Steven Spielberg's new thriller Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, jumped straight to the top of the US box office charts at the weekend - but only just.

The science fiction story earned an estimated $36.9m (�24.5m) in its first three days, just ahead of Disney's animated feature Lilo & Stitch, with $35m (�23.3m) in receipts.

Disney's latest film has been well received

Disney Studios have claimed that revised figures, issued later on Monday, may even show that the cartoon edged out Minority Report as the box office chart topper.

Disney distribution president Chuck Viane said: "We truly believe we were number one.

US and Canada top five

1. Minority Report 2. Lilo & Stitch 3. Scooby-Doo 4. The Bourne Identity 5. The Sum of All Fears

"I'm confident the estimates will be corrected on Monday morning."

Studios base their weekend projections on the ticket sales reported by cinemas for Friday and Saturday - and add in estimates for Sunday.

Chart placings are sometimes revised as Sunday's figures are confirmed.

Minority Report is made by Fox studious, whose president of distribution Bruce Snyder described it as "an original movie".

It is based, like Bladerunner, on a short story by Philip K Dick and is a similarly dark glimpse of a possible future.

The combination of Cruise, one of Hollywood's biggest stars with Spielberg, one of its most popular directors, had been expected to make a big box office impact.

TV cartoon adaptation Scooby-Doo, a previous number one, fell to three with earnings of $24.4m (�16.3m), taking its 10-day total to $100.2m (�67m)

The Matt Damon spy story The Bourne Identity, which also opened last weekend, slipped two places to four with $14.8m (�9.9m), and the nuclear thriller The Sum of All Fears, starring Ben Affleck, fell to five after grossing $7.9m (�5.3m).