Fuelled by school holidays and the Easter weekend, Columbia TriStar's Stuart Little has brought in a phenomenal $8.7m (A$14.9m) after 20 days.The film clocked up $3.5m from 323 screens in its second week (April 12-19) - a rise of 24% from its opening seven days - giving it the biggest weekly gross so far this year at the Australian box office.

Only four films did bigger business in any one week last year, and all were aimed at a considerably older audience: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace with A$11,711,481 from 372 screens, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me with A$7,415,286 (242 screens), The Sixth Sense with A$6,393,523 (311 screens) and The Matrix with A$6,139,308 (217 screens).

Inevitably these four films became the top four hits of 1999 making more than A$20m ($12m) each which augurs well for Stuart Little. Columbia TriStar also snagged second place in the chart last week with the opening of its hit Erin Brockovich which passed the $100m in North America this week.