Recall flops. Ted flies. It’s a coup for originals.

Box office reports usually make for gloomy reading. Promising filmmakers' work is trampled beneath the mechanisms of Hollywood sequels, remakes, reboots, prequels and adaptations. It's a familiar story.

There was a spark though this week when Ted, an original movie riding on no coat-tails other than those of Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, broke the grip of The Dark Knight Rises at the UK box office with $14.5 million in its opening weekend in spite of Olympic fever. Universal have claimed it's their second-best ever opening in the UK.

Meanwhile, across the pond, Total Recall is crashing. Starring Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale, it's the most obvious example of a calculated studio box office swipe this year. The by-the-numbers approach of this remake of the 1994 Paul Verhoeven sci-fi appears to have been all too clear to fans.

It isn't a terrible movie, by most accounts. But the premise and the bankrolling concept is evident to all. Angie Han, over on Slashfilm, nailed it: "With its handsome leads, slick action, and a relatively coherent storyline, it's not likely to draw any ire. And that's what's so goddamn soul-sucking about it."

Total Recall cost $125 million to make and took only $25 million in its opening weekend in the US, a pitiful performance for a blockbuster of this scale. It failed to kick up any box office dust despite Nasa landing on Mars, the setting of the Philip K Dick sci-fi story, on the day of the release.

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Anyone who's complained about the lack of original films coming out of Hollywood recently can take great satisfaction in seeing a major studio, Sony in this case, stumbling on a remake that they would have banked on for a decent profit. Meanwhile Ted, based on nothing at all, is bear-hugging the box office for every last penny.

Now let's not get carried away. Earnest dramas starring 'emerging' talents are not about to start notching Avengers-like numbers. Ted is a 21st Century original with a sense of spectacle and a killer clutch of one-liners and sight-gags that have armed it with an awesome trailer. It has Mark Wahlberg's muscles and Mila Kunis looking hot. Hell, it was always going to sell a lot of teddies even if no-one had seen it.

But it provides some promise for things that are NEW. When there is a story to be told we are happy to watch franchise movies, The Dark Knight Rises being an excellent example. Remakes should not be outlawed either. José Padilha is promising an entirely different story, largely set within a few minutes of the original movie, for his forthcoming remake of RoboCop. But audiences are switching on to cynical studio reboots that simply inject some CGI gloss to an existing film. Well done us.

Pics: The 12 best movies in cinemas this August
Ted review