The winner: Legend

Until a year ago, Tom Hardy had mostly juggled supporting roles in major films, including Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, with lead roles in smaller movies, such as Bronson and Locke. He’d also starred alongside Shia LaBeouf in ensemble drama Lawless, with Joel Edgerton in Warrior, and alongside Reese Witherspoon and Chris Pine in action romcom This Means War. Over the past year, his lead roles became increasingly high profile with The Drop, Child 44 and Mad Max: Fury Road.

Mad Max: Fury Road opened in May with £4.54m, the biggest ever for Hardy in a lead role by a significant margin. Since Child 44 had debuted with just £506,000 in April and The Drop with a similar £615,000 (plus £23,000 in previews) in November, many industry commentators viewed the Mad Max result as reflecting audience excitement about the franchise reboot, rather than for the actor.

Now arrives Legend, which lands with a stunning £3.70m plus £1.49m in Wednesday/Thursday previews, for a five-day total of £5.19m. Brian Helgeland’s film certainly benefits from the UK audience’s existing awareness of, and interest in, the film’s subject – the Kray brothers remain the most notorious London gangsters. However, Hardy is also a key selling point: given his reputation as a highly committed actor, his performance in the dual roles of Ronnie and Reggie Kray exerted a powerful curiosity factor.

The success of Legend shows once again how a film can achieve more than the sum of its parts – as happened last autumn when Benedict Cumberbatch took on Alan Turing with The Imitation Game (£16.4m at the UK box office). Hardy may have picked up fresh fans with Mad Max: Fury Road (£17.4m UK lifetime), further stoking interest in his Legend performances.

In 1990, Peter Medak’s The Krays, starring Spandau Ballet brothers Gary and Martin Kemp, kicked off with £606,000, on its way to a total of £3.71m.

September is viewed with caution by UK film distributors, and last year the top openers were The Boxtrolls (£2m including £689,000 in previews) and The Equalizer (£1.89m), plus event cinema presentation Billy Elliot the Musical Live (£1.90m). With Legend, distributor StudioCanal proves that the right film can connect with audiences at any time.

The runner-up: Scorch Trials

With The Hunger Games film series finally reaching its conclusion later this year, rival YA franchises jostle for position. Divergent has already delivered two episodes, with two more to come. The Maze Runner now likewise sees its second entry land before audiences with the release of The Scorch Trials. The film opens with an encouraging £2.45m plus £349,000 in previews, for a £2.8m total. That compares with £2.04m including £112,000 for its original last October.

For comparison, the two Divergent films opened with £1.77m and £2.94m. However, the production budgets for these films are reported to be $85m and $110m, against $34m and $27m for the Maze Runner pictures. Worldwide, The Maze Runner achieved a handy $341m, making it a profitable investment for backers including Fox and Ingenious Media.

Third place: The Visit

Thanks to previews totalling £209,000, M Night Shyamalan’s new film The Visit cracks seven figures, with combined box office of £1.03m. That’s not a bad result for a film with a production budget of $5m, although global marketing costs will dwarf that sum.

It’s hard to make valid box-office comparisons with Shyamalan’s past films, most of which benefited from much bigger production budgets and star names. It’s arguably more pertinent to look at the opening grosses for films from producer Jason Blum, who teams with Shyamalan on The Visit. Blum’s last non-sequel was The Gift, which kicked off with £585,000. Before that was The Gallows, a significant commercial misstep with a debut of £336,000. More successful efforts include Insidious and Sinister, which both debuted with £1.44m.

The big fallers

Perhaps as a result of attention diverting to the major new releases, but also surely reflecting general audience indifference, many films saw big drops from the previous frame. Owen Wilson thriller No Escape fell a hefty 58%, but that result positively sparkles next to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, down 70%, and American Ultra, down 74%. The Transporter Refuelled did even worse, dropping 81% from its opening session, and Meryl Streep starrer Ricki and the Flash plunged 82%. The latter is an example of a film not being well aligned with the existing audience for its lead actor – the direct opposite of Legend.

The re-entry: Secret Cinema

Popping back into the Top 10 in its 15th week, Secret Cinema’s The Empire Strikes Back is nearing the end of its run. After 88 days, the event has grossed £5.51m, and looks likely to achieve a final tally of about £6.25m. The 100-date residency ends on 27 September.

The future

Thanks to the arrival of Legend and Scorch Trials, takings are 85% up on the previous disastrous session and also 57% up on the equivalent weekend from 2014, when The Boxtrolls and Pride were the top new releases. Legend now faces a challenge from another Working Title production, Everest, which is achieving impressive screen averages with its current Imax previews. Also joining the fray is family film Bill, a comedic take on Shakespeare from the Horrible Histories team. A Walk in the Woods, adapted from the Bill Bryson memoir, should play to the older audience. Dark comedy The D Train, starring Jack Black and James Marsden, underperformed when it opened in the US last month.

Top 10 films September 11-13

1. Legend, £5,189,074, 522 sites (new)

2. The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, £2,799,428, 518 sites (new)

3. The Visit, £1,031,292, 413 sites (new)

4. Straight Outta Compton, £630,325 from 447 sites. Total: £7,104,517

5. Inside Out, £630,638 from 534 sites. Total: £36,811,931

6. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, £302,316 from 311 sites. Total: £20,603,010

7. Pixels, £272,539 from 442 sites. Total: £7,915,075

8. No Escape, £254,383 from 426 sites. Total: £1,215,046

9. Secret Cinema: The Empire Strikes Back, £254,125, one site. Total: £5,510,405

10. Irrational Man, £197,188, 166 sites (new)

Other openers

How to Change the World, £51,925 (including £47,345 previews), 14 sites

Hero, £39,793 from 31 sites

La Famille Belier, £11,498 (including £6,007 previews) from two sites

The Master Mind Kinda Sukha, £9,670 from 13 sites

Yatchan, £7,334 from five sites

Pasolini, £5,559 (including £705 previews) from seven sites

In Cold Blood, £4,895 from six sites (rerelease)

Brahmin Bulls, £951 from four sites

Containment, £926 from one site

Swimming Pool, £24 from one site

• Thanks to Rentrak