Animated animals annihilate angry aliens at box office

'Madagascar' goes straight in at number one in London, while four other new entries breach the top ten.

Jul 19 2005

It was all change at the London box office this weekend, with five new entries dramatically changing the face of the chart and knocking the likes of 'Sin City' and 'Revenge of the Sith' out of the top ten.

Animated comedy 'Madagascar' was the big winner from Friday to Sunday, going straight in at number one with a total of £152,348 from 18 screens, while at the same time knocking 'War of the Worlds' from pole position to number three.

Keeping the Madagascan critters and Spielberg's aliens apart was the Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson-starrer 'Wedding Crashers', a new entry at number two that grossed an impressive £136,903 on just 14 screens.

Elsewhere 'Batman Begins' and 'Mr & Mrs Smith' dropped to four and six respectively, while excellent British horror 'The Descent' fell to five but looks to be holding its own in the extremely crowded summer marketplace.

However, further down the chart new entries dominated, with Bollywood comedy 'Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya?' grossing an amazing £10,960 on just three screens, former Time Out film of the week '3-Iron' not far behind with a £10,649 haul and Scottish comedy 'Festival' making a reasonable show of itself, grossing £8,530 to enter the chart at number ten.

As for next week, expect 'Fantastic Four' to have some say in what happens at the top, while John Sayles' critically acclaimed 'Silver City' should also do well in the capital.

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