UIP's Cast Away swept into the top position in the UK this weekend, but Columbia TriStar's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon posted the market's best screen average.

The foreign-language epic continued on just 88 sites to retain fourth position with receipts of $976,700 and an average of $11,000. In its second week, Ang Lee's film dropped off only 4%.

Buena Vista International's Unbreakable and Meet The Parents, another UIP release, continued to pull in the crowds to take second and third places respectively. FilmFour's Sexy Beast turned in $142,251 (£96,162) from just 27 sites for a healthy $5,269 average.

Three others openers also made the top 15 over the weekend. Entertainment's Lost Souls and Redbus Film Distribution's Morgan Freeman-Gene Hackman two-hander Under Suspicion. The two pictures scored nearly identical averages as they took the eighth and tenth positions, both playing on less than half the sites of Cast Away. Lost Souls clocked $321,052 from 179 sites for an average of $1,793. Under Suspicion managed $277,675 from 155 for an average of $1,791.