The Dark Knight Rises' reign at the top of the UK box office has come to an end as Family Guy creator Ted MacFarlane's feature film debut Ted storms to the top of the charts with a hefty £9,330,700 opening haul, which includes £3.4m from two days of preview screenings. It's certainly an impressive debut for Ted, giving distributors Universal it's second-best UK opening behind 2004's Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and the fourth-highest of 2012 on these shores behind The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man. Meanwhile, despite falling to second, Christopher Nolan's final Batman feature continued its fantastic performance on these shores, adding another £4.3m in its third weekend for a total of £40.8m to date, which leaves The Dark Knight Rises on course to surpass its predecessor The Dark Knight, as well as challenging Earth's Mightiest Heroes for the highest grossing UK release of the year.
Elsewhere in the chart, two other new releases make an appearance, with family comedy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days pulling in £1,537,178 to claim third place and Disney-Pixar's Brave amassing £820,084 from Scotland and Ireland to claim sixth (it opens across the rest of the UK on Monday, August 13th). Sandwiched between the two newcomers are CG animations Ice Age: Continental Drift and Dr Seuss' The Lorax in fourth and fifth, while The Amazing Spider-Man and Magic Mike fall three apiece to seventh and eighth respectively. Disney's live-action Snow White adaptation Mirror Mirror reenters the chart in ninth in its eighteenth week after expanding to 187 screens to take advantage of the school holidays, leaving music documentary Searching for Sugar Man to round out the chart in tenth.
Number one this time last year: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
1. Ted, £9,330,700 weekend (New)
2. The Dark Knight Rises, £4,290,605 weekend; £40,846,913 total (3 weeks)
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, £1,537,178 weekend (New)
4. Ice Age: Continental Drift, £1,213,388 weekend; £24,671,603 total (6 weeks)
5. Dr Seuss' The Lorax, £856,003 weekend; £4,648,423 total (2 weeks)
6. Brave, £820,084 weekend (New - Scotland & Ireland Only)
7. The Amazing Spider-Man, £392,715 weekend; £24,937,213 total (5 weeks)
8. Magic Mike, £288,189 weekend; £7,638,076 total (4 weeks)
9. Mirror Mirror, £60,769 weekend; £7,578,055 total (18 weeks)
10. Searching for Sugar Man, £42,416 weekend; £163,857 (2 weeks)
Incoming...
Wednesday sees the arrival of the British revenge thriller Offender (cert. 15), while Friday's new releases include dance sequel Step Up Revolution (or, as it's known here in the UK, Step Up 4: Miami Heat) [cert. PG], Nordic black comedy Jackpot [cert. 15] and Irish comedy horror Grabbers [cert. TBC]. Meanwhile Monday August 13th sees Pixar's Brave expanding its opening across the rest of the UK, while Jeremy Renner steps in to the Bourne franchise as super spy Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy [cert. 12A].
