Weekend box-office – 21st to 26th of September 2014 – will Guardians find No Good Deed?

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy have become the undisputed kings of the summer, as oppose to last year’s equally brilliant The Kings of Summer. This week its reign may come to an end as its faces thriller No Good Deed and family sequel Dolphin Tale 2, the first real competition for the top spot since last month’s action comedy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Meanwhile in the UK, miners strike drama Pride and animated fantasy The Boxtrolls are going head to head. Last week, we predicted that the aquatic drama would triumph but lets find out what really went down.

US:

1. No Good Deed – Director: Tim Miller – $24.5 million
2. Dolphin Tale 2 – Charles Martin Smith – $16.5 million
3. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – $8 million
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman – $4.8 million
5. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield – $4.3 million

UK:

1. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi – £2 million
2. Lucy – Luc Besson – £0.8 million
3. Pride – Matthew Warchus – £0.7 million
4. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan – £0.7 million
5. A Most Wanted Man – Anton Corbijn – £0.6 million

Idris Elba’s thriller vehicle No Good Deed has overcome a generally negative critical response for a decent box office debut. Dolphin Tale has regressed from the first films takings although its hardly a flop. Guardians of the Galaxy has of course slipped up from its place atop the box office but it was certainly fun while it lasted. The Boxtrolls has made a sizeable stab at success in the UK although it’ll be hoping for better in the US. Pride hasn’t won any great financial gains but it is delighting its audiences. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it creep back around by next year’s (UK based) awards season. The late great Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final lead performance in spy drama A Most Wanted Man rounds off the top 5. This week I’ve scored 4/10.

US:

1. The Maze Runner – Wes Ball
2. A Walk Among the Tombstones – Scott Frank
3. No Good Deed – Tim Miller
4. Dolphin Tale 2 – Charles Martin Smith
5. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn

UK:

1. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi
2. The Riot Club – Lone Scherfig
3. A Walk Among the Tombstones – Scott Frank
4. Magic in the Moonlight – Woody Allen
5. Pride – Matthew Warchus

Idris Elba in No Good Deed, this week’s US number one.

Isaac Hempstead Wright in The Boxtrolls, this week’s UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 13th to 19th of September 2014 – can Guardians continue box-office reign?

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy completely conquered the fairly barren month of August and is now continuing its run into the early autumn. This week the sci-fi phenomenon is competing for its fourth week on top of the box office and once more there’s very little competition. To its credit it’s capitalising on a surprising financial slump. Meanwhile in the UK, comedic box-office disappointment Sex Tape makes its debut, hoping for a much needed recovery. Find last week’s predictions here.

US:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – Director: James Gunn – $10.2 million
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman – $6.5 million
3. If I Stay – RJ Cutler – $5.7 million
4. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield – $5.4 million
5. The November Man – Roger Donaldson – $4.2 million

UK:

1. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan – £1.4 million
2. Lucy – Luc Besson – £1.2 million
3. Before I Go to Sleep – Rowan Joffe – £0.8 million
4. The Hundred Foot Journey – Lasse Halstrom – £0.7 million
5. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – £0.7 million

The Guardians have done what no film this year has done: four weeks at the number one spot at the US box office, defying the worry that it’d be Marvel’s undoing. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is continuing impressive form while Let’s Be Cops is proving to be a sleeper hit. Pierce Brosnan’s spy thriller The November Man was intended to be a franchise starter but these numbers go against its favour. The UK saw three new entries, of which Sex Tape is number one. The film’ll be pleased with these statistics but it’ll hardly lift the spirits of a dismal box-office run. Star studded drama thriller Before I Go to Sleep has received a fairly mediocre reception also. This week I’ve scored a disappointing 3/10.

US:

1. Dolphin Tale 2 – Charles Martin Smith
2. No Good Deed – Sam Miller
3. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman
5. If I Stay – RJ Cutler

UK:

1. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi
2. Pride – Matthew Warchus
3. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan
4. Lucy – Luc Besson
5. A Most Wanted Man – Anton Corbijn

Zoe Saldana and Benicio Del Toro in Guardians of the Galaxy, this week’s US number one.

Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel in Sex Tape, this week’s UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 6th to 12th of September 2014 – will the Guardians rescue end of summer showdown?

It’s no secret that this summer’s American box office takings have been sub par. The pre-summer period was booming with X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Maleficent raking in the cash. Edge of Tomorrow had initial difficulty but eventually made back its budget. However, one or two of the summer’s surefire (The Hobbit 3, The Good Dinosaur) hits were delayed leaving a summer period with only one opening north of $100 million, Transformers: Age of Extinction. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Lucy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and How to Train Your Dragon 2 attempted to capitalise but weren’t quite as successful as Bay’s explosion-fest. Despite this, the year’s riskiest film is storming ahead in the charts and has becoming the highest grossing domestic release of the year so far. As predicted, Guardians of the Galaxy is wrapping up the summer in style.

US:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – Director: James Gunn – $17.1 million
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman – $11.9 million
3. If I Stay – RJ Cutler – $9.3 million
4. As Above So Below – John Erick Dowdle – $8.6 million
5. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield – $8.3 million

UK:

1. Lucy – Luc Besson – £2 million
2. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield – £1.7 million
3. The Inbetweeners 2 – Damon Beesley, Iain Morris – £1.3 million
4. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For – Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller – £1.1 million
5. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – £1 million

$17 million may not seem particularly impressive, and on most weeks it wouldn’t be, but Guardians has retained its top position for the third time on this, its fifth, week of release. It’s fallen less that 1% from last week. Paris-set horror As Above So Below has made a fairly hefty debut for its kind while Pierce Brosnan spy thriller The November Man hasn’t scratched the top five, landing in sixth. In the UK, sci-fi thriller Lucy has only dropped a third rather than the predict 50%. Crime comedy Let’s Be Cops has made a surprisingly decent entry, despite Jake Johnson’s lack of star appeal this side of the Atlantic. Sin City’s sequel A Dame to Kill For has faired remarkably better here than in the States but it’ll still have to go down as a huge flop. This week I’ve scored a rather embarrassing 1/10.

US:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman
3. Forrest Gump (20th Anniversary re-release) – Robert Zemeckis
4. If I Stay – RJ Cutler
5. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield

UK:

1. Before I Go To Sleep – Rowan Joffe
2. Lucy – Luc Besson
3. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield
4. The Inbetweeners 2 – Damon Beesley Iain Morris
5. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan

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

Scarlett Johansson in Lucy, 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