The UK saw two animations - Pathe's The MagicRoundabout and UIP's TheSpongeBob SquarePants Movie - go headto head over the crucial first half-term weekend.

On the official UK chart, The Magic Roundabout was the winner with the film coming in third overall with $2.9m (£1.57m) from425 sites. However, this figure includes preview figures from the previousweekend, as is standard practice in the territory, of $1.03m (£550,394).Over the actual first three-day weekend of half-term the Pathe film grossed$1.9m (£1.02m) with a site average of $4,474.

SpongeBob rankedfourth on the weekend chart but, factoring out Roundabout previews, the UIP film's $2.3m (£1.25m) from 440 sites (a $5,309average) was actually the superior weekend figure.

Final figures, however, show that neither MagicRoundabout nor SpongBob laid claim to the chart lead or even second placewhich were held by more adult holdovers Meet The Fockers and Ocean's Twelve, respectively.

Fockers hung on inits third weekend following a 36% week-on-week slip for a weekend of $5.5m(£2.96m). This brings its 17 day total to a massive $37.4m (£20.1m)already well ahead of Meet The Parents' $29.3m (£15.7m). Ocean's dropped a similar 37% to retain second place with$3.98m (£2.1m).

Amongst the other half-term runners Momentum's RacingStripes proved strongest slipping just 31%from its launch weekend despite the heightened competition in its market for$1.5m (£789,231) from 400 sites.

Entertainment Film Distributors' Son Of The Mask claimed $1.35m (£725,524) from 328 sites andWarner Bros' Laura's Star, a dubbed German animation, managed $126,924 (£68,049) from 160sites.