Mrs Brown Tops D’Box Office

The Weekend Round-up

Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie topped d’box office this weekend, opening with a hefty £4.3m. That’s the seventh highest debut of the year, above both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Maleficent. Television to film adaptations have had an uneven history but Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie has already far outperformed the total run of both Keith Lemon: The Film and The Harry Hill Movie, neither of which could crack the £3m mark.

Last week’s number one The Fault In Our Stars fell one place to second, falling just 30% once previews are removed to £1.7m and a very healthy cume of £6.7m. It has already outperformed Shailene Woodley’s other big 2014 film, Divergent (£6.7m) and if it can maintain its current performance it has a chance of cracking the £10m mark. Having an even better hold in third is 22 Jump Street. Falling just 21% to £1.2m, the comedy sequel has now earned £15.1m and it’s a dead cert to surpass Bad Neighbours’ mark of £16m.

Maleficent is continuing to cast a spell on the UK public, falling 16% to £820k and a cume of £16.6m. It has now overtaken both Oz: The Great and Powerful (£15.3m) and Snow White and the Huntsman (£15.8m). New entry Chef completed the top five with £606k, which includes £143k of previews.

Other notable new entries were How To Train Your Dragon 2, which opened in Scotland and Ireland with £604k (including £79k from previews). The summer’s big animation opens nationwide in the UK on 11 July but it previewed around the country over the weekend. Jukebox musical Walking On Sunshine opened with £403k and surprising thriller Cold In July opened with £157k (including £2k from previews).

The box office was up 29% from last weekend and down 51% from the same weekend last year, which saw the huge opening figures for the year’s biggest film, Despicable Me 2.

Next Weekend

One of the biggest comedy stars in the world, Melissa McCarthy returns to screens in Tammy on Friday and Transformers: Age of Extinction continues the burgeoning trend of opening on a Saturday. It’s certain to be one of the summer’s biggest films.

The Buzz

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens on 17 July and the first American reviews are extremely glowing. Variety called it ‘an altogether smashing sequel to 2011′s better-than-expected Rise of the Planet of the Apes.' The Hollywood Reporter said it ‘manages to… seriously improve on a very good first entry in a franchise and produce a powerful humanistic statement using a significantly simian cast of characters’. Hitfix said ‘"Dawn" is not just a good genre movie or a good summer movie. It's a great science-fiction film, full-stop, and one of the year's very best movies so far’. Time to get excited.

Across The Pond

Transformers: Age of Extinction kicked off with $100m, the biggest opening weekend of the year. Amongst Transformers films that’s the second highest debut, behind Revenge of the Fallen. All previous Transformers films crossed the $300m mark so this one will also be looking to. The audience was 64% male and 58% over 25.

22 Jump Street was in second falling 44% to $15.4m and to date has grossed $139.8m. How to Train Your Dragon 2 fell 47% to $13.1m in third, which gives the animated sequel a cume of $121.8m. In fourth, Think Like a Man Too fell a chunky 64% to $10.4m and after ten days has grossed $48.2m. Maleficent completed the top five $8.2m, passing $200m in the process.