Two high-profile family-friendly openers, UIP's The Cat In The Hat and Roadshow's Scooby-Doo 2, failed to make a dent in the popularity of 50 First Dates, despite the latest Adam Sandler romantic comedy being on fewer screens and in its second week.

50 First Dates grossed A$2,573,524 from 286 screens, The Cat In The Hat took A$1,570,536 from 294 screens, and Scooby-Doo 2 took A$1,386,186 from a whopping 328 screens - so far in 2004, only Return Of The King has exceeded that screen count.

The only other opener in the chart was Australian period film Love's Brother - actually it's a UK/Australian co-production that looks more like an Italian/Australian co-production because of its story and setting. It took A$188,595 for distributor Palace from a limited 42 screens to claim the ninth spot.

Based on screen average, however, it is in the top five but using this measure Icon's Monster, which is sixth in the chart, and 50 First Dates are way out ahead of any other top 20 films.