The weekend grosses for most films in the UK chart were severely effected this week by the two-day preview screenings of Warner Bros' Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone - which would easily have claimed top position, if previews were included in box office charts prior to the actual opening weekend.

Showing its enduring appeal was BVI's The Others, which dropped off just 25% from its opening weekend. With a three-day figure of $2.5m (£1.7m) from 386 sites the chiller scored another impressive site average of $6,372 and has taken $7.3m in its first 10-days on release.

Also continuing to play well was 20th Century Fox's Legally Blonde which reclaimed second place with a resounding third weekend gross of $970,488 (£665,755). The comedy fell just 24%, the smallest drop of any of this week's top 15, and has grossed $6m to date. Also relatively unaffected by Potter's box office onslaught was Momentum Pictures' Amelie. The French film, already the second biggest foreign-language film is the UK having grossed $4.95m, moved up one place to position nine after a meagre 27% drop-off, taking a three-day total of $228,573 (£156,801)

Only two openers made the chart over the weekend. Artificial Eye's The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste) played particularly well with $108,684 (£74,557) from just 16 sites, showing the best average of the week - $6,793. The highest opener was Fox's Jet Li vehicle Kiss Of The Dragon which went out on 225 sites for a three-day figure of $697,975 (£478,811).

Rounding out the top five were American Pie 2 in third place with $884,684 and Helkon SK's Jeepers Creepers at five with $502,367.