GUY RITCHIE - ROCKNROLLA HAS THE MUSCLE TO TOP UK BOX OFFICE

ROCKNROLLA HAS THE MUSCLE TO TOP UK BOX OFFICE

RocknRolla, Guy Ritchie's new crime movie, has topped the UK and Ireland box office charts after its first weekend on release.

The London-set film, starring Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton and Toby Kebbell, earned £1.56 million to topple last week's number one, Step Brothers, from the summit.

Telling of a lost painting ruling the fate of a corrupt land deal between the capital's criminal underworld and a Russian oligarch, RocknRolla's success is a marked improvement on Ritchie's last film, Swept Away.

The 2002 romance, starring the director's wife Madonna, received such a poor critical response that it did not receive a UK release.

Ritchie intends to follow RocknRolla with a sequel and is soon to start production on a Sherlock Holmes film starring Robert Downey Jr.

Mamma Mia! remained at number two after its ninth week on release while Keira Knightley-starring drama The Duchess entered in third.

Spoof film Disaster Movie scraped into the top five after its first three days at UK and Irish cinemas while Nicolas Cage's Bangkok Dangerous - which was confirmed as the US number one on Monday - debuted at ten.

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

1 RocknRolla - £1.56 million (-)
2 Mamma Mia! - £1.42 million (2)
3 The Duchess - £1.4 million (-)
4 Step Brothers - £1.1 million (1)
5 Disaster Movie - £925,654 (-)
6 The Strangers - £746,507 (3)
7 The Dark Knight - £586,944 (5)
8 Hellboy II: The Golden Army - £507,908 (4)
9 Get Smart - £350,456 (6)
10 Bangkok Dangerous - £307,420 (-)