Cloverfield smashes into UK box office chart

New York handy-cam monster mash Cloverfield rampaged to the top of the UK box office chart this week, according to official figures from Nielsen.

The film, which follows a group of friends as they desperately struggle though downtown Manhattan in the midst of an alien attack, took £3,485,956 in its opening weekend.

It knocked Tim Burton's macabre musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, into second spot. The film, which stars Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter, has now taken £7,973,245 at the box office.

There were also chart debuts for Over Her Dead Body, starring Eva Longoria Parker of Desperate Housewives fame, at three, Penelope with Christina Ricci and James McAvoy at four and Underdog, which came in at number nine.

The Coen brothers' Oscar-nominated No Country For Old Men came in a number five, following by chick flick PS I Love You, animated family film Alvin and the Chipmunks and Brit comedy St Trinian's.

Alien Vs Predator: Requiem rounded out the top ten.

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