Nothing could stand up to the might of Buena Vista International's Monsters, Inc. at the UK box office over the weekend with the animated hit claiming first place with a massive $13.0m (£9.2m), including previews of $3.8m (£2.7m). BVI's biggest opening to date, Monsters, Inc. played at 503 sites including three digital presentations at the Odeon Leicester Square, Warner Village Star City Birmingham and FilmWorks Manchester.

The weekend's other openers failed even to make the top five. 20th Century Fox's Jack the Ripper thriller From Hell, starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham, claimed sixth position with $1.26m (£891,862) from 235 sites for an average of $5,376. Momentum Pictures' Just Visiting, aimed at the same half-term kids crowd as Monsters, Inc., managed only twelfth place with a poor $171,975 (£121,414) from 239 sites - an average of $720.

While not in the chart, Artificial Eye's Cool And Crazy opened respectably with $9,130 (£6,446) off just 2 sites for an average of $4,565.

Gosford Park added a further 11 sites and a 9% week-on-week rise from its opening weekend to gross $1.3m (£916,806). Playing at 167 sites this weekend the film, which is nominated for seven Academy Awards this year including best picture, saw a screen average of $7,776.

Also continuing to play well, holding second place in its eighth week on release, was 13 Oscar nominated epic The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. The Peter Jackson directed fantasy has now grossed a massive $78.6m (£55.5m) in the UK.

Holding third place in its second week, Farrelly brothers comedy Shallow Hal continued to perform well dropping off just 17% from its opening with a three-day gross of $1.5m (£1.06m). The Gwyneth Paltrow starrer has a 10-day total of $4.2m. UIP's Vanilla Sky dropped from first last week to fourth this week. Its total gross now stands at $11.1m after three weeks on release.

Next week sees Warner Bros release Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, featuring an all-star cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts; Entertainment launch Michael Mann's Ali, starring Will Smith, in the West End before going wide on Feb 22; Momentum release 2001 Cannes Palme D'Or winner The Son's Room (La Stanza Del Figlio), also in the West End - it goes wider on March 1; and BVI expand their releases of Iris and In The Bedroom.