The winner: Dunkirk

Following a very gentle 18% fall in its second weekend of UK play, Dunkirk now drops a heftier 44% for the third session, pretty much in line with other films on release. However, third weekend takings of £4.62m still count as a strong performance, by any measure, as does a 17-day cumulative total of £38.2m. Dunkirk will imminently overtake both Despicable Me 3 (£39.3m) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (£41.0m) to become the second biggest hit of 2017 so far in UK cinemas, after Beauty and the Beast (£72.1m).

Dunkirk took more at the box office over the weekend than any film in its third session this year, apart from Beauty and the Beast. It also did better than the third frame of Christopher Nolan’s previous blockbuster hits such as The Dark Knight Rises (£4.29m in its third frame), Inception (£3.23m) and The Dark Knight (£4.09m). Nolan’s biggest box office hit remains The Dark Knight Rises with £56.3m – a target that looks achievable for Dunkirk. These comparisons are not adjusted for inflation.

The runner-up: The Emoji Movie

With a MetaCritic score of 12/100 and a Rotten Tomatoes fresh rating of 6%, critics are agreed that The Emoji Movie is the worst family film of 2017. Evidently not all audiences have been dissuaded from giving it a chance, however, given a UK debut of £1.78m, and £2.70m including previews. Those numbers compare favorably with an opening of £1.27m and £2.50m including previews for Captain Underpants the week before – a film that enjoys a 69/100 Metascore and an encouraging 86% fresh rating.

The big risk: Luc Besson’s Valerian

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets always looked like the riskiest big-budget proposition of the summer. Given unfamiliar source material (French comic-book series Valérian and Laureline) and weak star power, Luc Besson’s film always relied on a very strong creative execution that would entice audiences looking for something quirky, fresh and different. But as the release date approached, many in the industry were anticipating a box office disaster.

Commercial expectations were so pessimistic that Lionsgate might consider the achieved outcome for Valerian in the UK – a debut of £1.21m and £1.86m including previews – as mild relief. The numbers are in line with the Wachowskis’ sci-fi misfire Jupiter Ascending (debut of £1.35m), and not so far behind manga adaptation Ghost in the Shell (debut of £1.95m and £2.30m including previews) from earlier this year.

Having said that, the budget for Valerian is reported at $180m, likely making this film a costly acquisition for Lionsgate in the UK. Only the sweetest ancillary-rights deals could avert red ink spilling across the balance sheet.

The strong hold: Girls Trip

With a dip of just 10% from its opening session, US comedy Girls Trip delivered the strongest hold of any film in the Top 20. Second weekend takings of £1.04m take the 12-day total to £3.81m. Universal’s film benefits from a lack of competition in the adult comedy space – other comedies on release are either family animations or indie fare such as The Big Sick. Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, now in its sixth week of play, certainly qualifies as one of the more fun movies in the market. It’s also one of the big word-of-mouth successes of the season, with box office now nudging £12m.

The market

UK box office numbers for the month of July have been totted up, and they show a handy 6% rise on July 2016. More impressively, box office is 11% up for the first seven months of the year, compared to the same period in 2016. August is faring less well. The weekend just gone is down 25% on the previous session, and is also 28% down on the equivalent frame from 2017, when Suicide Squad opened with a tasty £11.25m. The pressure is now on this week’s big new releases – Atomic Blonde and Annabelle: Creation – to lead a box office recovery.

Top 10 films 4-6 August

1. Dunkirk, £4,624,570 from 690 sites. Total: £38,191,064 (three weeks)

2. The Emoji Movie, £2,702,809 from 544 sites (new)

3. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, £1,861,916 from 551 sites (new)

4. Despicable Me 3, £1,189,440 from 603 sites. Total: £39,340,831 (six weeks)

5. Girls Trip, £1,036,842 from 359 sites. Total: £3,806,763 (two weeks)

6. Spider-Man: Homecoming, £927,957 from 501 sites. Total: £26,811,760 (five weeks)

7. War for the Planet of the Apes, £881,374 from 498 sites. Total: £18,348,929 (four weeks)

8. Captain Underpants, £594,874 from 588 sites. Total: £4,409,725 (two weeks)

9. Cars 3, £495,039 from 567 sites. Total: £8,831,016 (four weeks)

10. Jab Harry Met Sejal, £369,718 from 106 sites (new)

Other openers

England Is Mine, £76,895 (including £14,621 previews) from 50 sites

Maudie, £49,315 from 69 sitesWolf Warrior 2, £23,711 from five sites

Finally Found Someone, £18,335 from three sites

Williams, £17,294 from 12 sites

Land of Mine, £14,960 from 25 sites

Toofan Singh, £14,227 from 13 sites

The Ghoul, £6,264 from seven sites

Prick up Your Ears, £3,784 from four sites (reissue)

Sunday Holiday, £1,609 from 16 sites

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