The winner: Parasite

Even before Parasite’s historic wins at the Oscars on Sunday night – it’s the first film in a foreign language ever to scoop the Best Picture prize – Bong Joon Ho’s social satire had proved amply intriguing to UK cinema audiences in its opening session. The South Korean auteur’s seventh feature debuted in the UK with £1.09m from 137 cinemas for the weekend period, and £1.40m including previews.

Those numbers are exceptional. Outside of Bollywood, and the very occasional mainstream Polish film serving the UK’s large Polish population, it’s rare for a foreign language film to gross £1m at UK cinemas in its lifetime, let alone in three days.

Last year was one of the better periods for the sector, with Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory reaching £1.53m – the biggest for a non-Bollywood foreign language film since Untouchable (£2.04m lifetime) in 2012.

The largest score ever for a foreign language film at UK cinemas was achieved by The Passion of the Christ back in 2004: £11.1m. That film began its life with £229,000 from just 44 venues, expanding significantly two weeks later. Parasite is significantly ahead of the pace of Mel Gibson’s film, albeit benefiting from wider play. (These figures are not adjusted for inflation.)