Rush Hour 2 rumbles to top

Chan and Tucker's chemistry ensured big box office

Rush Hour 2 has battled its way to the top of the US box office with an impressive $66.8m (£46.9m) weekend gross despite mixed reviews.

The comedy martial arts movie starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker cost a reported $90m (£63m) to make.

US box office chart

1. Rush Hour 2

2. Planet of the Apes

3. The Princess Diaries

4. Jurassic Park III

5. America's Sweethearts

Tucker was paid $20m (£14m) and Chan $15m (£10m). Brett Ratner was brought back as director. A third Rush Hour film is already in the works, as evidenced by the outtakes at the end of Rush Hour 2.

Rush Hour 2 has entered the record books as the fourth best opener of all time. The second best opener of all time is the $68.5m (£48m) set the previous weekend by Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes.

"Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan have an incredible magic together that you can't duplicate," said producer Arthur Sarkissian. "People cheer, they laugh, they're having an incredibly good time."

Planet of the Apes is now in second place with $28.5m (£20m), followed by The Princess Diaries, starring newcomer Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, which took an unexpected $23.2m (£16.3m) opening weekend gross.

America's Sweethearts: Down to fifth place

Jurassic Park III dropped to fourth place with $12.1m (£8.5m) in its third weekend. The film has taken an impressive $146.8m (£103m) in two weeks. Rounding out the top five is America's Sweethearts which took $8.4m (£5.9m) in its third weekend.

The disappointment of the weekend was the debut of Original Sin, a Cuban-set romance starring Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas which took only $6.4m (£4.5m) over the weekend, putting it in sixth place.