Weekend box-office – 5th to 11th of April 2014 – can Noah flood Divergent away?

Religion focused films seemed to have taken a hold on the recent US box office, despite having no genuine stars in them IE God’s Not Dead and Son of God. Now, genesis story Noah has arrived to take the weekend by storm, with heavy biblical themes, huge star quality and immense directing talent. Last week, we predicted that it’d shove aside the recent strong entries Divergent and Muppets Most Wanted. Meanwhile, The Winter Soldier’s UK debut could tell if the sequel could live up to the financial success of other recent Marvel work.

US:

1. Noah – Director: Darren Aronofsky – $44 million
2. Divergent – Neil Burger – $26.5 million
3. Muppets Most Wanted – James Bobin – $11.4 million
4. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff – $9.5 million
5. God’s Not Dead – Harold Cronk – $9 million

UK:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo – £6 million
2. Muppets Most Wanted – James Bobin – £2.2 million
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson – £0.8 million
4. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra – £0.4 million
5. Need for Speed – Scott Waugh – £0.3 million

Noah has, unsurprisingly, made a deep impression into the box office in the States but the more interesting events are in the UK. A low taking week all-in-all but Captain America seem to have done well. Still, it’s way off from Thor: The Dark World’s initial takings of £8.8 million but the latter has Tom Hiddleston, a hugely popular presence in the UK, in a lead role while the latter, being the most patriotic of all superheroes, should dominate more in the US. Muppets Most Wanted performed well against competition but the previous films total UK earnings were near £30 million – a figure this film can’t hope to achieve. This week’s score of 6/10 takes our running total up to 104/220.

US:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo
2. Noah – Darren Aronofsky
3. Divergent – Neil Burger
4. Muppets Most Wanted – James Bobin
5. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff

UK:

1. Divergent – Neil Burger
2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo
3. Noah – Darren Aronofsky
4. Rio 2 – Carlos Saldanha
5. Muppets Most Wanted – James Bobin

Sebastian Stan in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, this week’s UK box-office number one.

Russell Crowe in Noah, this week’s US box-office number one.

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 – 21st to 27th of March 2014 – will audiences feel the Need for Speed?

Aaron Paul (better known as Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman) is having his qualities as a big-screen action star with his lead in Need For Speed which bids to make a mark on the box-office this week. It seemed like it had no major competition besides returning favourites Mr Peabody and Sherman, Grand Budapest Hotel and 300: Rise of an Empire. We predicted last week that it’d make a strong start but the real measure of success will be the opening numbers themselves.

US:

1. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Director: Rob Minkoff – $21.2 million
2. 300: Rise of and Empire – Noam Murro – $19.1 million
3. Need for Speed – Scott Waugh – $17.8 million
4. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra – $10.6 million
5. The Single Moms Club – Tyler Perry – $8.3 million

UK:

1. Need for Speed – Scott Waugh – £2 million
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson – £1.3 million
3. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro – £1.2 million
4. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – £1 million
5. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra – £0.9 million

Mr Peabody has suddenly bounced into pole position in its second week while 300: ROAE and Non-Stop slipped places Tyler Perry’s Madea Christmas follow up Singles Moms Club made a poor start. Grand Budapest Hotel leaped up a place, thriving in the alternative to the blockbusters that sandwich it. Last week’s predictions score me 2/10 taking my running total to 93/200.

US:

1. Divergent – Neil Burger
2. Muppets Most Wanted – James Bobin
3. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff
4. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro
5. Need for Speed – Scott Waugh

UK:

1. Need for Speed – Scott Waugh
2. A Long Way Down – Pascal Chaumeil
3. Starred Up – David Mackenzie
4. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson

Max Charles and Ty Burrell in Mr Peabody and Sherman, this week’s US box-office.

Imogen Poots and Aaron Paul in Need for Speed, this week’s UK box-office number one.

Weekend box-office – 14th to 20th of March of 2014 – will 300: Rise of an Empire slay its rivals?

Eight years on from the first film’s success, a sequel to 300 is finally being released but there’s no guarantee that the phenomenal financial triumph of the original can be replicated, particularly when only few cast return. Additionally, it faces tough competition in the form of debuting animation Mr Peabody and Sherman and Wes Anderson’s ensemble The Grand Budpest Hotel. We predicted that it’d go top but let’s find out how it really did.

US:

1. 300: Rise of an Empire – Director: Noam Murro – $45.1 million
2. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff – $32.5 million
3. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra – $15.4 million
4. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – $11 million
5. Son of God – Christopher Spencer – $10 million

UK:

1. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Nurro – £2.8 million
2. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – £1.6 million
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson – £1.5 million
4. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra – £1.5 million
5. Ride Along – Tim Story – £0.8 million

Rise of an Empire has made a great start in the US with an excellent weekend’s takings, even if they are lower than 300’s debut. Sadly, the UK takings are far below expectations, the original started with £9 million. Budapest Hotel made a great entry, as did Peabody and Sherman, while Non-Stop, Lego Movie, Ride Along and Son of God slipped places. This week’s 6/10 takes my running total to 91/190.

US:

1. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro
2. Need for Speed – Scott Waugh
3. Mr Peabody and Sherman – Rob Minkoff
4. Non-Stop – Juanne Collet Serra
5. Bad Words – Jason Bateman

UK:

1. Need for Speed – Scott Waugh
2. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro
3. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller
4. The Zero Theorem – Terry Gilliam
5. The Stag – John Butler

Eva Green in 300: Rise of an Empire, this week’s UK and US box-office number one.

The Super-Bowl 2014 Trailers special: Transformers 4, Noah and more!

We’re not venturing into sports just yet but the American Football extravaganza known as Superbowl is a huge event for advertising. With well over 100 million Americans watching, companies have to pay the whopping sum of $8 million dollars just for a one minute advertising slot. Only the biggest of big budget, big star blockbusters can afford to make the cut so you may be quite surprised when I tell you that among the nine titanic efforts trailered last night is the new project from Darren Aronofsky!

But before we get to that, we have the matter of a movie I recently predicted to make over a billion dollars. I speak of the fourquel of a monster series – Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Director Michael Bay (Armaggedon, Pearl Harbour, Bad Boys) returns to the series after a quick, and unsuccessful, break to make Pain and Gain. The franchise hopes to continue it success with an new human cast with Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor, replacing the old guard of Shia LaBeaouf, Rosie Huntington-Whitley and Megan Fox. This time, the Autobots are at battle with the villainous Dinobots and the technology tycoon Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), the former is revealed in the very first trailer. The film also stars Stanley Tucci and Peter Cullen. July 10th.

The second instalment in this nine-part epic is Marvel’s very own Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We’ve seen footage from this before but Superbowl unveiled the second trailer, which offers more in depth look at new antagonist The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). The plot pitches Captain America (Chris Evans) still adjusting to life in the 21st Century as well as working with SHIELD Agents such as Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Crossbones (Frank Grillo) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to bring down a new menace who’s terrorising Washington. Cap 2 also stars Emily VanCamp, Samuel L Jackson, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Attwell and Toby Jones and is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. March 28th.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is next. Marc Webb returns to direct the sequel which increases the stakes for Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) who has to balance life between his superhero alter ego Spider-Man, who’s battling Electro (Jamie Foxx), Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and the sinister father/son double act of Oscorp (Dane DeHaan as Harry and Chris Cooper as Norman), and normal life with the grieving Gwen (Emma Stone) and lonely Aunt May (Sally Field). The new trailer can be found here. To be honest, I’m not that impressed. April 18th.

Following on from their “Across the Internet” campaign, Muppets Most Wanted has launched a new ad in which the new doppelganging villain Clementine literally reaches out to us Across the Internet. Tina Fey, Ty Burrell, Stanley Tucci, Ricky Gervais, Lady Gaga, Tom Hiddleston, Salma Hayek, Christoph Waltz and Danny Trejo make up the human cast alongside the classic Muppets such as Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Sam the Eagle, Beaker, Dr Honeydrew, Walter and Animal. Flight of the Conchords/The Muppets’ James Bobin directs. March 28th.

With a premise of no CG, just expensive cars going ridiculously fast, video game adaptation Need for Speed is actually in good shape. It sees newly released ex-con Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul – Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman) getting back into the dragraces that got him locked up for a year. Upon hearing the news, Marshall’s ex racing partner Dino (Dominic Cooper – Marvel’s Howard Stark) puts a bounty on his head. Scott Waugh (Act of Valour) directs a huge cast including Michael Keeton, Dakota Johnson, Scott Mescudi and Imogen Poots. The superbowl spot can be found here. March 12th.

We return to the aforementioned Darren Aronofsky who, after impressing with the likes of Black Swan, The Wrestler, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, makes his comeback with a huge budget and cast list for his new epic picture Noah. The new trailer is available but I’m shocked that a director as prestigious as Aronofsky would fall to the depths of a Twitter hashtag; this time it’s “#TheFloodIsComing”!. The film stars Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Ray Winstone, Kevin Durand, Douglas Booth, Nick Nolte and Frank Langella. April 4th.

Pompeii seems to me like one of the potential box office clunkers of the year with a decent cast list which doesn’t match its huge budget but director Paul WS Anderson (Event Horizon, Resident Evil) may prove me wrong. The new trailer unveils a fair bit of spectacle so the film won’t rely on the cast of Kit Harrington, Carrie Anne Moss, Emily Browning, Jessica Lucas, Kiefer Sutherland, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jared Harris and Jessica Lucas alone. May 2nd.

3 Days to Kill launched a new trailer too. McG (This Means War, Terminator: Salvation, We Are Marshall, Charlie’s Angles) directs this new action thriller starring Kevin Costner as an dying agent who teams up with his daughter for one last assignment which get him the life saving drug he needs. Also starring Amber Heard, Connie Nielson and Hailee Steinfeld. February 21st.

Lastly, we have another Kevin Costner project. Draft Day sees the manger of American Football’s Cleveland Browns who’s struggling to find the number one draft pick for his team. Costner will star alongside Terry Crews, Jennifer Garner and Ellen Burstyn while director Ivan Reitman (Ghost Busters, No Strings Attached). April 11th

Action triple-bill special with Need for Speed, The Expendables 3 and Fast and Furious 7

After the tragic death of Paul Walker last month, the production Fast and Furious 7 has been in a halt; the summer 2014 release date fell apart. The sequel will now have to deal with the huge competition of 2015. Star Trek 3 , Warcraft (March 11th), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Avatar 2, Finding Dory (June 17th) and Angry Birds (July 1st) have already spilled into 2016 to avoid ’15’s Batman vs. Superman (July 17th), Ant-Man (July 31st), The Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1st), Cinderella (March 13th), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (November 20th), The Bourne Betrayal (August 14th), Assassin’s Creed (August 7th), San Andreas (June 5th), Bond 24 (October 23rd), Mission: Impossible 5 (25th December), The Good Dinosaur (November 25th), Inside Out (June 19th), The Minions (July 10th) and Star Wars: Episode VII (18th December). Fast 7 is directed by James Wan (The Conjuring, Insidious, Saw) and stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Kurt Russell, Jason Statham and the late great Paul Walker.

Need for Speed is a plotless game franchise that relies on the thrill of its gameplay alone for success. While the series has constantly churned out excellence year by year, you wouldn’t think this format would be decent cinematic material but Act of Valor director Scott Waugh is confident that with his brilliant cast, Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Dakota Johnson (The Social Network), Imogen Poots (The Look of Love), Michael Keaton (Batman) and Dominic Cooper (Captain America), he can make Need for Speed a hit. An awesome new poster has come in for your own admiration.

You can now relish in the first teaser for The Expendables 3. Red Hill’s Patrick Hughes directs the overgrown cast in this action sequel which features, from left to right in the trailer, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Antonio Banderas, Randy Couture, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren, Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Victor Ortiz, Kelsey Grammer, Wesley Snipes, Kellan Lutz, Glen Powell and Ronda Rousey (aka the least feminine ensemble you’ve ever seen)! Jackie Chan, Milla Jovovich and Nick Cage are still rumoured for roles.

Need for Speed – March 14th 2014

Fast and Furious 7 – April 10th 2015

The Expendables 3 – August 25th 2014

Jude Law on Sherlock Holmes 3, Need for Speed plus Transformers 4 pic

Jude Law is the two time Oscar nominee star of Cold Mountain, Enemy at the Gates and his new crime comedy hit Dom Hemmingway but his best known, and loved, role is as Sherlock Holmes’ (Robert Downey Jr) long suffering assistant Dr John Watson. Just after the huge success of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, director Guy Ritchie has had to leave the third instalment to make The Man From U.N.C.L.E with Arnie Hammer, Henry Cavill, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debecki, Hugh Grant and Jared Harris. Holmes 3 then seemed to be suspended until Ritchie was able to return but Law has decided to tell us more of the project.

“I hate celebrating anything I’ve done, but I’m so proud of those films. I think it was Joel Silver who said, ‘Take it out of that dusty room and put it on the street’.” Another reason why this has taken so long to “put on the street” is because of Downey Jr’s dedication to his role as Tony Stark, the two most recent times of that portrayal (Avengers Assemble, Iron Man 3) both brought him over $1 billion. “I think Warners (Bros) want it,” Law continues, “and there’s a lot of want from us as a team. We want it to be better than the other two. We want to make sure it’s smarter and cleverer, but in the same realm. It’s a slow process. We’re all busy. So getting us together to try to nail that has taken a little bit longer than we had hoped.”

It terms of a plot, we’ve already had Irene Adler and Moriarty so the next logical step is Conan Doyle’s best known work: The Hound of the Baskerville. It’s down to Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce to bring a story together though.

The new trailer for Need for Speed has come online. Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman) plays the lead role of Tobey Marshall in the new video-game adaptation. Dominic Cooper (Captain America: The First Avenger), Michael Keaton (Batman) and Imogen Poots (V for Vendetta) all fill in the supporting roles. The new trailer for Scott Waugh’s (who’ll be happy to be known for something other than Act of Valour) film is surprisingly artistic as well as action packed.

Finally, we’ve got our hands on a new photo fresh from the set of Transformers: Age of Extinction (which you can find out more about on our 2014 preview page). It sees director Michael Bay heroically steering a camera stand through the desolate streets of whatever city he’s blowing this time.

Sherlock Holmes 3 – 2016?

Need for Speed – March 14 2014

Transformer: Age of Extinction – July 10 2014