Steven Spielberg’s War Horse has galloped to the top of the UK and Ireland box office chart in its opening weekend.
The big-screen adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s book took £3.94m, more than double its closest rival, Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows fell one spot to three in its fifth week. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol ended its three-week reign at the top, falling three places to four.
The Hollywood re-imagining of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo completed a strong top 5, where all the films took more than £1 million each.
Sci-fi horror film The Darkest Hour was the highest new entry in the chart at six, while Golden Globe-winning The Artist rose one place to seven. The silent film averaged £6,148 at the 112 cinemas it was shown at. Comparatively, The Iron Lady took an average £3,238 across 460 screens. Animated films Alvin and Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and Puss In Boots slipped down the chart to eight and nine.
While sex-addiction film Shame, starring Michael Fassbender, entered the chart at 10 with £535,288 - averaging £4,696 across 114 screens.           –BBC