Up hangs on to box office summit

Up tells the tale of old man who makes his house airborne

Animation Up has topped the North American box office for a second week, narrowly beating comedy The Hangover.

The Pixar film's takings ballooned to $44.2m (£27.8m), outdoing the Las Vegas-based caper, which made $43.3m (£27.3m) in its opening week.

Will Ferrell's action adventure Land of the Lost made its debut in third place with a distant $19.5m (£12.2m).

Box office analysts said the year's takings to date are up 12.5%, but the early pace is beginning to slow.

Greek success

Paul Dergarabedian, who tracks cinema performance for Hollywood.com, said: "Things have definitely slowed. But there are some potential saviours on the horizon."

A string of blockbusting sequels including Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, are released later this month and expected to boost box office performance.

US BOX OFFICE TOP FIVE

1 Up - $44.2m

2 The Hangover - $43.3m

3 Land of the Lost - $19.5m

4 Night at the Museum 2 - $14.7m

5 Star Trek - $8.4m

Source: Hollywood.com

Up, about a grumpy old man and a scout who fly to South America in a house tied to hundreds of balloons, is forecast to break the $200m mark, putting it in the same category as previous Pixar hits including Ratatouille and Wall-E.

Chuck Vane, Disney's head of distribution, predicts that the film will end up in the all-time top three of its releases.

Other films which made in the top 10 included Star Trek and Terminator Salvation, which have already done their big business at the North American box office.

Another new entry was My Life In Ruins, which stars Nia Vardalos as a tour guide in Greece who unexpectedly finds love.

Vardalos previously scored commercial success in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was released in 2002.