US box office top ten

1. From Hell 2. Riding In Cars With Boys 3. Training Day 4. Bandits 5. The Last Castle 6. Serendipity 7. Corky Romano 8. Don't Say A Word 9. Zoolander 10. Iron Monkey

It took $11.3 (�7.8m) at the box office, while the latest Drew Barrymore vehicle, Riding In Cars With Boys came a close second with $10.8 (�7.5m).

The overall box office was up slightly on last year, despite rumours that security threats were keeping people out of cinemas.

But it was still a relatively low-key weekend for the box office, compared with what has been a thriving year.

Other than Denzel Washington's crime drama Training Day a fortnight ago, new films are opening relatively weakly.

Jeff Blake, head of distribution at Sony, said: "I think the main reasons maybe everybody's getting a little less than they hoped is there's a lot of new movies out there.

Barrymore plays a teenaged mother in a failed marriage

"Three or four new pictures a week is tough for the market to absorb."

Robert Redford's military-prison drama The Last Castle - another new release - came in at number five, taking $7.1m (�4.9m)

Training Day, in which Washington stars as a corrupt narcotics detective, moved from the top position to number three.

It took $9.5m (�6.6m) at the weekend, bringing its box office gross to $57.5m (�40.1m).

Meanwhile bank-robber comedy Bandits, starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett fell to number four with $8.4m (�5.86m).

Big releases

A pair of limited release films also did well.

Waking Life, Richard Linklater's animated discourse on reality, took $88,000 (�66,442) in four cinemas.

And Focus, starring William H Macy and Laura Dern as a New York couple ostracised during World War II when they are mistaken for Jews, took $26,000 (�18,153) at two cinemas.

All eyes will be on the box office in the run-up to Christmas, especially as several much-anticipated films will be released.

Monsters Inc - from the makers of Toy Story, opens on 2 November, followed by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone later that month and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in December.