Steven Seagal Tops US Box Office

Steven Seagal, the leathery Aikido master and star of Under Siege, is riding high at the top of the American box office charts after a lengthy absence. The action thriller Exit Wounds took $19 million in its opening weekend, and went straight to the number one slot. The film features Seagal and co-star DMX as a cop and a criminal respectively, who team up to fight - yep, you guessed it - corrupt, drug-dealing cops. Seagal has hardly been a big box-office draw since his hardman heyday in the early 90s, with a lot of his recent efforts, such as Fire Down Below going direct to video. So he should be thanking his co-star, who is a hugely successful rapper and also had a cameo in Romeo Must Die, which, like Exit Wounds, was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. DMX has also been linked to another action project called Lazarus, in which he would co-star with Eminem. On the subject of the film's success, producer Joel Silver told Variety "Steven does a good job...(but) this just proved the power of this thing called hip-hop, which is not just urban, not just African American and not just about music. It's across the board."