U.K. box office: ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ back on top

In its eighth week in release in the U.K., Slumdog is back up at No. 1 after its near-sweep at the Oscars. Amazing.

The overall box office is up phenomenally in the U.K. just as it is in North America -- up 38 percent over the same weekend last year -- but new movies were mostly ignored in favor of older fare. The Unborn opened relatively well, but The International debuted at No. 6 with a paltry £.76 million. That was better, however, than other newcomer New in Town, which debuted at No. 10 with a pathetic £.44 million, with a per-screen average worse than The Dark Knight, in its 32nd week in release and already available on DVD.

As has typically been the case since I started watching the U.K. numbers, it’s one of the wide releases with the best per-screen overall: Gran Torino’s £4,445. (It’s enormous percentage jump over last week is the result of it jumping from 62 cinemas the previous week to 304 this past weekend.) Close behind was The Unborn with a per-screen of £4,364, but then comes the French film The Class, with £4,140 (though it was at only 35 cinemas).

[numbers via UK Film Council]