Few other distributors stood a chance as UIP laid siege tothe UK box office last weekend. The chart shows that the distributor shot newtitle The Grudge into the top spot,dethroning stablemate Shark Taleafter three weeks. However, the UK is the only territory where UIP holdstheatrical rights.

The Grudge claimed$4.2m (£2.3m) off 362 sites, including Hallowe'en previews of $732,506(£396,315). The horror title decimated the market - with the previous weekends horror releases baring the brunt.Redbus's House Of The Dead wasn'teven tracked by the distributor into a second week, while Warner Bros' Exorcist: The Beginning nosedived 94%.

Shark Tale heldonto second place despite a 61% drop that showed the loss of school half-termholidays which had provided a boost to family film figures the previousweekend.

Other new releases, BadSanta and Birth, struggled.Despite effusive reviews Bad Santamanaged just $876,922 (£474,450) from 277 sites including Thursday previews of$71,485 (£38,676) from 220 sites.

French title Look AtMe (Comme Une Image) did good business in limited release, however, takinga splendid $166,816 (£90,254) off just 25 venues.

Finding Neverlandheld up well in its second week on release, slipping just 26% from its launchweekend - the lowest of any holdover in the top ten which saw an average 54%drop off this week.

Another BVI title, Hero,jumped 121% from the previous week and re-entered the UK/Ireland top 20following its 38 screen release in the Republic Of Ireland last weekend.

The chart is not able to show the true competition over theweekend, however, as preview figures are traditionally shown in the openingweekend figures of a film in the UK. As a result Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason will see previews from lastweekend and this coming Thursday (Nov 11) included within next weekend'sthree-day figures.

This does not alter the fact that the real competition lastweekend came from Bridget Jones. Thefilm sequel took approximately $4.7m (£2.5m) from all-day previews on Saturdayand Sunday which would have placed it top of the weekend chart despite playingone day less than all other titles (and two days less than The Grudge when considering that film's own preview day figures areincluded in the chart).