Titans tower in the US

Denzel Washington's film received Presidential approval

Denzel Washington's new movie Remember The Titans has returned the feel-good factor to Hollywood, going straight in at number one at the US box office.

The American football movie, which gained Presidential support from Bill Clinton at the premiere, leapfrogged the horror re-release The Exorcist.

US box office

1. Remember the Titans (£14.2m)

2. The Exorcist (£5m)

3. Almost Famous (£3.7m)

4. Urban Legends: Final Cut (£3.1m)

5. Bring It On (£1.9m)

6. The Watcher (£1.5m)

7. Nurse Betty (£2.1m)

8. Bait (£1.1m)

8. What Lies Beneath (£1.1m)

10. Space Cowboys (£900,000)

10. Beautiful (£900,000)

The movie took a creditable $21.2m (£14.2m) in its opening weekend.

Despite the boost from Remember the Titans, box office ticket sales remain 30% down on the same time last year.

Studio bosses are hoping for a lift in fortunes next week with the release of Sylvester Stallone's re-make of British gangster movie Get Carter and Robert De Niro's new comedy, Meet the Parents.

Titans tells the true story of the TC Williams High School American football team in the 1970s.

At the premiere in Washington, President Clinton urged people to learn the lesson of racial integration from the movie.

Sally Field's directorial debut, Beautiful, which stars Minnie Driver, crept into the top ten, earning $1.4m (£900,000).

Driver, star of Good Will Hunting and Return To Me, plays a single mother striving to be a beauty pageant queen.

The Exorcist and Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe's rock and roll odyssey, maintain their steady runs, at position two and three in the charts, according to box office monitoring company Exhibitor Relations.

Girlfight, the low-budget movie about female boxing, earned $210,000 (£142,000) from just 28 screens. The film recently won awards at Cannes and the Sundance film festival.