The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Marvel unsung heroes (outside of Deadpool) have gained a massive following since the release of the first film and the inevitable sequel was always going to be a massive blockbuster.

Landing at the top of this weeks UK box office Guardians of The Galaxy Vol 2 takes a fantastic £13 million making it the 41 highest debut ever, behind The Inbetweeners Movie and head of The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers.

The original Guardians of The Galaxy opened to £6.3 million in 2014, good for an untried new franchise, this film had bigger hype and has gained a loyal following and more than doubles the debut gross.

With favourable reviews and stars Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana at the top of their games, and with the best hero at the cinema in Baby Groot were looking at a £40 - £50 million total gross.

Falling from the top after 2 weeks if Fast and Furious 8, a £1.7 million 3rd weekend means that the film has now taken £26 million, it will struggle now to catch up with Fast and Furious 7.

Also new this week is Baahubali 2 The Conclusion at number 6 with £0.4 million, The Promise at number 9 with £178,000 and Lady McBeth at number 10 with £174,000.

Sing re-entered the chart this week and at 9 weeks is the longest running film while Beauty and The Beast is the highest total grossing movie with £70 million, its the 8th UK top film ever.

Historical Charts A year ago
Captain America: Civil War from Marvel was the top new film of the week, it knocked The Jungle Book from Disney from the top.

Five years ago
Avengers Assemble from Marvel took over at the top, it knocked Salmon Fishing In The Yemen down to number 2.

Ten years ago
Next starring Nicholas Cage was new at the top, it knocked Wild Hogs down to number 2 after a couple of weeks at the top.

Fifteen years ago
About A Boy starring Hugh Grant and Nicholas Holt was the top new film of the week making its debut at the top, it knocked Bend It Like Beckham to number 2.

Twenty years ago
Finishing off the release of Star Wars Special Editions Star Wars: Return of The Jedi made its debut at the top, it knocked Scream down to 2.

Twenty five years ago
Staying at the top was The Hand The Rocks The Cradle for a second weekend while Denzel Washington starred in the top new film Ricochet at number 3.

Middle Earths 4 week dominance of the Box Office ends this week with Les Misérables takes over at the top knocking The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey down to fourth.

Ang Lee's Life of Pi holds firm as the number 2 film and Gangster Squad is a new entry at 3.

The Tom Hooper directed film, based on the stage play musical, debuts at the top with a brilliant £8.1 million pound weekend gross. The highest debut for all involved except Anne Hathaway who scored a bigger opening weekend with last years The Dark Knight Rises.

Life of Pi continues to do well as the awards start to pile in and increases it's total gross to £21.9 million while Gangster Squad is new at 4 with an opening weekend of £2.1 million.

This time last year Spielberg was hitting number 1 with War Horse on it's debut weekend taking nearly £4 million and knocking The Iron Lady from the top.

Five years ago I Am Legend was still doing good numbers at the top with £2 million after 3 weeks while Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks was the highest new film at 3.

Ten years ago The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers still dominated the Uk box office and Martin Scorsese had the top new film with Gangs of New York at 2.

Fifteen years ago The Jackal with Bruce Willis was at the top on it's debut weekend with a gross of £1.4 million. Twenty years ago Bram Stokers Dracula from Francis Ford Coppola was hitting the top spot on it's opening knocking The Bodyguard into the runner up spot.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey holds firm at the top of the UK box office this week despite very strong competition from tsunami film The Impossible.

With a 3 day weekend gross of £4,075,781 The Hobbit stays put at the top of the UK box office for an amazing fourth week. The total gross for the Middle –Earth film is now just shy of £45 million, and is the 30th top film in the UK.

The Impossible is the highest new film at 2, starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts it's the true story of a family lost in the Boxing Day tsunami that happened in Thailand in 2004. With little publicity until recent weeks the film took a decent £ 4,034,470 over the weekend.

This time last year Tom Cruise was still at the top with Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol and Oscar winning film The Iron Lady about Margaret Thatcher's reign as British Prime Minister was the highest new entry at 3.

Five years ago I am legend was still at the top of the box office, and you had to look as far down as number 10 to get the highest new entry, Lust Caution, an Ang Lee direct film starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai.

Ten Years ago The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers wouldn't shift from the top of the box office which Star Trek Nemesis was the highest new film at 2.

Fifteen years ago Paul Verhoevens Starship Troopers was the top film in the country.

Keeping hold of the box office number one over the festive period is The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey which over the weekend starting 28th December took £6,850,728, up nearly a million from the previous weekend.

In total the Hobbit film has now taken just shy of 36 million pounds.

Highest new entry of the week is the Tom Cruise film Jack Reacher at number 3. A bit of a surprise this for a new Cruise action film, but there has been little publicity for the film and the adult theme has maybe kept some of the audience away, Reacher took £3,575,066.

Worthy of note this week, Skyfall has now become the first film in UK box office history to take over 100 million pounds, this far outstrips the 92 million pound gross of Avatar which had a 3D sales boosts.

This time last year Tom Cruise did have the top film, this time with his franchise movie Mission:Impossible Ghost Protocol which debuted at the top with £8,188,209.

Five years ago Will Smith had one of the biggest hits of his movie career to date with I Am Legend which debuted at the top grossing a quite brilliant £11,009,365.

Ten years ago we were in Middle Earth for the second time with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers which held the top spot with £8,177,801, while musical Chicago debuted the highest at 8 with £113,386 on limited release.