A drearily slow weekend at the US Box Office saw the top five all remain unchanged, with all seeing their takings fall substantially from the previous weekend’s activity. It was no surprise to see Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 holding on to the top spot for the third week in a row, although it wasn’t by as clear a margin as in previous weeks.

The top three films have now remained stable for three weeks, and the BBC reports that at the top of the pile, Breaking Dawn – Part 2 took in $17.4 million, bringing its domestic total to a cool $254.6 million. It was nip and stuck with the latest James Bond film Skyfall however, which performed well with figures of $17 million. Behind that, Steven Spielberg’s historical biopic Lincoln – which features another Oscar shoe-in performance from Daniel Day Lewis – remained in third with only a slight drop in takings, making $13.5 million.

And so it continued. In fourth and fifth were, for the second week in a row, Rise Of The Guardians and Life Of Pi. Among the disappointments of the weekend was the new Brad Pitt film Killing Them Softly, which took in only $7 million for seventh spot. A dreary weekend then, though with The Hobbit imminent a blockbuster year for the box office looks likely, with sales totals already running at 6% higher than at the same stage last year.