The winner

Twelve months ago box office was down in the dumps, with major studios giving June a wide berth thanks to World Cup football. This weekend last year, the "big" new releases were Letters to Juliet, Brooklyn's Finest and Greenberg. Sex and the City 2 topped the chart in its third week of release with a weak £1.49m.

Fast forward to 2011, and it's a different story. Four films all managed grosses above £1.5m at the weekend, and overall the market is an impressive 149% up on the same frame from 2010. Leading the way is Kung Fu Panda 2, with £6.19m, including previews of £3.12m. DreamWorks Animation will be reasonably content with the result, as this compares with a debut of £6.07m, including £2.96m in previews, for the original Kung Fu Panda three summers ago. The only downside is that the earlier film achieved that total with just two days of previews, compared with a whopping five days for the sequel; in effect, Kung Fu Panda 2's opening "weekend" is actually made up of grosses from eight days of release. When you factor in higher ticket prices for 3D, it's not exactly a knockout result. On the other hand, DreamWorks and its distribution partner Paramount have viably extended a property that wasn't self-evidently franchise-ready, just as it did with Madagascar. What's next: Monsters Vs Aliens 2?

The chasing pack

Perhaps thanks to rainy weather, most existing films in the market demonstrated strong holds, with the latest editions of The Hangover, X-Men and Pirates dipping a respective 28%, 30% and 26%. The Hangover Part II added £5.5m over the last seven days, and with £26.5m in the kitty so far is more than £4m ahead of the lifetime total of the original The Hangover.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (£29.5m so far) and The Hangover Part II are the seventh and eighth biggest hits of the past 12 months, behind Toy Story 3, Harry Potter 7, The King's Speech, Inception, Shrek 4 and Twilight 3. On Stranger Tides will overtake The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (£29.7m) imminently.

X-Men: First Class's second-weekend drop of 30% contrasts with a 54% fall at this stage for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, suggesting greater audience appreciation for the latest instalment. On the other hand, Wolverine faced very direct competition from sci-fi reboot Star Trek on its second weekend of release, whereas First Class was hit by Kung Fu Panda 2, hardly an equivalent threat. After its second weekend, Wolverine stood at £12.15m, as against £10.03m so far for First Class.

The dance boom subsides

The British public's appetite for films about dance crews competing for glory may at last have subsided. Step Up 3D didn't quite match the giddy heights of StreetDance 3D, or Step Up 2: the Streets, for that matter. Now Honey 2 arrives with a so-so debut of £521,000, which compares with Step Up 3D's opening of £2.02m last August. The original Honey, which kicked off its UK run in March 2004 with £1.06m, predated the recent dance movie boom, and featured a relatively original plotline about a bartender (Jessica Alba) negotiating her break into the world of pop-video choreography. The belated sequel junks that premise, and copies the recent Step Up movies and StreetDance with a story about a dance crew facing down their competition. It's hard to know whether the relatively lacklustre box office represents audience ennui with this familiar premise, or simply the weakness of the Honey brand. Probably the latter.

The 2011 doc surge

Any arthouse cinema that pulled Senna from its screens to make way for new releases such as Kaboom and Point Blank is probably regretting that choice. Asif Kapadia's documentary about Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna posted an impressive 17% increase on its second weekend, achieving a 10-day tally of £1.10m. When you consider that TT3D: Closer to the Edge – which was considered a breakout documentary smash – has taken eight weeks to achieve its total to date of £1.14m, it's clear that Senna is setting a much faster pace. TT3D is now the seventh biggest documentary hit of all time in the UK, having just overtaken Super Size Me (this omits concert films such as Michael Jackson: This Is It). Following a box office boom for documentaries in 2003-2005 with Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins, Touching the Void, Ghosts of the Abyss, Etre et Avoir and Spellbound, the format has not returned to those giddy heights. However, 2011 has already seen four breakout hits, with Pina (£600,000) and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (£591,000) adding to the success of the two motorsport films.

The future

The last four weeks have all been punctuated by the arrival of blockbusters opening at £5m-plus: Pirates, Hangover, X-Men and now Kung Fu Panda. This week the big new arrival is Green Lantern, the latest collaboration between DC Comics and Warner Bros, partners in Batman and Superman. Marvel proved with Iron Man and Thor that lesser-known characters can yield big hit movies, so anything is possible. Counter-programming is comedy Bad Teacher, starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Jason Segel and Lucy Punch. Sony's film is getting out a week ahead of rival comedy Bridesmaids, which has proved a huge word-of-mouth hit in the US. A range of films target niche audiences, including Jodie Foster's The Beaver, featuring Mel Gibson and a glove puppet; YouTube-user-generated documentary Life in a Day; François Ozon's 70s-set comedy Potiche; horror picture Stake Land; and US indie drama The Messenger.

Top 10 films

1. Kung Fu Panda 2, £6,188,897 from 514 sites (New)

2. The Hangover Part II, £2,759,847 from 467 sites. Total: £26,521,128

3. X-Men: First Class, £2,401,492 from 504 sites. Total: £10,033,540

4. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, £1,580,778 from 475 sites. Total: £29,486,268

5. Honey 2, £520,654 from 301 sites (New)

6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules, £455,240 from 449 sites. Total: £4,382,935

7. Senna, £408,923 from 122 sites. Total: £1,095,973

8. Ready, £114,878 from 48 sites. Total: £492,938

9. Mother's Day, £94,385 from 79 sites (New)

10. Rio, £65,682 from 238 sites. Total: £13,021,230

Other openers

Point Blank, £43,021 from 28 screens

The Runway, £24,418 from 37 screens (Ireland only)

Kaboom, £17,737 from 15 screens + £6,970 previews

Cria Cuervos, £7,695 from two screens