This summer's North American box office trails last year's by 15%. An insipid selection of movies punctuated by blockbusters like Transformers: Age of Extinction, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy and breakout The Fault in Our Stars has made the past few months the lowest-grossing summer since 2006. Last year was a $4.85bn (£2.92bn) record breaker so comparisons were always going to be harsh, but film's second-weekend drops in box office have been severe, and the World Cup didn't help matters. Summer 2015 is expected to be a vast improvement, but there's no denying the overall downward trend in real terms of ticket sales and inflation.
Guardians becomes biggest release of the year so far
Last weekend, Guardians of the Galaxy added $16.3m to reach $274.6m and in so doing overtook Captain America: the Winter Soldier on $259.8m and The Lego Movie on $257.8m to climb to the top of the pile. Guardians of the Galaxy's box office performance has been above what Disney executives anticipated, but despite what was perceived to be the movie's left-field appeal, the studio knew that they were on to a good thing. Its quality has turned into a rewarding run and the sequel in 2017 should be at least 50% bigger without factoring in inflation.
Legendary Entertainment kicks off new relationship
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The studio behind Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and the Hangover franchise severed its co-production ties with Warner Bros recently and is now in cahoots with Universal Pictures. The new partners unleashed their first collaboration at the weekend in the form of horror movie As Above, So Below, a found footage tale set in the catacombs beneath Paris. Let's hope their upcoming venture delivers more punch, because this film arrived in fourth place on a lowly $8.3m from 2,640 theatres. Future releases include Jurassic World, Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak and Duncan Jones' Warcraft. For the record Warner Bros released Legendary's Godzilla this summer under an ongoing agreement.
Chef crosses $30m
When a studio announces it's re-releasing a movie, it's a sure sign of awards aspirations or a transparent bid to cross a marketable box-office milestone. In Chef's case, production company Open Road Films was in pursuit of the former (which is still a work in progress) but achieved the latter. The Jon Favreau tale of a high-class chef who gets back to his roots when he starts a food truck has now crossed $30m. The distributor will be hoping the popular movie can get some attention during the Golden Globes.
Starred Up hits US theatres
David Mackenzie's prison drama stars Jack O'Connell, who may not be particularly well known in the US for his work in Skins but seems poised to explode before long. He caused a stir among US buyers and festival-goers for Starred Up, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, and in this year's Berlinale entry '71 that will screen in Toronto next week. Starred Up arrived in the US on a modest $11,000 distributed by Tribeca Film in two cinemas and may stick around a while. There will very likely be a step up in US profile later this year when O'Connell will play Olympic runner and Japanese PoW Louis Zamperini in Angelina Jolie's awards hopeful Unbroken.
North American top 10, August 29-31 2014
1. Guardians of the Galaxy, $16.3m. Total: $274.6m
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, $11.8m. Total: $162.4m
3. If I Stay, $9.3m. Total: $29.8m
4. As Above, So Below, $8.3m, new release
5. Let's Be Cops, $8.2m. Total: $57.3m, new release
6. The November Man, $7.7m. Total: $9.4m
7. When the Game Stands Tall, $5.7m. Total: $16.3m
8. The Giver, $5.3m. Total: $31.5m
9. The Hundred-Foot Journey, $4.6m. Total: $39.4m
10. The Expendables 3, $3.5m. Total: $33.1m
