How to Train Your Dragon 2

This week in the UK Marvel/Disney's new franchise made its mark by debuting at the top of the box office at the top.

The tiny superhero had a debut weekend gross of £4 million from 555 sites, below other Marvel superhero films but for one of the less known characters and a new franchise a good opening.

A decent run over the school summer holidays could see a total gross in the high 20's into low 30 million region.

Falling into second place are the Minions, a £2.7 million gross has extended their total to £32 million, with plenty more to go over the summer this could be one of the highest grossers of the year.

André Rieu's 2015 Maastricht Concert also makes an appearance in the top 5 this week with a followup to the 2014 concert of the same name.

Indian film Bajrangi Bhaijaan and The Gallows also make appearances in the top 10 at 7 and 9 respectively.

Historical charts

A year ago
Dawn of The Planet of The Apes made it's debut on the UK box office at the top knocking down How to Train Your Dragon 2 into the runner up spot.

Five years ago
Christoper Nolan's Inception made it's mark on the box office debuting at the top while The Twilight Saga: Eclipse fell to number 3

Ten years ago
Madagascar made its way to the top of the UK box office knocking War of The Worlds to number 2 after 2 weeks at the top.

Fifteen years ago
Chicken Run continued its run at the top while The Patriot made its debut at number 3.

Transformers: Age of Extinction tops the UK video chart on it's first week of release on Blu-ray and DVD.

The fourth in the Transformers films was released at the UK box office on 11th June of this year taking £11.7 million on it's debut week of release.

The film was on the box office chart for only 5 weeks taking £19 million in the process, and is only the 187th highest grossing film of all time in the UK, it is the lowest of the series.

World wide the film fared slightly better, it grossed $1.07 billion and is the 11th highest grossing film of all time, much of that was from Japan where it is the highest grossing film in that territory.

Falling from the top to fifth is X-Men: Days of Future Past after it debuted at the top last week.

Other new film this week are
How to Train Your Dragon 2 at 2
22 Jump Street at 4
Earth to Echo at 9
The Purge Anarchy at 10
The House of Magic at 18
Pudsey The Dog The Movie at 19

This week we see the under sexed Inbetweeners going head to head with Disney trying to make cash from one of it's many franchises.

The Inbetweeners have become a pop culture phenomenon, there is no doubt, what started out as a adolescent comedy on Channel 4 turned into a £45 million grossing movie.

This week they are back for more of the same, only in Australia, and if the opening day gross of £2.75 million is setting the trend for this film then it will knock Guardians of the Galaxy from the top in style.

Make no mistake, this will be the number one film this week, it's simply a case of how much it can gross on it's debut.

Also out is Disney trying to milk their Planes franchise. One for the kids and one that should have been a video debut, Planes: Fire and Rescue will be a modest hit.

Released timely in the holidays it goes up agains How To Train Your Dragon 2 and The Nut Job, both old now, but should be a top 5 hit, if only for the familiarity and the Disney name.

Come back next week to see how well they did at the weekend box office.

This week we finally see the full release of Transformers: Age of Extinction and How to Train Your Dragon 2, and predictable they dominate the upper end of the box office chart.

Taking the top spot is the 4th in the Transformers series of movies from director Michael. The film had previews last weekend and takes the number 1 position with ease this week grossing £11.7 million in the process, it is the biggest grossing opening weekend of the year so far.

It's interesting to note this opening gross does include the £8 million from last weeks preview screenings, a £3 - 4 million is a closer opening weekend figure.

Opening in second place after going on general release is How to Train Your Dragon 2 which also includes money from it's previews over the last 3 or 4 weeks.

Falling to third this week is last weeks top film Mrs. Brown's Boy's D'Movie which after 3 weeks has grossed £11.8 million.

There were a number of other new film this which included
Begin Again at 5
Boyhood at 7
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania at 12

Last year at the box office Monsters University opened at the top of the chart knocking Despicable Me 2 into second place after 2 weeks at the top.

Five years ago Sasha Baron Cohen opened at the top with Bruno which knocked Ice Age: Dawn of The Dinosaurs to second place.

Ten years ago Shrek 2 held on tight at the top for another week keeping Around the World in 80 Days in second place for it's debut.

Fifteen years ago there was little change at the top with The Mummy retaining it's lead for a second week, highest new film was 10 Things I Hate About You at 5.

An interesting weekend of releases, Transformers: Age of Extinction and How to Train Your Dragon 2 go on general release after a couple of weeks of previews, and Boyhood and Begin Again are fresh to cinemas.

The fourth Transformers film is going to be the top film of the weekend, last weeks previews will be added to the gross meaning it will open in the £10 million mark and it could be the biggest opening of the franchise.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 has been on pre-release for a while now and has been on the box office chart for a couple of weeks, it's wider release will push it up the chart and it should go to number 2 this weekend.

Boyhood is a film from Richard Linklater and has been 12 years in the making, following the life of a young lad Linklater film in realtime with the boy growing up. Good reviews means it should get at least a top 10 entry.

Also out is Keira Knightly and Mark Ruffalo in Begin Again.