The Adam Sandler/Judd Apatow comedy express Funny People got off to a steady-if-unspectacular start in American cinemas this weekend, pulling in $23.4m. Not huge perhaps, especially compared with Sandler's last big summer release You Don't Mess With the Zohan ($38m), but certainly respectable for a celebral comedy with the Sandler goof quotient dialled back, and a ray of sunshine for Universal in a quiet summer.
In comparison with Funny People, which was always likely to rely on momentum from positive word-of-mouth, the not-so-slow-burning **Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince **clocked up second spot at the US box office. All the expecto patronum spells in the world couldn't prevent it falling 40%, although happily for Harry, Hermione, Ron et al, that still equates to $17.7m, mirroring the performance of The Order Of The Phoenix which went on to gross $292 million in the US.
In a less-than-stellar weekend - 25% down on the same timeframe last year - the remainder of the top five comprised Disney's guinea-pig based actioner G-Force ($17.1m), Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler rewaging the battle of the sexes in The Ugly Truth ($13m), and family adventure **Aliens In The Attic **($7.8m).
Head to Box Office Mojo for the full chart.