Robert De Niro film Dirty Grandpa tops box office as Star Wars clears $90m takings hurdle

Dirty Grandpa was the big hit of the weekend knocking The Revenant off its perch and Star Wars: The Force Awakens into third place, as the end of school holidays saw a slowdown at cinemas.

The new release, which stars Zac Efron as an uptight man who drives his grandpa – played by Robert De Niro – to Florida the week before his wedding and ends up getting caught up in Spring Break, made $2.39m on 226 screens.

Another new entry was hard-hitting film Spotlight, about an investigative reporting unit of a newspaper striving to get to the bottom of a massive child abuse cover up by the Catholic Church, managed fifth spot, with $895,991 on 105 screens.