The horse reigns supreme again but 3 high charting new entries also make an impression in a solid weekend at the UK Box Office.

1. War Horse (510 sites) W/E: £2,081,490 Total: £13,418,627

2. The Descendants (403) W/E: £1,797,939 NEW

3. The Grey (345) W/E: £1,094,338 NEW

4. A Monster in Paris (433) W/E: £1,043,531 NEW

5. The Artist (190) W/E: £704,348 Total: £4,470,081

6. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (365) W/E: £655,144 Total: £25,663,306

7. Underworld: Awakening (304) W/E: £627,846 from Total: £2,382,349

8. The Iron Lady (397) W/E: £567,397 Total: £8,405,809

9. The Sitter (342) W/E: £554,568 Total: £1,967,227

10. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (298) W/E: £529,462 Total: £17,536,984

Source: The Guardian

Managing to make over£2 million 3 weekends in a row is a rare achievement these days but it’s one Spielberg’s much loved (in the UK at least) horse epic has managed with what seems to be a fair bit of ease. Dropping only around a third week-on-week, the film continues to draw crowds and with the first week of Oscar nomination added play, it’s setting itself up to be one of, if no the largest, pre-Summer grossing films in the UK Box Office this year. There’s not much more to say about the Horse 3 weeks in but Touchstone must be thrilled.

On a lot less screens but holding its own is our highest new entry as George Clooney’s also heavily awards buzzed comey-drama makes a strong debut in second place. With a marketing campaign which managed to straddle both the slightly more arthouse crowd as well as the weekend multiplex fiolks, the good reviews for the film bode well for a lifetime gross with a multiple of its opening weekend far higher than many others manage. It’s also yet more proof that in a time when “movie stars” are becoming a bit of a rare breed, Clooney is still a man who can open any film virtually regardless of subject matter. This one will be around for a good while yet and will make Fox a mint, just as it’s been doing in the US also.

Debuting in 3rd but on an admittedly far lower gross tha The Descendants is Liam Neeson Looks Like An Owl In The Poster And Attacks Wolves, otherwise known as The Grey, which makes a strong debut considering both the competition for the adult audience at the moments and the fact that the marketing makes it look for a very specific demographic: those who like to see Liam Neeson punch things and nothing more. While Unknown did well for Neeson around this time last year, he’s actually got a quality film here and hopefully the word-of-mouth on it will be strong, though the ending of the film seems to have polarised audiences’ already. Still, Entertanment will be happy with this debut, though the action crowd do get more options this coming weekend too, something which could hurt The Grey.

Another new entry follows as E1 score a decent if ironically not monster sized debut for A Monster In Paris which managed to eeke out a OK enough opening weekend in a very well chosen release date which offers the first kids options in weeks and comes just before the family half-term films start to arrive this coming weekend. While this one won’t be hanging around in 3D for a huge amount of time, 2D shows of it will be showing for weeks to come so while the likes of The Muppets and Journey 2 The Mysterious Island will no doubt do better, this should be able to carve out a niche for itself.

Moving up the chart while grossing less than last weekend is the continuing success that is The Artist, which again sees its screen count rise up to just under what can be considered a proper wide release and continues to make serious coin. Films like this and The Iron Lady do tend to do soid business in the mid-week also though while the “bigger” films may suffer in comparison, and hence the film’s very solid lifetime total, but with the BAFTAs and Oscar ceremony looming, this one should look to see its acual gross rise week-on-week soon enough, provided Entertainment keep the screen count creeping up. Following The Artist, we see Sherlock Holmes still maintaining a good pace well over a month into its run with a drop-off of less than a third week-on-week and the film set to surpass the first installment, Warner must be thrilled with how the film’s gone down here and I’d assume a third installment will be announced in due course. Dropping heavier next, to the surprise of no-one is Underworld Awakening which will be pretty much said and done by this time next week but has managed a not embarrassing take at all, with the film likely to make some ancillary markets such as DVD/Blu too. Not all that much to say on that one!

Bizarrely our next two films have somewhat similar drop-off’s despite being about as different as you could expect with The Iron lady and The Sitter both declining at about the same rate, though it’s very much worth pointing out that The Iron Lady has dropped far more screens, to a lot of surprise for me given the Oscar nominations for Streep and the lack of any buzz on The Sitter (yes, Jonah Hill got nominated for Moneyball but I doubt that’s affected the marketing campaign for The Sitter all that much!). The Iron Lady will be playing for weeks and The Sitter will be done soon but considering the sheer column inches The Iron lady has been getting, I find it incredibly odd that chains are dumping as quick as they seem to be. Finishing us off for the week is Mission Impossible 4 which makes what is likely its last appearance in the chart with a heavy screen count drop-off and a more than a third drop-off as a result. Still, this thing’s a success for Paramount won’t be too bothered by its lack of keeping up pace with Holmes, something which a couple of weeks again looked assured.

Another pretty busy week coming up as Fox will be hoping the overwhelmingly positive reviews and interesting marketing campaign translates into bums on seats for Chronicle, hich does look to be the dark horse of the season all told. Entertainment One will also be hoping for a solid weekend for thriller Man On A Ledge, StudioCanal will be aiming for a breakthrouh hit with Roman Polanski’s enjoyable, and also short enough to have loads of shows, Carnage, Fox bring us Sundance 2011 breakout hit Martha Marcy May Marlene, which may suffer from its complete lack of awards buzz, Warner’s will be hoping for some legs on Journey 2 The Mysterious Island with the prospect of The Rock popping fruit off his chest in 3D will bring out the crowds.

Oh, and Columbia release Jack & Jill which looks to quality cinema what Hitler did to the prospects of Jews gaining a successful life in early 1940′s Germany. It will probably make £20 million.

More next week!