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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
The Weekend Round-up
Taken 3 came out on top for the second successive week, adding £3.3m for a new total of £12.2m. Taken 2 banked £3.7m on its second weekend, so this third instalment is not tracking far behind and has been a key component of the strong start to the year.
Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper received six Oscar nominations on Friday and then translated that into great box office at the weekend, earning an impressive £2.5m. That’s the best opening for a film directed by Eastwood and it’s now in position to overhaul his highest grossing film, Gran Torino with £8.3m.
The Theory Of Everything received five Oscar nominations and saw a boost to its box office as a result. It fell a measly 6% to £2.3m and has now grossed a hugely impressive £11.9m. With the ceremony still five weeks away, it will be looking to reach last year’s awards stalwart 12 Years A Slave’s final total of £20m.
Into The Woods was in fourth, falling just 19% to £2m and has now grossed a healthy £5.4m. Its strong showings on Saturday and Sunday prove that it’s a hit with the family audience.
Paddington completed the top five, adding £936k and has now reached £34m. By this time next week it will have overtaken The Lego Movie to be the highest grossing family film from 2014.
Just outside the top five, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies added £640k and became the first (and likely only) film from 2014 to cross the £40m mark and it now sits on £40.3m. Whiplash opened in seventh with £574k (including £38k from previews) and Wild, disappointingly, could only manage £525k in ninth (including £111k from previews). Testament Of Youth opened in eleventh with £417k (including £60k from previews).
Overall the box office was down 18% from last weekend, and down 2% from the same weekend last year, when the 2014 awards season’s biggest film, The Wolf Of Wall Street made its debut.
Next Weekend
On what should be the calm before the Big Hero 6 / Kingsman: The Secret Service sized storm, there are four new releases that will be hoping to find their niche:
Ex-Machina is the directorial debut from 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Dredd writer, Alex Garland. Once again, it’s intelligent sci-fi and has been receiving very positive reviews, with Variety claiming that Alex Garland's brittle, beautiful directorial debut is a digital-age 'Frankenstein' refashioned as a battle of the sexes’.
Mortdecai is the latest vehicle for Johnny Depp as he plays bumbling British art dealer-turned-spy, Charles Mortdecai. There isn’t a single review for it online yet, so make of that what you will.
A Most Violent Year is a crime drama from the hugely talented J.C. Chandor (All Is Lost, Margin Call) and stars Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac. A few weeks ago, it was a big awards hopeful but received zero Oscar nominations and it may struggle alongside some of the more lauded films currently filling cinemas.
Finally, The Gambler is a drama starring Mark Wahlberg as a literary professor whose compulsive gambling gets him into trouble with a local mob boss.
The Buzz
Blackhat is revered director, Michael Mann’s (The Insider, Heat, Ali, Collateral) first film in six years and it looks like he’s returned with a whimper, as it stumbled to a $4m opening weekend in the US. It’s out in the UK on 20 February, which is also the same day Kevin Hart’s new comedy, The Wedding Ringer is released. It opened with $21m in the US at the weekend, so hopefully it’ll repeat its success here.
Across The Pond
American Sniper's extraordinary $89.3m is the 41st biggest weekend of all time and on a similar level to some of last year’s biggest films (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Guardians of the Galaxy) but without the boost of the 3D surcharge. Kevin Hart comedy, The Wedding Ringer was in second place with $20.6m. Third was taken by home-grown hit, Paddington with $19m, which is a decent start. Last week’s number one, Taken 3 fell steeply to $14.7m in fourth and to date has grossed $63.5m. Selma completed the top five, adding $8.8m and to date has now banked $26.4m.
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