It was a closely fought battle but King Kong bested TheChronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe over theChristmas weekend to retain its North America crown.

Despite new comedy openers headlining Jim Carrey, SteveMartin and Jennifer Aniston and the wide release of Sony's Memoirs Of AGeisha the fight for first only had two contenders from the outset.

As the weekend raged on it was a close call. Friday saw KingKong take the early lead as might be expected with an $8.025m day besting Narnia's$7.99m. Christmas Eve, however, saw tables turned as Narnia's $4.98medged out the giant ape ($4.9m). After a Christmas Day surge Kong wasswinging once again and Monday morning estimates had the epic remake winningthe weekend with $31.4m, compared to Narnia's $30.1m.

Both films were also leaving key box office marks in theirwake. Kong passed $100m on Saturday, its 11th day on release.Meanwhile Narnia put $150m behind it on Sunday.

Critically speaking it was not a good weekend to be a newopener with opinion low on most of the new blood. Sony's Fun With Dick AndJane was the strongest of the new releases in third with star Jim Carrey'scharisma combating the critics for a $23.5m four-day weekend and $31.1m sinceit opened on Wednesday (December 21).

Fox's sequel to 2003 Christmas opener Cheaper By TheDozen finished fourth. Again brand recognition (and length) probably helpedthe family film against a critical mauling but its $14.8m weekend ($20.1m sinceWednesday) fell well short of the original's $27.6m.

Rob Reiner's star continued to wane with Warner Bros RumorHas It finishing a dismal eighth. The presence of Jennifer Aniston in thelead and an ensemble including Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffaloand Mena Suvari failed to ignite audience interest and a $7.5m four-day weekendis unlikely to please anyone involved.

Meanwhile Johnny Knoxville vehicle The Ringer mayhave played about 1,000 less theatres than Rumor Has It but it finishedhigher. Arguably the best-reviewed launch title (critics were mixed as opposedto almost uniformly vicious!) the landed seventh place.

The Christmas-themed The Family Stone did solidholiday business down two places in fifth with $10.9m. With a cumulative ofjust over $30m after two weekends the ensemble comedy-drama is making the mostof its positioning but may see business tail off as the holiday season itcelebrates gets left behind.

In limited release Steven Spielberg's Munich saw astrong start landing in eleventh place with $5.7m from 532 theatres - alocation average of $10,735.

Domestic Top 10 Estimated - Dec 23-26 Four-day weekend

Title (Distributor) Weekend gross Total gross

1 King Kong (Universal) $31.4m $118.7m

2 The Chronicles Of Narnia (Buena Vista) $30.1m $163.5m

3 Fun With Dick And Jane (Sony) $23.5m $31.1m*

4 Cheaper By The Dozen 2 (20th Fox) $14.8m$20.1m*

5 The Family Stone (20th Fox) $10.9m $30.1m

6 Memoirs Of A Geisha (Sony) $10.2m $13.3m

7 The Ringer (Fox Searchlight) $8.4m $8.4m

8 Rumor Has It (Warner Bros) $7.5m $7.5m

9 Wolf Creek (The Weinstein Co) $5.9m $5.9m

10 Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (Warner Bros) $5.7m$262.4m