Disney/Pixar’s latest closes in on £15m; Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight Rises becomes highest grosser of year so far.

brave

A $3.7m (£2.4m) tally was enough to see Brave retain top spot for a second consecutive week at the UK box office.

Following an excellent Bank Holiday Monday return of $1.8m (£1.1m), Disney/Pixar’s latest has now accumulated $22.7m (£14.4m) in the UK and will overtake Cars 2’s final tally of $24.6m (£15.6m) this week.

With the arrival of four saturation releases this week - including Sony’s Total Recall - it faces a tough task to retain its crown for a third straight week, but should still hold well without any direct competition in the market.

Showcasing remarkable resilience, Ted jumped back up one spot to second.

Universal’s comedy took a further $2.7m (£1.7m) from its 502 sites, and has now laughed its way to an excellent $40.1m (£25.6m) after four weeks in play. That puts it as the year’s fifth biggest film, ahead of the likes of Prometheus and The Hunger Games, and ahead of Borat in the all-time list of adult comedies at the UK box office.

Narrowly behind in third was another Universal title in the form of The Bourne Legacy.

The latest instalment in the popular spy franchise grossed $2.6m (£1.6m) in its second weekend to stand at $12.3m (£7.8m). It won’t challenge The Bourne Ultimatum’s series-high haul of $37.9m (£24.0m), but has a decent shot at Supremacy’s $18.2m (£11.6m) if it holds up well this week.

Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is going out on a high at the UK box office as The Dark Knight Rises became the biggest film of the year and the biggest superhero film ever in the UK.

Warner Bros.’ behemoth flew to $2.1m (£1.3m) in its sixth weekend and has now amassed a stellar $82.1m (£52.5m), surpassing The Avengers’ previous year-high of $81.8m (£51.9m).

The week’s highest new entry belonged to Lionsgate’s Keith Lemon: The Film, which opened with $1.9m (£1.2m) from its 420 sites in fifth.

Fellow Lionsgate title The Expendables 2 dropped two places to sixth in its second week as it blasted its way to $1.6m (£1.0m) for $7.3m (£4.6m) to date.

Fox’s remake of The Three Stooges nyuk-nyuked its way to a $850,000 (£539,000) debut from its 352 sites.

Paramount’s Shadow Dancer opened with a decent $504,109 (£319,240) from its 166 sites to chart 12th. The debut is director James Marsh’s strongest in the UK by some way, beating the $155,560 (£98,508) achieved by Man On Wire.

This week sees saturation releases for BVI’s A Few Best Men, Lionsgate’s FrightFest title The Possession, Sony’s Total Recall (opens Aug 29) and Fox’s The Watch (out now). FrightFest titles Cockneys Vs Zombies (StudioCanal), Berberian Sound Studio (Artificial Eye) and Rec 3 (eOne) receive limited releases.