Branagh's Cinderella tops UK box office

Richard Madden and Lily James play the Prince and Cinderella in the film

Cinderella, Sir Kenneth Branagh's live-action remake of the Disney animation, has topped the UK and Ireland box office in its first week of release.

The film, which stars Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter and Richard Madden, took £3.8m.

It knocked alien animation Home, featuring the voices of The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons and Rihanna, into second place with £2.6m.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water came third with £2.2m.

It beat prison comedy Get Hard, starring Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, into fourth place with £1.4m.

The Divergent Series: Insurgent, based on the popular teen novels, was fifth with £1.3m. According to Screen Daily, its takings fell almost 50% (excluding previews) in its second weekend.

Cinderella, which took $70m (£43.1m) on its opening weekend in the US, has stayed true to its fairy-tale roots, and Sir Kenneth has said that "keeping it classic is the twist".

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which sees Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith as British pensioners living out their retirement years in the Indian city of Jaipur, was sixth with £432,000.

Part of Wild Tales bears a stark similarity to the Germanwings crash last week

Alzheimer's drama Still Alice, for which Julianne Moore won an Oscar in February, is at number 10 after four weeks of release, with £169,000.

She is also in fantasy film Seventh Son, which is at number seven with £411,000, and co-stars Jeff Bridges and Ben Barnes.

Will Smith and Margot Robbie's con movie Focus, which took £293,000 is at eight and Wild Tales (£183,000) is at nine with £183,000.

Wild Tales, the Oscar-nominated Argentine black comedy from Argentina, features six stand-alone shorts united by a common theme of violence and vengeance. It was produced by Pedro Almodovar and directed by Damian Szifron.

One of the shorts features a man who manages to persuade people he feels have wronged him onto a plane, which he crashes after locking himself in the cockpit.

In the wake of the Germanwings plane crash last week, when co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked himself in and deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alps, Curzon cinemas has added a disclaimer to its home screening listings.

It states: "Please be aware that Wild Tales features a sequence that some customers might find disturbing."

The BFI has added a similar note of caution to its BFIPlayer, adding: "Wild Tales is a work of fiction, and any similarities with real events is an unintentional and regrettable coincidence."