Spacey's alien thriller invades charts

Spacey tries to convince people that he is from outer space

Kevin Spacey's alien thriller K-Pax has stormed to the top of the US film chart, in a weekend dominated by ghouls and spooks.

K-Pax, also starring Jeff Bridges, took $17.5m (£12.09m) in its opening weekend, while the Halloween horror remake 13 Ghosts came a close second with $15m (£10.3m).

Last week's number one From Hell, starring Johnny Depp in a story about Victorian murderer Jack the Ripper, slipped to third place with $6.1m (£4.2m).

Meanwhile, Boney - another ghost chiller starring rapper Snoop Dogg - opened more modestly at number nine with $2.95m (£2m).

US box office top five

1. K-Pax

2. 13 Ghosts

3. From Hell

4. Riding in Cars with Boys

5. Training Day

In K-Pax, Spacey plays a patient in a psychiatric hospital who claims he is a visitor from outer space.

He turns out to have a healing effect on fellow patients and his psychiatrist, played by Bridges.

A spokeswoman for the movie's production company Universal commented that K-Pax did well because it had real dramatic tension.

"I think the fact is, it's the first real dramatic film for adults released in a very long time," said Nikki Rocco, adding: "It's not a film for teenagers."

Horror remake 13 Ghosts appealed to a young audience

But horror movie 13 Ghosts appealed to a young audience with 55% estimated to have been aged between 18 and 25, according to distributors Warner Bros.

The film stars F Murray Abraham and Tony Shalhoub in a remake of William Castle's 1960 haunted-house tale.

Drew Barrymore's drama Riding in Cars with Boys slipped to number four from last week's two after making $6m (£4.1m).

The number five position was a close race between Training Day, starring Denzel Washington, and Bandits, starring Bruce Willis.

In the end, Training Day won the battle, making $5.11m over Bandits's $5.05m (£3.4m).

The weekend's other new release On The Line failed to make it above 11th position in the chart after making $2.3m (£1.5m).

Barrymore stars in Riding in Cars with Boys

The movie stars singers Lance Bass and Joey Fatone from US pop group 'N Sync in a romantic comedy which marks their feature-film debut.

Overall, box office takings for the top 12 movies were up 1% from last weekend at $73.4m (£50.7m).

New releases next weekend include the Jet Li action thriller The One, the animated Monsters, Inc and the John Travolta thriller Domestic Disturbance.