A Christmas Carol Returns To The Top Of UK Box Office

In a very soft weekend at UK cinemas, A Christmas Carol has made a surprise return to the top of the box office list, five weeks after it was first released. It's rare for a film to keep making a strong showing over such a long period of time, with only minor declines in each weekend's take.

That said, it's undoubtedly helped that Robert Zemeckis' motion capture film has had a free run of 3D screens over the past few weeks, which has helped it find favour with parents looking for ways to distract the kids in the run up to Christmas. However it way be a bit of a last hurrah, as with Avatar taking over pretty every 3D screen from tomorrow evening, A Christmas Carol may find itself tumbling down the box office list next weekend.

The only new entry in the top 10 was Where The Wild Things Are, which came in at number two with £884,000, which is likely to be seen as a disappointment by Warner Bros, especially as the film has attracted good reviews and positive word of mouth. However it seems they haven't overcome the fact that it looks a little adult for kids who like the story book, and a little juvenile for fans of Spike Jonze's other films.

Other new films failed spectacularly with the Chris Pine thriller, Carriers, making only £69,224, and the horror remake The Stepfather, grossing an abysmal £40,056.

Next weekend is all about Avatar though, as while most big releases in the UK might go out on 500-600 screens, it's believed Avatar will be nearing 1,000.

Take a look below for the full box office top 10 for the weekend of December 11th-13th.