Fortune has smiled on Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, the film adaptation of Daniel Handler's dark children's tales, conquered the UK box office at the weekend with takings of £2m. The film, which stars Jim Carrey in hyper-Carrey mode, also reached No 1 in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Portugal.
Snicket's success pushed the superhero comedy The Incredibles into second place, ending the animated feature's two-week reign over the UK box office. The Polar Express, its rival animated film about a boy's quest to find Father Christmas, is at third.
Blade: Trinity, the followup to the adventures of vampire hunter Wesley Snipes, is in fourth place, while the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd-Webber's The Phantom Of The Opera drops to fifth.
Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason is sliding steadily down the chart, dropping one rung to take sixth place. Christmas With The Kranks, starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as parents who cancel their holiday in the sun to have Christmas at home, is seventh.
