The UK box office chart saw a battle of holdovers this week as only one new film, Helkon SK's The Mothman Prophecies, received a wide opening. Mothman, a thriller purportedly based on true events, opened in fifth place with a gross of $1.1m (£762,516) from 286 sites - including $53,692 (£37,853) of previews from 183 sites on Thursday. Starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney, previously seen together in Gregory Hoblit's Primal Fear, The Mothman Prophecies is directed by Arlington Road's Mark Pellington.
Receiving its wide opening after a one-week platform, Oscar-hopeful A Beautiful Mind ascended the chart to take third position with $1.7m (£1.2m) from 377 sites - including nationwide previews of $172,332 (£121,494) from 276 sites. Russell Crowe's film knocked fellow Best Actor Oscar nominee Will Smith's Ali down to fourth. Ali managed $1.2m (£829,333) at 332 sites in its second week on wide release, bringing its total to $4.2m
Claiming the top spot in its third week, after spending the first two in second position, Warner Bros' Ocean's Eleven was finally able to come out from Monsters, Inc.'s shadow. Steven Soderbergh's all-star heist caper dropped off just 27% from its previous weekend to take $3.7m (£2.6m). Playing at 437 sites it showed a powerful site average of $8,516, the highest of any film on release last weekend. Ocean's Eleven's total box office for the UK now stands at $22.2m (£15.6m) making it Soderbergh's biggest hit to date in the UK ahead of Columbia TriStar's Erin Brockovich ($15.0m) and Entertainment's Traffic ($12.5m).
Monsters, Inc. fell 45% in its fourth week on release, finally relinquishing the number one position. Grossing $3.3m (£2.3m) from 489 sites the computer-animated hit still recorded impressive site average figures of $6,761. The BVI film has taken $45.6m (£32.1m) so far and has just passed the total taken by UIP's Shrek ($41.1m) last year.
The only other opener to make the chart this week was BVI's The Shipping News which opened at number 14 on limited release (23 sites) to take $137,155 (£96,694) - a strong average of $5,963. Also playing well at just 17 sites was FilmFour's Bully, which managed $54,867 (£38,681) for an average of $3,227.
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