Cowboys & Aliens disappoints on £1.8m as Rise Of The Planet of the Apes is nearest challenger on £2.4m

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Entertainment’s comedy The Inbetweeners Movie has smashed a number of records on debut in the UK, grossing £13.2m from 453 sites at a stunning location average of £29,176. £4.6m came from two days of previews.

On one of the UK’s last big weekends for summer releases, The Inbetweeners Movie upstaged three US studio hopefuls including Paramount’s big-budget action Cowboys And Aliens, which saw its target-demographic flock to the gross-out comedy instead.

The mid-August box office surge – last weekend was £6m up on the previous frame - was largely down to Film 4/Young Bwark’s feature with clear daylight between the UK production and its rival openers, all of whom disappointed.

The debut already sits among savvy Entertainment’s top-ten biggest UK-grossers after one weekend, behind huge hits The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Sex And The City, The Golden Compass, two of the Austin Powers films and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which it will overtake early this week.

The film has already bettered the same distributor’s comedy successes Wedding Crashers (£13m) and Rush Hour 2 (£11m).

Fox’s Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes turned in the week’s second best performance, holding on £2.4m from 494 screens for £11.7m, £1m more than Tim Burton’s popular 2001 remake had made in its equivalent week, but Paramount’s big-budget, all-star action-sci fi Cowboys & Aliens bombed in third, taking only £1.8m from 477 screens, a poor return for a tentpole combining the talents and box office lure of Jon Favreau, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. The film scored only £611,161 from 426 previews.

The film only managed one week at top spot in the US, and faces a challenge to remain in the top three in the UK next weekend.

Sony’s fourth-placed The Smurfs  held on £1.4m on 431 screens for £7.7m, while eight years after its previous instalment, Entertainment’s second top ten opener Spy Kids: All The Time In The World, looks to be a franchise on the wane, disappointing on £703,078 from 420 screens at an average of £1,674.

The debut is the lowest in the franchise and £275,000 less than the last in the series. Robert Rodriguez’ 4D latest seems unlikely to match the previous three films, which all crossed £5m cumulative.

Fox’s Glee The 3D Concert Movie debuted poorly in ninth, taking £356,271, less than half the debut of Justin Bieber’s concert film in February, and Optimum’s well-received comedy-thriller The Guard couldn’t repeat its Irish box office heroics in the UK taking only £163,751 from 60 screens, £11,360 of which came from one preview screening.

Axiom’s Oscar winner In A Better World managed only £23,306 from a healthy 28 screens.

This week sees saturation releases for Lionsgate’s Conan The Barbarian, Warner Bros’ Final Destination 5, Universal’s One Day and a limited run for Fox’s Pedro Almodovar drama The Skin I Live In.