Weekend box-office – 12th to 19th of November 2013 – will Best Man creep up on Thor and can Gravity defy The Butler

Last week’s predictions weren’t horrific but I do hope to get my total up again. This weeks results don’t see too much change at the top due to a lack of successful new releases but there’s a couple of fresh faces in the current box office.

US

1. Thor: The Dark World – Director: Alan Taylor – $38.5 million
2. The Best Man Holiday – Malcom D. Lee – $30.6 million
3. Last Vegas – Jon Turteltaub – $8.9 million
4. Free Birds – Jimmy Hayward – $8.3 million
5. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Jeff Tremaine – $7.7 million

UK

1. Gravity – Alfonso Cauron – £4.8 million
2. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor – £1.8 million
3. Philomena – Stephen Frears – £1 million
4. The Counsellor – Ridley Scott – £0.81 million
5. The Butler – Lee Daniels – £0.8 million

I managed 2/5 in the US with only Thor and Best Man Holiday in the correct places. I had Free Birds and Bad Grandpa in there but in all the wrong positions. Alexander Payne’s Nebraska didn’t open particularly well. Place 1 and 4 were the only ones I predicted correctly in the UK taking this week’s total to 4/10. Philomena has held its own very well at the box office with finishing well above new releases like The Counsellor (4th), The Butler (5th), Don Jon (11th) and Dom Hemmingway (12th), the latter two of which opened poorly. Comedic animation Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 fell to 6th and tense thriller Captain Phillips sank to 7th while Ender’s Game dropped to a remarkably disappointing 14th. My predictions for next week are:

US

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Francis Lawrence
2. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor
3. The Best Man Holiday – Malcom D. Lee
4. Delivery Man – Ken Scott
5. Free Birds – Jimmy Hayward

UK

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Francis Lawrence
2. Gravity – Alfonso Cauron
3. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor
4. Philomena – Stephen Frears
5. The Butler – Lee Daniels

I think any new releases will be swamped down by The Hunger Games. Delivery Man is the new Vince Vaughn comedy which brings in brilliantly funny stars like Cobie Smulders and Chris Pratt so I predict a strong US opening. My current overall is 13/30 so I hope the aforementioned predictions are accurate. By for now.

Tom Hiddleston in Thor: The Dark World, this week’s US box office number one.

George Clooney in Gravity, this week’s UK box office number one.

Weekend box-office – 4th to 11th of November 2013 – can Thor fly to the top and can it defy Gravity?

There’s been two huge openings both sides of the Atlantic this week and they’ve both risen to the top of their respective charts, as I predicted last week. Let’s take a look at how I did in a week that looks like places 2 – 5 were decided by the flip of a coin in the US.

US

1. Thor: The Dark World – Director: Alan Taylor – $86.1 million
2. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Jeff Tremaine – $11.3 million
3. Free Birds – Jimmy Hayward – $11.2 million
4. Last Vegas – Jon Turteltaub – $11.1 million
5. Ender’s Game – Gavin Hood – £10.2 million

UK

1. Gravity – Alfonso Cauron – £6.2 milliom
2. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor – £2.9 million
3. Philomena – Stephen Frears – £1.4 million
4. Captain Phillips – Paul Greengrass – £1 million
5. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – Kodi Cameron, Kris Pearn – £0.9 million

Well, it seems I was a bit two optimistic about the more indie releases of About Time, The Book Thief and Parkland, none of which scratched either top 5. Only $1.2 million separated places 2 – 5 in the US. Ender’s Game has dropped dramatically while Free Birds has gone up a place, likely because we’re getting closer to Thanksgiving which is Free Birds’ theme. Philomena is holding much stronger than I thought it would. I had incorrectly predicted Last Vegas in it’s place last week as the latter has been pushed back to January next year. I scored a dismal 1/5 in the US and a non overwhelming 2/3 in the UK taking my total to a disappointing 3/10 but I’m new at this! Here’s what I feebly foresee for next week:

US

1. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor
2. The Best Man Holiday – Malcom D. Lee
3. Free Birds – Jimmy Hayward
4. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Jeff Tremaine
5. Nebraska – Alexander Payne

UK

1. Gravity – Alfonso Cauron
2. The Butler – Lee Daniels
3. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor
4. The Counsellor – Ridley Scott
5. Don Jon – Joseph Gordon Levitt

I’m hoping for more pleasing results next week. My current total is 9/20 so let’s see if I can take it up to over 50%. Find out next week, here on Tuorhoth Movies. There’s a whole quartet of major but not quite mainstream releases in the UK next week. They are The Butler, The Counsellor, Don Jon and Dom Hemmingway. I think that they’ll rank commercially as I just listed them.

Chris Hemsworth and Jaimie Alexander in Thor: The Dark World, the US number one.

Sandra Bullock in Gravity, the UK number one.

Weekend box-office results – 28th October to 3rd of November 2013 – will Thor 2 consumes Meatballs and Ender’s Game challenge Bad Grandpa?

We’re back with box office results on a Saturday for our 2nd week. Our predictions last week weren’t to far off this week. We’ve done excellently for the UK box office but we’re far off for America’s results.

US:

1. Ender’s Game – $28 million – Director: Gavin Hood
2. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – $20.5 million – Jeff Tremaine
3. Last Vegas – $16.5 million – Jon Turteltaub
4. Free Birds – $16.2 million – Jimmy Hayward
5. Gravity – $13.1 million – Alfonso Cauron

UK

1. Thor: The Dark World – £8.8 million – Alan Taylor
2. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – £2.0 million – Kody Cameron, Kris Pearn
3. Captain Phillips – £1.6 million – Paul Greengrass
4. Philomena – £1.5 million – Stephen Frears
5. Turbo – £1.6 million – David Soren

So I managed an impressive 4/5 for the UK. Bad Grandpa seems to have fallen quicker than I expected while Turbo has made a surprise re entry. Thor, as expected, and Philomena, perhaps not as expected, have opened extremely strong while Cloudy 2 and Captain Phillips have held there own, only slipping one place in the week of a huge release.

For the US, I got a disappointing 2/5, taking my total to 6/10 but this is my first time so that may be my batting average for the future. Ender’s Game has opened well but it’s not sequel worthy stuff, this amongst it’s disastrous 5th place debut in the UK last week. Bad Grandpa seems to be on it’s way to $100 million total with it’s very US edgy sense of comedy. Free Birds was the turkey, get it, I predicting and Gravity is falling, get it again, at a rapid rate at the moment but it opened with an astonishing word of mouth so everybody must of seen it by now. Here’s my predictions for next week; find out how I did next week!

UK

1. Gravity – Alfonso Cauron
2. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor
3. Last Vegas – Jon Turteltaub
4. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs – Kody Cameron, Kris Pearn
5. Parkland – Peter Landesman

US

1. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor
2. Ender’s Game – Gavin Hood
3. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Jeff Tremaine
4. The Book Thief – Brian Percival
5. About Time – Richard Curtis

Come back tomorrow for our review of Alfonso Cauron’s space set thriller Gravity and, if your after the latest box-office news, next week for the UK and US top 5s for 4th of November to the 11th.

Tom Hiddleston and Natalie Portman in Thor: The Dark World, the UK number one.

Asa Butterfield and  Harrison Ford in Ender’s Game, the US number one.

Sunday’s Blockbusters – 20th to 27th of October 2013 – will Gravity come down and can Captain Phillips see through Cloudy 2?

This is a brand new feature on Tuorhoth Movies which’ll tell you the box-office status from both sides of the Atlantic. It’s the top 5 for the UK and the US according to the BBC News reports. Remember that not all of these films were released at the same time so while Gravity is sitting near the top in America it’s absence in the UK is because it’s yet to be released, not because of it failing in Britain.

UK:

1. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – £3.65 million – Director(s): Kody Cameron, Kris Pearn
2. Captain Phillips – £2.44 million – Paul Greengrass
3. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – £1.94 million – Jeff Tremaine
4. Turbo – £1.32 million – David Soren
5. Ender’s Game – £1.15 million – Gavin Hood

US:

1. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – $32 million – Jeff Tremaine
2. Gravity – $20 million – Alfonso Cauron
3. Captain Phillips – $11.8 million – Paul Greengrass
4. The Counsellor – $8 million – Ridley Scott
5. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – $6.1 million – Kody Cameron, Kris Pearn

I must say that it’s a shock to see Ender’s Game at the bottom of the pile in the UK but it’s likely to have a better reception in the US next month. Cloudy 2 was received coldly by critics compared to the original but despite this it’s soared to a staggering $150 million worldwide gross. Gravity has only just been brought to Earth by Bad Grandpa as it’s been on top of the chart for the three weeks prior. It’s disappointing to see how quickly Carrie and Escape Plan have fallen out of the US’ top 5.

My predictions for next week are as follows:

US

1. Ender’s Game – Gavin Hood
2. Last Vegas – Jon Turteltaub
3. Gravity – Alfonso Cauron
4. Free Birds – Jimmy Hayward
5. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Jeff Tremaine

UK

1. Thor: The Dark World – Alan Taylor
2. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – Kody Cameron, Chris Pern
3. Captain Phillips – Paul Greengrass
4. Philomena – Steven Frears
5. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Jeff Tremaine

That brings us to the end of our first box-office recap. Tell us what you thought of it in the comments. Was it too long, too short or is the information not relevant to you? We want to have a better website and your feedback is the most efficient way of doing that so please help us to shape our future. Thank you and, in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight*.

*First person to correctly comment the film reference will be awarded a very minor sense of satisfaction.

UK’s number one Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2

US’ number one Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

New Hobbit 2 posters and trailer, Disney plans Cruella De Vil film and the must-sees of October 2013

October 2013 through to January 2014 is bringing us some big releases. This feature will be guiding you along and giving you the opportunity t start filling in your film diary.

October:

The Fifth Estate – Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, the last two Twilight films) directs the true recent story of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The British actor of the moment Benedict Cumberbatch (The Hobbit, Sherlock, Star Trek: Into Darkness) takes the lead role while Spanish star Daniel Bruhl (Rush, The Bourne Ultimatum) plays tech-obsessed activist Daniel Domscheit-Berg as they set out extracting secrets from whistleblowers across the world and publishing them online. Carice van Houten (Repo Men, Valkyrie) and Peter Capaldi (World War Z and the new Doctor Who) also star. OCT 11th

Emperor – Tommy Lee Jones (Men In Black, Lincoln, No Country for Old Men) and Matthew Fox star in Peter Webber’s (Girl With A Pearl Earring) WW2 drama about the two leads character’s deciding the fate of surrendered Japanese Emperor’s daughter Hirohito (Eriko Hatsune). OCT 4th

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn are the directors of the animated sequel to the 2009 oddball family comedy. James Caan, Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Adam Sandberg are the stars of a plot that sees all the animals in the safe-haven of Swallow Falls turn into bizarre food-animal hybrids. OCT 25th

Captain Phillips – Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan) is the title character in the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and his ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates. Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone) is the director of the hostage thriller that could see him and Hanks in  contention for Oscars. OCT 18th

Machete Kills – Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) directs this action sequel. Danny Trejo (Breaking Bad) returns in a plot that sees his character, Machete, thrown back into action when the US Government appoints him with the task of charging into Mexico and taking down on of the US’s most wanted drug lords. Pop-star Lady Gaga stars in a revamped cast featuring Amber Heard (Drive Angry, Zombieland), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar, Fast and Furious) and Carlos Estevez (AKA Charlie Sheen) as the US President. OCT 11th

Ender’s Game – Scott Orson Card’s sci-fi novel is finally adapted into a big-budget action film. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield – Hugo) is a seemingly ordinary teen whose chosen to go to outer space and begin training as one of the first of a new breed of war commanders who must fight back against the impending alien threat. Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Indiana Jones), Sir Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3, Gandhi, Hugo), Viola Davis (The Help), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) also star in Gavin Hood’s (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) space set thriller.

Romeo and Juliet – The aforementioned Steinfeld also has a lead role in this Shakespeare adaptation. If you don’t know the plot 1) HOW??? 2) Romeo Montague (Douglas Booth) falls for Juliet Capulet (Steinfeld) but their protective head of one of the rivalling famlies Lord Capulet (Damian Lewis) prevents them from meeting so Romeo’s friend Friar Laurence (Paul Giamatti) concocts a dangerous plan to get the romantic pair together. Ed Westwick and Kodi Smit-McPhee also star in the period drama that has a Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey, The Young Victoria) script to it’s name. OCT 11th

You’ll have heard plenty about Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World in recent months. Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Jaimie Alexander, Natalie Portman, Christopher Eccleston, Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba and Stellan Skarsgard all play roles in a plot that sees Norse god brothers heroic Thor and sinister Loki forced to team-up to end the potential destruction caused by revived evil race the Dark Elves and their diabolical leader Malekith (30th). October also brings the release of horror sequel V/H/S/2 (14th). There’s also Dexter Fletcher’s Proclaimers based, Scottish, comedy musical Sunshine on Leith (4th). Ken Jeong, Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph, Michelle Rodriguez, Bill Hader, Michael Pena, Samuel L Jackson, Luis Guzman and Snoop Dogg are all voicing characters in the story of a snail who dreams of becoming the fastest thing in the world titled Turbo (18th). James Corden and Julie Walters star in the true story of Paul Potts as he aspires to become a world renowned opera singer. His dreams are crushed over and over again until he auditions for the little known, in 2007 that is, talent show Britain’s Got Talent in One Chance (25th). Finally, we’ve got stupid, crass daredevil sequel Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (23rd). Our coverage of each month’s must-sees continues at the beginning of November with the November must-sees featuring Gravity, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Counsellor, Grace of Monaco, Last Vegas, The Family, Kill Your Darlings, Escape Plan, Philomena, Dom Hemingway and many more.

Cruella De Vil was the iconic villain of 101 Dalmations. She’s now set to have her own spin-off film. This seems to be part of Disney’s apparent plan to turn a lot of their animated classics into more grown-up live-action films. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland was the first and it’s been followed by Rupert Sander’s Snow White and the Huntsman and the upcoming Maleficent (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty directed by Robert Stromberg and starring  Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning) and Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh directing with Lily James, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter and Cate Blanchett building up the cast). Aline Brosh McKenna (writer of The Devil Wears Prada and We Bought a Zoo) has been hired to script the film as well as Branagh’s Cinderella.

Moving on, we’ve got fresh new The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug posters for you to admire.

Director Peter Jackson’s imagery is as stunning as ever in these character teasing banners. At the bottom, we’ve got returning company members Kili (Aidan Turner), Fili (Dean O’Gorman), Dwalin (Graham McTavish), Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman). Above them is the ever menacing presence of the Elven King Trandruil (Lee Pace). At the top we find a more cryptic poster. We know that it’s the legendary Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) with the bow in the foreground. Behind him we find the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry) accompanied by a more sinister, knife wielding figure. Much internet searching in my behalf as to who this actor or his character is has been fruitless so I challenge YOU to wildly guess his true identity in the comments.

Following the posters was an epic new trailer for the film which you can find over at The Verge. Anyone trying to avoid any plot details of the film (seeing as it does now differ from original book by JRR Tolkien) may want to skip to the next paragraph. Sauron is in it! The return of Lord of the Rings’ big bad was teased by The Necromancer in the previous film, An Unexpected Journey, but his eye does flash up on the screen. His distinctive orc army also looks like it’ll make an appearance in the dark land of Mordor. We’re also teased more of likely the most terrifying dragon in recent film history in the form of the titular villain Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). The Desolation of Smaug looks like it could be a more open with roaming special effects rather than An Unexpected Journey which was, at time, a little cramped into tight sets and the adventure really got going as soon as we got out of the enclosed areas.

“His name is Bilbo!”

Cruella De Vil – 2016?

Cinderella – March 13th 2015

Maleficent – May 30th 2014

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – December 13th

The November Preview Special – Early November here on Tuorhoth Movies