Universal’s comedy defies good weather and Olympics fever to retain top spot; Step Up Revolution debuts softly in third with $1m (£650,000).

Ted

With the overall market down around 46% on last weekend due to a combination of good weather and the closing weekend of the Olympics, Ted retained top spot at the UK box office despite a 50% drop on its exceptional opening last week.

Universal’s comedy laughed its way to an estimated $4.5m (£2.9m) from its 508 sites for a commanding tally of $26.0m (£16.6m) after just two weeks in play. That total puts it in touching distance of becoming the year’s biggest comedy - currently American Reunion’s $26.4m (£16.8m) - and among some of the best performing adult comedies in the UK of all time, with The Hangover ($34.7m/£22.1m) and Hot Fuzz ($33.1m/£21.1m) among the potential targets to overhaul.

Ted is unlikely to go three weeks at the summit of the UK box office though with the arrival of The Bourne Legacy and Brave - both with four days of previews to bolster their openings - but could still record a strong third weekend with cinemagoers aiming to fill the entertainment void left by the end of the Olympics.

Still going well in its fourth week, The Dark Knight Rises added a further $3.3m (£2.1m) on its relentless march to become the year’s best performer.

Warner Bros.’ behemoth now stands at an excellent $72.4m (£46.2m), around $4.5m (£2.9m) off The Dark Knight’s final gross of $76.9m (£49.1m). It could overtake that this week depending on how it competes against a strong studio one-two of Brave and Bourne, not to mention the testosterone-fuelled arrival of The Expendables 2 on Thursday (16).

In the battle against fellow superhero epic The Avengers, TDKR is still tracking ahead at the same stage in their respective runs; Avengers stood at $70.5m (£45.0m) after its fourth weekend.

The week’s highest new entry belonged to its only saturation release in the form of Universal’s Step Up Revolution which charted third.

Suffering the most as a result of the overall soft market, the weekend estimate for the latest instalment in the dance franchise was just $1m (£650,000), some way down on the previous openings in the series. Previously the lowest debut of the series belonged to the original instalment Step Up, which took $1.9m (£1.2m) in 2006.

It’ll hope to bounce back this week to stand any chance of challenging the final totals of the previous three films: Step Up’s $6.9m (£4.4m), Step Up 2 The Street’s series high of $16.6m (£10.6m) and Step Up 3D’s $12.4m (£7.9m).

Fox’s franchises are still going well in the UK: threequel Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days took an additional $945,000 (£603,000) for $5.8m (£3.7m), overtaking the original instalment’s tally of $4.8m (£3.1m) in the process; Ice Age: Continental Drift added $819,000 (£523,000) and stands at a cool $41.4m (£26.4m) after five weeks in play.

2011 London Film Festival opener 360 spun $40,503 (£25,800) from its 35 screens through Artificial Eye to debut 13th.

StudioCanal opened The Dinosaur Project in 16 Empire sites nationwide, taking $11,891 (£7,586) to place the film outside the top 20 in 23rd.

This week should see the UK box office in full swing with saturation releases for Universal’s The Bourne Legacy (opens today, Disney’s Brave (expands nationwide today), Lionsgate’s The Expendables 2 (opens Aug 16) and Entertainment’s The Wedding Video. StudioCanal’s Take This Waltz receives a wide release.