Clash of the box-office titans

REEL NEWS:Paramount has knocked Warner Bros from the top of the box-office hit parade for the first time in three years. Paramount was helpe d to its No 1 position by the success of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Kung Fu Panda 2 andParanormal Activity 3. Warners, whose Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2was the year's most lucrative film, finished a strong second

Still, it would be wrong to draw many conclusions about the future from these results. Paramount's deal with Marvel Films – which generated respectable 2011 hits Thorand Captain America– comes to an end this year, and The Avengers, the next superhero release from that camp, will be sailing under the Disney flag. Warners has finally seen the end of the Harry Potter gravy train, but the studio will release The Dark Knight Risesthis summer.