Aliens well and truly landed this weekend – at the US box office that is, with new release Battle: Los Angeles beaming straight into first place.
Opening with an impressive $36m, Jonathan Liebesman’s Aaron Eckhart-starring alien invasion film received fair critical praise and beat other new openers Mars Needs Moms and Red Riding Hood to the top spot.
The latter instead opened in third place with $14m, just behind Johnny Depp CGI-fest Rango , this week debunking to second with a very comfortable $23m.
Matt Damon and Emily Blunt’s rom-sci-fi blender The Adjustment Bureau proved popular in fourth ($11.4m), while new CG film Mars Needs Moms suffered a poor opener of just $6.8m in fifth.
The rest of the chart was filled with box office hold-overs, with comedy Hall Pass in sixth ($5.1m), Beastly plunging from third to seventh ($5m) and Just Go With It in eighth ($4m).
Meanwhile, The King’s Speech enjoyed its 16th week of release in ninth place ($3.6m), and Gnomeo & Juliet capped off the top ten in last place ($3.5m).