Kung Fu Panda chops up box office

Kung Fu Panda has kicked Sex and the City from the top spot of the US box office, early figures have shown.

The animated film about Po, a panda who becomes a kung-fu master to save his jungle from leopard villains, took $60m (£30.4m) in its opening weekend.

Adam Sandler's comedy You Don't Mess With the Zohan opened in second place with $40m (£20.3m), while Indiana Jones's latest outing was in third.

Sex and the City slipped to the fourth spot in its second weekend in cinemas.

NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE

• 1. Kung Fu Panda - $60m (£30.4m)
• 2 You Don't Mess With the Zohan - $40m (£20.3m)
• 3 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $22.8m (£11.5m)
• 4 Sex and the City - $21.3m (£10.8m)
• 5 The Strangers - $9.3m (£4.7m)

It took receipts of $21.3m (£10.8m) - a steep 63% decline from its $56.8m (£28.8m) debut weekend - bringing a total of $99.3m (£50.3m) after only 10 days.

Recent strong showings have helped Hollywood to chip away at its box office deficit compared with 2007, which was a record year for revenues.

"This month offers the marketplace the opportunity to catch up with last year," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

"Last year's June was not as strong as expected and this year's may be stronger, so we're definitely narrowing the gap in terms of revenue and attendance."

Horror film The Strangers took $9.3m (£4.7m), followed by Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr, which took another $7.5m (£3.8m) for a total of £289m (£146.4m).

Rounding out the top 10 were Narnia: Prince Caspian with $5.5m (£2.8m), rom-com What Happens in Las Vegas with $3.4m (£1.72m), Baby Mama with $0.78m (£0.4m) and Made of Honor $0.775 (£0.39m).

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