Over 15 years and 33 films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has thrown countless seemingly insurmountable obstacles and more than a few apocalyptic events at their line-up of superheroes trying to save the world, the universe and reality itself. Their villains are at the head of all of this; crazed scientists, treacherous government agents, brutal alien warlords, amoral industrialists, gods and monsters and everything in between, an MCU villain can be so many things. Some were unfortunately the weakest elements in the movies they appeared in, being either generic, poorly served by the script or misjudged in their performances, while others ended up being memorable highlights even above the title costumed characters. 

There are often multiple antagonists in these superhero stories so we’ve tried to stick to one villain per MCU film. This is except where it’s the same antagonist carried over into a sequel film, and in cases where there’s more than one threat to our heroes. In these instances, we’ve focussed on the most active baddies or the masterminds of the various diabolical plots.

This ranking will be based on the level of threat the various bad guys pose to our supremely skilled and miraculously superpowered heroes, the diabolical creativity of their respective master plans and the sheer evilness of their actions. Spoilers ahead!

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

31. Malekith – Thor: The Dark World (2013)

“Look upon my legacy, Algrim. I can barely remember a time before the light.” 

A dark elf conqueror with a vendetta against Asgard for a defeat in ancient times, Malekith is reawakened and plots to snuff out the light across the universe (because his kind really like the darkness of the void).

A hugely distinct and memorable villain from the comics became one of the most boring to ever antagonise a superhero movie. Whatever Christopher Eccleston was trying to do with his performance after undergoing many uncomfortable hours in the makeup chair was lost in a brutally hacked film edit and an all-round po-faced determination to live up to the “dark” of the title.

Note: dark is not the same as interesting. 

30. Ivan Vanko/Whiplash – Iron Man 2 (2010)

“You come from a family of thieves and butchers, and like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your history.”

Whiplash is a Stark-hating, parrot-loving nuclear physicist/inventor with arc reactor-powered whips and an army of drones to carry out his revenge.

Mickey Rourke got a lot of jobs in quick succession as various shades of tough guy in this period. The Wrestler this is not, and he doesn’t exactly stretch himself as Ivan, offering a barely passable Russian accent and playing with a toothpick as a poor substitute for a more intricate characterisation as he plots vaguely defined Cold War-fuelled vengeance on Tony Stark and the American Military Industrial Complex.

29. Emil Blonsky/Abomination – The Incredible Hulk (2008)

“If I took what I had now, and put it in a body that I had ten years ago, that would be someone I wouldn’t want to fight.”

Abomination is an unstable British Black Ops asset who volunteers for a series of dangerous experimental super soldier treatments in order to capture the Hulk.

The Incredible Hulk worked best when it was Marvel’s answer to a Universal Monster movie, but one of its weakest elements was having Blonsky as its villain. Roth is fine, but he just wasn’t all that threatening, the character thinly sketched as a violent jerk with a superiority complex. When he finally transforms into his bony green alter ego Abomination for a CG smashathon in Harlem, it becomes almost impossible to care.

Recommended for you: Once More with Feeling – 10 More of the Best Remakes

28. Dar-Benn – The Marvels (2023)

“I always come back.”

Continuing what Ronan the Accuser started, Kree warrior Dar-Benn seeks to unite the two powerful Cosmic Bands in order to open portals across the galaxy to pillage resources from countless worlds to restore her dying planet of Hala and reassert her species’ dominance in the galaxy.

The problem with Dar-Benn is not her evil-for-the-right-reasons master plan or her relative threat level to our heroes (which is considerable considering that with space-magical enhancement she can hold her own against three formidable supes at once), it’s that there’s nothing else to her.

We needed more time for layers to come though Zawe Ashton’s broad, pantomimey performance and she too often feels like a retread of the kinds of villains we’ve seen in the MCU many times before, just a means to an end.

27. Ava Starr/Ghost – Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

“It hurts. It always hurts.”

The Marvels Review

A scientist’s daughter with an unnatural condition that causes her to painfully phase in and out of the physical realm, Ghost resorts to stealing Pymtech to survive.

Ghost is an admirable attempt to make something interesting out of a gimmicky physics-based villain. The character is let down not by Hannah John-Kamen’s engaging and tortured performance but by her essential irrelevance to the film’s main plot and lack of enough meaningful screen time. It’s almost like they only decided late in the day that Ant-Man and the Wasp should have an antagonist at all, and that may have been the wrong decision for this particular movie. 

26. Ronan – Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

“I don’t recall killing your family. I doubt I’ll remember killing you either.”

Ronan is a Kree fanatic who courts war and is gathering enough power to wipe the planet Xandar from the galaxy.

Ronan, with his war paint, samurai helmet and big hammer has a strong look, and thanks to Lee Pace he is given an imposing presence and a rumbling voice. But you’d struggle to claim he had much in the way of depth as a character. He wants a weapon to destroy a planet because because he’s from a war-like race and that’s about it, though Pace’s affronted expression and confused “what are you doing?” as Star-Lord dances in front of him as he’s trying to trigger an apocalypse is pretty memorable.

25. Darren Cross/Yellowjacket – Ant-Man (2015)

“Did you think you could stop the future with a heist?”

Ant-Man Review

Hank Pym’s protégé, ouster and successor at his company, Yellowjacket seeks to weaponise and sell Pym’s shrinking technology to the highest bidder.

Marvel has a lot of evil CEOs in its rogues gallery and Corey Stoll brings plenty of punchable arrogance to his performance as Darren Cross. He murders rivals and exterminates animal test subjects without second thought, seemingly motivated by Pym not trusting him with the secrets of his technology (though really it’s because he enjoys doing it). 

Cross does have probably the most gruesome villain death in the MCU so far, and it’s no more than he deserves.

“There was an idea…”

Said idea was different to almost every version of the big screen superhero seen previously. Rather than each costumed hero existing in their own sealed-off vivariums, what if they could all share one interconnected universe containing a single ever-evolving and expansive story?

Once the idea gained traction, billions of dollars, and many “phases” of franchise continuity, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) became the envy of every studio with a lucrative intellectual property to siphon and thus many attempts were made to replicate the success of the “Marvel Formula”.

Much like the James Bond series in the decades before it, the MCU is primarily a producer-led franchise, the ultimate mastermind behind the project being Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, though distinct directors like Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon and Taika Waititi have certainly left their mark on their respective entries in the ongoing series.

What keeps us (and wider box office audiences) coming back, aside from the ever-increasing levels of superhero spectacle and long-form storytelling borrowing liberally from 80-plus years of comic books, is the time you’re afforded to grow to love the characters and their relationships with each other, especially in the ambitious team-up Avengers movies.

In this edition of Ranked we at The Film Magazine are assessing every entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and because fans have very different opinions on the best, the worst and everything in between regarding this series, we’ve attempted to find a balance between average critical consensus and general audience reception, as well as genre innovation and the lasting impact on popular culture, to order all of them definitively from worst to best.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your consideration… Every MCU Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on X (Twitter).

33. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

“A guy dressed like a bee tried to kill me when I was six. I’ve never had a normal life.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review

The Ant-Man films are probably the most inconstant sub-series in the MCU, quality wise, but because the final chapter of their trilogy tries to go both big and small, it well and truly overreaches itself.

Pitting the Lang/Van Dyne family against Kang the Conqueror in the Quantum Realm, force of nature Jonathan Majors playing a fascinating villain isn’t quite enough to save Peyton Reed’s threequel from being just an eye-catching jumble of mismatched, tonally confusing ideas.

For Kang’s first, less maniacal appearance and the start of this whole Multiverse Saga, make sure to watch Season 1 of ‘Loki’.

32. Eternals (2021)

“We have loved these people since the day we arrived. When you love something, you protect it.”

Eternals Review

Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) is a great director, no doubt, but she was just not a good fit for the MCU in this story of space gods guiding humanity’s progress. Considering the usually grounded and singular vision of her work, this was a particularly crushing disappointment for most audiences.

The ambition and epic millennia-spanning scope of Eternals sadly did not pay off in this jarring, misjudged slog of a final product that couldn’t even be saved by a stellar and diverse cast. 

31. The Marvels (2023)

“Listen to me, you are chosen for a greater purpose. So you must go. But I will never let you go.”

The Marvels Review

The Marvels smartly builds a lot of its appeal around its central team-up of Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan as their power usage causes them to swap places across the universe, but their found family warmth and oodles of charisma can’t overcome all the film’s flaws.

This needed more purposeful storytelling, a villain that doesn’t feel like a retread of what came before and more direct confrontation of the darker implications of the story. The musical elements will likely make an already decisive movie more so, but the MCU overall could do with some more audacious imagery like what Nia DaCosta does with alien cats.

Watching ‘Wandavision’ and ‘Ms Marvel’ through beforehand will certainly help you connect with two of the three leads that bit quicker.

30. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

“Whosoever holds these weapons, and believes in getting home, if they be true of heart is therefore worthy, and shall possess… for limited time only, the power… of Thor!”

Thor: Love and Thunder Review

Taika Waititi is the kind of distinct voice that gave the MCU a jolt in the arm when it was most needed, and he was vital in reinvigorating the Thor series, but the tonal balance and technical polish certainly felt off in 2022 release Thor: Love and Thunder.

Good performances from Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Christian Bale, and some memorable set pieces aside, Thor’s latest adventure battling a god-killer with his now superpowered ex-girlfriend Jane Foster at his side feels like too many mismatched stories smashed together.

Recommended for you: Taika Waititi Films Ranked

29. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

“One son who wanted the throne too much, and other who will not take it. Is this my legacy?”

The God of Thunder’s third film appearance tries to live up to its title with a story of dark elves trying to snuff out all light in the universe. Sadly, a late change in director – Alan Taylor taking over from would-be Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins – and extensive Loki-centric reshoots didn’t help an already disjointed film feel any less so.

Thor’s dynamic with his Earthbound friends is still funny and more Loki (shoehorned in or not) is always a good thing with Tom Hiddleston in the role, but the storytelling is inconsistent at best and Christopher Eccleston under heavy prosthetics as Malekith may be the most boring villain in the MCU so far.

28. Iron Man 2 (2010)

“The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you’re in.”

The MCU’s first direct sequel went bigger and darker with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark fighting a vengeful Russian inventor, a rival industrialist and potentially fatal health problems. Unfortunately, this ended up being a much less focussed, overblown and not all that compelling movie.

Scarlet Johansson makes her debut as Black Widow here, though she’s just a generic sexy spy at this point and not yet given the dimensions other writers would later bestow. The action is decent enough, but you wouldn’t lose out on much of you skipped over Iron Man 2 on your next MCU rewatch.

27. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

“You know, I know a few techniques that could help you manage that anger effectively.”

Lacking the clear intentions and boldness of many subsequent MCU movies, The Incredible Hulk is stylistically old-fashioned but works slightly better if you view this as a big-budget tribute to sympathetic monster movies (this one was made by Universal, after all).

A movie filled with false starts and one-off appearances (most obviously Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner would be recast with Mark Ruffalo for The Avengers in 2012), very little was carried over to the wider franchise right up until Tim Roth’s reappearance in ‘She-Hulk’ fourteen years later.

This is generally uninspiring stuff, with its most interesting man-on-the-run elements cribbed from the 1970s ‘Incredible Hulk’ TV show.

Recommended for you: Where to Start with Universal Classic Monsters

On the screen, Marvel Studios’ trusted output has been received positively by critics and audiences alike, the majority of its thirty feature releases being well received and worthy of their hype, even their so-called “calculated risks” being more often refreshing to their already established formula than detrimental to their overall output.

Cinema has been forever changed by the dawn of Marvel’s big screen dominance and old-school serial approach to storytelling, Disney’s newly ordained crown jewel inspiring every rival studio and aspirational production company to gobble up trusted IPs and set forth plans for so-called Movie Universes based around everything from fellow superheroes to famous board games, reinvented children’s cartoons to horror characters.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are putting the world’s most influential film franchise under the microscope to compare every feature length Marvel release with one another to determine which MCU films are the best and which are the worst, judging each on artistic merit and cultural impact.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter. 

30. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

To this day, Louis Leterrier’s 2008 MCU contribution The Incredible Hulk is the forgotten member of the family. And, while this isn’t necessarily this distinctly average film’s fault and is actually more to do with Edward Norton refusing to return to his role as the Hulk following strained relationships with both director and studio, as well as how the rights to the Hulk character are locked in a contract that limits Marvel Studios from telling a standalone story with Mark Ruffalo, a lot can still be said for how dated this film is – The Incredible Hulk playing a lot more like Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four and X-Men: Origins – Wolverine than the later and much more tasteful Marvel Studios offerings to come in this list.

Recommended for you: Every X-Men Movie Ranked

29. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

The worst of a bad bunch of uninspired sequels, Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World not only seemed absent of the comedy and much of the mythology of the original Thor film but it also hit at precisely the wrong time – that being between the much more highly anticipated Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the year after the original The Avengers.

Thor 2 was generic in a Suicide Squad “angry swirl of evil descending from the sky for no reason” kind of way; a movie so uninspired Chris Hemsworth has openly spoken about how he almost quit the role because of it; a perfectly serviceable sequel (especially at the time), but one of little consequence or imagination that few get excited to rewatch – an MCU entry that time hasn’t been very kind to.

28. Iron Man 2 (2010)

The first Iron Man was such a huge success creatively, artistically, critically and financially for Marvel Studios that a quick-turnaround 2nd movie was demanded to bolster Phase One’s launch – a period in the history of the MCU that was a lot more rocky than many are willing to admit.

Iron Man 2 was a failure in all of the ways Iron Man was a success, apart from financially, offering bland and sometimes barely comprehensible moments of action, dialogue and character. As a result, Iron Man 2 fits right in alongside the likes of The Amazing Spider-Man as a very particular brand of cheesy and uninspired comic book movie that was made more to earn a quick buck than it was to fulfil any creative or artistic need. It has its moments – which movie starring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man doesn’t? – but thankfully the MCU has proven itself to be better than this in its other phases since.

27. Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)

Coming between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame – ie, post-snap – Ant-Man and The Wasp was put in an awful position to succeed, the creative minds behind the film having to choose between embracing the actions of Infinity War or ignoring them altogether. They chose the latter (at least until the film’s final moments), but what fans wanted was something of an indicator as to what was to come in Endgame, or at least a taste of post-Infinity War’s MCU landscape, and the comedy-centred light-heartedness of an Ant-Man movie was an example of Marvel Studios not taking a minute to read the room.

More than that, Ant-Man and The Wasp felt scaled down from the original, its outlandish creative ideas brought into line with the wider MCU look and feel of things, making what seemed like a promising sequel to a moving and hilarious comedy one of the studio’s most formulaic and typically “superhero movie” releases to date – the “formula” not being necessarily bad, but certainly overplayed.

26. Eternals (2021)

Eternals Review

Eternals came with a lot of hope and expectation given the nature of the original material it was being adapted from and how it was the first MCU entry to be directed by an Oscar-winning director (Chloé Zhao). Ultimately, it proved too much of a mix of the trusted Marvel formula and director Zhao’s trademark directorial style, the clashes between action and existentialism forcing a disjointed rhythm in the filmmaking that made Eternals feel way longer than it was (which was one of the longest MCU films in history) and hit home way less effectively than anyone would have hoped.

As a product of the world’s largest production arm, Eternals was hopefully diverse from cast to crew, but ultimately this release had two authorial presences that seemed to clash on screen, this already troubling combination being amplified by its position in the MCU as a part of the studio’s fourth phase and thus responsible for a number of story elements and character introductions barely relevant to its standalone narrative.

25. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Thor: Love and Thunder Review

Despite featuring one of the most empathetic and exceptionally-performed villains in Marvel Cinematic Universe history, Thor: Love and Thunder was a messy fourth instalment in the God of Thunder’s individual franchise, a film that flipped between tones as if at a loss at how to create both meaningful drama and laugh-out-loud comedy.

In comparison to post-2012 Marvel releases, the action was relatively poor too. Gone were the exceptionally choreographed sequences of the mainstream Avengers films or the differing styles of Black Widow, Doctor Strange and Shang-Chi, and in its place were bland and almost inconsequential battles repeated, a few moments of awe failing to rectify for a movie’s worth of oversights.

Thor: Love and Thunder is an enjoyable time at the movies. It will make you laugh and it does have some interesting moments, but these pros are simply too few and far between to make for a strong (or even meaningful) MCU entry.

24. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Adored by some and maligned by others, Iron Man 3 simply came about much too early, screenwriter-director Shane Black’s offerings of genre and trope deconstructions – most notably the choice to twist a genuinely fascinating villain into a trope-ridden stereotypical bad guy as a form of commentary – being things usually reserved for the dying days of a genre, not for one of its peaks.

This film was the follow up to The Avengers where Tony Stark had almost died, so Black’s smarts didn’t hit as they could have much later in the studio’s line-up – people wanted emotion and stakes, as well as suitable conclusions to character arcs, and Black’s work was seen to undermine that, the very strong work in several aspects of this film ultimately shunned to the background of a film dominated by a creator’s singular intention seemingly forced into the canon at the wrong time.

Recommended for you: 5 Great Comedies from the Past 5 Years That You Should Watch To Keep You Going

In 2017, Justice League proved to be the standout dud of a pretty stellar year, but without a single film hitting such lows in 2018, we were treated to 9 films of the popular adaptation genre that were entertaining, exciting and at least somewhat unique.

In this edition of ranked,we’re ranking each 2018 superhero movie from worst to best.

Don’t agree with us? Let us know in the comments!

9. Ant-Man & the Wasp

Marvel Studios
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Michael Douglas, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, T.I., Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Pfeiffer

It’s not that Ant-Man and the Wasp was at all a bad movie, more that it seemed to retread a lot of old ground, the film seemingly the last of the dying breed of 1st and 2nd phase MCU films, tropes and all.

The film managed to sew together somewhat of a reasonable villain story and the casting additions of Laurence Fishburne and Michelle Pfeiffer were welcomed, but the film’s purposeful distancing from the rest of the Avengers story was divisive and there seemed to be very little so-called “real” stakes. Being a sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp didn’t have the surprise factor its predecessor had and thus failed to capture the imagination when it offered much of the same in a way seemingly even more in line with the traditional Marvel sequel. This 3rd Marvel offering of the year was fun and still worth a watch (especially for fans of the Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly characters) but in a time of transition for superhero films as a whole towards more genre-specific fare, dialling down the comedy from one of the studios’ first forays into the genre just seemed a little too “by-the-numbers”.

8. Venom

Sony Pictures
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate

If this was a list for most divisive superhero film of the year, then Venom would top it. The Sony Pictures release felt like a throwback to the 2000s decade of superhero films like Daredevil, The Fantastic Four and Elektra, only with more insults and bloody violence, Tom Hardy’s performance being one so clearly enjoyed by the actor himself that you couldn’t help but to appreciate it, whether you loved it or hated it.

What this film did hold over Ant-Man and the Wasp however, was that it felt fresh. We hadn’t seen anything like this in nearly a decade, and while so much of it was absurd and ridiculous, that only added to the feeling of it being different to the rest, a quality that Ant-Man 2 didn’t have.

Must-see in its own right, this standalone debut for the famous character of Venom sits at number 8 for the year.

7. Incredibles 2

Disney Pixar
Directors: Brad Bird
Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, Catherine Keener, Eli Fucile, Bob Odenkirk, Samuel L. Jackson

Make no bones about it, Incredibles II was one of the year’s most hotly anticipated movies. The original Pixar classic had gathered somewhat of a cult following, with many listing it among the very best superhero movies ever made, but this year’s sequel felt like a replay of the first film more than anything original in its own right, with each character’s arc from the first movie seemingly forgotten in order to replay them all over again in this film, only with Elastigirl in the lead role.

The choice to centre the picture on Elastigirl made for some funny moments, but the narrative was let down by a twist about as easy to foresee as it gets – the true bad guy of the piece was quite literally called Evelyn Deavor ie, Evil Endeavor – and just about everything else was so frighteningly similar to the original that it just didn’t quite hit like it perhaps should have done, the spark of The Incredibles 1 seemingly dimmed a little by an adequate sequel that holds a lot of enjoyment but isn’t quite the follow-up we deserved after all these years.

6. Aquaman

Warner Bros
Director: James Wan
Starring: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Temeura Morrison, Ludi Lin, Michael Beach, Randall Park

Another divisive superhero film? Never!

The only live-action superhero film to come from DC and Warner Bros in 2018 was Aquaman, a movie that looked and at times even felt like an underwater Thor complete with battles lifted directly out of Star Wars, but also suffered from some absurdly poor dialogue exchanges, predictable and overplayed character arcs, and a few small hints that it was, at times, playing it safe.

The qualities of director James Wan inevitably dragged this film into the realm of at least being passable (even to DC’s most hardened critics), while Jason Momoa came across as a charismatic new presence in the superhero sphere.

This was hardly blow-your-socks-off cinema, but it was a step in the right direction for DC and a visually compelling movie in of itself.

5. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

Warner Bros Animation
Directors: Aaron Horvath, Peter Rida Michail
Starring: Greg Cipes, Scott Menville, Khary Payton, Tara Strong, Hynden Walch, Will Arnett, Kristen Bell, Michael Bolton, Greg Davies, Nicolas Cage

This unexpected gem of a TV series movie was packed to the brim with Deadpool levels of fourth wall breaking and puns galore, and unexpectedly had fun for both kids and grown-ups.

The narrative itself was simple enough – the story following famed Batman sidekick Robin’s pursuit of becoming a film star just like his DC brethren (each of whom appear) – but it was the level of comedy on offer in this Warner Bros Animation that truly set the film apart.

To quote some of the better lines:

“You’re not the Justice League? Then you must be the Guardians of the Galaxy?”

“I did have a movie, but we don’t talk about it” – Green Lantern

“The plutonium crystal, the perfect plot device.” – Slade (ie, “Not Deadpool”)

What really sent this movie over the edge was a Stan Lee cameo to remember, the famed Marvel creator popping up in animated form in this film “by accident” because he “simply loves cameos!” It was quite a fitting way for one of the comic book industry’s greatest names to make one of his final appearances, and a truly memorable moment in a film filled to the brim with creativity, cameos and fun.

The biggest news from the weekend is not the continued success of Disney’s Christopher Robin, but instead the prolonged box office success of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! which this week took another £1.7million to take its overall total to £58,748,746, the 2nd highest total of 2018 so far, and closing on the number 1 movie of the year Avengers: Infinity War. Here are the top 5 highest grossing movies of 2018 thus far in the UK:

1. Avengers: Infinity War – £70,168,399
2. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – £58,748,736
3. Incredibles 2 – £51,229,806
4. Black Panther – £50,379,585
5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – £41,281,227

Sitting around £12.3million behind Infinity War, Mamma Mia 2 may still be able to catch the Marvel juggernaut should it have the same quality hold that occurred with The Greatest Showman earlier this year (which was still in the top 5 chart in April 4 months after its release). The signs are so far very good for it to be at least a close call, with the movie maintaining weekend takings of close to £2million in even now in its 6th week of release, with its current box office drops indicating it should be at least 3 more weekends until the film drops below the £1million mark.

Bear in mind, this is just for the Friday-Sunday period.

A sensible projection based on the data gathered so far would indicate that Mamma Mia 2 would maintain a strong hold next weekend with more significant drop offs in the weeks that follow because of the conclusion to the summer holidays. The following is a conservative projection of the film’s expected earnings in the next three weeks:

• Next weekend: £1.5million
  — Mid week profits equate to an addition of 40-60% of weekend total. Here: £750,000
• Weekend 2: £1.2million
  — £600,000
• Weekend 3: £1million
  — £500,000
• Total: £5.55million

Should the film earn as much as the projection indicates, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again will be sitting on £64.35million by mid-September without yet having ducked below the £1million weekend accumulation mark. This indicates that it’s quite possible that the musical will oust the superhero team-up event movie for the top spot by the end of 2018 and should at least run Infinity War very close for the top spot on our annual chart. With the first Mamma Mia movie being such a huge hit (gathering a total takings of £68.3million), it was expected that the long-awaited sequel would perform, but should it overcome the juggernaut of Disney Marvel, it will provide one of the shocks of the decade as far as high grosses go and would become one of the 10 highest grossing movies in UK box office history.

You may have also noticed that Disney Pixar’s Incredibles 2 has moved up the annual chart this week, surpassing Black Panther with the help of a £1,268,615 weekend to be sitting pretty in 3rd place with £51,229,806. This makes Incredibles 2 the 2nd highest grossing animated movie of all time in the UK behind fellow Pixar release Toy Story 3, which earned around £74million (a total this 2018 sequel will almost certainly not catch). It also marks a return to the top of the animated box office chart for Disney who last year relinquished their throne to Illumination Entertainment and Despicable Me 3 which incidentally earned £46.5million across the course of last summer.

The sequel 15 years in the making has now earned $1.142billion worldwide, making it the 3rd highest grossing animated movie in worldwide box office history, way behind Frozen (2013) and only $25million short of Minions (2015). It does however boast the highest North American gross of any animated movie in history with $597million earned across its entire run in the region.

The top 15 highest earning movies at the UK box office for the weekend of 24-26th August 2018:

1. Christopher Robin – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £2,138,824 – total: £7,184,365
2. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – 6 – £1,701,162 – £58,748,746
3. The Meg – 3 – £1,502,535 – £11,734,530
4. Incredibles 2 – 7 – £1,268,401 – £51,229,806
5. The Equalizer 2 – 2 – £1,256,615 – £4,558,724
6. BlackKklansman – 1 – £1,234,214- £1,234,214
7. The Spy Who Dumped Me – 1 – £1,057,211 – £1,057,211
8. Mission: Impossible – Fallout – 5 – £924,424 – £21,855,333
9. Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation – 5 – £910,555 – £15,966,398
10. Ant-Man and The Wasp – 4 – £794,409 – £15,470,066
11. The Children Act – 1 – £517,378 – £517,378
12. The Festival – 2 – £458,095 – £2,540,465
13. Romeo + Juliet (Secret Cinema) – 1 – £457,323 – £457,323
14. Slenderman – 1 – £389,339 – £389,339
15. Alpha – 1 – £225,606 – £225,606

Sifting their way into the chart right at the end of Summer season were 6 brand new releases with BlackKklansman and The Spy Who Dumped Me performing best at numbers 6 and 7 on the weekend chart.

BlackKklansman actually had the benefit of extended previews starting as early as Monday, but it wasn’t enough to break the big budget seal on the top 5, though it was working from a much less advantageous position so far as production and promotional budgets go. The Spy Who Dumped Me actually performed more strongly over the course of the weekend as it didn’t have the advantage of previews, yet its £1million total wasn’t enough to boost it beyond number 7 in its debut; not a great sign for Lionsgate who had banked on the late summer female comedy replicating the success of the likes of Girls Trip and Bad Moms in recent years.

Right at the bottom of the chart is Slenderman which actually debuted a little better than its position may indicate. The £389,339 earned by the movie across its opening weekend isn’t the sort of total to shout home about, but it is enough to earn at least a top 10 spot in most weekend charts throughout the year. With a budget of just $10million and a total of $33million already earned worldwide, it shan’t matter all that much to distributors Sony Pictures who will still see a tidy profit from the horror movie.

In other news, Hotel Transylvania 3 looks set to out-gross Ant-Man and The Wasp during its run at the UK box office, with the animated feature earning more money this weekend despite being out a weekend longer and having already earned more money in total. The returns of both films will likely surpass £16million, a total that is hardly good news but certainly won’t be taken as failure by their respective studios. Ant-Man 2 has now officially surpassed Ant-Man 1 in terms of its overall gross at the UK box office and has finally out-grossed its predecessor worldwide too.

And finally, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is now the highest grossing movie of the franchise in the UK having surpassed the £20million earned by Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. MI6 is released in China this weekend and distributors Paramount will be hoping for a big return in the region given the popularity of Tom Cruise. They’ll need it, because currently Fallout is only the 3rd highest grossing of the franchise, with the 4th instalment Ghost Protocol being the highest and Rogue Nation being 2nd. Should it fail to at least surpass Rogue Nation, Paramount may begin to ask questions as regards the audience’s desire to see more M:I films given the down-turn in financial returns over the past 3 movies. More on that next week…

For now, be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube and like us on Facebook if you’d like them posted directly to your timeline. You can also support The Film Magazine and the ability to provide articles like this for free by simply following us on Twitter and bookmarking our homepage. Next week, the box office report will be covering developments with Mamma Mia 2 and Incredibles 2 as regards their potentially record setting runs and there’ll be no major studio releases to welcome so it’ll be interesting to see which film tops the chart for this coming weekend.

“There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if we could become something more. So when they needed us, we could fight the battles that they never could.”

Marvel Studios have been the standard bearer for all superhero films for the past 10 years, presenting 20 movies to increasing audiences the world over and earning around $17.3billion at the worldwide box office. The studio has created 10 separate franchises since its debut film Iron Man in 2008, digging into the once exclusive comic book properties of the likes of “Ant-Man” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” to present fresh and always entertaining takes on a genre that they have come to master above even their most intimate of contemporaries. In this edition of Ranked, we have judged each of the 20 Marvel Studios Avengers-related movies from worst to best based on their quality and historical importance. As always, we encourage you to share your thoughts on social media and in the comments below, but for now it’s on with the list…

20. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Director: Louis Leterrier
Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Ty Burrell, Tim Blake Nelson, Lou Ferigno

When The Incredible Hulk went into production, the characters of Bruce Banner and his gamma radiated alter ego were perhaps the biggest pop culture icons left at the behest of Marvel Studios after auctioning off their X-Men, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man to other companies. The duality of Banner’s character therefore seemed like the perfect choice for an audience-grabbing introductory film; one which would feature more fun and chaos than the Ang Lee presentation from 2003. If audiences didn’t see Iron Man earlier in the year, then they’d surely see this. History would have it that audiences did turn up to see Iron Man, and as such the lack of quality on offer in The Incredible Hulk was more obvious than it may have otherwise been. The movie was up and down, offering some half-decent fan service in amongst the rage and chaos but failing to deliver in terms of an interesting story or reason to care. In the aftermath of the release, it became clear that Leterrier was never entirely confident in directing the picture and had only taken the job after being rejected for his passion project Iron Man, and star Edward Norton threw the whole production under the bus by claiming he had ‘basically written the movie’. The Incredible Hulk now stands far afoot the bottom of the Avengers list in terms of quality, and can be considered as perhaps the only severe misstep of the studio’s entire universe. The film remains canon, with William Hurt’s continued presence being evidence of this, but having switched out Norton for Ruffalo it’s clear that this is the one film on this list Marvel are trying to forget about.

19. Iron Man 2 (2010)

Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau

Iron Man 2 felt like a big deal back in 2010. It was the third movie of the would-be Avengers universe and had cast the recently reconciled Mickey Rourke hot off the back of his triumphant return to prominence in The Wrestler. Underneath the hype there were grumblings of malcontent however, with Don Cheadle being substituted in for Terrence Howard following a pay dispute in which Marvel reportedly refused to offer Howard the same money for the 2nd movie as they had offered Downey Jr., and the story of Edward Norton’s future within the universe seemingly putting an end to early plans to have Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers team-up to take down a rebellious Hulk (as hinted towards in the post-credit scene in The Incredible Hulk). Ultimately, this landed Iron Man 2 in the zone of “safe sequel”; a film which delivers on all of the original movie’s promises but did little to exceed expectations. Still useful in how it was offering an appropriately colourful take on a superhero genre in the midst of Nolan’s darker Dark Knight trilogy, this Jon Favreau follow-up is perhaps less well remembered now than it was way back when, and we can all see Marvel’s biggest faults – presenting believable threats to their heroes – poking their ugly heads, but this is by no means a bad movie in the same sense that The Incredible Hulk was; just more of a forgettable one.

18. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Director: Alan Taylor
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings

Speaking of forgettable; is there a movie on this list that has as few special moments as Thor: The Dark World?

For the 2nd instalment of the Thor standalone franchise, and coming in the aftermath of The Avengers in 2012, The Dark World felt safe in many of the ways that Iron Man 2 did, though it also shared The Incredible Hulk’s unique trait of being a universe instalment that Marvel would look to move on from, resetting many of the lingering story threads in the first few minutes of its follow up Ragnarok in 2017. The Dark World did its job, presenting fans with more of the beloved relationship between Thor and Loki, and worked to introduce more of the unique planets and beings from the comic books, but it was lacking in anything beyond the typical faceless villain stereotype as a threat, and the film suffered significantly as a result of this. Thor 2 was very much the Iron Man 2 of the Thor franchise, only the relationship between Thor & Loki as well as the presence of a few characters that have since been forgotten about – as played by Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård and Kat Dennings – were just enough to pip the Iron Man sequel in this list.

17. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Director: Shane Black
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, Jon Favreau, Rebecca Hall

Iron Man 3 is one of the more controversial entries into Marvel’s Avengers universe of films, and the entirety of the reason as to why is the film’s twist. Warning, there are spoilers ahead…

Screenwriter-director Shane Black had previously worked with Downey Jr. on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 and therefore seemed like an easy, creative alternative to the Iron Man franchise’s exiting Jon Favreau. The issue was that Black was noteworthy for tackling genre conventions and therefore sought to deviate from the typical ‘rise of an ultimate villain’ character arc, seeing it as too much of an obvious path for Iron Man 3 to walk down. As such, the movie developed a believable, identifiable threat in the form of Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin, only for Tony Stark/Iron Man to discover that the character was simply an actor relaying lines on behalf of another villain, a villain who turned out to be much less identifiable and interesting, and much more like the lacklustre villains that had populated the universe to this point. In 2013 audiences had grown tired of under-developed villains with little to identify with, so Iron Man 3’s tease of a great villain proved too much for many. It was a moment which overshadowed the film and became the topic of discussion regarding the movie itself, which other than this moment was actually quite fun though somewhat forgettable.

Here are the top 5 films of the weekend 10-12th August 2018:

Overall, the top 6 films at the UK box office this past weekend accounted for around £15.5million of the UK cinema goers’ money, with The Meg managing to only just pip Mamma Mia 2 to the post as the highest grossing film on release with a total accumulation of £3,651,111.

In a dog eat dog (or should that be shark eat shark) summer environment where all of the top 5 movies were separated by just £1.5million and made over £2million each, The Meg may have the bragging rights of toppling such stiff competition but its opening hasn’t exactly been the hot chip Warner Bros. would have liked it to be.

The movie, produced for around $130million (according to Warner Bros.) and promoted with what is thought to be a further $100-120million, actually only just broke Warner Bros’ annual top 5 openings list, even being outperformed here in the UK by the incredibly underwhelming Rampage. Here are the 5 highest grossing Warner Bros. openings at the UK box office in 2018:

1. Ready Player One – £5.1million
2. Ocean’s 8 – £4.3million
3. Rampage – £4.1million
4. The Meg – £3.7million
5. Tomb Raider – £3.1million

The story in North America is somewhat contrary to that of its UK release however, with the film opening at double its projections of $22-23million to earn an impressive $45million in its opening weekend, earning itself the title of Warner Bros’ hottest opener in 2018 thus far in the region. The movie also earned around $55million in China, a market the film was specifically produced to appeal to via a production deal with a Chinese company.

Experts seem to believe that the movie will have to hit $400million to break even, a figure that still seems unlikely despite the movie’s strong start across the globe, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled for developments as regards its success and therefore the possibility of a sequel.

At number 2 in the UK box office chart this week is Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! which dropped just 12% between its 3rd and 4th weekends to earn £3,568,169 Friday to Sunday and push its overall total to £48,311,304. This figure, which continues to track ahead of the original movie – itself a former top 10 record high grosser when it was released – makes the Mamma Mia sequel the 3rd highest grossing movie of 2018 thus far, with the Abba-centred musical likely to surpass Marvel juggernaut Black Panther (£50million) for the number 2 spot any day now.

Meanwhile, this week’s number 3 release Incredibles 2 has just become the most successful Disney Pixar movie of all time, hitting $1.088billion worldwide to out-gross both Finding Dory and Toy Story 3 which each raked in huge amounts for the animation powerhouse. Here in the UK it is doing sensationally well too, reaching £45,007,302 thus far to earn itself the title of 4th highest grossing movie of 2018.

Just like Mamma Mia 2, Incredibles 2 seems to have the legs to out-gross Black Panther in the UK market, making an end of year top 5 spot almost guaranteed and sending it into 2019 as the 2nd highest grossing superhero film of the year.

And while we’re on the topic of superhero films…

Ant-Man and The Wasp fell quite drastically this weekend from a £5million opening to just £2.2million in its 2nd weekend, perhaps validating the commentary surrounding the film’s underwhelming performance in North America (which saw it gross less money than Ant-Man 1) that the film wasn’t closely enough linked to the central Avengers story. It remains likely that Ant-Man 2 will be the first sequel in Marvel Studios history to not out-gross the first movie in its own franchise here in the UK, with its £10,493,740 gross to date making the £16.5million gross of the first movie seeming further and further away given the level of competition currently in play.

In contrast to that news, Mission: Impossible – Fallout remains on course to beat the £20million total accumulation of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation to become the MI franchise’s highest grossing release of all time here in the UK, earning a further £2,042,327 this weekend to take its overall total to £17,455,734.

In North America, the 6th Mission: Impossible instalment is all-but guaranteed to become the franchise’s highest grosser ever and the film may become the highest grossing of the franchise worldwide even before being released in China at the end of the month (a market it is expected to perform well in due to the pull of Tom Cruise).

Fallout is currently the 9th highest grossing movie of 2018 in the North American market.

Here are the 15 highest grossing movies at the UK box office for the weekend of 10-12th August 2018:

1. The Meg – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £3,651,111 – total: £3,651,111
2. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – 4 – £3,568,169 – £48,311,304
3. Incredibles 2 – 5 – £2,354,530 – £45,007,302
4. Ant-Man and The Wasp – 2 – £2,282,343 – £10,493,740
5. Mission: Impossible – Fallout – 3 – £2,042,327 – £17,455,734
6. Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation – 3 – £1,565,618 – £11,249,963
7. The Darkest Minds – 1 – £388,325 – £388,325
8. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies – 2 – £246,390 – £1,013,117
9. Unfriended: Dark Web – 1 – £223,110 – £223,110
10. The First Purge – 6 – £117,451 – £5,776,741
11. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – 10 – £102,957 – £41,281,227
12. Vishwaroopam 2 – 1 – £61,771 – £61,771
13. Dog Days – 1 – £59,223 – £59,223
14. Ocean’s 8 – 8 – £47,159 – £11,029,049
15. Heathers (re-release) – 1 – £43,462 – £43,462

Outside of the top 5 there were underwhelming debuts for The Darkest Minds and Unfriended: Dark Web which both gambled with late summer releases and lost, earning £388,325 and £223,110 respectively, to make even the £1million barrier seem an unlikely target at this stage. This will be particularly concerning for Fox and Darkest Minds as the picture has thus far only managed to earn $22million worldwide from a budget of $34million, making the possibility of profitability slim to none. Meanwhile, Unfriended: Dark Web has already earned 10 times its budget of just $1million at the worldwide box office, all but guaranteeing a third movie in the Unfriended franchise.

The stacked cast of Dog Days couldn’t lift the movie into the top 10 in its debut weekend, earning just £59,223 to make a 2nd weekend in most UK cinemas unlikely, while the re-release of Heathers this weekend couldn’t even make it to £50,000 though the actual anniversary of its release is mid-week and therefore may boost its numbers ahead of next weekend. Either way, it’s set to make significantly less than the re-release of fellow cult classic Blade Runner, which earned over £2million across its re-release earlier in the year.

And finally, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom officially passed Peter Rabbit on the annual top 5 highest grossing movies list this weekend but was simultaneously surpassed by both Mamma Mia 2 and Incredibles 2, leaving Fallen Kingdom at number 4 on the annual list as of today, a slot lower than it was this time last week.

And that about does it for this week’s box office report. This coming weekend the UK box office welcomes Disney’s Christopher Robin and The Equaliser 2 to cinemas, each with aims of dethroning at the highly compact top 5 movies from this week and pushing to the top of the charts. With each of these films having already been released in North America, there are lots of facts to go over so make sure to bookmark our homepage, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to make sure you don’t miss out on next week’s report. As always, you can access our top 5 chart video before anyone else by subscribing to us on YouTube. If you have any suggestions on what you’d like to see included in next week’s report, please do leave a comment below.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for first access to our box office chart videos each Tuesday.

Which better place to start than at the very top with newcomer Ant-Man and the Wasp from Marvel Studios?

The Peyton Reed sequel starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly is believed to have had a production budget of around $150million, a total that the movie has already surpassed at the North American box office having being released on 6th July and thus far accumulated $193million in the region, with the film currently sitting at around $423million worldwide.

In North America, this sequel managed to surpass the financial takings of its predecessor by $15million (a total that is hardly ideal for a sequel given the added investment that should be brought about by those who grew to like the original on home video and streaming), but worldwide the picture is much more bleak with the film thus far having made $93million less than Ant-Man did back in 2015.

In the UK, Ant-Man and the Wasp is opening against strong competition which will inevitably lower expectations for Disney Marvel but the early signs are good with this film out-grossing the original by nearly 25% in its opening weekend, earning a total of £4,988,747 as compared to the figure closer to £4million set in 2015. This does however come with an asterisk as Ant-Man 2 benefited from £1.23million in Thursday previews, meaning the typical Friday-Sunday period was actually down on Ant-Man 1’s gross at just £3.77million.

In comparison to the debut figures of the other Marvel Studios movies, Ant-Man and the Wasp looks like this (previews included):

1. Avengers: Infinity War – Apr 2018 – £23.1million
2. Avengers: Age of Ultron – Apr 2015 – £18million
3. Black Panther – Feb 2018 – £17.7million
4. Avengers Assemble – Apr 2012 – £15.8million
5. Captain America: Civil War – Apr 2016 – £14.5million
6. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – Apr 2017 – £13.1million
7. Thor: Ragnarok – Oct 2017 – £12.million
8. Iron Man 3 – Apr 2013 – £11.4million
9. Spider-Man: Homecoming – July 2017 – £9.4million
10. Doctor Strange – Oct 2016 – £9.3million
11. Thor: The Dark World – Nov 2013 – £8.7million
12. Iron Man 2 – Apr 2010 – £7.7million
13. Guardians of the Galaxy – July 2014 – £6.4million
14. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Mar 2014 – £6million
15. Iron Man – May 2008 – £5.4million
16. Thor – Apr 2011 – £5.4million
17. Ant-Man and the Wasp – Aug 2018 – £5million
18. Ant-Man – July 2015 – £4million
19. The Incredible Hulk – June 2008 – £3.25million
20. Captain America: The First Avenger – July 2011 – £3million

With competition as strong as it is and the likelihood of a long run in cinemas shortened by the film’s unusually late Summer release, it seems that Disney and Marvel Studios have a tough challenge ahead in attempting to surpass the £16.3million total UK accumulation of Ant-Man 1 with this sequel; something that would be a first for the studio.

The real winner at the UK box office continues to be Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! which this week posted another £4,121,275 to maintain 2nd spot on the chart in its third weekend of release. This is particularly unusual given that the expected audiences of the film are not often recognised as particularly large weekend cinema goers, with mid-week numbers for the chosen demographics often being stronger.

Perhaps such a stat is evident in how the long-awaited sequel has pushed to £39.3million in total box office grosses after just 18 days of release and is teetering on the edge of the UK’s annual top 5 already, with its staying power seeming to indicate the strong possibility of the film outlasting Ant-Man this coming week as it managed to outlast Mission: Impossible – Fallout this past weekend to keep a hold of 2nd place in this chart.

Discounting previews, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! was the top earner at the UK box office this weekend, with the Friday-Sunday total for the film being some £300,000 higher than the Disney Marvel juggernaut sitting at number 1, and perhaps more impressive is how this sequel is currently sitting £14.7million ahead of where Mamma Mia 1 was at the same point in its run; a run that made it one of the top 10 highest grossing movies in UK box office history until the releases of Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther earlier in 2018, the latter of which it is currently £4million ahead of after the same period of release.

Despite a strong mid-week that saw it take close to £6million in total, Mission: Impossible – Fallout was leap-frogged by Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! this past weekend, earning just £2,471,073 across the three day period in only its 2nd weekend. Technically, Mamma Mia 2 did earn more in the Friday-Sunday period of Fallout’s first weekend, with previews propping the 6th Mission: Impossible film up at number 1, but the drop off of nearly 50% will not be welcomed by studio Paramount whom have relied upon the franchise to be their centrepiece tent-pole over the course of the last decade particularly.

It’s not all doom and gloom for Cruise and company however, as Fallout is actually well on its way to out-grossing the 5th Mission: Impossible film (Rogue Nation), which earned £20million over the course of its run, here in the UK. Worldwide, the picture is also a lot prettier for the spy-action-thriller, with the film so far raking in close to $330million despite not yet being released in China and having been released in only a select number of key global markets thus far. With its budget of $178million having already been nearly doubled, it seems there’s no end in sight for the franchise. Not yet at least…

Elsewhere in the top 5, the interesting “family film” battle between Sony Pictures Animation and Disney Pixar continues with Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation and Incredibles 2 hitting numbers 5 and 4 respectively on this week’s chart, each earning upwards of £1million.

Incredibles 2 is by far the juggernaut of the pair, earning close to £2.4million in its 4th weekend at the UK box office this past weekend when compared to Hotel Transylvania 3’s £1.45million in its 2nd weekend, and the Pixar film sitting at £39,869,498 for its total accumulation, just £1million away from toppling 2018’s reigning animated box office champion Peter Rabbit (£40million).

Both films did, however, all but destroy the prospects of the newcomer family animation Teen Titans Go! To the Movies which debuted disappointingly in number 6 with just £389,726 across its opening weekend for rival studio Warner Bros. Animation.

Here is a chart of the top 15 highest grossing movies at the UK box office over the weekend of August 3-5th 2018:

1. Ant-Man and The Wasp – weeks on release: 1 – weekend: £4,988,747 – total: £4,988,747
2. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! – 3 – £4,121,275 – £39,324,001
3. Mission: Impossible – Fallout – 2 – £2,471,073 – £13,357,630
4. Incredibles 2 – 4 – £2,391,917 – £39,869,498
5. Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation – 2 – £1,451,295 – £7,761,551
6. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies – 1 – £389,726 – £389,726
7. The First Purge – 5 – £172,871 – £5,507,600
8. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – 9 – £166,187 – £40,979,530
9. Skyscraper – 4 – £118,809 – £5,126,110
10. Ocean’s 8 – 7 – £58,824 – £10,923,384
11. Sherlock Gnomes – 13 – £43,209 – £9,161,985
12. Fanney Khan – 1 – £36,639 – £36,639
13. Event Cinema: The Producers – 1 – £35,745 – £35,745
14. Event Cinema: Andre Rieu’s 2018 Maastricht Concert – 2 – £35,582 – £1,651,106
15. Apostasy – 2 – £30,912 – £146,123

Outside of the top 5, the biggest news comes from Universal’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom that this past weekend finally pushed past Peter Rabbit to become the year’s 3rd highest grossing movie behind Infinity War and Black Panther, though both Mamma Mia 2 and Incredibles 2 should expect to surpass the dino-sequel throughout the course of this week.

Lower down the chart, Ocean’s 8 and Skyscraper tell vastly different stories, with Skyscraper taking over double the takings of Ocean’s 8 this past weekend but 8 having made over double the total amount of Skyscraper to this point.

The biggest disappointment of the week as far as the UK box office goes was the performance of independent films in the region. Operating from 106 sites and featuring films such as Apostasy and Hearts Beat Loud, the indie releases accounted for just £77,100 of the total box office, cementing 2018 as one of the least successful summers for independent film at the UK box office in years.

Overall however, the weekend was up by 6% when compared to the adjacent week from 2017 and the box office looks set to welcome The Meg this weekend, a big budget monster movie that will be looking to take a huge chomp out of the top 5 takings and may be able to sneak into number 1 if its appeal is high enough. The Darkest Minds and Unfriended: Dark Web are each trying to cut into the chart before the end of summer with releases this weekend too, so next week’s chart should feature a lot of change; change that we will of course cover in detail in next week’s Box Office Report.

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for first access to the UK’s top 5 highest grossing movies of the weekend (released every Tuesday), like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all of our latest and greatest, and be sure to bookmark our homepage to make sure you never miss a beat of what we do here at The Film Magazine.