Dutchman's Blog

Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis comedy Due Date has held off competition from new release Skyline to top the UK box office.

The Todd Phillips-directed road movie pulls in £1.8 million over the weekend to best alien invasion movie Skyline‘s £1.2 million haul. Due Date has now spent two weeks at the UK chart summit with taking of close to £9 million.

Animation Despicable Me maintains its spot at number three, while the 3D instalments of Jackass and Saw round out the top five.

RED and The Social Network are non-movers at numbers six and seven respectively, charting ahead of Paranormal Activity sequel, which tumbles from fifth place to eighth.

Alpha And Omega vaults back into the mix at number nine and Mike Leigh’s latest film Another Year completes this week’s top ten.

Elsewhere, the new Disney release You Again – starring Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver and Betty White – fails to make a dent in the chart.

The UK box office top ten in full:

1. (1) Due Date – £1,898,324
2. (-) Skyline – £1,206,207
3. (3) Despicable Me – £1,089,160
4. (2) Jackass 3D – £1,059,714
5. (4) Saw 3D – £537,953
6. (6) RED – £509,973
7. (7) The Social Network – £422,895
8. (5) Paranormal Activity 2 – £392,009
9. (13) Alpha And Omega – £298,311
10. (9) Another Year – £297,309

Rihanna has fought off competition from Take That’s highly-anticipated comeback single to keep ‘Only Girl (In The World)’ at the top of the UK singles chart.

The 22-year-old singer relegated ‘The Flood’, Take That’s first release with original member Robbie Williams for over 15 years, into the runner-up spot, thereby giving them their sixteenth top five track.

Meanwhile, McFly also make their UK chart return with Taio Cruz collaboration ‘Shine A Light’, which at four becomes the fifteenth top five hit of their career.

Cheryl Cole slips down the top ten and settles in at seven two weeks after ‘Promise This’ topped the chart, while Adele’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’, which first entered at 26 in 2008, climbs to nine from last week’s 19 following the song’s performance by X Factor contender Rebecca Ferguson.

However, an appearance on the talent show fails to lift 2005 winner Shayne Ward into the top ten as his comeback single ‘Gotta Be Somebody’ debuts at 12, sandwiched between two other new entries in the form of ‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’ by Black Eyed Peas and Pink’s ‘Raise Your Glass’ at 11 and 13 respectively.

Other new entries on this week’s chart include Gyptian’s ‘Hold You’ at 16 and The Royal British Legion’s Remembrance Day release ‘Two Minute Silence’ at 20.

The top ten in full:
1. (1) Rihanna: ‘Only Girl (In The World)’
2. (-) Take That: ‘The Flood’
3. (4) Katy Perry: ‘Firework’
4. (-) McFly ft. Taio Cruz: ‘Shine A Light’
5. (3) Alexis Jordan: ‘Happiness’
6. (7) Mike Posner: ‘Cooler Than Me’
7. (2) Cheryl Cole: ‘Promise This’
8. (6) Bruno Mars: ‘Just The Way You Are’
9. (19) Adele: ‘Make You Feel My Love’
10. (5) Cee Lo Green: ‘Forget You’

Source: Official Charts Company

Due Date has held off competition from Jackass 3D to top the UK box office.

The road comedy, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, took in £2.3 million in ticket receipts to easily outpace the third Jackass movie’s £1.6 million haul.

Despicable Me, which has grossed an impressive £16 million in the UK since opening less than a month ago, is in third spot. Horror movies Saw 3D and Paranormal Activity 2 complete the top five.

Elsewhere, the chart sees new releases Let Me In and Another Year debut at numbers eight and nine respectively.

The UK box office top ten in full:
1. (-) Due Date – £2,346,089
2. (-) Jackass 3D – £1,696,909
3. (2) Despicable Me – £1,177,507
4. (1) Saw 3D – £1,068403
5. (3) Paranormal Activity 2 – £687,747
6. (4) RED – £595,362
7. (5) The Social Network – £541,763
8. (-) Let Me In – £488,402
9. (-) Another Year – £355,626
10. (6) Burke & Hare – £333,637

Rihanna has jumped to the top of the UK singles chart with new track ‘Only Girl (In The World)’.

The Barbadian singer originally arrived in the runner-up spot behind Cheryl Cole’s ‘Promise This’ last Sunday, but reached the summit following improved second-week sales of more than 134,000 copies.

In notching up her third UK number one, Rihanna sends X Factor judge Cole falling to two this week, just ahead of ‘Happiness’, the debut single from America’s Got Talent semi-finalist Alexis Jordan.

A few climbers pepper the upper section of the chart as well, with Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ advancing two places to four, while The Saturdays achieve their eight UK top ten hit, after their Flo Rida collaboration ‘Higher’ rises to ten from last week’s 22.

Looking just beyond the top of the chart, will.i.am and Nicki Minaj arrive at 11 with new release ‘Check It Out’, while 1992 classic ‘Stay’ by Shakespears Sister re-enters at 12 following Cher Lloyd’s “performance of the season” on last week’s X Factor.

Meanwhile, two former chart-topping acts make somewhat disappointing returns, as Cheryl Cole’s Girls Aloud colleague Nadine Coyle fails to replicate her bandmate’s success with ‘Insatiable’, which arrives at 26, and Roll Deep follow two successive number one singles with a new entry at 29 in the shape of ‘Take Control’.

The top ten in full:
1. (2) Rihanna: ‘Only Girl (In The World)’
2. (1) Cheryl Cole: ‘Promise This’
3. (-) Alexis Jordan: ‘Happiness’
4. (6) Katy Perry: ‘Firework’
5. (4) Cee Lo Green: ‘Forget You’
6. (3) Bruno Mars: ‘Just The Way You Are’
7. (5) Mike Posner: ‘Cooler Than Me’
8. (8) Nelly: ‘Just A Dream’
9. (7) Duck Sauce: ‘Barbra Streisand’
10. (22) The Saturdays ft. Flo Rida: ‘Higher’

Source: Official Charts Company

Katy Perry’s latest music video for ‘Firework’ has been censored for British television.

The clip, which plays out the song’s message of self-belief, shows fireworks shooting from Perry’s chest and two men kissing in a club.

A edit of the promo has since been released to music channels which pixelates out the scenes from the clip.

The video goes on to show a boy being mugged on the street and a cancer patient watching a women give birth in hospital.

The official clip on the singer’s YouTube channel has since been labelled for private viewing only.

‘Firework’ is on course to chart within the top on the UK singles chart this Sunday.

The producer of Red Dwarf: Back to Earth has confirmed that a new series of the sci-fi sitcom is currently in development.

Series star Craig Charles (Dave Lister) previously announced that two more series would begin filming in January 2011.

However, Andrew Ellard told Last Broadcast: “Latest word is that the deals are being done and… they’ll be in a position to start prepping before the end of the year. But I think it’s just one series of six episodes… right now.”

Responding to the earlier comment by Charles, Ellard said: “He didn’t confirm [the revival] so much as mention the call he’d had… regarding his availability!”

He also dismissed rumours that a Red Dwarf movie was still in development.

“The TV revival on Dave seems to be the new life for the show now,” he suggested. “The film script was great, though, and I really hope it gets released one day. It was a reboot… so most of what was great about it wouldn’t adapt easily to the TV series. But it’d make a knockout graphic novel.”

An Australian news website has apologised for an error in an article about Star Trek.

Yesterday, news.com.au uploaded a piece about British publisher Haynes printing an Owners’ Workshop Manual of the show’s USS Enterprise.

In a second article today, the site said: “[We] incorrectly stated that the Star Trek starship USS Enterprise-E, otherwise known as model NNC-1701-E, was the successor to Captain Kirk’s original USS Enterprise.

“It has since been brought to our attention that the NNC-1701-E in fact came two models after Captain Kirk retired and was under the command of Captain Jean Luc Picard.

“There was no intention whatsoever to suggest Captain Kirk may have commanded the Galaxy Class Starships Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E.”

It continued: “There were also some concerns about whether the incorrect use of the term ‘hyperspace’ in describing warp drive technology may harm the original Star Trek concept.

“No malice was intended and a correction to the original article will be made. We also agree that Patrick Stewart is a handsome man, a sentiment expressed by several readers.”

However, a comment from one reader on the second article read: “It’s NCC-1701 not NNC – you idiots.”

Saw 3D has knocked horror rival Paranormal Activity 2 into second place at the UK box office.

The final instalment in the long-running horror series pulls in £3.6 million on its debut weekend on release, clearing nearest rival Despicable Me by more than £1 million.

Saw 3D‘s opening total is more than double that of predecessor Saw VI, which bowed to £1.7 million in box office receipts in the UK last year.

RED and The Social Network round out the top five, while Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis’s Burke & Hare is a new entry at number six.

Elsewhere indie release The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo, opens in ninth place.

The UK box office top ten in full:
1. (-) Saw 3D – £3,600,083
2. (2) Despicable Me – £2,581,073
3. (1) Paranormal Activity 2 – £1,845,337
4. (3) RED – £1,184,344
5. (4) The Social Network – £1,070,411
6. (-) Burke & Hare – £942.894
7. (5) Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole – £
8. (6) Alpha And Omega – £458,812
9. (-) The Kids Are All Right – £411,960
10. (7) Vampires Suck – £313,911