U.K. box office: Brits like ‘State of Play,’ even though they’ve already seen it

Nice opening for the Russell Crowe thriller, which had by far the best per-screen of the weekend: £3,804 at each of 398 cinemas (the next closest flick -- a reissue of From Russia with Love! -- took in £2,658 at one cinema). Perhaps it had better name recognition in the U.K. than it had in North America precisely because it was based on a popular 2003 BBC miniseries.

As in the U.S., Observe and Report did poorly in its second week here, dropping to No. 8 with only £326,749 in takings. Dark is not in, it seems, as Great Depression II gathers steam. Man, it’s gonna be a depressing decade.

Crank: High Voltage crashed in the U.K. just as it did in the U.S., dropping 61 percent in its second week. I guess I’m the only one who found it funny.

*sob*

[numbers via UK Film Council]