In a strong week at the French box office Crimson Rivers 2 : Angels Of The Apocalypse opened to nearly one million admissions in its first week. The sequel to 2000's hit Crimson Rivers changed directors and one of its leads but that didn't hurt it any - with critics also giving it the thumbs up.

Last week's number one film Podium dropped to the second position but was only off by 26% while Disney's Brother Bear clearly has its teeth firmly implanted in the local audience only dropping off 1% from last week.

Disney also had a healthy debut with Eddie Murphy starrer The Haunted Mansion at number 5 for almost 400,000 spectators. Fighting its way in a field strewn with strong comedies and local films, Oscar hopeful Cold Mountain opened in 7th position with a $5,772 per screen average.

Continuing to disappoint, supposed blockbuster Blueberry dropped to the 8th spot from number 4 last week with a precipitous 54% loss in admissions. Most of the rest of the pack lost roughly 30% of the audience while the only other new entry, Warner Bros.' Torque opened in 11th position for a take of just under $900,000.