Borat benefited from being shown in more cinemas Borat interview

Early figures show comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's mock documentary took $29m (�15m), beating its first weekend.

The second biggest movie of the weekend was The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, starring Tim Allen, which made an estimated $16.9m (�8.8m).

Animated feature Flushed Away - about a pet rat in the sewers - remained in third place taking $16.7m (�8.7m).

Borat benefited from a large expansion in the number of screens on which it was showing and has now taken an estimated $67.8m (�35.2m).

NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE 1. Borat ($29m) 2. The Santa Clause 3 ($16.9m) 3. Flushed Away ($16.7m) 4. Stranger Than Fiction ($14.1m) 5. Saw III ($6.6m) 6. Babel ($5.65m) 7. The Departed ($5.2m) 8. The Return ($4.8m) 9. The Prestige ($4.6m) 10. A Good Year ($3.8m)

Some analysts had wondered whether 20th Century Fox had made a mistake by launching the film in just 800 cinemas, saying the movie could have rung up millions more on opening weekend if it had gone wider.

But studio bosses said the buzz from the movie's huge debut proved a great prelude to wider release in its second weekend, when it expanded to 2,566 cinemas.

Comedy Stranger Than Fiction starring Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson, debuted in fourth place, with an estimated $14.1m (�7.3m).

The blood-soaked gore movie Saw III came in fifth with an estimated $6.6m (�3.4m).

The Ridley Scott-directed A Good Year starring Russell Crowe was a disappointment, coming in at 10 with $3.8m (�2m).

Critics had been scathing about the usually brooding Crowe's performance as a romantic lead.