THE TOP TEN
1. Battleship. Weekend/Total: £1,282,091 / £6,088,174 Sites: 497 (1)
2. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Weekend/Total: £1,169,235 Sites: 412 (New)
3. The Hunger Games. Weekend/Total: £1,070,787 / £21,259,368 Sites: 443 (4)
4. The Cabin in the Woods. Weekend/Total: £1,033,533 / £3,543,472 Sites: 422 (3)
5. Titanic 3D. Weekend/Total: £925,740 / £9,919,113 Sites: 398 (2)
6. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. Weekend/Total: £772,887 /£14,085,303 Sites: 527 (5)
7. Lockout. Weekend/Total: £596,500 Sites: 333 (New)
8. Mirror Mirror. Weekend/Total: £535,093 / £6,070,901 Sites: 427 (6)
9. 21 Jump Street. Weekend/Total: £376,781 / £9,465,305 Sites: 271 (7)
10. Gone. Weekend/Total: £275,087 Sites: 253 (New)
(Previous week's placement in parentheses)
BATTLESHIPS AND FISHING
After last weeks £3.76m opening, Battleship continues to sink all comers, despite a 70% drop down to £1.28m indicating a universal fall in attendance.
Despite Hasrbo's mega-blockbuster winning the weekend, the more impressive turn is Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which came in at number two with £1.17m. The gentle, thoroughly English romantic-comedy showed once again that the older market should not be discounted, following The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel's £2.22m opening 9 weeks ago.
It's significantly lower but, as proven by the drop in takings across the chart, when compared to previous weeks, this could simply be attributed to general low attendance. This could be attributed to good weather, a lack of truly attractive new options or simply audiences saving their money for the onslaught of Avengers Assemble, this coming weekend.
Salmon Fishing marks the first of three Lionsgate movies to make it into the Top 5.
THE REST OF THE BEST
The Hunger Games and The Cabin in the Woods round out Lionsgate's rather excellent weekend, with the science fiction epic earned £1.03m, after a slight 28% drop from last weeks takings. The blockbuster has now defeated The Woman in Black for the highest grossing movie of 2012, with a total of £21.26m against Black's £21.22m. Expect that total to continue rising.
The Cabin in the Woods did well to hit £1.03m over the weekend, with only a 35% drop from last weeks opening gross, but the mid-week earnings were terrible. The total gross stands at £3.54m, so including the opening of £1.60m and this weeks take, that leaves just £908,778 for the Monday to Thursday earnings.
Titanic 3D beat that with just its weekend, taking £925,740 and just a snowballs throw away from a £10m total.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
The Pirates! is creeping towards a £15m total and still looking strong, as the Aardman animated feature is on the verge of premiering in the US (in direct competition with The Avengers, no less).
The Luc Besson produced Lockout entered the charts with a limp 7, likely due to Guy Pearce being an indie darling and not the bankable lead that Besson's usual output attracts (Jason Statham, Liam Neeson, John Travolta, etc).
Mirror Mirror sees another sharp drop, while 21 Jump Street begins to fall out of the charts, getting closer and closer to a £10m total.
Gone did better than I expected, but I did expect it to do abysmally, so just doing terribly is a step up. The thriller earned £275,087 on 253 screens, whereas the documentary Marley managed £194,203 on just 64.
SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND...
Avengers Assemble opens today, expectations are high for Marvel's first cinematic crossover event. The film has been tracking well and already looking set to cross a few milestones in foreign markets (coming second only to the last Harry Potter as the biggest opening in Australia).
Iron Man, which kickstarted Marvel's long and audacious journey, which culminates this weekend, opened to £5.47m on May 4th 2008, and an overall total of £17.14m. The Incredible Hulk followed, a month later, with a £3.25m opening and bowed out at £8.06m.
Iron Man 2 cashed in on Iron Man's massive success, opening in the same slot as its predecessor, to the tune of £7.66m and a total of £20.92m.
Thor, always considered a much harder sell than your average superhero movie, opened on April 29th 2011 (so roughly the same slot as Avengers) to £5.45m and closed at a £14.02m, a box office that would do Odin proud.
Captain America, a more traditional superhero but delivered in the unconventional form of a war-era setting, opened to £2.98m, the lowest opening of any Marvel hero, but beat Hulk's total by finishing up with £9.48m.
There is no reason Avengers Assemble can't meet Iron Man 2's opening, if not beat it, but anything less than Thor's open and we are looking at disappointment.
I don't see a problem. Competition is slim right now, with the other major blockbusters all several weeks into their release, and the only new releases come in the form of Glenn Close's cross-dressing period drama, Albert Nobbs; Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress; and Disney's African Cats.
Only a very eventful weekend will see any of these movies make a dent in the top 10, so I fully expect the Earth's Mightiest Heroes to completely dominate the box office this weekend.
