Buena Vista's true life American football drama Invincible trampled the competition at the weekendas it opened top with an estimated $17m in ticket sales.

Mark Wahlberg stars as Vince Papale, the 30-year-old barman whoearned a place on the 1976 Philadelphia Eagles after responding to an open recruitingcall. Ericson Core's picture impressed the critics and averaged $5,837 on 2,917screens.

Meanwhile the post-release hype surrounding New Line's SnakesOn A Plane has proved tobe short-lived as the picture tumbled from number one to number nine for $26mafter two weekends. Sony's comedy Talladega Nights stayed in second and has taken $127.7mafter four.

Two other pictures broke into the top 10 without creating much ofa splash in a generally dull weekend that saw the top 12 titles combine for$83.9m, the third consecutive weekend-on-weekend slump compared to 2005.

Warner Bros' teen comedy Beerfest opened in fourth on $6.5m, four placesahead of Universal's Prohibition Era musical Idlewild starring Outkast's Big Boi and AndreBenjamin on $5.9m.

New Line's children's tale How To Eat Fried Worms, produced by Walden Media, openedoutside the top 10 in 12th place on $3.9m from 1,870 screens.

World Trade Center fell three places to sixth, having now grossed $55.6m forParamount after three weekends, while Buena Vista's dance drama Step Up ranks seventh on a respectable $50.4mafter the same amount of time.

Buena Vista's Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest fell out of the top 10 for the first timein eight weeks. It slipped three places to 11th on $4m. At $407.6m, it is nowthe sixth biggest domestic release in history.

Meanwhile Yari Film Group's period mystery The Illusionist climbed six places to 14th,adding $1.8m from 144 screens for an impressive $3.2m 10-day tally.

Next weekend's wide releases are Fox's comedy Idiocracy starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph;Lionsgate's action thriller Crank starring Jason Statham; Sony's basketball drama Crossover starring Anthony Mackie and Wayne Brady;and Neil Labute's mystery remake The Wicker Man, which stars Nicolas Cage and EllenBurstyn and which is being released domestically by Warner Bros.

Estimated Top Ten North America Aug 25-27, 2006

Film (Distributor)/International distribution/Estimated weekend

gross/Estimated total to date

1 (-) Invincible (Buena Vista) BVI $17m -

2 (2) Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (Sony) SPRI $8m $127.7m

3 (7) Little Miss Sunshine (Fox Searchlight) Fox Int'l $7.5m $23m

4(-) Beerfest (Warner Bros) WBPI$6.5m -

5 (5) Accepted (Universal) UIP $6.48m $21.1m

6 (3) World Trade Center (Paramount) UIP $6.4m $55.6m

7 (4) Step Up (Buena Vista) Summit $6.2m $50.4m

8 (-) Idlewild (Universal) UIP $5.89m -

9 (1) Snakes On A Plane (New Line) NLI $5.86m $26m

10 (6) Barnyard:The Original Party Animals(Paramount) UIP $5.4m $54.7m