Borat crowned box office king

The crude man from Kazakhstan has a new entry at number one on the London chart.

Nov  7 2006

Mirroring his unprecedented success in America over the weekend, 'Borat' was crowned king of the London charts as well, grossing a whopping £547,217 from 22 screens.

That total was more than the gross of the rest of the top ten combined, and proves that Londoners really do like sexist, racist, xenophobic anti-Semites with big moustaches, just as long as they are funny.

The grey-suited one ended Martin Scorsese's month-long run at the top of the chart, with 'The Departed' dropping to two, while the third 'Saw' film fell rather fittingly to number three.

No doubt fuelled by good word-of-mouth, Andrea Arnold's 'Red Road' had a great weekend, ascending from eight to five in spite of the fact that the film was playing at fewer screens than last week.

The really rather lovely 'Sixty Six' was a new entry at six, Time Out favourite 'The Page Turner' was another new entry at eight, while Time Out turkey 'Scenes of a Sexual Nature' could only manage a lowly debut at number nine.

Next week, Borat faces stiff competition from 'The Prestige', but I've got a feeling that the Kazakhstani might just prevail.