The winner: Deadpool

Hollywood’s association with Marvel has produced pretty reliable returns for Paramount (early films in the Avengers series) and Sony (Spider-Man), and Disney’s $4bn acquisition of Marvel Entertainment in 2009 has proved a cash bonanza for the studio, with more Avengers films, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man.

Over at Fox, which arguably kick-started the current cycle of comic-book blockbusters with 2000’s X-Men, results with Marvel characters have been more mixed. X-Men 2 (£20.7m) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (£27.3m) are the only two in the series to crack £20m at the UK box office, while two attempts at Fantastic Four never got the formula quite right. Spinoffs X-Men Origins: The Wolverine and The Wolverine managed £16.4m and £13.8m respectively.

Based on the performance of those films, expectations might have been modest for Deadpool, a spinoff featuring a character briefly introduced in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and starring an actor (Ryan Reynolds) who had already commercially failed as a superhero in DC Comics’ Green Lantern. Director Tim Miller, known for animation and visual effects, had never helmed a feature film, and Deadpool didn’t look an obvious fit for the Valentine’s Day audience.

At the Baftas on Sunday night, with Rentrak returns flooding on to attendees’ hand-held devices, executives across the UK film industry confessed themselves stunned by the Deadpool numbers. A debut of £13.73m including previews of £3.76m – that result is way bigger than anyone expected. It’s bigger than the opening weekends of all three of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films (although Spider-Man 3’s £11.8m debut has the edge if Deadpool’s previews are stripped out). It’s pretty much dead level with the opening of Iron Man 3 (£13.71m including £2.32m in previews), and far ahead of the debuts for Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Guardians of the Galaxy kicked off with £6.36m, including £1.37m in previews – numbers that were considered a surprise success at the time.

Deadpool is rated 15 for “strong bloody violence, strong language, sex references” and its tone and content clearly distinguishes the film from other Marvel properties. While that represented a risk for Fox, its distinctiveness was also an opportunity to offer audiences something different in an increasingly crowded space. The risk has paid off handsomely.

The runner-up: the Chipmunks

Fox has even more to smile about this week, as Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Road Chip is convincingly winning the battle for the half-term audience. The fourth film in the series begins its run with £4.30m including previews of £1.70m. Previous entry Chipwrecked began in December 2011 with £2.36m including £675,000 in previews, when it faced direct competition from Arthur Christmas, Puss in Boots, Hugo and Happy Feet 2. Predecessor The Squeakquel kicked off with £5.35m including very extensive previews totalling £4.00m. The Road Chip is benefiting from its February half-term release date – a key slot that in past years has been nabbed by big hitters such as Big Hero 6, The Lego Movie and Wreck-It Ralph. Alvin is facing off against family adventure Goosebumps and lesser titles.

Third place: Zoolander 2

Although the original Zoolander film enjoys significant affection with film fans, it was commercially modest on its cinema release (2001), grossing just £2.18m in total in the UK. Still, the same is also true of the first Anchorman film (grossing £1.59m here) and the sequel went on to huge success (£14.51m). Paramount had every reason to expect a big opening for Zoolander 2, with media happily exploiting images of Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and other cast members performing photo stunts at a series of premieres (technically billed as “fan screenings”) all around the world.

The result: a UK debut of £2.09m, including previews of £670,000. While Paramount will take comfort from having already almost matched the lifetime of Zoolander, it must surely be disappointed not to have pushed the number higher. Zoolander 2 enjoys a weak 5.3/10 IMDb user rating and a 35/100 MetaCritic score. Prospects do not look great for a strong sustain, although this week’s half-term holiday will work in the 12A-rated film’s favour.

The flops

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, adapted by the book credited to Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen, was always a risky proposition: would fans of Austen’s Georgian-era romances be enticed by the addition of zombies, and would genre fans be intrigued by the mash-up with the world of the Bennett sisters and Mr Darcy? It didn’t help that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, similarly adapted from a Grahame-Smith work, commercially underperformed.

In this instance, the risk has not paid off, since the tonally unusual film has debuted here with a poor £357,000 from 332 cinemas, including £65,000 in previews. A quick exit looks likely.

Concussion, starring Will Smith as an African-born doctor taking on the American football establishment on the issue of head injuries, always looked a very tricky sell in the UK. Awards attention would have helped push the film across to audiences, but Concussion made no headway at the Baftas or Oscars, and a Golden Globe nomination for Smith wasn’t enough to create excitement. Sony released the film in 169 cinemas, achieving an opening gross of £112,000.

Jem and the Holograms, based on the 1980s American TV cartoon series, pretty much evaporated on contact with cinemas, beginning with £8,900 from 98 venues, yielding a woeful £91 site average.

The indie alternative: A Bigger Splash

Landing just outside the top 10, A Bigger Splash begins its run with £348,000 from 101 cinemas, including previews of £43,000. Comparisons are tricky since director Luca Guadagnino’s previous feature I Am Love was primarily in Italian, despite Tilda Swinton in the lead role. That film began with a robust £172,000 from just 35 cinemas, on its way to a lifetime total of £927,000. A Bigger Splash, starring Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts and Dakota Johnson, is an English-language film, and a loose remake of 1969 French title La Piscine.

The future

Thanks to Deadpool, grosses overall are 135% up on the previous frame, and also 15% up on the equivalent weekend from 2015, when Fifty Shades of Grey exploded with a £13.55m debut. Cinema bookers will be hoping for a strong hold from Deadpool and solid returns from family titles this weekend as kids prepare to go back to school next Monday. As for newcomers, How to Be Single should play both as a date movie and a chick flick, while John Hillcoat’s nicely cast Triple 9 should skew more male, as will the 18-certificate Bone Tomahawk, starring Kurt Russell and Patrick Wilson. Coast Guard rescue true tale The Finest Hours has already opened softly in the US. Alternatives include indie drama Freeheld, with Julianne Moore and Ellen Page.

Top 10 films February 12-14

1. Deadpool, £13,729,803 from 543 sites (new)

2. Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Road Chip, £4,296,291 from 585 sites (new)

3. Zoolander 2, £2,089,678 from 477 sites (new)

4. Dad’s Army, £1,304,048 from 579 sites. Total: £4,875,369

5. Goosebumps, £1,072,028 from 526 sites. Total: £4,180,487

6. The Revenant, £717,860 from 431 sites. Total: £19,620,532

7. Dirty Grandpa, £565,700 from 341 sites. Total: £4,622,065

8. Spotlight, £451,302 from 345 sites. Total: £3,656,210

9. Star Wars: the Force Awakens, £442,768 from 360 sites. Total: £121,447,648

10. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, £357,444 from 332 sites (new)

Other openers

A Bigger Splash, £347,704 (including £42,631 previews) from 101 sites

Fitoor, £132,320 from 55 sites

Concussion, £111,993 from 169 sites

Oddball and the Penguins, £23,835 from 141 sites

The Iron Giant: Signature Edition, £13,729 from 120 sites

The Monkey King 2, £12,494 from 8 sites

The Survivalist, £9,298 from 27 sites

Jem and the Holograms, £8,869 from 98 sites

Jil Jung Juk, £6,936 from 4 sites

Romeo & Juliet: San Francisco Ballet, £2,683 from 15 sites

I’ll See You In My Dreams, £1,951 from 10 sites

America Wild: National Parks, £1,499 from 1 site

Noble, £1,197 from 27 sites

Homme Less, £728 from 1 site

Welcome to Leith, £255 from 1 site

Survival Instinct, no data available

The Green Inferno, no data available

Meru, no data available

Miruthan, no data available

Paavada, no data available

Thanks to Rentrak

All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.