Weekend box-office – 11th to 17th of October 2014 – will horror spin-off Annabelle spook Fincher’s Gone Girl?

The Conjuring was 2013’s biggest commercial and critical hit in the world of horror, taking a hefty $318 million. This year it receives a lower budgeted spin off, titled Annabelle, from The Conjuring’s writer. This instalment has received a fairly negative critical response but we’ll see if it can the first film’s $40 million debut. In this week’s box-office battle it faces another major new release: Oscar favourite Gone Girl from Fight Club/Seven/Zodiac/The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button/The Social Network director David Fincher. This is an intriguing showdown of mainstream hoots versus awards mongers.

US:

1. Gone Girl – Director: David Fincher – $38 million
2. Annabelle – John R Leonetti – $37.2 million
3. The Equalizer – Antoine Fuqua – $19 million
4. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi – $12.4 million
5. The Maze Runner – Wes Ball – $12 million

UK:

1. Gone Girl – David Fincher – £4.1 million
2. Dracula Untold – Gary Shore – £1.7 million
3. The Equalizer – Antoine Fuqua – £1.2 million
4. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi – $1 million
5. What We Did On Our Holiday – Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin – £0.7 million

Fincher’s work has surprisingly topped both box offices and it may well be one of his more profitable works taking around the same as Social Network’s and Dragon Tattoo’s opening weekends combined. Annabelle takes a modest second place with a still impressive $37 million, only a slight drop from Conjuring’s $40 million. Gone Girl has followed suit in the UK with an excellent debut. Britain has often taken to 18 certificated features more than America, see The Wolf of Wall Street’s three week run. Dark fantasy Dracula Untold, supposedly the start of a new Universal monster franchise, is tracking very poorly ahead of its US release next week thanks to this mediocre opening. This week I’ve scored a decent 6/10.

US:

1. Dracula Untold – Gary Shore
2. Gone Girl – David Fincher
3. The Judge – David Dobkin
4. Annabelle – John R Leonetti
5. The Equalizer – Antoine Fuqua

UK:

1. The Maze Runner – Wes Ball
2. Gone Girl – David Fincher
3. Dracula Untold – Gary Shore
4. Annabelle – John R Leonetti
5. The Equalizer – Antoine Fuqua

Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl, this week’s UK and US number one.

Weekend box-office – 5th to 11th of October 2014 – will Boxtrolls be evened by The Equalizer?

Since 1995, Pixar have ruled the animated genre, evin if Studio Ghibli may have received greater acclaim during that time. The branch of Disney has gone through a fairly dry patch in recent years and a new set of contenders have risen through the ranks. Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon and The Lego Movie are storming up as the most popular animations of the moment. Amongst these there is one studio with a but of a bite. Laika have often polarised their younger audiences with the deliciously dark Coraline and the entertaining watch of ParaNorman. Their new work, The Boxtrolls, has become a UK No.1 hit but it was unlikely to follow that up in the US as it challenged Denzel Washington thriller The Equalizer. Last week, we predicted the result to go in favour of Washington’s action vehicle but let’s find out what really went down in a milestone week in the UK box office.

US:

1. The Equalizer – Antoine Fuqua – $35 million
2. The Maze Runner – Wes Ball – $17.5 million
3. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi – $17.3 million
4. This is Where I Leave You – Shawn Levy – $7 million
5. Dolphin Tale 2 – Charles Martin Smith – $4.8 million

UK:

1. Billy Elliot The Musical Live – Stephen Daldry – £1.9 million
2. The Equalizer – Antoine Fuqua – £1.9 million
3. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi – £1.1 million
4. What We Did On Our Holiday – Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin – £0.8 million
5. A Walk Among the Tombstones – Scott Frank – £0.6 million

The Boxtroll’s mediocre takings in the US may be contributing towards a fairly unsatisfactory global gross. Denzel Washington’s Hollywood popularity has been extended for another while but this may not be quite ideal for a new franchise. In the UK meanwhile there’s been a huge achievement made: Billy Elliot The Musical has become the first cinema event to top the UK box office. The medium has been trial ran for the past few years with concerts, Doctor Who and Monty Python trying but not quite succeeding. Family drama What We Did On Our Holiday, written by the pair behind TV’s Outnumbered, has been a decent success but Rosamund Pike my find more success on Oscar favourite Gone Girl next week. You can find where I’ve placed it for next week below, which’ll I hope will be better than this week’s dismal score of 1/10.

US:

1. Gone Girl – David Fincher
2. Annabelle – John R Leonetti
3. The Equalizer – Antoine Fuqua
4. The Maze Runner – Wes Ball
5. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacci

UK:

1. Gone Girl – David Fincher
2. The Equalizer – Antoine Fuqua
3. Dracula Untold – Gary Shore
4. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi
5. What We Did On Our Holiday – Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin

Denzel Washington in The Equalizer, this week’s US number one.

The cast of Billy Elliot The Musical Live, this week’s UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 27th of September to 3rd October 2014 – will Neeson get lost in The Maze Runner or take A Walk Among the Tombstones?

The great American box-office dry spell ended last week as Idris Elba thriller No Good Deed took the top spot from Guardians of the Galaxy (the end of an era) although it was still a fairly mediocre debut. This week, three new major releases are competing: Liam Neeson’s dark thriller A Walk Among the Tombstones; Shawn Levy’s family drama This is Where I Leave You and young adult fantasy The Maze Runner. Two of these ought to be smash hits but the fact that they’re clashing may be their undoing. Last week, we tipped the box-office in favour of The Maze Runner but let’s find out what really went on.

US:

1. The Maze Runner – Director: Wes Ball – $32.5 million
2. A Walk Among the Tombstones – Scott Frank – $12.8 million
3. This is Where I Leave You – Shawn Levy – $11.6 million
4. No Good Deed – Sam Miller – $9.8 million
5. Dolphin Tale 2 – Charles Martin Smith – $8.9 million

UK:

1. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi – £1.3 million
2. A Walk Among the Tombstones – Scott Frank – £1.3 milion
3. Pride – Matthew Warchus – £0.6 million
4. Lucy – Luc Besson – £0.6 million
5. The Riot Club – Lone Scherfig – £0.5 million

The Maze Runner’s victory has been lessened by this packed week of releases. As franchise starters go, this is an overall success. This is less than the blockbusting likes of The Hunger Games, Twilight or Divergent although far greater than the car crashes like The Mortal Instruments. A $30 million debut has secured a sequel so we ought to be seeing a lot of the series over the next few years. Liam Neeson’s resurgence as an action star began with Taken and The Grey and has since found greater financial takings with the increasingly generic likes of Taken 2 and Non-Stop. His attempt at darker material has only gained muted responses from both UK and America.

In the UK, The Boxtrolls’ British appeal is extending its run although I wouldn’t be surprised if this success eludes it in America. Pride in continuing to prove popular but ruling class drama The Riot Club seems to have slumped, despite the popularity of its younger stars. This week I’ve scored 3/10.

US:

1. The Equalizer – Antoine Fuqua
2. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi
3. The Maze Runner – Wes Ball
4. Say When – Lynn Shelton
5. A Walk Among the Tombstones – Scott Frank

UK:

1. The Equalizer – Antione Fuqua
2. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi
3. What We Did on Our Holiday – Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin
4. A Walk Among the Tombstones – Scott Frank
5. Pride – Matthew Warchus

Dylan O’Brien in The Maze Runner, this week’s US number one.

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