Weekend box-office – 9th to 15th of August 2014 – will Marvel’s Guardians secure the box-office?

Marvel Studios’ triumphant formula of Thor, Captain America, Iron Man and The Avengers has confidently swept away competition, even Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice cowered away from the release clash with Captain America 3. They’ve now taken the seemingly bizarre detour of cramming a huge budget into relatively unknown material that has almost no connection to the franchise so far. Financial doom seemed imminent but then, shockingly, everybody loved it. Last week, we predicted that Guardians of the Galaxy would top both the UK and US box office but this kind of margin was unpredictable.

US:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – Director: James Gunn – $94 million
2. Lucy – Luc Besson – $18.3 million
3. Get on Up – Tate Taylor – $14 million
4. Hercules – Brett Ratner – $10.7 million
5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – $8.7 million

UK:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – £6.4 million
2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – £3 million
3. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois – £1.1 million
4. Hercules – Brett Ratner – £0.9 million
5. The Purge: Anarchy – James DeMonaco – £0.8 million

Guardians has smashed the box office making nearly five times its nearest competitor. This debut his higher than other big hitters such as Godzilla ($93 million), X-Men: Days of Future Past ($91 million), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($92 million), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ($72 million), The Lego Movie ($69 million), Maleficent ($69 million) and 22 Jump Street ($57 million) although not quite at the heights of Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($95 million) or Transformers: Age of Extinction ($100 million). Depending on how long it grips its place at the top of the box office, we could expect an international gross north of $500 million.

Meanwhile, sci-fi thriller Lucy has dropped sharply but the biggest loser will be action epic Hercules with a fall of 66%, its easily of the year’s great financial disappointments. James Brown biopic Get on Up has made the fairly mediocre entry of $14 million. In the UK, Guardians has made an impressive but, in comparison to its US takings, slightly underwhelming debut while Dawn of the Apes his holding its place brilliantly. This week I’ve scored 8/10.

US:

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman
2. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
3. Into the Storm – Steven Quale
4. Lucy – Luc Besson
5. Get on Up – Tate Taylor

UK:

1. The Inbetweeners 2 – Damon Beesley, Iain Morris
2. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves
4. Planes: Fire and Rescue – Roberts Gannaway
5. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois

Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldana in Guardians of the Galaxy, this week’s US and UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 2nd to 8th of August 2014 – can Lucy outsmart Hercules’ brawn?

It’s hugely ironic that this week we face a battle between a film whose concept revolves around maximising brain power and the tale of the strongest man in mythology. Lucy is the new thriller from Leon’s Luc Besson and stars Scarlett Johansson and it faces off with Hercules, the latest mythical team up of Dwayne Johnson and Brett Ratner. While neither films garnered great critical praise, it’ll be an intriguing race this week between the premise of brains or brawn. Last week, we predicted that Hercules would be victorious but let’s find out what really went down.

US:

1. Lucy – Director: Luc Besson – $43.9 million
2. Hercules – Brett Ratner – $29.8 million
3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – $16.8 million
4. The Purge: Anarchy – James DeMonaco – $10.5 million
5. Planes: Fire and Rescue – Roberts Gannaway – $9.5 million

UK:

1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – £3.8 million
2. Hercules – Brett Ratner – £1.5 million
3. The Purge: Anarchy – James DeMonaco – £1.2 million
4. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois – £1 million
5. Transformers: Age of Extinction – Michael Bay – £0.8 million

Johansson’s sci-fi has shocked us all with its triumph and if it continues this form internationally it could be one of the summer’s surprise hits. Not only does this prove to Marvel that The Winter Soldier star could easily carry her own Black Widow spin off but renews the integrity of Luc Besson who hasn’t had a major hit since The Fifth Element nearly twenty years ago. Hercules’ takings meanwhile are thoroughly disappointing. We know they’re similar to Edge of Tomorrow which eventually covered its costs with $360 million worldwide but Doug Liman’s flick had the immense advantage of excellent word of mouth, a space which Guardians of the Galaxy will completely consume. The Rock’s labours faired no better in the UK getting a battering from the second week of release of Dawn of the Apes. This week I scored 5/10.

US:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
2. Lucy – Luc Besson
3. Get On Up – Tate Taylor
4. Hercules – Brett Ratner
5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves

UK:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves
3. Hercules – Brett Ratner
4. The Nut Job – Peter Lepeniotis
5. The Purge: Anarchy – James DeMonaco

Scarlett Johansson in Lucy, this week’s US number one.

Toby Kebbell in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, this week’s UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 19th of July to 1st August 2014 – will the Apes conquer the box office?

Tuorhoth Movies is back from it’s long-awaited return and we incredibly thrilled to return in time for Comic-Con (more on that soon) however that leaves us with two weeks worth of box-office to cover. So we’ll get to it with the results we’d usually of posted last week along with the predictions which we wrote at the time (honest).

US:

1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Director: Matt Reeves – $73 million
2. Transformers: Age of Extinction – Michael Bay – $16.5 million
3. Tammy – Ben Falcone – $12.9 million
4. 22 Jump Street – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – $6.7 million
5. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois – $5.9 million

UK:

1. Transformers: Age of Extinction – Michael Bay – £11.8 million
2. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois – £7.8 million
3. Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie – Ben Kellett – £1 million
4. The Fault in Our Stars – Josh Boone – £0.6 million
5. Begin Again – John Carney – £0.5 million

These results scored us 4/10, from last week’s predictions.

US:

1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves
2. The Purge: Anarchy – James DeMonaco
3. Transformers: Age of Extinction – Michael Bay
4. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan
5. Tammy – Ben Falcone

UK:

1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves
2. Transformers: Age of Extinction – Michael Bay
3. How to Train Your Dragon – Dean DeBlois
4. Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie – Ben Kellett
5. The Fault in Our Stars – Josh Boone

With that out of the way, we can get to the main event of this week’s box (office) fresh results. Dawn of Apes’ mettle will be tested to the limit in its second weekend were it’ll face off with three new releases: action horror sequel The Purge: Anarchy; children’s animation Planes: Fire and Rescue and gross out comedy Sex Tape. Meanwhile in the UK, the Apes will receive their opening weekend just one week after the mammoth takings of both Transformers: Age of Extinction and How to Train Your Dragon 2. Let’s see how they got on.

US:

1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – $36.3 million
2. The Purge: Anarchy – James DeMonaco – $29.8 million
3. Planes: Fire and Rescue – Roberts Gannaway – $17.5 million
4. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan – $14.6 million
5. Transformers: Age of Extinction – Michael Bay – $9.8 million

UK:

1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – £8.7 million
2. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois – £2 million
3. Transformers: Age of Extinction – Michael Bay – £1.8 million
4. Monty Python Live (Mostly) – Eric Idle, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman – £1.3 million
5. Andre Rieu’s 10th Anniversary Concert Maastricht Concert – £0.8 million

Planet of the Apes has suffered a hefty 50% cut but we can still expect it to reach $500 million internationally while The Purge’s sequel should renew the obsession of micro budget horrors for another few years. Many are trying to diagnose Sex Tape’s financial thrashing but we wouldn’t trace it down to lead stars Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz (who’ve lead plenty of recent hits) but rather the poor marketing and title choice. In the UK two rare live events have graced the charts. It’s delightful to see Monty Python getting this kind of reception and these two are the first in the top 5 that I can remember since last November’s The Day of the Doctor.

US:

1. Hercules – Brett Ratner
2. Lucy – Luc Besson
3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves
4. The Purge: Anarchy – James DeMonaco
5. Step Up All In – Trish Sie

UK:

1. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves
2. Hercules – Brett Ratner
3. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois
4. The Purge: Anarchy – James DeMonaco
5. Transformers: Age of Extinction – Michael Bay

Toby Kebbell in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, this week’s UK and US number one