While only placing 17th in the UK/Ireland chart Gus Van Sant's 2003 Cannes Palme D'Or winner Elephant drew a heavyweight screen average during its strong bow in the territory last weekend.

Playing at just 17 locations the documentary-styled drama, which tells a Columbinesque story of two disenchanted high school boys who carry out a massacre in their school, scored the best average ($8,738) of any film on release.

Meanwhile Columbia TriStar's first wide release weekend for Tim Burton's multi-BAFTA nominated Big Fish scored well with second place on $3m (£1.6m) behind Scary Movie 3 and the second highest location average, behind Elephant.