US box office

1. Black Hawk Down 2. Snow Dogs 3. A Walk to Remember 4. The Mothman Prophecies 5. A Beautiful Mind

Blockbusters Lord of the Rings has slipped from three to eight and Harry Potter left the top 10 for the first time since its release in November.

The second biggest hitter at the box office was again Cuba Gooding Jr's canine comedy Snow Dogs.

Tear-jerker

As Britney Spears prepares to unleash her debut movie Crossroads on the world, singer Mandy Moore's teen romance A Walk to Remember has fared well with its target audience.

The tear-jerker entered the chart at number three, pulling in box office receipts worth �13.5m (�

Singer Mandy Moore takes her first lead in A Walk to Remember

9.5m).

After several movies showing weak returns, including Autumn in New York, Richard Gere is back with supernatural thriller The Mothman Prophecies.

Charting at number four the film, which also stars Laura Linney, took $11.8m (�8.3m) .

Success at the Golden Globes ensured Russell Crowe's A Beautiful Mind performed well, taking $11.7m (�8.2m) and remaining at number five

The movie picked up four Globes including best actor for Crowe, best supporting actress for Jennifer Connelly and the best dramatic film award.

Crowe won a Golden Globe for his role in A Beautiful Mind

Just $200,000 (�141,700) behind is the remake of The Count of Monte Christo, starring Guy Pearce and Jim Caviezel.

As the film awards season takes a strong hold, box office takings are extremely strong.

The top 12 movies took $115.3m (�81.6m) during the weekend, up 56% on the previous year, which saw the Superbowl distract audiences from the cinema.