After six weekends of movies opening on grosses of over $50m,Columbia's Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle proved somewhat of a disappointment at this weekend's boxoffice in North America with just $38m in three days. A marketing blitzfeaturing the three lead actresses in the film Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymoreand Lucy Liu - and a fourth Demi Moore was expected to guarantee a monsteropening, but the film failed even to beat its 2000 predecessor.

Charlie's Angels opened on $40.1m in 3,037 sites in Nov 2000, while FullThrottle opened in 3,459sites. Its site average was $10,986 down from the original's $13,213. After therecent powerhouse openings of X2, The Matrix Reloaded and 2 Fast 2 Furious, the sequel was expected to outperformthe original.

The movie was well-received by critics as a fun-filledentertainment, although few applauded its plot which focuses on two stolenrings which contain data on all informants who have been reintegrated intosociety through the Witness Protection Program. The angels come face to facewith a former angel (Moore) who has gone bad and is using the rings to makemillions out of crime gangs.

The film, again directed by McG, also stars Bernie Mac, RobertPatrick, Matt LeBlanc, Luke Wilson, John Cleese and the pop star Pink.

Charlie's Angels grossed $125m on its domestic run for Columbia.

The week's box office, whichsuffered due to fine weather across the nation was down 15% on the same weekendlast year.

Universal's The Hulk fell a massive 70% in its second weekend, one of thebiggest second-weekend drops in memory, to $18.4m. That didn't stop the filmcrossing the $100m barrier bringing its ten-day total to $100.2m.

Meanwhile Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo continued to show longevity. Its grossof $13.9m brings its total to a stunning $253.9m since May 30.

Another box office winner was Danny Boyle's futuristic zombiemovie 28 Days Laterwhich opened in fourth place with a spectacular $9.7m for Fox Searchlight.Searchlight, which has had a strong year already thanks to another Brit flick BendIt Like Beckham, openedthe movie, a hit in the UK last year, at 1,260 sites.

Studios are hoping the boxoffice will power up after this weekend's poor showing on Wednesday when threepictures open for Independence Day weekend Warner's Terminator 3: Rise OfThe Machines, MGM's LegallyBlonde 2: Red, White And Blonde andDreamWorks' Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas.

Estimated Top Ten US Jun27-29

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

1 (-) Charlie's Angels:Full Throttle (Columbia) ColumbiaTriStar $38m --

2 (1) The Hulk (Universal) UIP $18.4m $100.2m

3 (3) Finding Nemo (Disney/Pixar) BVI $13.9m $253.9m

4 (-) 28 Days Later (Fox Searchlight) Fox International $9.7m --

5 (5) Bruce Almighty (Universal) Spyglass/BVI $6.2m $221.3m

6 (4) 2 Fast 2 Furious (Universal) UIP $5.7m $113.4m

7 (6) The Italian Job (Paramount) UIP $5.4m $76.7m

8 (7) Rugrats Go Wild! (Paramount) UIP $3.5m $30.8m

9 (9) Hollywood Homicide (Columbia/Revolution) CTFDI $3m $27.3m

10 (8) Alex & Emma (Warner Bros) Franchise Pictures $2.7m 11.6m