Universal's Hot Fuzz has already beaten Shaun Of The Dead at the UK box office, raking in a whooping $13.9m (£7.1m) in its first seven days. The new cop comedy marks the reunion of Shaun's team: director Edgar Wright, actors Simon Pegg (who also co-writes with Wright) and Nick Frost, and producers Working Title and Nira Park at Big Park Productions.

Hot Fuzz is 2007's biggest UK opener after it took $11.5m (£5.9m) at the weekend (including $3.05m from previews after a Valentine's Day opening), and now has surpassed Shaun's 10-week total box-office takings of $13.06m (£6.69m).

The action comedy, which also stars Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Paddy Considine and Martin Freeman, also posted a 279% increase on Shaun's opening weekend takings, which took a decent $3.03m (£1.60m) when it opened in April 2004.

Zombie comedy Shaun, with a budget of only $7.8m (£4m) - less than half of Fuzz's -- raked in more than $30m at the worldwide box office.

Hot Fuzz, released by Universal Pictures UK (recently launched after the restructuring of UIP), is playing on 427 sites throughout the UK and had a weekend site average of $27,019.

Hot Fuzz will hit other international territories including Spain starting March 9, with the US release set for April 20.

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