Paddington in Peru, the third film in the hit Paddington series adapted from the books by Michael Bond, has scored the highest opening weekend box office for a British film since No Time to Die, the most recent Bond movie.

Studiocanal, the studio behind all three Paddington films, reports that it took £9.65m at the UK box office over the first three days of its release since Friday, playing to an estimated audience of 1.2m people in 732 cinemas. By contrast No Time to Die, released in 2021 during the pandemic, recorded £21m on its opening three days, after showing in a higher number of venues (772).

Paddington in Peru’s figures come as something of a surprise to industry observers, given its somewhat lukewarm reviews by comparison with the two earlier films. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said it was “just as jolly as the previous two films, but not really as funny”, while the Observer’s Wendy Ide thought that it “lack[ed] the inventive agility, wit, comic timing and, most crucially, the magic of its predecessors”. Its results may also have been hampered by the decision to release it neither during the school half-term nor closer to Christmas – both prime box office territories for family films.

Paddington in Peru has nevertheless got off to a better start than either the £5.1m for Paddington, the first in the series which was released in 2014, or the £8.3m for Paddington 2 in 2017. It is the third biggest opening of the year however, some way behind Deadpool & Wolverine (£12.6m) and Inside Out 2 (£11.3m).

Starring Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas alongside series regulars Ben Whishaw and Hugh Bonneville, Paddington in Peru is directed by Dougal Wilson with Paul King, the director of the first two instalments, contributing to the story.

The film has a long way to go, however, to overhaul Paddington 2’s total UK box office of £42.7m, and much, much further to overhaul the two most successful British films in their home territory, No Time to Die (£98m) and Skyfall (£102.8m).