The Matrix stormed into cinemas this week easily doubling the coveted one million admissions mark.

Although the critics have not been kind to the film, queues have been round the block since last Wednesday when the movie opened and it has already entered the top fifteen films of 2003.

Faced with this stiff competition box office leader Rudy & Quentin drops to the number 2 spot with a 33% dip in sales its third week out. Good news for French film, however, is the arrival of two new local pics, Mauvais Esprit starring Thierry Lhermitte and a baby and Les Sentiments from Noemie Lvovsky both performed very well to score over 400,000 admissions each as nice alternative choices.

Barely any other changes cropped up in what was a very uncrowded release week with most distributors shying away from the Matrix steamroller. Still, although it's dropped down to 15th position the little German film that could, Goodbye Lenin !, pulled off the impressive feat of only dropping off by 1% since last week, a rare phenomenon indeed.