The winner

With Oscar nominations announced this Thursday, the annual awards season is now in full swing, presenting the perfect opportunity for a potentially challenging adult drama – Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave – to engage cinema audiences.

And so it proved, with a very healthy £2.51m opening for the gritty true story from just 207 cinemas, delivering a site average of £12,132.

Local distributor eOne was quick to trumpet this achievement as bigger than the UK opening of Slumdog Millionaire (£1.83m from 324 cinemas), and with a higher screen average than the debut of The King's Speech (£8,919). Both those titles were massive feel-good crowdpleasers that went on to achieve enormous multiples of their opening numbers. Although 12 Years a Slave does ultimately cohere to the triumph-over-adversity template, there is perhaps more in the way of adversity and less of triumph than some of the broader audiences that embraced Danny Boyle and Tom Hooper's Oscar-winners may prefer.

In any case, it's certainly a very strong start for a film with tough subject matter from a director whose previous pictures (Hunger, Shame) were both resolutely art-house fare. Shame opened exactly two years ago with £542,000 from 114 cinemas. Hunger kicked off in October 2008 with £136,000 from 68 venues.

The runner-up

The arrival of 12 Years a Slave pushes American Hustle down to second place, but with a decline from the previous weekend of just 18%. After 12 days of wide release, David O Russell's latest has grossed an impressive £6.78m, which compares with £2.71m for Silver Linings Playbook at the same stage of its run. The earlier Russell film went on to reach £5.3m over the course of a marathon six-month theatrical session, and a similar trajectory would see American Hustle max out around £13m. After winning the Golden Globe for best comedy/musical on Sunday and picking up 10 Bafta nominations last week, the film would appear to have a sustained run within its grasp.

Strength in depth

For the second weekend in a row, at least seven films have taken £1m-plus at the UK box-office, with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Frozen both still in the top five after a respective five and six weeks of play. Frozen has achieved six consecutive weekends over £1m – in 2013, only Despicable Me 2 and Les Miserables (both of which reached more than £40m in total) managed that feat.

With £32.8m so far, Frozen is the second-biggest-grossing film from Walt Disney Animation (as opposed to Disney-owned Pixar), exceeded only by The Lion King, which grossed £23.14m with its original 2D release, and then added £12.36m with the 2011 3D rerelease for a £35.5m total.

The Hobbit sequel's tally of £40.1m compares unfavourably with its predecessor's £48.5m at the same stage of its run. On the positive side, it will very soon overtake Les Miserables (£40.8m) to become the second-biggest 2013 release, behind only Despicable Me 2 (£47.4m).

Considering the enduring power of so many titles in the market, distributors Lionsgate and eOne will be pleased that their respective mid-ranking new releases – The Railway Man and Delivery Man – landed with a decent £1.2m and £1.1m. The happy result for the former will be a surprise for some.

Each year, the January-February awards corridor sees a too-crowded field lead to inevitable casualties, as nominations fail to materialise for a number of contenders. The Railway Man may have dangled itself for the consideration of awards voters, but their attentions so far have gone in other directions, and box-office might have followed the path of last year's also-rans such as Hyde Park on Hudson and Hitchcock.

Clearly the premise and cast – including Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman – have proved much more enticing to the target audience. And given the film's appeal to the older demographic, The Railway Man should enjoy strong weekday box-office, and end the week higher than the sixth place achieved at the weekend.

The rebound

Back in Imax cinemas across the UK, Gravity saw its box-office rise by 31%, with Imax contributing £123,000 of the £334,000 weekend takings. The renewed activity follows 11 Bafta nominations for the Alfonso Cuarón space drama. Gravity has now pushed past £28m, and is inching towards distributor Warner's top 2013 title, Man of Steel (£29.95m).

The stumble

Admissions figures for 2013 are now in, and with 165.5m tickets sold, numbers are 4% down on 2012. Admissions are also down on the levels achieved in the years 2009-2011, but are up on 2005-2008. It would appear that the boost provided by 3D over the previous four years has now dissipated. More positively, UK cinema admissions remain triple the low point of the mid-1980s, when they dipped to 54m. And in fairness 2012, which saw Skyfall become the first film to gross £100m at UK cinemas, was always going to be a tough act to follow.

The future

After a strong run where box-office was up, level or only slightly down on the year-ago equivalent weekend, the latest frame has seen a big dip vs 2013. The reason is simple: exactly a year ago, Les Miserables landed at cinemas, and 12 Years a Slave was never going to match it. Overall, the market is 30% down on the same period a year ago. Cinema owners now have their hopes pinned on a strong hold for existing titles, plus the arrival of Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, which has already notched up $78m in the US. Counter-programming against the current glut of awards-bait, genre title Devil's Due offers an alternative.

Top 10 films

1. 12 Years a Slave, £2,511,349 from 207 sites (New)

2. American Hustle, £1,938,805 from 419 sites. Total: £6,779,242

3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, £1,504,554 from 501 sites. Total: £40,099,644

4. Frozen, £1,314,153 from 559 sites. Total: £32,756,029

5. Last Vegas, £1,293,299 from 395 sites. Total: £4,014,308

6. The Railway Man, £1,230,299 from 464 sites (New)

7. Delivery Man, £1,102,433 from 372 sites (New)

8. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, £783,624 from 519 sites. Total: £3,051,109

9. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, £755,719 from 419 sites. Total: £13,486,950

10. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, £502,235 from 316 sites. Total: £2,576,101

Other openers

Jilla, £152,552 from 43 sites

Veeram, £62,233 from 23 sites

Dedh Ishqiya, £38,323 from 17 sites

Patron Mutlu Son Istiyor, £4,499 from 4 sites

Patiala Dreamz, £4,002 from 9 sites

The Square, £3,521 from 1 site

Kiss the Water, £2,051 from 3 sites

1: Life on the Limit, £1,144 from 1 site

Exposed: Beyond Burlesque, £975 from 1 site

Collider, £919 from 1 site

Bounty Killer, no figures available

Thanks to Rentrak