Cats and Dogs tops US box office

Cats and Dogs: Secret war between the species

Family comedy Cats and Dogs has narrowly beaten Scary Movie 2 to be the most popular film in US cinemas this weekend.

Steven Spielberg's AI, which was number one last week, has dropped to third place.

US box office top five

1. Cats and Dogs

2. Scary Movie 2

3. AI

4. Kiss the Dragon

5. The Fast and the Furious

Source: Exhibitor Relations Co

Cats and Dogs took $21.7m (£15.4m) over the weekend, beating Scary Movie 2's $21m ($14.9m), according to studio estimates.

A mixture of live action and animation is used in Cats and Dogs, which stars Jeff Goldblum and features the voices of Alec Baldwin, Tobey Maguire and Susan Sarandon.

It depicts a top-secret, high-tech espionage war between cats and dogs, of which their human owners are unaware.

Scary Movie 2 is a follow-up to the spoof of horror film spoofs that promised viewers "no sequel".

Kiss the Dragon: Paris-set martial arts action film

Both were released on US Independence Day, 4 July.

AI, which is directed by Spielberg and based on an idea by the late director Stanley Kubrick, slipped from the number one spot to number three.

Starring Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment, it has been described as "a fairy tale within a bold sci-fi film".

Its total takings are now almost $60m (£42.5m), and it opens in Britain in September.

Another former number one, The Fast and the Furious, has pushed its earnings above $100m (£71m) - only the seventh film to hit that mark this year.

An unexpected hit with no big name stars, the film is about a group of illegal street racers in Los Angeles and is now at number five.

The success of martial arts fantasy Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has rubbed off on martial arts film Kiss the Dragon, starring Jet Li and Bridget Fonda, which entered the chart at number four.