Happy Feet stars Mumble (centre), a penguin who is trying to sing

It earned $17m (�8.6m), compared to $15.1m (�7.7m) for the 007 spy thriller - but Casino Royale remained number one globally, Columbia Pictures said.

Time-travel thriller Deja Vu stayed in third place on $11m (�5.6m).

This was followed by three Christmas films - The Nativity Story, which was new at four, then Deck the Halls and The Santa Clause 3 at five and six.

Turistas, a horror thriller about Americans stranded and facing a terrifying ordeal in the Brazilian jungle, opened at number eight with $3.5m (�1.8m).

Snow storms

Happy Feet and Casino Royale had "really captured the marketplace", according to Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracking company Media by Numbers.

NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE 1. Happy Feet ($17.0m) 2. Casino Royale ($15.1m) 3. Deja Vu ($11.0m) 4. The Nativity Story (pictured, $8.0m) 5. Deck the Halls ($6.7m) 6. The Santa Clause 3 ($5.0m) 7. Borat ($4.8m) 8. Turistas ($3.5m) 9. Stranger Than Fiction ($3.4m) 10. Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj ($2.3m) Source: Media by Numbers

"I've never really seen two movies define the start of a holiday season in the way these two have," he told Associated Press.

Casino Royale has now earned more than $300m (�152m) worldwide and was on its way to surpassing the $432m (�218m) total of Die Another Day.

This was currently the highest-grossing Bond film, Colombia Pictures said.

The relatively low opening for The Nativity Story was attributed partly to snow in the US Midwest.

"The storms in the middle of the country couldn't have hurt us more," said David Tuckerman, the head of distribution at New Line.