The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps may have weighed in at number one in the UK's weekend chart but the box office winner was British title Billy Elliot, which rose 13% from its opening weekend to $2.5m (£1.7m).

The figures are vindication that UIP's ambitious release strategy for Stephen Daldry's low-budget directorial debut is a success. Released on just another five screens last weekend (October 6-8), the picture's screen average also rose, crossing more than $8,000 (£5,000) per screen. This validates the expensive wide release for the comedy drama about a wannabe ballet dancer, and the highly positive word of mouth should allow the film to run for many weeks.

However, Billy Elliot had to settle for second place for the second week running as the Nutty Professor sequel squeezed into the number one by a tiny margin of $53,555 (£37,000). Last week's chart topper Hollow Man came in at number three with $1.7m (£1.2m) dropping a respectable 29% to take a total gross of $5.2m (£3.6m). As expected, Billy Elliot's 10-day gross exceeds that of Hollow Man: the gap is now $1.5m (£1m).

The only other opener to find a place in to the Top 15 chart over the weekend was Sorted, the feature debut of director Alexander Jovy, distributed by Metrodome. However the film only managed a three-day gross of $80,000 (£55,000) from 134 screens, pulling in a lame average of $580 (£400) per screen.

Slightly more successful was the limited release of Where The Money Is, the Paul Newman crime caper, which pulled in $45,000 (£31,175) from 50 screens.