Although six new titles made the UK top 20 this weekend thereal star was Shrek 2 despite being aweek from launch. The animated sequel raked in $10m (£5.5m) of previews overSaturday and Sunday which will be included in next week's opening weekendgross.

The presence of Shrek2 had a devastating effect on many titles over the weekend. Films like Jersey Girl found that their screenswere taken away over the two day period causing massive drop offs week-on-week- Jersey Girl lost 80% in its secondweekend.

Most titles were hit hard,however, Harry Potter And ThePrisoner Of Azkaban and The Day AfterTomorrow fared well - only slipping 40% and 43% respectively.

The best holdover was UIP's Mean Girls. The Lindsay Lohan comedy dropped just 29% in its secondweek gaining a position in the UK/Ireland chart. It also retained its chartlead in the Republic of Ireland for a second week.

The highest new entry was BVI's The Ladykillers. The Coen Brothers/Tom Hanks remake of the Ealingcomedy classic claimed fourth place with a solid if unspectacular $1.03m(£565,137) at 290 locations.

Entertainment's romantic drama The Notebook followed in fifth but struggled over the weekend,often relegated to smaller capacity screens than would have been the case hadnot Shrek2 and Around The World In 80 Daysbeen eating screens for previews, and ended with a $2,201 average off 256locations.