Detractors 0, Arnie 1

It looked to all the world as if Collateral Damage would disappear completely in the September 11 fallout. But, after it's belated cinema debut over the weekend, Universal should be thanking their lucky stars that inclinations towards excess sensitivity didn't relegate Schwarzenegger's actioner to late night cable TV. Opening across America this weekend, the film clambered to the top of the box office, gathering a not insignificant $15.2 million and skating all over John McTiernan's maligned Rollerball remake - which scraped third with a pitiful $9m. The film sees Arnold exacting furrow-browed vengeance upon a group of Colombian terrorists who blew up his wife and child. Falling ever so close to home after the attack on the World Trade Centre, Collateral Damage suffered a delay of several months while it was decided whether or not the film would get a theatrical release. Those of a sensitive disposition grumbled at its inappropriateness but, after a somewhat excessive amount of cinematic eggshell walking, we're glad to see things returning to some semblance of normality.