Good Deed – Sam Miller
3. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman
5. If I Stay – RJ Cutler

UK:

1. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi
2. Pride – Matthew Warchus
3. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan
4. Lucy – Luc Besson
5. A Most Wanted Man – Anton Corbijn

Zoe Saldana and Benicio Del Toro in Guardians of the Galaxy, this week’s US number one.

Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel in Sex Tape, this week’s UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 3rd to 9th of May 2014 – can Marvel’s Spider-Man and Winter Soldier hold off The Other Woman?

This week, two of Marvel’s blockbusters are the targets of feminised revenge comedy The Other Woman. Last week, we boldly predicted that thriller Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which has been kicking around a good few weeks, would slip down a place in the US but the more recent Amazing Spider-Man 2 would hold off the competition in the UK. Meanwhile sci-fi commercial flop Transcendence is attempting to regain some success after its initial flop.

US:

1. The Other Woman – Director: Nick Cassavetes – $24.8 million
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo – $16.2 million
3. Heaven if For Real – Randall Wallace – $14.4 million
4. Rio 2 – Carlos Saldanha – $13.9 million
5. Brick Mansions – Camille Delamarre – $9.5 million

UK

1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Marc Webb – £3.4 million
2. The Other Woman – Nick Cassavetes – £2.7 million
3. Transcendence – Wally Pfister – £1.2 million
4. Rio 2 – Carlos Saldanha – £0.9 million
5. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo – £0.6 million

The Other Woman has debuted modestly and it’ll likely surpass $100 million worldwide but these statistics are hardly breakout comedy of the summer stuff, that title will likely go to Bad Neighbours, Tammy or A Million Ways to Die in the West. Captain America meanwhile has just reached the $650 million mark, just beating Thor: The Dark World’s total. The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s takings have dropped however, despite retaining the number one spot. Having scored 7/10, I’ve taken my running total to 125/260.

US:

1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Marc Webb
2. The Other Woman – Nick Cassavetes
3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo
4. Walk of Shame – Steven Brill
5. Heaven is for Real – Randall Wallace

UK:

1. Bad Neighbours – Nicholas Stoller
2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Marc Webb
3. Pompeii – Paul WS Anderson
4. Transcendence – Wally Pfister
5. Rio 2 – Carlos Saldanha

Dane DeHaan and Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, this week’s UK number one.

Leslie Mann, Cameron Diaz and Kate Upton in The Other Woman, this week’s US number one.

Wallace, Foxx and Diaz in first trailer for Annie and new Captain America 2 posters

Will Gluck’s remake of the classic musical has taken leaps in development today with the first poster (above) and trailer released. If you’re unfamiliar with the original, it sees a young orphan rescued from her monstrous foster Mrs Hannigan by a vastly wealthy businessman. Combine the love for the original and director Gluck’s comic talent showcased in Easy A with the big names of stars Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild, 12 Years a Slave), Jamie Foxx (Ray, Django Unchained), Cameron Diaz (Gangs of New York, Shrek), Bobby Cannavale (Broadwalk Empire), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Thor: The Dark World) and Rose Byrne (X-Men: First Class) and producers Will Smith and Jay Z, we should be in for a big hit.

This month’s biggest release is undoubtedly Marvel’s new thriller Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Today, Sebastian Stan’s titular villain joined the likes of Chris Evans’ Cap, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury and Anthony Mackie’s Falcon as the stars with their own banners for the film. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo also direct Robert Redford, Toby Jones, Hayley Attwell, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily Van Camp and Dominic Cooper.

Annie – February 6th 2015

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – March 28th

Tuorhoth’s first predictions for the 2014 Academy Awards

October and November are seeing the releases of some of the huge contenders for the Oscars next year well before award season has begun. We’ve no idea how well any of these films are going to do critically seeing as none of them have actually been released to mainstream audiences. This isn’t an award by award breakdown but we’re giving you a brief guide as to what could be nominated in “the big six” awards at world’s biggest annual movie event. I’m also ranking the potential nominees by their likelihood of winning by colour: red means most likely to win, blue means second most likely and green means I’ve ranked them third.

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett – The Monuments Men

Cameron Diaz – The Counsellor

Julianne Moore – Carrie

Michelle Pfeiffer – The Family

Kristen Wiig – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips

Benedict Cumberbatch – 12 Years A Slave

Jean Dujardin – The Monuments Men

Jonah Hill – The Wolf of Wall Street

Tommy Lee Jones – The Family

Best Leading Actress

Sandra Bullock – Gravity

Nicole Kidman – Grace of Monaco

Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Chloe Grace Moretz – Carrie

Emma Thompson – Saving Mr. Banks

Best Leading Actor

George Clooney – Gravity

Steve Coogan – Philomena

Leonardo di Caprio – The Wolf of Wall Street

Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips or Saving Mr. Banks (undecided)

Ben Stiller – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Director

Alfonso Cauron – Gravity

George Clooney – The Monuments Men

Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips

Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street

Ben Stiller – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Picture

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

The Counsellor

Gravity

The Monuments Men

Out of the Furnace

Saving Mr. Banks

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Wolf of Wall Street

So, these are my beginning of season suggestions for who will be nominated at this prestigious event. We’re now going to talk through those films and actors that I haven’t included but could be major contenders. There’s a huge cast for The Monuments Men which I haven’t fully gone over. I’ve put George Clooney, who I’ve already selected for Best Director for this film, in for Best Leading Actor for Gravity not The MM but he could easily win for both. Stars of The Monuments Men like Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Hugh Bonneville and Bob Balaban could squeeze into the supporting actor position that I placed Dujardin in. Dujardin is already popular with the academy after his Lead Actor win in 2012 for The Artist and as likely could get a nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street instead of The Monuments Men.

Wolf of Wall Street could do very well. Jonah Hill may seem like a surprise nominee but remember that he got similar recognition at the 2012 Oscars for Moneyball. I’ve only put Nicole Kidman forward for this film but Grace of Monaco is a noteworthy contender for a Best Pic nomination. American Hustle is only in one award on my list but the stellar cast of Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence (whose already in for Hunger Games 2), Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale. I think it will win Best Original Screenplay however.

Other potential nominees are the aforementioned Bale for Out of the Furnace, for which Casey Affleck and Zoe Saldana could also be in contention. Dame Judi Dench could get into the actress categories for Philomena. Robert De Niro stars in both American Hustle and The Family and could crack into the shortlists. Colin Farrel and Paul Giamatti came close to my lists for Saving Mr. Banks. 12 Years A Slave could through in Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano and Quvenzhane Wallis back into the award scene while The Counsellor could do the same for Fassbender, Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem as well as it’s director Sir Ridley Scott. We can’t rule out other entries like All is Lost with Robert Redford, The Book Thief with Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson or Inside Llewyn Davis (the Coen brothers’ folk tale with Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan). Spike Lee’s mysterious action remake Oldboy could creep in with it’s stars Josh Brolin, Samuel L Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen, Hannah Simone and Sharlto Copley.

It’s not too late to remove this year’s earlier hits like The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann directing Leonardo di Caprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton), Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen directing Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin), Prisoners (Hugh Jackman, Paul Dano, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard and Jake Gyllenhaal in the directing of Denis Villeneuve) and Rush (Ron Howard’s biopic with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl). Blockbuster action films like the upcoming The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Ender’s Game or 47 Ronin have been known to do well as the Oscars (see The Dark Knight, Inception and a few others) and there’s usually a surprise foreign language film in the mix (like Amour). There’s a whole variety of films that could be next year’s nominees but I think the leaders are: Gravity, Captain Phillips, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Monuments Men and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Find out more about these films at our Future Films pages for 2013 and 2014.

The 86th Academy Awards will be hosted by Ellen De Generes and will be on ABC on March 2nd 2014

Tell us in the comments who YOU think will win big at the 2014 Oscars.