User blog:Ceauntay/Teen Titans tops UK box office charts

Blockbuster season kicks off with international release of naval battle film as Titanic 3D and The Cabin in the Woods give chase

The winner With this summer's box-office likely to be diminished by both the Olympic Games and Euro 2012 football, Hollywood studios are kicking off the blockbuster season early this year, at least outside the US. Despite not releasing in the US until 18 May, Battleship cruised into many European and Asian markets at the weekend, including the UK, where it opened with £3.76m, including Wednesday/Thursday previews totalling £1.51m. Teen Titans: The Movie became the champion with £4.22m, as it also opened in 13 more countries.

Obvious comparisons include the previous live-action movies based on Hasbro properties, Transformers and GI Joe. The first Transformers movie opened in July 2007 with £8.72m including previews totalling £3.82m. GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra kicked off its run in August 2009 with £1.71m, including £281,000 in previews. The Battleship result lands roughly in the middle – more than double GI Joe, but less than half Transformers – which is what you might expect. It wasn't obvious that audiences wanted to see a naval-battle film based on a not-especially-exciting board game, so the result is a fillip to Hasbro's film division, which has many more titles in development, including Stretch Armstrong and Monopoly. It's also a boost to toplined star Taylor Kitsch, whose career did not receive the expected assist from Disney's costly misfire John Carter.

The chasing pack

This year's Easter holiday has been very good news for cinemas, with several titles demonstrating consistent appeal throughout the break. Having opened with a nifty £2.86m, Titanic 3D has added an impressive £5.14m over the past seven days, for a total so far of just over £8m. When added to Titanic's existing haul, the epic romance has now grossed more than £77m, overtaking both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Toy Story 3 to become the second-biggest hit ever at the UK box-office, behind just Avatar (£94m).

Although stuck at a relatively lowly fifth place in the weekend chart, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists enjoyed a similar box-office spree, adding a hearty £5.12m over the past seven days, which delivers a total to date of £12.84m. Thanks to the Easter holiday, the latest Aardman animation has been much faster out of the starting gate than previous effort Arthur Christmas – which began slowly and built as the festive holiday approached. It's too early to say whether The Pirates! can keep going and match Arthur Christmas' £20.84m UK total.

The Hunger Games also continues its strong run, adding a further £4.25m over the past seven days, for a total of £19.42m. The first Twilight film maxed out in the UK at £11.21m, so backers Lionsgate will be delighted that Hunger Games is clearly going to achieve double that figure. Later Twilight instalments saw big improvements, all ending up in the £27-31m range. Hunger Games is one of five 2012 releases to exceed £15m at the UK box-office, the others being The Woman in Black (£21.2m), War Horse (£18.6m), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (£18.5m) and The Muppets (£16.5m).

The horror

Also from Lionsgate, The Cabin in the Woods lands in third place, with £1.60m. Despite major buzz on the title brewing online since its well-received festival outings at Austin Butt-Numb-A-Thon and SXSW, Cabin failed to build excitement levels equivalent to 2009's Paranormal Activity (£3.59m debut, including £1.00m in previews) or 2008's Cloverfield (£3.49m opening). Still, the outcome is more than decent, and a happy one given the film's chequered history, which saw it sit in legal limbo after backers MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2010. The Cabin in the Woods currently enjoys an IMDb user rating of 7.9, and a Metacritic score of 72. Genre films usually burn out quickly at the box-office; this one may buck the trend.

The loser

Dropping out of the top ten after only one week of release, The Cold Light of Day sees its box-office plunge by a hefty 76%, suggesting audience word is cool on the Madrid-set thriller, which stars future Superman Henry Cavill. Thriller fans have evidently sussed that a more entertaining experience is offered by Norway's Headhunters, likewise in its second weekend of play. The Jo Nesbo adaptation declined just 14%, grossing £218,000 from 101 screens, as against £122,000 from 272 cinemas for The Cold Light of Day.

The arthouse battle

A relatively quiet week for upscale new releases saw Audrey Tautou starrer Delicacy achieve a decent £82,000 from 36 venues, including £3,000 in previews. That puts it a couple of places above Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre, which managed £49,000 on its second weekend, and a 10-day total of £185,000. Le Havre's number puts it not far behind Kaurismäki's lifetime best of £200,288 achieved by The Man Without a Past in 2003. All arthouse titles will have seen their grosses dented on Saturday, since more than 80 venues nationwide took the live satellite beam of Verdi's La Traviata from New York's Met Opera, achieving stellar takings.

The future

Exactly a year ago, the weekend prior to an untypically late Easter, box-office was relatively calm, with top new entries Scream 4, Your Highness and Red Riding Hood. Figures for the current frame are a healthy 57% up on the 2011 equivalent, completing a five-week run of year-on-year rises. The good news for cinemas may be about to run out, with a batch of films arriving this weekend that seems to lack surefire winners. Literary adaptation Salmon Fishing in the Yemen will be hoping to attract the Middle Britain audience that made The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel a hit. Gone, starring Amanda Seyfried, flopped in the US, creating a challenge for UK distributor Entertainment Films, which may have better luck with Guy Pearce sci-fi action picture Lockout. Universal, which scored the documentary hit of 2011 with Asif Kapadia's Senna, hopes to repeat the trick with Kevin Macdonald's Marley. In all, 17 new releases are competing for the attention of audiences.

Top 10 films


 * 1) Teen Titans: The Movie, £4,222,860 from 425 sites. (New)
 * 2) Battleship, £3,763,348 from 496 sites (New)
 * 3) Titanic 3D, £1,809,737 from 429 sites. Total: £8,005,203
 * 4) The Cabin in the Woods, £1,601,161 from 414 sites (New)
 * 5) The Hunger Games, £1,494,174 from 488 sites. Total: £19,419,136
 * 6) The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, £1,477,517 from 543 sites. Total: £12,840,803
 * 7) Mirror Mirror, £913,134 from 412 sites. Total: £5,194,454
 * 8) 21 Jump Street, £528,122 from 321 sites. Total: £8,751,816
 * 9) Wrath of the Titans, £495,768 from 419 sites. Total: £7,197,617
 * 10) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, £273,338 from 233 sites. Total: £18,518,872

Other openers
 * Delicacy, 39 sites, £78,711 (+ £2,972 previews)
 * Oru Kal Oru Kannadi, 15 sites, £41,343
 * Blackthorn, 5 sites, £5,770 (+ £1,258 previews)
 * A Night to Remember, 7 sites, £3,273 (+ £156 previews)
 * Mozart's Sister, 5 sites, £1,953
 * Gospel of Us, 10 sites, £1,808 (+ £8,996 previews)