On Friday the exhibitors were imploring the populace to get their mass to ours, as the remake of Total Recall was finally on general release. The populace agreed and twenty two years after the original was released, the new Total Recall topped the UK box office with £2.8m (including £959k from previews).

In second spot and benefitting from the unusual step of opening on a Monday was all-star comedy The Watch with £2.2m (including £1.4m from previews).  Brave 3D continues to enchant adults and children alike with a further £1.6m over the weekend taking its cume to £17.9m. Ted still bears fruit, easing 42% to £989k for a  cume of £28.1m.

In fifth spot was another new entry with Exorcist-style horror, The Possession. A £979k debut (including £4k from previews) isn’t far off from the similarly themed The Last Exorcism (£1.1m) and The Haunting In Connecticut (£1.1m). The only other new entry in the top 15 was an Australian comedy with a British feel, A Few Best Men. The Hangover style romp grossed £264k. Overall the box office was up 2% from last weekend and 1% from the same weekend last year.

In the US, The Possession topped the box office with $17.7m and distributor Lionsgate said the audience was 59% female and 54% under the age of 25. Dusty prohibition thriller, Lawless opened in second place with $9.7 and a five-day total of $11.8m. The Expendables 2 fell 34% to an estimated $8.8m, bringing its total to $66.2m, which is approximately $16m away from where The Expendables was at the same point. The Bourne Legacy had a solid weekend, falling just 22% to $7.2m and the film now has a cume of $96.2m, and will pass $100m before the end of the week. ParaNorman 3D rounded out the Top Five with $6.6m and has now grossed a total of $38m.

Source: guardian.co.uk

For the second successive weekend Brave 3D hit the bullseye, falling a very light 9% to £2.4m (fall-off not including opening weekend previews). Including bank holiday Monday, Pixar’s latest smash now has a cume of £14.4m and is fast closing in on Cars 2 (£15.6m) and Cars (£16.5m). After that the next Pixar title in its sights is Toy Story with £22.3m, which is looking increasingly likely.

The remarkable performance of ribald bear Ted shows little sign of slowing down as a further £1.7m over the weekend takes its cume to £26.2m. It has now grossed more than any Austin Powers film and will probably finish around Meet The Fockers’ final total of £28.9m. It is also the fourth biggest film of the year so far, having just surpassed The Amazing Spider-Man 3D’s current cume of £25.8m.

The Bourne Legacy had another solid weekend with £1.6m and a cume of £8.4m.  This surpasses The Bourne Identity’s final total of £7.8m and Legacy will be hoping to get close The Bourne Supremacy’s £11.6m final total. In fourth place was The Dark Knight Rises with £1.4m. On Saturday TDKR officially became king of the comic book heroes overtaking Avengers Assemble 3D’s final total of £51.9m to become the biggest comic book film of all time and the biggest film of 2012 so far with £53.1m. Keith Lemon: The Film rounded out the top five with £1.2m and a four day total of £1.5m.

Finally, there was a terrific performance in the lower reaches of the top 15 with startling documentary The Imposter opening in tenth spot with £252k (including £29k from previews) and a four day total of £328k. Almost unanimous praise from the critics inspired this film to the highest screen average of the weekend (£5.1k).

In the US, The Expendables 2 fell 53% to $13.4m and the aging action star spectacular now has a 10-day total of $52.2m. In second place, The Bourne Legacy eased 45% to $9.3m and a cume of $85.5m, which is solid but unlikely to match The Bourne Identity’s final total of $121.7m.  A further $8.6m for ParaNorman 3D takes its cume to $28.3m and Coraline’s final total of $75.3m is looking insurmountable. In fourth spot The Campaign fell 43% to $7.5m for a total of $64.6 m. The Dark Knight Rises rounded out the top five with $7.2m and a cume of $422.3m, which is 11th on the all-time chart. Outside of the top five, The Odd Life of Timothy Green continued its steady performance with a further $7.1 m and after 12 days has a cume of $27.1m. Premium Rush openned with $6m. Sony Pictures reported that the audience was 55% male and 67% were 25 years of age and older.

This weeks film schedule updates:

• Snow White And The Huntsman now opens 30 May 2012
• The Amazing Spider-Man 3D now opens 3 July 2012
• Ted now opens 1 August 2012
• The Bourne Legacy now opens 13 August 2012
• Liberal Arts now opens 12 October 2012
• Now Is Good now opens 22 August 2012
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D now opens 4 January 2013
• 47 Ronin 3D now opens 8 February 2013

• Great Hope Springs is now called Hope Springs

• Think Like a Man has now been added to the schedule, releasing 22 June 2012
• Ruby Sparks has now been added to the schedule, releasing 12 October 2012
• Silent Hill: Revelation 3D has now been added to the schedule, releasing 26 October 2012

The film schedule has been updated to reflect these changes.