Clooney knocks Clooney from the top spot in London

'Syriana' goes straight in at number one, knocking 'Good Night, and Good Luck' down to three.

Mar  7 2006

Apologies to all the TOMB readers out there who were expecting a London chart last week – I'm afraid that thanks to a slight technical hitch, we didn't manage to get one up.

Nevertheless, we're back this week, with a new entry at number one in the shape of the explosive political drama 'Syriana'.

A complex account of the corruption and greed that drives the oil industry, it's a spectacular opening for a seemingly uncommercial feature, and thanks to George Clooney's Oscar win on Sunday (in the best supporting actor category), it should continue to do well next week.

Clooney also achieved the remarkable feat of knocking his other film, 'Good Night, and Good Luck', off the top spot, with the equally explosive period piece dropping from one to three. Which means that Philip Seymour Hoffman and the rest of the 'Capote' crew currently find themselves providing the meat in a Clooney sandwich at number two. Which is nice.

Further down the chart, 'The Weather Man' and 'The Matador' are new entries at numbers six and seven respectively, although thanks to the fact that they are both deeply average features, don't expect them to hang along for long.

The same cannot be said for 'Brokeback Mountain' however. After a whopping nine weeks on the chart, it's still going strong at number eight, and a few Academy Award wins at the weekend should do its cause no harm in the near future.

It lost out on the big one however, as 'Crash' walked away with the best picture award. In reponse to the unexpected victory, Pathe are re-releasing the film in theatres on Friday, so expect Paul Haggis's film to hit the chart hard next week, along with Time Out favourites 'The Proposition' and 'The Child'.