'Chronicle' makes a new UK box office record

Youngest director to helm a chart-topping movie pushes Jack and Jill down the hill with Man on a Ledge coming tumbling after.

On a weekend that saw a highly diverse set of new releases whose rankings weren't necessarily so easy to predict, low-budget sci-fi Chronicle won the day with £2.19m, including Wednesday/Thursday previews of £617,000. The high-school lads with superpowers edged out family-friendly adventure sequel Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Adam Sandler cross-dressing comedy Jack and Jill, Sam Worthington thriller Man on a Ledge and a whole new batch of awards contenders arriving in an already crowded market.

With Chronicle also nabbing first place in the US, the film's 26-year-old director Josh Trank has been hailed as the youngest ever to helm a chart-topping movie. Following the likes of Cloverfield, District 9 and Paranormal Activity, Chronicle is another reminder that a clever concept, well executed and marketed, can more than compensate for a lack of marquee-name talent.

Chronicle didn't quite match the debuts of those precursor titles – Cloverfield opened with £3.49m, District 9 with £2.29m and Paranormal Activity with £3.59m – but backers 20th Century Fox will point to the deterrent effect of snow blanketing Britain for much of the weekend.

The rule of thumb when making box-office comparisons with the US is that here in the UK films should gross, in sterling, one-tenth of the number achieved in dollars in North America. Local factors can skew those figures, so it's not such a surprise to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows manage £26.1m here so far, better than its US gross of $184m would suggest. Ditto War Horse, another film based on British material, and partly set in Devon, which has taken £15.3m here and $77.3m over there. Perhaps more surprising is The Artist, which is after all set in Hollywood: in the US the film has managed $20.6m to date, but in the UK is running ahead with £5.3m, more than double what might be indicated. On the other hand the Paris-set Hugo, largely populated with British actors, has notched up $61.9m in North America, and is running behind the pace here with £5.2m. Biggest local boost of all belongs to The Iron Lady. Its UK gross of just under £9m compares with $20.6m in the US.

Top 10 films

1. Chronicle, £2,193,072 from 397 sites (New)

2. Journey 2 The Mysterious Island, £1,200,587 from 431 sites (New)

3. The Descendants, £1,112,964 from 407 sites. Total: £4,169,946

4. War Horse, £889,687 from 492 sites. Total: £15,333,104

5. Jack and Jill, £848,814 from 324 sites (New)

6. Man on a Ledge, £697,394 from 389 sites (New)

7. The Grey, £521,188 from 348 sites. Total: £2,209,907

8. A Monster in Paris, £474,941 from 440 sites. Total: £1,666,446

9. The Artist, £374,889 from 195 sites. Total: £5,314,327

10. Carnage, £298,733 from 112 sites (New)

Other openers

Young Adult, 157 sites, £137,284

Martha Marcy May Marlene, 100 sites, £106,967

Bombay Beach, 2 sites, £2,361 (+ £3,160 previews)

Best Laid Plans, 6 sites, £362
The Guardian: 7/2/12