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| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinemabox OfficeupfrontsFilm FocusFilm NewsNew Releases |
The boys are back in town. If there was any doubt that the appetite to see Will, Simon, Jay and Neil back on the big screen had waned, that was dispelled in spectacular fashion last weekend as The Inbetweeners 2 debuted with the biggest opening weekend of the year so far. £12.5m is the biggest Wednesday to Friday performance and £8m from Friday to Sunday is the biggest three day opening of the year too. Although it’s a fantastic result, it is slightly down on the performance of the first Inbetweeners Movie in 2011, which opened with £13.2m for the five days and £8.6m from Friday to Sunday. That film went on to gross over £45m so the sequel will be looking at getting close to that.
Last week’s number one, Guardians of the Galaxy dropped to second with £3.3m for a very healthy cume of £13.9m. Its target has to be Marvel’s other film this year, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which finished on £19.4m. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes fell one place to third, adding £1.7m and has now grossed £27.1m. That puts it fractionally behind X-Men: Days of Future Past, which it will overtake at some point today (Monday) and become the second highest grossing film of the year to date. The Lego Movie looks to be safe in first with £34.2m.
The only other major new entry this weekend was Disney sequel, Planes 2: Fire and Rescue. After a barnstorming start to 2014, it’s been a quiet summer for family films and there was hope that Planes 2 would provide a spark but an opening weekend of £1m is a disappointing bow. The first Planes film opened last August, with greater competition from The Smurfs 2, Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University and still managed to open with £1.7m. It finished on £9m, which at the moment looks a long way off for the sequel.
How To Train Your Dragon 2 completed the top five with another strong hold, falling 19% to £894k and a cume of £19.5m. With a lack of strong family competition in the school holidays, the animated sequel is holding up well. On a busy weekend, the box office was up 43% from last weekend and up 35% from the same weekend last year.
Next Weekend
The Expendables 3 is in cinemas on Thursday and the early reviews are predictably not that glowing. With The Inbetweeners 2 expected to dominate the box office again, the other new entries are relatively small, with Simon Pegg comedy, Hector and the Search For Happiness and Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson post-apocalyptic thriller, The Rover hoping to provide a strong alternative to four lads on their gap year.
The Buzz
Two upcoming films opened in the US this weekend, both of which did solid business (see below), which augurs well for their UK release. Action-thriller, Into The Storm opens in the UK on 20 August and The Hundred-Foot Journey opens on 5 September. With Helen Mirren in the lead role, The Hundred-Foot Journey particularly has the chance to make a splash with UK audiences.
Across The Pond
COWABUNGA! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opened with a very impressive $65.6m, which is the fourth highest August opening of all time. Nostalgia obviously played a part and the audience was 55% over the age of 25. Guardians of the Galaxy fell 55% in second spot to $42.1m and to date has grossed a huge $176.5m. Weather-based thriller Into the Storm opened in third with $17.3m and the audience was 58% female and 71% over the age of 25. Helen Mirren drama, The Hundred-Foot Journey opened in fourth place with $11m and as expected the audience skewed older with 69% over the age of 35. Lucy completed the top five with $9.5m and a cume of $97.5m.