Marvel released their latest superhero this weekend into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the shape of Black Panther and became the studios second best debut behind Avengers Age of Ultron the second Avengers movie.

A weekend gross of £17.7 million means the film is less than a million behind the multi superhero film.

The second Avengers movie went of to make just shy of £50 million so Black Panther could well go over that mark in the coming weeks, the first Avengers movie, Avengers Assemble is the top grossing Marvel movie at £51 million.

Falling to number 2 this week is Fifty Shades Freed which takes £2.7 million in its second weekend for a £13.3 million total so far.

New at number 3 is the critically praised The Shape of Water from Guillermo del Toro, a £2.4 million debut isn't hit top debut, Hellboy II: The Golden Army did better, but its right up there.

Holding on at number 4 is The Greatest Showman which has now been around for 8 week and is the top grossing film of 2018, so far, and has taken an amazing £30 million.

Finally Coco from Disney Pixar is still in the top 5 and has now taken £15 million over 5 weeks.

Marking the end of the Fifty Shades series Fifty Shades Freed easily makes its debut at the top of the UK box office with a gross similar to that of Fifty Shades Darker.

Falling to number 2 this week on its 7th weekend of release is The Greatest Showman which has shown incredible staying power.

A weekend gross of nearly £2 million brings the total to just over £26 million.

Dropping to 3 this week is Pixar's Coco which has shown good staying power but not like other Pixar films, a £1.2 million weekend brings the total to £11.6 million after 4 weeks.

Despite not being a number one hit for Aardman Early Man has stayed in the top 5 consistently and this week brings in another £1.1 million to bring its total to over £5 million.

Finishing off the top 5 is Darkest Hour which has a total UK gross of £20.6 million.

Worth noting this week is The Greatest Showman takes over from Darkest Hour as the top film of 2018 to date.

This week The Greatest Showman climbs the charts to number 1 for the first time after 6 weeks of release.

Released on 29th December 2017 the film has grossed a solid £2 million each week after its debut, this week with £2.2 million it reaches the top and brings its total gross to £23.2 million.

Coco stays put at number 2 with a £1.65 million gross which brings its total to £10.2 million.

Darkest Hour falls to number 3 this week after a single week at the top, a £1.63 million over the weekend and its total climbs to £18.6 million.

Early man which had a dissapointing debut last week climbs to number 4 this week with £1.5 million and Maze Runner: The Death Cure falls to number 5 with £1.5 million.

Highest new film of the week is Den of Thieves which is new at 6 with £1 million.

A couple of worthy notes this week, Darkest Hour was the top grossing film across the week Monday - Sunday, and something very rare the whole of the top 6 grossed over a million pound although the top 15 total gross was down on the previous week.

Doing a yoyo back up the charts this week is the award laden and Oscar hopeful Darkest Hour which goes back to the top after a week away.

The whole of the top 5 was actually very close and all took over £2 million, not something you see that often, Darkest Hour took £2.6 million to brings its total to £15 million.

Falling to number 2 this week is Coco after a week at number 2, a £2.3 million weekend brings the total to £8 million.

Highest new entry of the week comes in at number 3 in the shape of threequel Maze Runner The Death Cure which takes £2.2 million over the weekend.

This is a very similar gross to both the other 2 films in the series and so should end up around the £8 million mark.

Rounding out the top 5 is The Greatest Showman which is doing great business and the biggest shock of the week Early Man which makes its debut at 5.

A new film from Aardman and directed by the great Nick Park should have challenged for the top spot, but a close top 5 gives it a £2 Million debut.

Worth noting, if the chart were counted on a weeks Monday - Sunday bases it would have been quite different, Darkest Hour would still have been the top film but The Greatest Showman would have been second The Post third with Coco fourth and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri fifth.

It's the time of year again when the Oscar hype machine will go into overdrive in the period between the nominations being announced and the ceremony itself.

This year there are two films which are ahead of the rest, and two films which are total contrasts in style. James Cameron has continued to astound everyone by getting a nomination for best picture and best director, and his film Avatar has managed nine nomination in total with the others being in the technical department.

Kathryn Bigelow's (who happens to be Camerons ex-wife) The Hurt Locker has also managed nine nominations, best picture and best director being two of then, the picture has also got a nomination for it's star Jeremy Renner as a leading actor.

The best picture category this year include 10 films (is that too many) so we have the likes of The Blind Side and Inglourious Basterds along side British hopeful An Education as well as South African sci-fi film District 9, and a first in that Up is nominated for best film and best animated film.

Best film and director is going to be a battle between Cameron and Bigelow, but the rest of the awards are an open field, so lets wait and see what heppens on March 7th at the 82nd Academy Awards Ceremony.

Heres a list of the nominations, or check out the website.

BEST DIRECTOR

James Cameron, Avatar
Katherine Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarentino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up In The Air

BEST ACTOR

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up In The Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

BEST PICTURE

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up In the Air

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Neil Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell, District 9
Neil Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, In The Loop
Geofrey Fletcher, Precious
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up In The Air

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Mark Boall, The Hurt locker
Quentin Tarentino, Inglourious Basterds
Joel And Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Up

Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Documentary Feature
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of A GM Plant
Music By Prudence
Rabbit A La Berlin

Film Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
INglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

Foreign Language Film
Ajami
El Secreto
Desus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

Make-Up
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Music: Original Score
Avatar
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Music: Original Song
The Princess and The Frog – Almost There
The Princess and the Frog – Down In New Orleans
Paris 36 – Loin de Panane
Nine – Take It All
Crazy Heart – The Weary Kind

Short Film: Animated
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady And The Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Short Film: Live Action
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Achievement In Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek