RON HOWARD - HEAVENLY US BOX OFFICE DEBUT FOR ANGELS AND DEMONS

HEAVENLY US BOX OFFICE DEBUT FOR ANGELS AND DEMONS

Angels and Demons has claimed the US box office number one spot after a $48 million (£31.6 million) opening weekend, it has been confirmed.

While Ron Howard's adaptation of the Dan Brown novel was never close to matching the $76 million (£50 million) opening of last week's number one, Star Trek, it toppled the intergalactic adventure from the top spot while claiming an impressive $104.3 million (£68.7 million) international opening.

A sequel of sorts to The Da Vinci Code - though the novel it is based on is a prequel to the Holy Grail bestseller - Angels and Demons sees Tom Hanks returning as symbology professor Robert Langdon who looks to crack the code behind a deadly conspiracy in Vatican City.

"That chemistry [of Hanks and Howard] worked incredibly well with Da Vinci and it looks like it's absolutely headed in that same vein, certainly on a lesser scale," said Sony's Rory Bruer.

"We never expected anything to the phenomenon of Da Vinci," he added in reference to The Da Vinci Code's $77.1 million (£50.7 million) opening in 2006, though reviews for Angels and Demons were more positive than its predecessor.

Star Trek fell to second in the US top ten but still performed well with a $43 million (£28.3 million) haul while X-Men Origins: Wolverine dropped one place to second.

The top ten films at the US box office are: (last week's position)

1 Angels & Demons (-)
2 Star Trek (1)
3 X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2)
4 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (3)
5 Obsessed (4)
6 17 Again (5)
7 Monsters vs Aliens (8)
8 The Soloist (7)
9 Next Day Air (6)
10 Earth (9)