The winner: Avengers: Infinity War

Sunny skies proved predictably detrimental to cinemagoing across the UK at the weekend, with the overall market crashing by 61% from the previous session. And chart topper Avengers: Infinity War fell a pretty hefty 57% in its second weekend of play. However, that decline was from such a giant opening number (£23.1m) that the Marvel movie nevertheless managed a very impressive £10.14m over the weekend. Total after 11 days is an epic £49.1m. Including bank holiday Monday, the tally rises to £51.8m in 12 days.

Infinity War is now within spitting distance of the lifetime total of Marvel’s biggest-ever UK hit. Marvel Avengers Assemble maxed out at £51.9m in 2012. And Infinity War will clearly sail far past that number. It’s already ahead of every other Marvel title; the next best is Avengers: Age of Ultron, with £48.3m.

Infinity War is a tiny bit behind the pace of December’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which grossed £10.16m in its second session, and stood at £50.7m after 11 days of play. Typically, Star Wars films enjoy more marketplace longevity than Marvel titles, so Infinity War will probably struggle to match The Last Jedi’s muscular UK total of £82.7m.

The runner-up: I Feel Pretty

Distributor STX might consider itself unlucky to have released its new comedy I Feel Pretty on the sunniest weekend of the year so far. And given that challenging weather situation, the film’s debut of £1.19m from 520 cinemas, and £1.27m including previews, seems an encouraging start.

Amy Schumer has taken the starring role in only three films: Trainwreck, Snatched (opposite Goldie Hawn) and now I Feel Pretty. US hit Trainwreck arrived in the UK in mid-August 2015, with a rather soft £932,000 from 464 cinemas, including negligible previews, on its way to a £3.24m total. Snatched began last May with £842,000 from 465 cinemas, topping out at £2.14m. STX will be hoping that I Feel Pretty will give the actor her biggest UK hit.

The indie alternatives: Tully, Lean on Pete and Mary and the Witch’s Flower

A number of films targeting more niche audiences were released at the weekend, with mixed results. Tully is the latest from Juno and Young Adult writer-director pair Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman. Starring Charlize Theron in a change-of-pace role as a barely coping mother of three, the comedy-drama sits somewhere between the arthouse and mainstream, and struggled to define its audience. Tully’s UK debut of £139,000 is almost identical to the Young Adult opening number, but was achieved from a wider 200 cinemas, compared with 137 for Young Adult. Juno was a smash hit, reaching a UK total of £9.84m in 2008.

Lean on Pete, from Weekend and 45 Years director Andrew Haigh, has begun with £53,400 from 46 venues, and £85,600 including previews. Adapted from the Willy Vlautin novel, the film is the first from the director set in the US. The numbers compare with a debut of £309,000 from 68 sites (and £331,000 including previews) for 45 Years back in August 2015. Weekend began with £32,500 from 10 cinemas in November 2011.

Mary and the Witch’s Flower is the debut feature from Studio Ponoc, the Japanese animation house led by ex-Studio Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura. The fantasy adventure, based on The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart, has opened with a rather soft £44,300 from 78 venues, and £119,000 including previews. When Marnie Was There, Ghibli’s last Japanese animation, began in June 2016 with a stronger £83,700 from 53 sites, and £99,400 including previews.

The market

Data gatherer comScore has released figures for April (6 April to 3 May), and they show box office down 10% on April 2017. For the year to date, box office is down 5% on 2017. Those numbers would have been worse were it not for the contribution of Avengers: Infinity War, which played for eight days in the measured period. The silver lining for cinema operators is that 2017 began strongly before hitting a few speed bumps in the summer, so nobody should be panicking that 2018 is currently 5% behind: there is strong potential to catch up. This month, Deadpool 2 (arriving in cinemas on 15 May) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (24 May), plus continued success for Infinity War, should deliver stellar numbers.

Top 10 films 4-6 May

1. Avengers: Infinity War, £10,143,580 from 652 sites. Total: £49,120,290 (2 weeks)

2. I Feel Pretty, £1,272,154 from 520 sites (new)

3. A Quiet Place, £395,335 from 462 sites. Total: £10,773,694 (5 weeks)

4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, £357,429 from 539 sites. Total: £4,293,764 (3 weeks)

5. Rampage, £256,219 from 406 sites. Total: £8,323,117 (4 weeks)

6. Blade Runner: The Final Cut – Secret Cinema, £231,271 from 1 site. Total: £2,417,817 (7 weeks)

7. The Strangers: Prey at Night, £205,325 from 299 sites (new)

8. Tully, £138,674 from 200 sites (new)

9. Peter Rabbit, £120,181 from 521 sites. Total: £39,850,737 (8 weeks)

10. Mary and the Witch’s Flower, £119,129 from 78 sites (new)

Other openers

Lean on Pete, £85,597 (including £32,185 previews) from 46 sites

Narzeczony Na Niby, £70,196 from 205 sites

102 Not Out, £68,302 from 53 sites

Daana Paani, £16,529 from 11 sites

A or B, £5,446 from 10 sites (Ireland only)

The Young Karl Marx, £2,689 from 5 sites

Modern Life Is Rubbish, £2,432 from 9 sites

New Town Utopia, £2,049 from 2 sites

Kammara Sambhavam, £540 from 2 sites

Mayurakshi, £436 from 1 site

• Thanks to comScore. All figures relate to takings in UK and Ireland cinemas.