Revolution Studios' Vin Diesel action vehicle XXX blew away the competition over the weekend, opening top of the charts with an estimated $46m haul. Directed by Rob Cohen, who worked with Diesel on the 2001 hit The Fast And The Furious, XXX's gung-ho tale of an extreme sports junkie hired by the US government to break up a terrorist cell pulled in a predominantly young crowd, with 60% aged under 25. With an average of $13,633 from 3,374 theatres and star and director already lined up for the 2004 sequel, the hugely-hyped XXX looks set to become the first major franchise for Joe Roth's Revolution Studios, which is distributing the picture through Columbia. It should also turn the former nightclub bouncer Diesel into a superstar and make the critics' cries of third-rate James Bond imitations seem like sniffy naysaying.

The M Night Shyamalan supernatural drama, Signs, slipped to second place for Buena Vista with a $30m haul that brings its ten-day total to $118.3m. The picture passed $100m on Saturday and is now the fastest Disney movie to reach the mark along with Pearl Harbor and Monsters, Inc. Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams opened third for Dimension Films on $17m, averaging $5,140 from 3,307 theatres and enjoying good reviews since its Wednesday release. Following on from last year's original, which opened on $26.6m and went on to make $112.7m, the film again stars Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino. Austin Powers in Goldmember fell two places to fourth but continued to do good business for New Line, taking $13.1m in its third weekend for a cumulative score of $167.8m after 17 days. The only other top ten opener this weekend was Blood Work for Warner Bros, which took a disappointing $7.2m and an average of $2,865 from 2,525 venues. Clint Eastwood directs himself as an FBI agent who gets pulled out of retirement to solve an old case. The movie divided the critics.

Road To Perdition fell two places to seventh, taking $4m for an $84.1m cumulative after five weekends on release. The DreamWorks gangster drama now looks unlikely to pass the $100m mark. Paramount's K-19: The Widowmaker bottomed out the top ten with $915,000 and a feeble $32.9m from four weekends, despite a line-up that includes the most successful actor of all time, Harrison Ford, and the highly acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow.

Overall the $134m combined box office for the top 12 pictures fell 9% against the same period last year and represents the fourth consecutive 2002 weekend-to-2001 weekend drop. Next weekend's releases include Eddie Murphy in the Warner Bros comedy The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Universal's female surf movie Blue Crush.

ESTIMATED TOP TEN US AUGUST 9-11, 2002

Film (Distributor)/International distribution/Estimated weekend gross/Estimated total to date

1 (-) XXX (Columbia) Columbia TriStar/Revolution $46m --

2 (1) Signs (Buena Vista) BVI International $30m $118.3m

3 (-) Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams (Miramax) $17m $25.33m

4 (2) Austin Powers In Goldmember (New Line) New Line International $13.08m $167.8m

5 (-) Blood Work (Warner Bros) Warner Bros $7.24m --

6 (3) The Master Of Disguise (Columbia) Columbia TriStar/Revolution $5.1m $23.8m

7 (5) Road To Perdition (DreamWorks SKG) Fox $4m $84.1m

8 (4) Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat (Paramount) UIP $3.18m $13.19m

9 (9) My Big Fat Greek Wedding (IFC) Vortex Pictures $3.15m $45.08m

10 (6) Stuart Little 2 (Columbia) Columbia TriStar $2.7m $53m