UK box office analysis 1st August: No stopping the Guardians of the Galaxy to the top

At the UK box office over the weekend there was no doubt which film was going to be the biggest, and in the process a new franchise is born in the superhero stable.

The Marvel/Disney stable bring another franchise to the big screen in the shape of Guardians of the Galaxy, and unlike their Avengers counterparts these are a bunch of misfits.

Guardians took a very respectable £6.3 million to make number 1, comparing Guardians to Avenger (called Avengers Assemble in the UK) that film released in 2012 had a £15.7 million opening, nearly double that of Guardians.

Although Avengers was not a sequel as such it did have a number of high grossing companion films before it including Iron Man and Thor.

Last weeks top film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, falls a single place to 2 this week after 3 weeks of release, its total gross is £23.4 million.

Also worth a mention this week; Secret Cinema are showing a months worth of Back to the Future screening in surroundings based on the films Hill Valley, this took the nearly 30 year old film back to number 7 this week.

Also new is - The Nut Job at 6

This time last year The Smurfs 2 hit the top of the box office on it's debut knocking The Wolverine to number 4.

Five years ago Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was still at the top keeping the highest new entry at 2, G-Force.

Ten years ago King Arthur took the top spot on it's debut which left Spider-Man 2 to tumble to second place.

Fifteen years ago Mike Myers stared in Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me which knocked Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace into second place.

Twenty years ago in the month of August Jim Carey was on a wave after Ace Ventura and The Mask was sitting as the top film of the month.

Twenty Five years ago Lethal Weapon 2 was the biggest film of August.

This weeks top 10 UK Box Office films

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