The Impossible and Life of Pi try, but can't topple The Hobbit

The battle for the top spot

After an incredibly strong fourth quarter of 2012, UK cinemas have got off to a flying start in 2013, powered this week by some exceptional results. The Impossible battled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey for first place, with the Tolkien adaptation edging out the disaster weepie with £4.08m to £4.03m.

The Hobbit, with a stonking £44.9m to date, is the only 2012 release to achieve four consecutive weeks at the top spot – not even Skyfall managed that, although it did chalk up four non-consecutive appearances in pole position. The last film to occupy the top spot for four straight frames wasThe Inbetweeners Movie, back in August/September 2011. An Unexpected Journey is now one of the biggest hits of all time at the UK box office, and clearly has plenty of life in it yet.

In truth, The Hobbit is the clear winner, as The Impossible's number is inflated by three days of previews totaling £1.56m. Still, local distributor eOne will be delighted with its result on The Impossible, the true story of one Spanish family's survival of the 2004 Asian tsunami – played in the film version by an English-speaking cast led by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. Juan Antonio Bayona's film has already proved a smash hit in its native Spain, with €41m to date, but has been relatively modest so far in the US ($3.4m), where it is playing on 572 screens and is set to expand from Friday. The UK result is likely to be robust compared with most other territories, given the film's largely British cast and characters.

The family winner

Current chart champs The Hobbit and The Impossible are by no means the only success stories, with Life of Pi also achieving sensational numbers, especially relative to its US run. In North America, Ang Lee's literary adaptation has grossed a so-so $91m since its 21 November release, indicating a UK result around £9m. In fact, Life of Pi has earned £17.86m here, despite opening almost exactly a month later than the US, on 20 December. Given that virtually all cinemas are closed here on Christmas Day, Life of Pi has only had 17 days of play so far, with a daily average in excess of £1m.

Pi has already overtaken the lifetime totals of previous Oscar contenders including Chicago (£16.4m) and Fox's own Black Swan (£16.2m) as well as family films including both of the Nanny McPhees, Cars, Cars 2 and Ice Age. The survival tale's £3.3m weekend tally is less noteworthy than the £7.1m it has amassed over the past seven days, and also the moderate 20% drop from the previous frame (v 41% for The Hobbit). Strong midweek sales and gentle decline both point to healthy career longevity, which could be further sustained by Bafta and Oscarnominations this week on Wednesday and Thursday. For comparison, Slumdog Millionaire had reached only £10.2m after three weekends of play, with strong word-of-mouth and awards success eventually powering it to £31.7m.

The grey pound winner

Following the recent successes of The King's Speech in 2011 and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel last year, hopes were high for Quartet, the latest film courting older upscale audiences. Directed by Dustin Hoffmanand adapted by Ronald Harwood from his own stageplay about a retirement home for opera singers and musicians, Quartet was aimed squarely at the grey pound, with a marketing campaign that communicated a cosy, stately and defiantly non-youthful message. Backers Momentum will be happy with a £2.29m debut, including £984,000 in three days of previews. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opened in February last year with £2.22m, without the benefit of previews, on its way to a total of £20.3m.

The loser

Playing for Keeps, starring Gerard Butler as a washed-up soccer pro, suffered the indignity of landing outside the top 10, with £507,000 (including previews of £188,000) from 269 cinemas and a £1,886 average (or £1,188 if previews are ignored). Although this is clearly not a good result, it's worth noting that it's only the incredibly strong roster of current releases (see "Top 10 films" below) that pushed the romantic comedy out of the top 10. This is a phenomenon that occurs particularly in January, when the wealth tends to spread more evenly than in the summer months, and the last time a film grossing £500,000-plus failed to make the top 10 was in fact back in January last year.

Butler's last leading role, Machine Gun Preacher, landed in November 2011 with a similarly disappointing £332,000, including previews of £56,000. The alarming news for Butler is that Playing for Keeps stumbled despite the genre being much closer to his sweet spot – for example, romantic comedy The Bounty Hunter debuted in March 2010 with £2.06m including £473,000 in previews – but that film also boasted Jennifer Aniston. In fairness, Playing for Keeps was hampered by a tricky positioning challenge, with the core romantic comedy also fusing elements of sex farce and family drama.

The enigma

Although opening in the US at number one, and at more than 200 UK cinemas on Friday and Saturday, Texas Chainsaw 3D is missing in action from official figures over here. That's because those Friday and Saturday showings were technically previews, even though the film is retaining a regular presence in the market at London's Empire Leicester Square. The horror picture plays wide again from Wednesday. All of these earnings will be officially reported next week.

The marathon

Making what will presumably be its last appearance in our chart, Skyfallis the first film to make 11 consecutive appearances in the official top 10 since The King's Speech back in early 2011. The 23rd Bond film's cumulative box office of over £101m is, of course, a record, and one that's likely to endure for a while.

The future

Thanks to the success of titles including The Hobbit, The Impossible and Life of Pi, but also solid returns in the bottom half of the top 10, the market overall has posted the sixth best result of the past year, and is 61% up on the equivalent frame from 2012, when holdover hits Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows edged out new entrant The Iron Lady. This extends to 12 consecutive weeks the run of UK cinemas taking more than the year-prior equivalents, a winning streak that is surely set to continue with the arrival on Friday of Les Misérables. Tom Hooper's musical has already crossed $100m in the US, and the UK appeal is certainly strong, given the European setting, London stage success and British talent elements. Facing off against it is mob thriller Gangster Squad, starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

Top 10 films

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, £4,075,781 from 568 sites. Total: £44,870,320

2. The Impossible, £4,034,470 from 372 sites (New)

3. Life of Pi, £3,353,579 from 566 sites. Total: £17,857,428

4. Quartet, £2,294,917 from 415 sites (New)

5. Jack Reacher, £1,682,561 from 454 sites. Total: £7,160,319

6. Pitch Perfect, £917,135 from 359 sites. Total: £4,928,013

7. Parental Guidance, £884,319 from 432 sites. Total: £3,371,022

8. Rise of the Guardians, £725,281 from 489 sites. Total: £11,247,265

9. Skyfall, £541,401 from 253 sites. Total: £101,572,493

10. Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings, £516,952 from 399 sites. Total: £3,375,684

Source: guardian.co.uk