1917 is set to smash UK box office records, while Bad Boys for Life pulls it out of the bag despite Will Smith's waning star power, writes Charles Gant in his weekly bulletin

The winner: 1917

Sam Mendes’s First World War film 1917 already made an impressive mark when it debuted at UK cinemas with £7.45m including £100,000 previews – but was that simply a triumph of marketing of the film’s ambitious “continuous-shot” execution? Now the numbers are in for 1917’s second weekend of play, and they suggest that the film is genuinely connecting with audiences.

Declining just 16 per cent from its opening session, 1917 has delivered second-weekend box office of £6.19m, bringing the total after 10 days to a hefty £18.4m. That’s very close to the entire UK cinema run of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse (£18.7m).

For comparison, Christopher Nolan’s Second World War film Dunkirk began with just over £10m, and then declined 18 per cent in its second weekend of play. If 1917 follows the same trajectory as Dunkirk, it should reach around £38-39m by the end of its run.

Saturday's best picture win at the Producers Guild Awards augurs well for further success at the Baftas and Oscars – and wins at those ceremonies would help sustain the life of 1917 into mid-February.