Two diminutive vampire-slayers are kicking Charlie's Angels' butts at the Hong Kong box office.

Emperor Multimedia Group's The Twins Effect, starring Hong Kong pop sensation Twins and a special appearance by Jackie Chan, grossed $2m in the week ending July 2 - more than four times the opening week gross of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

By July 3, the action comedy - which opened Tuesday, June 24 - had a 10-day gross of $2.57m. In comparison, The Matrix Reloaded grossed $2.35m during its first ten days in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, the Charlie's Angels sequel took second place at the box office in the week ending July 2 with a seven-day gross of $422,432. Local cop thriller Colour Of The Truth and The Hulk, both in their second week, came in third and fourth with $307,506 and $302,891 respectively.

While not quite as big as last year's hit Infernal Affairs - which grossed $2.69m in its opening week - The Twins Effect is a welcome shot in the arm for the Hong Kong box office which plummeted during the SARS crisis between March and May.

The film's domestic success is partly explained by the casting of pop stars Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung (known collectively as Twins), who play high-kicking vampire hunters, along with local heartthrobs Ekin Cheng and Edison Chen. EMG also drafted in Chan to give the film a boost overseas.

Meanwhile, EMG's big-budget Jackie Chan vehicle The Medallion (formerly Highbinders) is set for a simultaneous release in Hong Kong and China on August 15. Columbia TriStar is expected to release the film in North America the following week.

Ironically, the video arm of Columbia TriStar - the studio behind the Charlie's Angels franchise - also has North American and Latin American rights to The Twins Effect. Universal Pictures International has rights for the UK, Australia, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia.