Cruise plays a paid assassin in Michael Mann's thriller

In the film, directed by Michael Mann, Cruise plays a rare villainous role as a ruthless hitman who uses a taxicab to chauffeur him from killing to killing.

With no other new entries in the top 10, it was bad news for Colin Firth's psychological thriller Trauma.

The Anglo-American production entered the chart at 15 with a �144,148 haul.

The film opened on 176 screens, but audiences may have been deterred by stinging reviews.

In contrast, the satirical documentary Super Size Me outgrossed Trauma in its second week of release, despite playing on half the number of screens.

Previews

Collateral's strong performance was partially due to preview performances held on the day before its release last Friday.

Despite this, the movie did not perform as well as Cruise's previous film The Last Samurai, which took �2.7m in its first weekend last January.

TOP FIVE UK & IRELAND FILMS 1. Collateral 2. Open Water 3. The Terminal 4. Dodgeball 5. Hellboy Source: Screen International

Last week's number one, the real-life thriller Open Water, slipped to two, while The Terminal, in second place a week ago, dropped to three.

With no other new releases troubling the statisticians, the only films in the top 10 to improve upon last week's takings were family comedies A Cinderella Story and Garfield.

The latter has grossed an impressive �8.9m in its eight weeks on release.