UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 18th - Sunday 20th January 2013...
![Les Miserables movie poster]( "Les Miserables movie poster")
With much of the UK covered in a blanket of snow and ice this past weekend, UK cinemas were left to feel the chill as takings dropped 36% from the previous weekend, although Les Miserables still managed a healthy £4.4m to retain top spot in the box office chart. With a ten day haul of £17.36m, Les Miserables is now the UK's fourth biggest musical of all-time, but it's unlikely the the Tom Hooper-directed adaptation will put up much of a challenge for the record held by Mamma Mia on £69.2m.
Opening in second, the hotly-anticipated Spaghetti Western Django Unchained amassed £2,801,312 to give Quentin Tarantino his biggest three-day UK opening, while Ang Lee's Life of Pi fell one place to third and is nearing the £25m mark after five weeks in play. Tsunami drama The Impossible climbed one place to fourth off the back of rave reviews and strong word of mouth, and Gangster Squad fell two to fifth off the back of mixed reviews and virtually no word of mouth.
Leading the bottom half of the chart is Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, with the Lord of the Rings prequel now just shy of £50m and edging its way towards the £51.6m haul of The Avengers, which would make it the third-biggest release of 2012 behind The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall. Disney-Pixar's Monsters, Inc 3D re-release opened in seventh with an unremarkable £681,247, while Quartet, Jack Reacher and Pitch Perfect each fell one spot apiece to fill out the rest of the chart in eighth, ninth and tenth.
Number one this time last year: War Horse
1. Les Miserables - £4,406,828 weekend; £17,360,303 total (2 weeks)
2. Django Unchained - £2,801,312 weekend (New)
3. Life of Pi - £1,201,163 weekend; £24,147,499 total (5 weeks)
4. The Impossible - £1,092,754 weekend; £9,118,833 total (3 weeks)
5. Gangster Squad - £791,799 weekend; £3,890,342 total (2 weeks)
6. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - £765,437 weekend; £49,997,203 total (6 weeks)
7. Monsters, Inc 3D - £681,247 weekend (New)
8. Quartet - £335,518 weekend; £5,904,503 total (3 weeks)
9. Jack Reacher - £212,540 weekend; £9,126,695 total (4 weeks)
10. Parental Guidance - £206,060 weekend; £4,224,758 total (4 weeks)
Incoming...
Action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to top billing on Friday with the release of The Last Stand (cert. 15) and will be hoping he still has some pulling power here in the UK after bombing in the States this past weekend. Also released is the ensemble comedy Movie 43 (cert. 15), starring just about every Hollywood actor under the sun (including the likes of Halle Berry, Gerard Butler, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Uma Thurman and Richard Gere), along with two Oscar hopefuls in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (cert. 12A) [read our review here] and Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (cert. 15) [read our review here]. If I was a betting man (which I am), I'd put my money on Lincoln claiming top spot...
With much of the UK covered in a blanket of snow and ice this past weekend, UK cinemas were left to feel the chill as takings dropped 36% from the previous weekend, although Les Miserables still managed a healthy £4.4m to retain top spot in the box office chart. With a ten day haul of £17.36m, Les Miserables is now the UK's fourth biggest musical of all-time, but it's unlikely the the Tom Hooper-directed adaptation will put up much of a challenge for the record held by Mamma Mia on £69.2m.Opening in second, the hotly-anticipated Spaghetti Western Django Unchained amassed £2,801,312 to give Quentin Tarantino his biggest three-day UK opening, while Ang Lee's Life of Pi fell one place to third and is nearing the £25m mark after five weeks in play. Tsunami drama The Impossible climbed one place to fourth off the back of rave reviews and strong word of mouth, and Gangster Squad fell two to fifth off the back of mixed reviews and virtually no word of mouth.
Leading the bottom half of the chart is Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, with the Lord of the Rings prequel now just shy of £50m and edging its way towards the £51.6m haul of The Avengers, which would make it the third-biggest release of 2012 behind The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall. Disney-Pixar's Monsters, Inc 3D re-release opened in seventh with an unremarkable £681,247, while Quartet, Jack Reacher and Pitch Perfect each fell one spot apiece to fill out the rest of the chart in eighth, ninth and tenth.
Number one this time last year: War Horse
1. Les Miserables - £4,406,828 weekend; £17,360,303 total (2 weeks)
2. Django Unchained - £2,801,312 weekend (New)
3. Life of Pi - £1,201,163 weekend; £24,147,499 total (5 weeks)
4. The Impossible - £1,092,754 weekend; £9,118,833 total (3 weeks)
5. Gangster Squad - £791,799 weekend; £3,890,342 total (2 weeks)
6. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - £765,437 weekend; £49,997,203 total (6 weeks)
7. Monsters, Inc 3D - £681,247 weekend (New)
8. Quartet - £335,518 weekend; £5,904,503 total (3 weeks)
9. Jack Reacher - £212,540 weekend; £9,126,695 total (4 weeks)
10. Parental Guidance - £206,060 weekend; £4,224,758 total (4 weeks)
Incoming...
Action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to top billing on Friday with the release of The Last Stand (cert. 15) and will be hoping he still has some pulling power here in the UK after bombing in the States this past weekend. Also released is the ensemble comedy Movie 43 (cert. 15), starring just about every Hollywood actor under the sun (including the likes of Halle Berry, Gerard Butler, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Uma Thurman and Richard Gere), along with two Oscar hopefuls in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (cert. 12A) [read our review here] and Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (cert. 15) [read our review here]. If I was a betting man (which I am), I'd put my money on Lincoln claiming top spot...