Blue Story, the debut film by Rapman that became embroiled in a race row, has made one of the best box-office starts of any British film this year, despite being banned from more than 100 cinemas after a mass brawl in Birmingham.

The London-set gang drama recorded the sixth best opening of any British film during 2019, with box-office takings of £2.9m across two weekends, according to figures from ComScore, despite being pulled from more than 100 cinemas after Vue and Showcase said there had been several “significant incidents” at screenings.

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The film debuted on 22 November, accumulating £1.3m on its opening weekend, which Screen Daily called an excellent result for a debut feature director with a largely unknown cast. it played in 310 locations, grossing £4,194 per location.

The impressive box-office performance comes after it was removed from Showcase and Vue cinemas on 25 November. Vue is the third biggest cinema chain in the UK with 855 screens – only Odeon (890) and Cineworld (1,038) are bigger – while Showcase’s sites have 268 screens, according to figures from the UK Cinema Association.

Vue withdrew the film from 91 cinemas nationwide, while Showcase removed it from its 21 locations, with both chains reinstating the film less than a week later after sustained criticism, including that the decision was rooted in racism.

Dr Clive Nwonka, LSE Fellow in film studies and author of the forthcoming book Black Boys: the Aesthetics of British Urban Cinema, told the Guardian the decision to pull the film was a “knee-jerk” reaction and would help it gain a far bigger audience.

“It’s a classic moral panic,” he said. “Stuart Hall predicted it with mugging in the 70s – there’s hysteria around young black people and that eventually provokes an overreaction like this.”

Vue initially pulled Blue Story from its locations after a mass brawl in the foyer area of the Star City cinema in Birmingham, in which seven police officers were injured amid reports of people brandishing machetes. Showcase refused to show the film in the UK before performing a U-turn 24 hours later, saying it would show Blue Story “supported with increased security protocols”.

Vue said it would reinstate the film on Wednesday 27 November, after days of sustained criticism, including an interview with Rapman, real name Andrew Onwubolu, who told BBC Breakfast he believed there were “hidden reasons” behind the decision to remove it from screens.

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Onwubolu also said Vue’s claims there were 25 “significant incidents” at 16 cinemas lacked credibility because no video evidence had been provided. He said: “I feel like that was just something to say to cover their decision, which already wasn’t justified because the incident had no connection to Blue Story.”

When announcing the film’s reinstatement, Tim Richards, the founder and chief executive of Vue International, said the company had “agonised” over the decision to remove the film. “Birmingham was part of our decision, but just a part of it,” he said, adding: “I have spent 20 years of my life supporting and promoting diversity and British and independent film.”

Blue Story is on its way to becoming the most successful British film about gang culture in the UK. Bullet Boy, released in 2004 and starring Top Boy’s Ashley Walters, made £195,000 during its opening weekend. In 2008, Noel Clarke’s urban drama, Adulthood, began with a £1.2m opening, which rose to £3.4m; and along with Kidulthood and Brotherhood, the trilogy made £7.5m at the UK box office.