Weekend box-office – 28th of March to 4th April 2014 – will Divergent be dauntless against The Muppets?

It’s likely that this week is the one to cram in your major but risky releases before Captain America arrives to dominate the box office and so we’ve got a battle between sci-fi thriller Divergent and comedy sequel Muppets Most Wanted. On paper, Muppets should triumph due to it’s huge fan base but it’s possible that the young adult novel adaptation Divergent could follow the likes of Twilight and Hunger Games with huge success and not sink like Mortal Instruments, Beautiful Creatures or The Host. Find out what we thought would happen last week before checking out what went down at the box office below.

US:

1. Divergent – Director: Neil Burger – $56 million
2. Muppets Most Wanted – James Bobin – $16.5 million
3. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff – $11.7 million
4. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro – $8.7 million
5. God’s Not Dead – Harold Cronk – $8.6 million

UK:

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson – £1.3 million
2. Need for Speed – Scott Waugh – £1 million
3. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – £0.8 million
4. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro – £0.8 million
5. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra – £0.7 million

The Muppets have genuinely underperformed in the US but they’re an international sensation and could attempt to recoup oversees. Divergent’s success however may well have greenlighted it’s sequel, most likely called Insurgent. Anderson’s Budapest Hotel has crept up the box office to the top while Need for Speed, Lego Movie, 300 and Non-Stop have all slipped. This week I’ve scored 5/10 taking my running total to 98/210.

US:

1. Noah – Darren Aronofsky
2. Divergent – Neil Burger
3. Muppets Most Wanted – James Bobin
4. Sabotage – David Ayer
5. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff

UK:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo
2. Muppets Most Wanted – James Bobin
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson
4. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller
5. The Legend of Hercules – Renny Harlin

Theo James and Shailene Woodley in Divergent, this week’s US number one.

Ralph Fiennes and Saoirse Ronan in The Grand Budapest Hotel, this week’s UK number one.

Weekend box office – 12th to 19th of January 2014 – will 12 Years be the Lone Survivor or will it get (American) Hustled?

Oscar season is in full swing and that’s had an effect on the box office. Some of the blockbuster action movies try to launch this time of year, hoping to lure the more mainstream watchers to the cinema, but they usually get swamped. New star lacking but $70 million adventure Hercules: The Legend Begins is no different with Oscar tipped 12 Years a Slave, The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle plus harrowing action film Lone Survivor dominating.

US

1. Lone Survivor – Director: Peter Berg – $37.8 million
2. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – $14.7 million
3. The Legend of Hercules – Renny Harlin – $8.9 million
4. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese – $8.8 million
5. American Hustle – David O’Russell – $8.3 million

UK

1. 12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen – £2.5 million
2. American Hustle – David O’Russell – £1.9 million
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson – £1.5 million
4. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – £1.3 million
5. Last Vegas – Jon Turteltaub – £1.3 million

A disappointing 2/5 in both US and UK takes my running total to 60/110. Delivery Man made a very underwhelming seventh place entry in the UK while brand new The Railway Man debuted at sixth. The Hobbit 2 has definitely proved it’s got more legs, and perhaps more of a fanbase, in the UK than in the US as it’s stayed at three while, in America, it sank to sixth.

US

1. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – Kenneth Branagh
2. Lone Survivor – Peter Berg
3. The Nut Job – Peter Lepeniotis
4. Ride Along – Tim Story
5. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese

UK

1. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese
2. 12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson
4. American Hustle – David O’Russell
5. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee

The UK seems to be a bit more award season giddy than the US at the moment so I bet Scorsese’s star studded Wolf of Wall Street will enter at the top. Branagh’s new Jack Ryan should hopefully prove to be a better success than the flop of Hercules.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave, this week’s UK box office number one.

Taylor Kitsch, Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster and Emile Hirsch in Lone Survivor, this week’s US box office number one.

Weekend box-office – 5th to 11th of January 2014 – will Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones spook American Hustle and Frozen?

The PA franchise has proved a frustrating one for critics but is box-office dynamite for the studios with remarkably low budgets and comparatively huge grossing. However, the new instalment, titled The Marked Ones, has proved much more popular in America than in Britain with the current box-office results rolling in.

US

1. Frozen – Director: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – $25.5 million
2. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – Christopher Landon – $22.2 million
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson – $20.8 million
4. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese – $19.7 million
5. American Hustle – David O’Russell – $17.4 million

UK

1. American Hustle – David O’Russell – £3.5 million
2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – £3.2 million
3. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – £2.9 million
4. Last Vegas – Jon Turteltaub – £1.8 million
5. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – Christopher Landon – £1.6 million

Anchorman 2 has sank to sixth place in both US and UK which slightly fluffs up my predictions from last week. I scored both 1/5 both sides of the Atlantic taking my running total to 58/100. Frozen was the big surprise of the week as it must be proving popular with repeat viewing for those who can’t get enough of Christmas, even in mid January. With its international haul coming in much later than in the US, Last Vegas has pushed itself a little further to pass the $100 million threshold.

US

1. Lone Survivor – Peter Berg
2. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
3. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese
4. The Legend of Hercules – Renny Harlin
5. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson

UK

1. 12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen
2. Delivery Man – Ken Scott
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson
4. American Hustle – David O’Russell
5. The Railway Man – Jonathan Teplitzky

Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper in American Hustle, this week’s UK box office number one.

The character of Josh Gad in Frozen, this week’s US box office number one.

Four new stills from Hobbit 2, new trailers for Boxtrolls and Hercules: The Legend Begins and Doctor Who Christmas special pic and title

Above is the first official image from this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special or, as we must now call it, The Time of the Doctor. The title stems from this year’s “of the Doctor” mini series. It started with the series seven finale The Name of the Doctor. The second major instalment of this trilogy was last Saturday’s 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor but that was preceded by the short film The Night of the Doctor. The Time of the Doctor will conclude Matt Smith’s time as the Doctor and will also introduce Peter Capaldi as the new incarnation. We won’t see Capaldi properly until Autumn next year when series eight begins with a two part episode directed by Ben Wheatley.

We know Jenna Coleman will star as Clara but no other castings are confirmed. The Silence, the Weeping Angels, the Cyberman and the Daleks are confirmed to be just some of the villains to feature and I think that they’re unlikely to leave Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and Commander Strax (Dan Starkey) or indeed River Song (Alex Kingston).

Two Hercules films are to battle it out in 2014. We’ve no idea how the studios managed this but it’s awfully bad luck as their both hovering over August. One, Hercules, is from director Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand, Rush Hour, Red Dragon), stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the title role with John Hurt, Peter Mullan, Rebecca Ferguson, Ian McShane and Joseph Fiennes and goes for a tale set after the traditional Twelve Labours of Hercules legend.

The other is Hercules: The Legend Begins. Renny Harlin, director of Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and Deep Blue Sea, is calling the shots on a production which doesn’t seem to have many major stars beside Twilight’s Kellan Lutz. The first trailer reveals that this may have enough action and stun in it to go beyond the seemingly limited cast. With two versions of the Greek tale in production, the release is subject for change but it should come in August 8th.

The new trailer for The Boxtrolls has also landed. It serves as a cinematic teaser and a peek behind the scenes of an animation style that’s notoriously technical. Laika are the team behind brilliant stop-motion hits such as ParaNorman and Coraline so we can expect great things from this dark fantasy comedy. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Elle Fanning, Toni Collete, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, Jared Harris and Isaac Hempstead Wright all lend their voices while Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi direct.

We’ve now got some lovely new pics fresh from the editing room of Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson’s fantasy sequel The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (click next to cycle through). Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Dean O’Gorman, Ian McKellen, Sylvester McCoy and Luke Evans are the focus of today’s update.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – December 13th

The Boxtrolls – September 12th 2014

Hercules: The Legend Begins – August 8th 2014

Doctor Who 2013 Christmas Special/The Time of the Doctor – December 25th