Uk Box Office 25-27 Feb

Half term holidays meant that GNOMEO & JULIET climbed back to the top of the charts, wiht other family titles still playing strong. Eight weeks after release, and with four Oscars in the bag, THE KING'S SPEECH is the film playing in most theatres across the UK. New openers failed to ignite interest.

1- GNOMEO AND JULIET (£2,497,665) (3 WEEKS, TOTAL £12,885,321)
2- PAUL (£2,079,226) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £10,146,390)
3- YOGI BEAR (£1,463,297)(3 WEEKS, TOTAL £7,630,225)
4- TANGLED (£1,351,039)(5 WEEKS, TOTAL £19,150,591)
5- THE KING'S SPEECH (£1,207,962)(8 WEEKS, TOTAL £39,850,418)
6- I AM NUMBER FOUR (£1,628,522)(NEW)
7- BIG MOMMAS: LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (£993,484)(2 WEEKS, TOTAL £4,079,795)
8- TRUE GRIT (£862,259)(3 WEEKS, TOTAL £6,426,423)
9- NO STRINGS ATTACHED (£978,974) (NEW)
10- WEST IS WEST (£753,698)(NEW)

UK Box Office 18-20 Feb

UNIVERSAL will be pleased with the very strong opening of PAUL, which despite a terrible poster and trailer scooped up £5.5 million, in an incredibly competitive chart. The overall box office is very healthy and will only get better as we approach half-term, with lots of family-friendly fare on offer. Bieber-mania fails to make a splash. The King's Speech continues its inexorable march towards world domination (and after winning all the Oscars, we'll be talking about it here for weeks to come.)

1- PAUL (£5,511,325) (NEW)
2- GNOMEO & JULIET (£2,216,219) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £6,355,211)
3- THE KING'S SPEECH (£1,679,683) (7 WEEKS, TOTAL £37,122,370)
4- TRUE GRIT (£1,463,170) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £4,553,805)
5- YOGI BEAR (£1,366,965)(2 WEEKS, TOTAL £3,858,744)
6- TANGLED (£1,291,618) (4 WEEKS, TOTAL £15,343,329)
7- BIG MOMMA'S: LIKE FATHER LIKE SON (£1,430,789)(NEW)
8- JUST GO WITH IT (£1,236,916) (2 WEEKS, TOTAL £3,766,221)
9- JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER (£817,894)(NEW)
10- BLACK SWAN (£692,531)(5 WEEKS, TOTAL £14,277,888)

Berlinale Roundup

Yesterday I returned from Berlin where I spent a week at the Berlinale, my second visit. Last year I blogged that the festival was a real downer in both tone and content, with a dominance of slow cinema, and frankly, unremarkable films. I thought it might have been an off year, but 2011 was yet another collection of mostly dour movies (with some exceptions, which I will talk about further ahead.)

This year I was there with two colleagues from the cinema, Rob Beames (Dukes staff member and writer for Obsessed with Film, Picturehouse Blog and his own, Beames on Film) and with Duty Manager Carina Volkes. You can listen to a podcast we all recorded together in Berlin at iTunes or at the Picturehouse website. Another podcast shall be recorded next week with a roundup of the festival.

One of the biggest stories at this year's festival is the presence of so many 3D features, many by acclaimed arthouse filmmakers: Wim Wenders' PINA, Herzog's CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS and Ocelot's TALES OF THE NIGHT being the three highest profile ones. This festival may mark a new beginning in the use of 3D outside of the blockbuster genre, as acclaimed filmmakers take on this new tool and apply it in unusual ways. Wenders has created a revolutionary performance piece with PINA, pushing the medium to maximum effect - I still haven't seen the Herzog, but we're installing 3D at The Dukes in order to screen it. Picturehouse Entertainment, a division of City Screen, our parent company, is distributing it in the UK and many of the cinemas in the group are installing 3D equipment ahead of this release. I believe this is a game-changing moment for the arthouse scene and 3D in this country, and eventually, in Europe.

Other highlights in the festival included THE GUARD, a hilarious comedy with Brendan Gleeson as a corrupt, perverse Irish cop; MAMA AFRICA, a documentary about Miriam Makeba, and THE DAY IS DONE, an experimental moving image project from Switzerland; and sitting next to Isabella Rossellini at the Bergman reception.

UK Box Office 4-6 Feb

The chart is largely unchanged from last week, with Disney's TANGLED and Momentum's THE KING'S SPEECH holding the top two spots. New entries included James Cameron's latest 3D venture, SANCTUM, which had a decent debut. BRIGHTON ROCK opened with nearly £3k screen average, not bad for a film with a negative critical reception. Almost 10% of that gross came from Brighton, where audiences flocked to see themselves on the big screen. THE FIGHTER comes out punching above its weight at number three. RABBIT HOLE debuted at number 20, the single Oscar nomination not being sufficient to boost its box office.

1- TANGLED (£4,551,739) (2 weeks, total £10,724,869)
2- THE KING'S SPEECH (£2,727,445) (5 weeks, total £29,993,376)
3- THE FIGHTER (£2,107,277) (New)
4- BLACK SWAN (£1,719,895) (3 weeks, total £10,638,321)
5- SANCTUM (£857,961) (New)
6- THE MECHANIC (£532,238)(2 weeks, total £1,936,562)
7- A LITTLE BIT OF HEAVEN (£442,098) (New)
8- GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (£394,607)(6 weeks, total £14,913,487)
9- BRIGHTON ROCK (£336,617) (New)
10- GREEN HORNET (£302,167) (4 weeks, total £5,422,401)