Karate Kid beats A-Team

The Karate Kid came out on top this weekend in a clash of the ‘80s reboots that saw it going toe-to-toe with the new A-Team movie.

In the end, Jackie Chan and wee champ Jaden Smith trampled their fogie competition, swiping the number one spot comfortably with a taking of $56m.

Liam Neeson and Sharlto Copley were left in the dirt with just $26m – enough to beat Shrek Forever After to the second spot (the green ogre falling by 38%), but nowhere near a competitive battle cry against Karate Kid .

Meanwhile, Russell Brand remained a popular choice for comedy fans, Get Him To The Greek sitting pretty in fourth place despite a diminished return of $10m. And Killers came up from behind in fifth place with $8.1m, proving that people will watch anything if it stars pretty people like Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher. The studio system sleeps easy.

The rest of the top ten had Prince Of Persia and Marmaduke in sixth and seventh, both taking around $6m each, while Sex And The City 2 wallowed in eighth with $5.5m and a total taking of just $84m.

At the tail end of the box office, Iron Man 2 clamped on to ninth place with $4.4m, and Splice saw its earnings fall by 61% to haul in a very, very modest $2.8m.

Next week it’s Toy Story 3 – can Woody and co snatch that numero uno crown from Jaden Smith? We don’t doubt it…

Surprised at Karate Kid ’s success?