The Boxtrolls holds off Liam Neeson competition to the top spot

the-boxtrolls-teaser-trailer-3-2014The Boxtrolls has continued its run at the top of the UK box office, just beating out strong competition from Liam Neeson’s latest release. The stop motion animation brought in £1,333,137 last weekend and has grossed £3,621,803 so far. The film, which is based on the novel Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow, features the voices of an array of actors including Game of Thrones star Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Sir Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade and Tracy Morgan. The plot revolves around a young orphaned boy, who was raised by underground cave-dwelling garbage men, as he tries to save his friends from an evil exterminator.

Narrowly missing out on the top spot is America crime thriller A Walk Among the Tombstones which tallied £1,317,948 on its opening weekend. The film, which is based on a novel by Lawrence Block of the same name, stars Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, Boyd Holbrook, and Sebastian Roché. The story follows private investigator Matthew Scudder (Neeson) who is hired by a drug kingpin (Steven) to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife. A Walk Among the Tombstones has received positive reviews from critics with praise directed at the film’s cast, especially Neeson’s performance, and Frank’s direction and screenplay. However Jason Korsner of UK Screen gave the film a negative review by stating, “But feeling familiar and there being no-emotional hook, the most criminal thing for a crime film, it’s simply not that clever – leads are uncovered too easily, red herrings are too obvious – so it fails to grip the heart or the head.”

Second week in the box office top ten for British release Pride which made £578,794 bringing it to third place. The story is about U.K. gay activists who work to help miners during their lengthy strike of the National Union of Mineworkers in the summer of 1984. It was screened at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors’ Fortnight section, where it won the Queer Palm award and also received a standing ovation. It has grossed £1,860,473 so far in the UK.

Falling to fourth place is sci-fi thriller Lucy after £551,482 was made from cinema ticket sales last weekend, totalling £13,031,253 after five weeks on release. Scarlett Johansson plays a woman whose brain becomes extremely powerful after taking a strange new substance while acting as a drug mule.

Second new entry on the charts is British thriller The Riot Club which made £496,647 on its opening weekend settling it in fifth place. Written by Laura Wade, it is based on her 2010 play Posh and stars Max Irons, Sam Claflin and Douglas Booth as the story follows two first-year students at Oxford University, who join the infamous Riot Club, where reputations can be made or destroyed over the course of a single evening. Jason Korsner gave the film a negative review stating, “At its best, The Riot Club is a slick, well-acted drama that has some interesting things to say about old-boy networks and loyalty, but it has little fresh to say about student life, its politics are clumsily simplistic and it’s likely to alienate almost any possible audience.”

Sixth place goes to comedy Sex Tape which made £423,484 and grossed £3,552,754 on its third weekend. Following in seventh place is Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy which brought in £417,315 on its eighth weekend on release, marking its total in the UK as £27,277,118.

Entering at eighth place is third new entry, British documentary 20,000 Days on Earth which made £356,467 on its opening weekend in the UK. The film premiered in-competition in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at 2014 Sundance Film Festival and won two Awards at the festival. The plot follows writer and musician Nick Cave on his 20,000th day on this planet. It received general acclaim after its premiere with Cory Everett of Indiewire stating, “While the doc should prove essential for Nick Cave fans, it should be inspiring for those interested in the creative process or anyone searching for their muse.”

John le Carré’s adaptation, A Most Wanted Man has fallen to ninth place with £327,967 on its second weekend on the charts. The film follows a Chechen Muslim as he illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught in the international war on terror and stars, in one of his final roles,  Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Daniel Brühl and Nina Hoss. It has totalled £1,322,233 in the UK so far.

Rounding off the top ten is mystery thriller Before I Go to Sleep which brought in £306,223 on its third weekend and grossing £2,577,297.

The new releases to hit next week is Denzel Washington new thriller The Equalizer, satirical drama Maps to the Stars which stars Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska and comedy film from the creators of the hit BBC show Outnumbered, What We Did On Our Holiday.