The Perfect Storm washed up at the top of the UK chart this weekend with an opening gross of $3m (£1,920,045) excluding previews of $435,000. The Hollywood adaptation of Sebastian Junger's bestseller of the same name, played at 409 cinemas for a screen average of $8,888 (£5,333). This is a healthy, but not blockbuster, opening for the heavily promoted Warner Bros film starring George Clooney which received a mixed response from critics.

Stuart Little slipped to number two in the chart but without dropping in box office revenue from its opening weekend of $2.3m. Chicken Run, this summer's true box office hit, scooped in another $2m and has now taken over $30m.

The two other major openers, both family films, proved disappointing and failed to pull in a screen average of more than $1,500. 20th Century Fox's Titan AE, released at 280 locations, grossed $408,000 and UIP's The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas garnered $380,000 from 270 cinemas.

UIP's release of the Flintstones sequel ran into problems last week when the distributor was unable to agree on rental terms with UGC Cinemas due to the exhibitor's loyalty card. As a result the film was pulled from around 30 UGC sites.