Alien vs Predator exceeded all expectations to fight its way to the top of the American box office this weekend. The monster tale took an impressive $38.3m (£20.8m), delighting its distributors, Fox. It also became the sixth Fox film in a row to open with more than $20m - the longest run for any studio.
"It's a great number," Fox's Bruce Snyder told Variety. "We couldn't be happier."
There was also good news for Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. It too performed better than expected, taking $23m (£12.5m) over the weekend. The film, which stars Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, has now earned an estimated $37.2m (£20.2m) since opening on Wednesday, only slightly down on the entire first week of the original Princess Diaries.
Expectations at the box office were not high on Friday. The opening of the Olympics, coupled with the destructive hurricane Charley, were predicted to dent audiences. In the end, that doesn't seem to have happened. Young men poured in to see Alien vs Predator; figures show that audiences were 70% male and 55% under 25. Young women couldn't get enough of Princess Diaries 2; audiences were 76% female and 51% under 18.
In the rest of the top ten, last week's number one, Tom Cruise's Collateral, dropped to third place, taking a further $16m (£8.7m). It was followed by the animated film Yu-Gi-Oh!, based on a popular television series and card game. According the Hollywood Reporter, distributors Warner Bros bought worldwide rights to the film (excluding Japan) for an estimated $5m (£2.7m). It made $9.4m (£5.1m) in its opening weekend.