Ali enters ring on Christmas Day

The Ali film was nearly shelved in 2000 for lack of money

Ali, the boxing bio-pic starring Will Smith, earned $10.2m (£7m) on its Christmas Day première in the US.

The film about former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali beat the previous Christmas Day record, held by Robin Williams' Patch Adams which earned $8.1m (£5.6m) on 25 December 1998.

Muhammad Ali is probably the most known person around the world - and everybody's heard of Will Smith

Jeff Blake, Sony

But Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring remained top of the US box office over Christmas, earning $66.1m (£46m) from Friday 21 December through to Christmas Day.

The film has already enjoyed the best-ever opening for a December release, though some analysts say that its length - three hours, which limits the number of theatres which can run the film - has stopped it breaking major box office records.

'Biggest movie'

The Lord Of The Rings film has been a worldwide hit

Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone - known to US audiences as Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone - remains one of the US box office's biggest earners, after the best-ever opening in film history.

Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros, said: "Potter will easily break the $300m mark - it's the biggest movie ever in Warner history."

Number two in the Christmas period chart was Ocean's Eleven, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, which earned $21.4m (£15m).

US box office chart

1. Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring

2. Ocean's Eleven

3. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

4. Vanilla Sky

5. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone

6. Ali

7. How High

8. The Majestic

9. Not Another Teen Movie

10. Monsters Inc

The animated children's film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius took third place, accumulating $18.6m (£12.9m).

Also opening on Christmas Day along with Ali was the Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman romantic comedy Kate & Leopold, which earned $2.6m (£1.8m).

The Ali film is predicted to do good business into the new year.

Jeff Blake, president of worldwide marketing and distribution for Sony, which released the film, said: "Muhammad Ali is probably the most known person around the world."

"And the good news is, everybody's heard of Will Smith - they are a great one-two combination."