| Date | |
|---|---|
| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinemabox OfficeFilm FocusFilm News |
The Weekend Round-up
Transformers: Age of Extinction opened in first place with £11.8m, which includes a huge £8m from previews, having opened last Saturday. It also had the highest Friday to Sunday total with £3.7m. Officially it’s the biggest ever opening for a Transformers film, beating 2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which opened with £10.7m but that was with only two days of previews having opened on a Wednesday. To date 57.4% of Age of Extinction’s box office has been from 3D presentations.
It may have first arrived in cinemas almost a month ago but How To Train Your Dragon 2 finally went on general release this weekend and its total of £7.7m was enough for second spot. With its unusual release strategy, that figure includes £4.9m in previews and in addition to the figures from its earlier release in Scotland and Ireland a couple of weeks ago, it now has a cume of £9.6m. It’s over half way to overhauling the first How To Train Your Dragon’s final total of £17.4m and with the school holidays kicking off next week there should be plenty more to come.
Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie fell two places to third but added another £1.1m for a terrific cume of £11.9m. That places it above Kevin and Perry Go Large, which grossed £10.5m in April 2000. The Fault In Our Stars had another decent hold, falling 42% to £559k and a cume of £9.9m. New entry Begin Again completed the top five with £456k and there was one other high profile new entry with Boyhood in seventh. The best reviewed film of the year to date opened with £333k and with a reported staggered release strategy, it should hold up well over the coming weeks.
Officially, the box office was up 282% from last weekend and up 121% from the same weekend last year but these figures are highly skewed by the big preview figures for Transformers: Age of Extinction and How To Train Your Dragon 2.
Next Weekend
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes hits cinemas on Thursday and it’s the best blockbuster of the summer. A smart, thrilling sci-fi drama which fully delivers on the promise of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Also in cinemas from Friday is Pudsey The Dog: The Movie, which hasn’t screened for critics.
The Buzz
The Purge: Anarchy is out on the 25th and looks to at least take the series in a different direction to the first film with a more Running Man style plot. Also out on the same day is Dwayne Johnson in Hercules. I saw 15 minutes from it last week and it looks to be a slick action fantasy.
Across The Pond
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opened a strong 33% higher than Rise of the Planet of the Apes did in 2011 with $73m. The audience was 58% male 55% over the age of 25. On its third weekend Transformers: Age of Extinction fell 56% to $16.5m and now has a cume of $209m. Tammy fell 40% to $12.9m and to date the Melissa McCarthy comedy has grossed $57.4m. Another comedy was in fourth as 22 Jump Street fell 32% to $6.7m for a great cume of $172m. The top five was completed by How To Train Your Dragon 2, which added $5.9m for a cume of $152.1m total.
