HITS AND MISSES 31 AUG – 2 SEPT: IS IT REAL? IS IT RUBBISH?

Punters keen to see three tits onscreen this weekend flocked to big budget remake TOTAL RECALL starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel. The film clocked top position with a £2.8M total and a respectable £4K average from saturation launch. At second position, resilient family hold BRAVE took £1.6M to make a running total of £18M to date, while at third, the comedy hit of the Summer, bawdy stuffed animal romp TED took £989K, putting the film on a stonking £28M to date after five smashing weeks of play. Result.

In a customary spot of low-rent horror smash n’grab, creepy kid flick THE POSSESSION took a decent opening total of £975K and fourth place, while at fifth all star comedy THE WATCH underwhelmed after decent previews to take £803K, putting the film at £2.2M thus far. At sixth place, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES took £758K, at seventh THE BOURNE LEGACY took £712K, and at eighth THE EXPENDABLES 2 took £376K, putting the sequel at £5.5M, guaranteeing the film will alas not hit the heady heights of the original, which totalled £10.6M back in 2010. To quote Sly Stallone, rest in pieces. At ninth position, optimistically titled comedy KEITH LEMON: THE FILM took £370K, putting the ‘film’ at £2.5M so far, while finally at tenth DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS took £278K, putting the kid-friendly threequel on £7M after five weeks of play.PO

Of the remaining openers, gross out farce A FEW BEST MEN underwhelmed with £263K and a very low £906 average from 293 sites, while limited openers BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO and SAMSARA both did decent opening business with £41.5K and £41.1K apiece respectively. More successful was Picturehouse entertainment’s own doc smash THE IMPOSTER which sustained into a second week of play to take £209K, putting the film on a smashing £690K to date.

Over in the states, a typically quiet Labor day weekend (answers on a postcard please as to what the hell that is), the big hit proved to be horror THE POSSESSION at a cool £17M total and the top spot. At second, gangster yarn LAWLESS launched soft to £9.6M from an arguably very wide 2,888 site release, while at third THE EXPENDABLES 2 dwindled to just under $9M, putting the film on $66M so far.

From this Friday, expect a crowded slate on new titles, including saturation launches for bloody comic book caper DREDD 3D, riveting gangster yarn LAWLESS and high-concept bodice ripper ANNA KARENINA. On a smaller scale look out for American sci-fi LOVE, cautionary doc THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES and Berlin hit TABU. Take your pick.

PR.