Themistokles battles his way to the top of the table

New this week: The Escape, The Hotel and The War charge.

It has taken four weeks but The Lego Movie has finally been knocked of its perch; it’s amazing how well Lego can say put, but the film to do it was the sequel to the 2006 fitness craze inspiring 300. Not having previous lead Gerard Butler has not stopped 300: Rise of an Empire, as it took over £2.75m beating the animated adventure by over £1m. This is certainly a strong start but it may be in danger of losing its top spot next week to Need for Speed due to its attraction of the same action loving audience.

The star-studded comedy drama The Grand Budapest Hotel makes a surprising appearance in 3rd position. Writer and director Wes Anderson has always found a way to make slightly odd films that audience’s love with a CV that includes Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore. His new film looks set to be one that fits into this category. With a solid £1.5m taken in its first week we think it could easily repeat this performance again as none of next weeks films look likely to take its audience. It could even outstrip its opening week if word of mouth is good and especially as The Lego movie audiences are starting to decrease.

In 9th place and in its 9th week Oscar winning 12 Years a Slave has taken slightly more this week than it took last week with £368k. This will mainly be down to its Oscar success bringing in new viewers who weren’t too interested before or those who saw it over a month ago but were re-intrigued by the Academy naming it the year’s Best Picture.

Opening this week

The two films that will be aiming for the top spot next week both come from extremely different start points. All action Need for Speed is a spin off from the videogame series of the same name and stars Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul. It’s likely to bring in audiences that are familiar with the games and the ever popular Fast and the Furious franchise and could work as a good stop gap for those waiting for the next instalment.

Also, new after a successful Kickstarter campaign is the big screen adaptation of Veronica Mars. Whilst on television this teenage sleuth had a good fan base but will have to interest more than just diehard fans to have a big effect on the box office.

Do you think 300: Rise of an Empire will be as big as it's predecessor? Let us know in the comments what your favourite Wes Anderson film is and whether you thought 12 Years a Slave was this year's Best Picture.

Click here to view the latest Box Office Table