Aaliyah was killed in a plane crash in 2001

Bend It Like Beckham, directed by Gurinder Chadha, was shown on 384 screens and collected box office receipts of �2m in its opening weekend.

Staying at number two is the prehistoric animation movie Ice Age.

The film has taken �11.6m since its release four weeks ago, with the recent weekend gaining it an extra �948,398.

Vampire flick Blade II, starring Wesley Snipes, has slipped from the top to number three.

Top five UK films

1. Bend it Like Beckham 2. Ice Age 3. Blade II 4. Queen of the Damned 5. K-PAX

The second highest entry is another blood-sucking movie, starring the late R'n'B star Aaliyah as the Queen of the Damned.

Staying power

The film, based on the novels by Anne Rice, took �611,440 in its first three days, not quite matching the �15m (�10m) it took in its opening weekend in the US.

K-PAX, a Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges' film about a mental patient claiming to be an alien, enters the chart at number five.

The only other new entry in the top 10 is Jet Li's martial arts movie The One, which took �492,491 from the 238 screens it was shown on around the country.

Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind is proving to have staying power, racking up eight weeks in the chart.

But it has not made as much money at the box office as Ali G in da House, which has made nearly �10m in four weeks.

A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe, has box office receipts totalling �7.2m