US release: 10th November 2006
United Kingdom release: 27th October 2006
Ireland release: 27th October 2006
£753.1 Thousand $7.5 Million
$0The box office had a slow start to the year with the shut-downs due to the ongoing global pandemic, but when they did re-open the public were slow to go back and there were many films released earlier in the year which under performed.
As the year progressed the public gained confidence in sitting in dark rooms with strangers and the year ended with the biggest movie of the year as Marvels MCU was the big outright winner.
Here is a breakdown of the top 5 movie of 2021 at the North American box office.
The Marvel/MCU/Sony movie was released late into December but beat expectations and has become the top movie of the year in North America through expectation, hype and the fact that it is every Spider-Fan's perfect movie.
The film hit the top of the 2021 list on its opening weekend and has so far taken over $500 Million, and as the movie is only 3 weeks old there is clearly more to come.
Another Marvel/MCU movie but this time very much a Disney product, and the movie can just at the point in late summer when the public was ready to go back to cinemas, and as many had not been in a cinema for over a year they flock to see the first Asian American superhero.
The movie took $224.5 Million during its 13 week box office run and took over from Black Widow when it did become the top movie of 2021 for a few weeks.
Sony had a good year in 2021, and although this is not directly a MCU movie it has enough connection to be closely associated, and the sequel movie did better than expected in its early autumn release.
Taking an excellent $212.4 Million over a 12 week span the movie is still currently showing in some cinemas in North America so its total could end up higher.
One of the first major releases in North America once cinemas began to open again, the solo outing for Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow didn't do as well as expected, but it got a Disney+ streaming release at the same time as its cinemas release.
Taking $183.6 Million over its 14 week cinematic run the movie was briefly the top movie of the year.
One of the first movie to get delayed at the very start of the pandemic which closed nearly all North American cinemas the 9th instalment in the Fast & Furious series finally got a release in June of this year, a year after its original scheduled release.
A 15 week run in cinemas gave the movie a total US gross of $173 Million, which even taking the delay into consideration is poor for a movie in this franchise.
Here is the top 10 movies in North America during 2021
This week the flagging DC Cinematic Universe owned by Warner Bros. got a well needed kick start with Wonder Woman that not only got a fantastic opening weekend but also got good reviews.
For a new IP starring the little known Gal Gadot a £6.1 million opening is fantastic, although Chris Pine does brings some star power and the film easily takes over at the top of the UK box office.
Compared to the previous 2 films in the series, Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice and Man of Steel it is far lower but the reviews have been far better and this film could have a good run ahead of it.
With Justice League coming on November this year it could be a good year for Warner and the DC property it so wants to be a rival to Marvel Cinematic Universe but is lacking to date.
Falling from the top to number 3 this week is Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazars Revenge, a weekend take of £2 million brings the films total to £13 million.
Worth noting is for the week Monday - Sunday Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazars Revenge would have still been number 1 with a weekly take of £7.7 million.
Also making its debut this week is Baywatch, a slapstick retelling of the 90s TV show, starring Dwayne Johnson and Zak Efron the film takes £4.6 million, not bad really but not good up against a superhero movie.
This week has Smurfs The Lost Village as the longest running film with 9 weeks while Guardians of The Galaxy Vol 2 is the top total grossing movie with £39.6 million after 6 weeks.
Historical charts
A year ago - Warcraft made its debut at the top of the box office on its debut, and with a whole new top 3 X-Men Apocalypse fell to number 5.
Five years ago - Prometheus made its debut at the top of the UK box office while Men in Black 3 fell to number 3 on its second weekend of release.
Ten years ago - Pirates of The Caribbean: At Worlds End spent a second weekend at the top while making its debut at 2 was Wedding Daze.
Fifteen years ago - Staring at the top was Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones for a third weekend while top new film was 40 Days and 40 Nights.
Twenty years ago - On its 5th weekend of release Liar Liar Went back to the top while the top new film was Absolute Power which entered at number 2, the previous weeks top film, Jungle 2 Jungle fell to number 3.
Twenty five years ago - Waynes World stayed at the top for a second weekend with the top new film being Medicine Man at number 3.
14 years after their first appearance on the big screen the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back and dominating the box office.
In a surprise move the Turtles stormed the box office beating expectation and knocking last weeks top film Guardians of the Galaxy from the top spot.
The Turtles took a $65 million (including Thursday night previews) over it's debut weekend, making it one of the biggest August debuts, it's a boon a good year for August debuts with Guardians breaking the record last week.
Guardians of the Galaxy fell to number 2 this week, taking $42 million for the weekend it has not made $176 million in the US after 2 weeks of release.
Also hitting the US box office are: - Into The Storm - number 3 with $18 million - The Hundred-Foot Journey - at number 4 with $11 million - Step up 5 All In - number 6 with $6.5 million
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 simply did big business across the world in 2011 taking an incredible $1,327,655,619 in world wide box office takings.
The final instalment of the Harry Potter franchise made sure that no other franchise will come close to it for a while and it was the only film in the saga to break the billion pound mark in world grosses, although the 3D tax will have helped.
Coming in a healthy second is Transformers: Dark of the Moon which took $1,114,558,779, this is also the highest grossing film it's series, although to date there are only 3, more will follow. With Transformers taking over a billion it completed a top 10 of world box office films with over a billion.
Also worth a mention are Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with just over a billion dollars, Kung Fu Panda with $659,230,261 and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 with $648,079,401.
It was not a great year for film at the box office this year despite the high taking of 3 films, they were exceptions. Next year is a good year for films and could well see box office takings increase with the likes of Batman, Spider-Man and The Hobbit.
The final instalment of Harry Potter saw the boy wizard go out with a bang, and it became the most successful film of the franchise in the process, and for 2011 it is the highest grossing film at the UK box office.
During its 10 week run it raked up £73,094,187 in UK box office takings, at todays cinema ticket prices that is about 13.5 million tickets making it the 30th top film in the UK by ticker sales. Other film to do well in 2011 were The kings Speech with £45.3 milion, The Inbetweeners with £45 million, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with £32.9 million and The Hangover Part II with £32.7 million.
In all a good year for British films (is Harry Potter a British film?) with Blockbusters not doing so well, Breaking Dawn and Transformers Dark of the Moon performed well enough but they were big budget blockbusters and had higher expectations.
I think the winner of the year was The Inbetweeners Movie that performed well abouve expectations, made back its budget and secured a sequel in the process, al that for a little Channel 4 show about bad mouthed undersexed teens.