| Date | |
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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
In the closest race for the top spot in some time, Big Hero 6 came out on top, ahead of Kingsman: The Secret Service, by just £52k. The Marvel / Disney animation opened with £4.3m (including £480k from previews).
Kingsman: The Secret Service opened with £4.2m, which included £679k from previews. That’s director, Matthew Vaughn’s biggest Friday to Sunday opening of all time, eclipsing both X-Men: First Class (£3.4m) and Kick Ass (£1.8m).
Last week’s number one, American Sniper dropped to third, easing 38% to £1.6m. It has now grossed £9.3m and is director, Clint Eastwood’s highest grossing film in a directing career that spans over 40 years.
The Theory Of Everything added another £1m in fourth for a cume of £16.6m and has now overtaken Taken 3 (see below) to be the biggest film released so far in 2014.
Taken 3 completed the top five, experiencing a sharp drop in the face of competition from Kingsman: The Secret Service, falling 56% to £802k. It has now grossed £16.5m.
Outside of the top five, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice was a new entry in ninth with £363k. Despite some very positive reviews it was feared that this title would alienate audiences and it seems to have been the case.
Overall the box office was down 21% from last weekend, and up a chunky 47% from the same weekend last year, when the top films were The Wolf Of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave, That Awkward Moment and I, Frankenstein.
Next Weekend
Shaun The Sheep Movie is out on Friday and all set to give Big Hero 6 a run for its money with family audiences. Reviews have been extremely positive and it looks to be yet another hit in Aardman’s impressive canon.
Jupiter Ascending is finally out on Friday, having moved from its July 2014 release date. With a reported $175m budget and the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix, Cloud Atlas) directing, hopes were high but with not a single review online and no high profile premiere, I fear the worst.
Selma is one of the Oscar nominees for Best Picture and has a rating of 89 on Metacritic, so is one of the best reviewed films of the last year. It’s a chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965.
The Interview is hitting UK cinemas with little fanfare considering the controversy surrounding the film. It has a decent comedy pedigree but there’s the concern that everyone who was interested in the film will have seen it online already after it was released on US VOD platforms.
The Buzz
Project Almanac opened in the US at the weekend and disappointed with its £8.5m debut. It’s out in the UK on 16 February so will be hoping to capitalise on the half term crowd. The publicity for Fifty Shades Of Grey has gone into overdrive and it has just been given an 18 certificate by the BBFC, with the film reportedly containing 20 minutes of sex scenes. It sounds like the book’s fans will not be disappointed.
Across The Pond
American Sniper held on to the top spot for the third successive week, adding $31.9m for a huge cume of $248.9m. Paddington fell 31% in second to $8.5m and to date has grossed an impressive $50.5m. Third spot was taken by new entry, Project Almanac, which kicked off with $8.5m. The audience was 55% male and 63% under the age of 25. Another new entry, Kevin Costner drama Black or White, opened in fourth with $6.5m, and there’s no UK release date for this title yet. Last week’s highest new entry, The Boy Next Door fell 59% to $6.1m, and to date has grossed $24.7m.
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