Weekend box-office – 10th to 16th of January 2015 – will Woman in Black spook in New Year?

The Christmas holiday’s clear leader was the fantasy adventure sequel The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. In the first week of 2015, it saw off competition from musical Into the Woods and POW thriller Unbroken. Horror sequel The Woman in Black: Angel of Death’s arrival is hoping to cause an upset in The Hobbit’s fourth week in the US.. Meanwhile in the UK, Oscar fever grips as The Theory of Everything debuts. Last week, we predicted that the Five Armies would see off competition (and we were right) but the Radcliffe-less follow up may still make a decent entry.

US:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Director: Peter Jackson – $21.7 million
2. Into the Woods – Rob Marshall – $18.7 million
3. Unbroken – Angelina Jolie – $18.2 million
4. The Woman in Black: Angel of Death – Tom Harper – $15 million
5. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – Shawn Levy – $14.5 million

UK:

1. The Theory of Everything – James Marsh – £3.7 million
2. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson – £3.2 million
3. Paddington – Paul King – £2.8 million
4. The Woman in Black: Angel of Death – Tom Harper – £2.4 million
5. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – Shawn Levy – £1.7 million

The Hobbit’s reign continues while The Woman in Black underwhelms both sides of the Atlantic. The Theory of Everything, a biopic of famed scientist Stephen Hawking, has surprisingly topped the UK box-office, while fellow awards botherer Birdman falls behind in seventh. This week I’ve scored 2/10

US:

1. Taken 3 – Oliver Megaton
2. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson
3. Into the Woods – Rob Marshall
4. Unbroken – Angelina Jolie
5. Selma – Ava DuVernay

UK:

1. The Theory of Everything – James Marsh
2. Into the Woods – Rob Marshall
3. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson
4. Foxcatcher – Bennett Miller
5. Paddington – Paul King

Lee Pace in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, this week’s US number one.

Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, this week’s UK number one.

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.

News for Bourne 5, Spider-Man 3, Night at the Museum and Star Wars 7

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Ancient Fear. How does that sound to you? You may have guess that The Ancient Fear is the latest title to be rumoured for JJ Abrams’ sci-fi adventure, recently confirmed to be starring Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Max Von Sydow, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson and Andy Serkis. You also may have picked up that The Ancient Fear would be a complete reversal from 1977’s A New Hope. Even if this title isn’t the final one, it still hints that the villainous forces, most likely Driver and Von Sydow, will be reviving an antagonist from the past, perhaps Darth Plageuis as he’s been pulling strings since the beginning.

We’re can be pretty confident saying that The Sinister Six’s members will most likely be Green Goblin, Mysterio, Doctor Octopus, Rhino, Vulture and Kraven the Hunter but director Marc Webb has hinted at who’ll face Spidey in The Amazing Spider-Man 3. “I like the idea of Kraven,” he continues. “The Vulture. Ock. I always thought the idea of Mysterio was interesting. Maybe Scorpion. But really, Kraven I think is kind of interesting.”

Marvel fans will likely recount Kraven as a Russian big game hunter who selects Spider-Man as his new prey but it’s possible that his origin will be altered as there’s already a Russian villain in the form of Rhino. Webb’s third and final Spider-Man film will most likely star Andrew Garfield, Shailene Woodley, Paul Giamatti, Felicity Jones, Dane DeHaan and Sally Field.

We regard The Bourne Trilogy, made up of Doug Liman’s Identity and Paul Greengrass’ Supremacy and Ultimatum, to be modern action masterpieces, all of which made Tony  Gilroy’s mediocre thriller The Bourne Legacy, focussed on Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross, even more disappointing. Despite its drop in financial takings, Universal seemed determined to make a Legacy follow up with Justin Lin but all the fans want is a back to roots Bourne film with Matt Damon (The Departed, The Adjustment Bureau, True Grit, Invictus, Saving Mr Banks, Good Will Hunting) and Paul Greengrass (United 93, Green Zone, Bloody Sunday, Captain Phillips).

The Oscar winning Damon has now confirmed he’s still excited by the idea of Bourne 5. “I’ve always been open to it if Paul Greengrass is the director. We’ve just never been able to come up with a story. It felt like such a good way to end it last time,” he continued. “Having said that, I love that character. I’d love to see what happened to him.” So, if anyone has a vision for where the series should go know, get your script together and contact Universal. The studio obviously don’t want to call Legacy a failure and move on so maybe a Cross/Bourne crossover is in order.

The Night at the Museum films have never had full critical approval but the two instalments do have a huge place in the heart of fans and are a handful at the box office with each film averaging at about $500 million. It’s no wonder that Shawn Levy (Real Steal, Date Night, The Internship) wants to revive the franchise. A third instalment has been in mind for a while but, despite the odd casting, it seemed to be moving far too slow to make it in time for this its December release.

Today’s confirmation of the title has certainly proven Fox’s dedication of bringing us the sequel in time for Christmas. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb will star Ben Stiller (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Tropic Thunder, Zoolander), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Hugo, Schindler’s List), Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers, Cars, Midnight in Paris), Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), Rebel Wilson (Pain and Gain, Pitch Perfect), Robin Williams (Good Will Hunting, Dead Poets Society), Rachael Harris (The Hangover, Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Rami Malek (Short Term 12, Need for Speed), Ricky Gervais (The Office, Muppets Most Wanted), Dick Van Dyke (Mary Poppins) and the final performance of the late great Mickey Rooney.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb – December 19th

The Bourne Betrayal – 21st August 2015

An actual Jason Bourne film – 2017?

The Amazing Spider-Man 3 – May 17th 2016

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Ancient Fear? – December 18th 2015