Bruno in fashion at US box office

Bruno was released in the UK on Friday

Early North American box office figures show gay Austrian fashionista Bruno has enjoyed a big opening weekend.

Sacha Baron Cohen's mock documentary took $30.4m (£18.7m), outperforming the $26.5m (£16.3m) opening weekend for his 2006 hit, Borat.

Bruno features the UK comedian as an Austrian wannabe going to extremes to achieve celebrity in the US.

Comedy cartoon Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs held firm at number two, with takings of $28.5m (£17.5m).

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which has spent two weekends at the top of the chart, dropped to three.

US AND CANADA BOX OFFICE 1. Bruno - $30.4m 2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - $28.5m 3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - $24m 4. Public Enemies - $14.1m 5. The Proposal - $10.5m Source: Hollywood.com (formerly Media by Numbers)

Bruno took in nearly half of its weekend total - $14.4m (£8.95m) on Friday, followed by $8.8m (£5.5m) on Saturday and an estimated $7.2m (£4.5m) Sunday.

"Normally, you expect the film at least to be even on Saturday or above compared to Friday, because Saturday is the biggest movie-going day of the weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

"It's going to be interesting to see how it does over the long run."

The only other new release, teen comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper opened at number 7 with $5m (£3.1m).

The film, which stars Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere, has had almost universally bad reviews.

Writing in the Washington Post, Ruth McCann said: "Perhaps the best thing that can be said about I Love You, Beth Cooper is that the title is correctly punctuated".

Meanwhile film trade bible Variety commented that the film "peaks early - like, during the first three minutes - and rapidly goes downhill from there".

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