Two Towers keeps Star Trek at bay

The 10th Star Trek film adventure took nearly £2m

The latest Star Trek adventure has failed to oust The Two Towers from its position as the UK and Ireland's most popular movie.

Star Trek: Nemesis, the 10th Star Trek film, entered the box office charts at number two, taking £1.95m in its first three days.

However, its receipts still fell way short of those of the second Lord Of The Rings title, which brought in £5.73m during the same period.

The Peter Jackson-directed adaptation of Tolkien's fantasy has now made £38.49m in just three weeks at cinema screens in the UK and Ireland.

UK top five films

1. The Two Towers

2. Star Trek: Nemesis

3. Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets

4. Die Another Day

5. Sweet Home Alabama

Source: Screen International

In terms of receipts it has outdone the success of fourth-placed Bond film Die Another Day, which has taken £33.78m in seven weeks.

Overall, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is still in the lead at the box office, breaching the £50m barrier for the first time.

Its three-day income of £1.14m pushed its total receipts to £50.79m.

City of God - described by some critics as a Brazilian version of GoodFellas - entered the charts at number six, taking more than £307,000 in three days.

And Golden Globe-nominated Chicago - which had entered at eight last week despite being shown on only one screen - dropped to 10.

Other films in the top 10 include The Quiet American, an adaptation of the Graham Greene novel starring Michael Caine, and Sweet Home Alabama, starring Reese Witherspoon as a New York fashion designer returning to her southern roots.

The next big blockbuster to hit UK screens will be Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz, which opens on Friday.

The epic historical drama, weighing in at nearly three hours, explores the battles between Irish and Italian gangs for control of the New York's underworld in the mid-19th Century.

Scorsese has worked on the project on and off for 25 years, and it is being tipped for success at this year's Oscars.