The winner: Darkest Hour

Declining a relatively slim 19% in its third weekend of play, Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour returns to the UK top spot, elbowing aside Pixar animation Coco. After 17 days on release, the Winston Churchill drama has grossed £15.2m in UK cinemas. Distributor Universal will also take heart from the film’s performance on weekdays: last week, Darkest Hour grossed £2.4m over the Monday-to-Thursday period, not far behind the £2.67m it’s just delivered from the latest weekend session.

Darkest Hour is nominated for nine Bafta film awards and should play robustly up to the ceremony on 18 February – and beyond, if it wins any of its key categories such as best actor for Gary Oldman. It’s also nominated for six Academy awards, and could bumble along until the Oscars ceremony on 4 March.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Delayed … Maze Runner: The Death Cure. Photograph: AP

The franchise picture: Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Top new entry in the chart arrives courtesy of Maze Runner: The Death Cure, which lands in third place – behind Darkest Hour and Coco – with £2.25m. That’s not far behind franchise predecessor Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, which began in September 2015 with £2.45m (plus £349,000 previews). The original The Maze Runner kicked off with £1.93m (plus £112,000 previews) in October 2014.

The franchise finale’s release was originally scheduled for February 2017, but was delayed by 11 months after lead actor Dylan O’Brien was injured on set, creating a year-long hiatus in production. Distributor Fox may have had concerns that fan interest had cooled in the 28 months since Scorch Trials. Evidence so far is that there is an audience that wants to see the story to its conclusion.

The family competitor: Early Man

Early Man: Aardman goes prehistoric with moustache moodboards and claymation football Read more

While Coco fell a reasonably slim 31% and is still the top attraction for families, Aardman animation Early Man was not far behind it in box-office terms at the weekend, beginning its run with £2.02m. The number is very similar to the debut of Shaun the Sheep Movie in February 2015: £2.10m. Shaun the Sheep went on to achieve a handy £13.8m over the course of its run.

The positioning challenge: Downsizing

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Distribution challenge … Downsizing

Alexander Payne’s Downsizing: should it be presented to audiences as the latest upscale indie comedy-drama from the director of Sideways and The Descendants? Or can it be successfully positioned as a high-concept, commercially mainstream sci-fi entertainment? Modest success in the awards races (such as a Golden Globe nomination for supporting actress Hong Chau) adds to the distribution challenge for backers Paramount, while reviews have been all over the map.

Given all of the above, Paramount might be reasonably content with a UK debut of £834,000 for the film, rising to £1.13m including Wednesday/Thursday previews. However, with a hefty production price tag of $68m (£48m), and a US gross of just $24.4m, the film looks certain to lose money for its backers.

The market

The weekend experienced what is arguably the most evenly distributed set of box office numbers ever seen at UK cinemas. While no film managed £3m, no fewer than five of them – Darkest Hour, Coco, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, The Greatest Showman and Early Man – took £2m-plus. On no previous occasion in the current decade (and probably ever) have five films all grossed at least £2m. Moreover, nine titles in the current comScore chart have grosses above £1m – albeit boosted by previews in the case of ninth-placed Downsizing. Nine films above £1m in the UK has never occurred before in the current decade, and if it occurred in the previous decade, we’d like to hear about it.

Contributing to the spread of success is the sustained performance of The Greatest Showman, which experienced yet another tiny drop (down 3% from the previous session) and has now posted five straight weekends at £2m-plus. That’s a feat that eluded, for example, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Dunkirk and current word-of-mouth smash Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The only other 2017 releases that managed it are Despicable Me 3 and Beauty and the Beast.

Top 10 films, 26-28 January

1. Darkest Hour, £2,672,022 from 641 sites. Total: £15,224,229 (three weeks)

2. Coco, £2,315,450 from 580 sites. Total: £8,165,400 (two weeks)

3. Maze Runner: The Death Cure, £2,247,915 from 507 sites (new)

4. The Greatest Showman, £2,042,450 from 530 sites. Total: £19,965,506 (five weeks)

5. Early Man, £2,020,653 from 549 sites (new)

6. The Post, £1,604,133 from 579 sites. Total: £5,209,857 (two weeks)

7. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, £1,249,691 from 448 sites. Total: £7,605,591 (3 weeks)

8. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, £1,219,880 from 491 sites. Total: £34,147,183 (6 weeks)

9. Downsizing, £1,131,687 from 389 sites (new)

10. Padmaavat, £850,386 from 137 sites (new)

Other openers

12 Strong, £421,515 from 311 sites

Tosca – Met Opera, £404,994 from 207 sites (live event)

Last Flag Flying, £16,867 from 5 sites (including £12,104 previews)

Bhaagamathie, £13,401 from 13 sites (Telugu and Tamil releases combined)

• Thanks to comScore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.