They got out the big guns, and it was a fight which no one could have forseen - but the day has come when two Carla Gugino movies are ruling the US box office - and The Race To Witch Mountain has just pipped The Watchmen to the post.
Disney's Dwayne Johnson vehicle took $25 million, racing out in front after a strong opening weekend from those masked vigilantes nosedived by 67% to make only $18 million in its second weekend. Although Zack Snyder's graphic adaptation has so far grossed $86 million in the States in its first ten days, it is showing signs of a struggle to keep up the fight and continue to bring in the bucks before it slips from cinemas in the coming weeks.
Third place is Wes Craven's chilling return - The Last House On The Left - which made the most of the second Friday the 13th open in two months, and drew a tidy $14.7 million from horror fans.
And still doing the business, is Liam Neeson kidnap thriller Taken, which took its total up to $127 million with $6.7 million this week - coming in at fourth after seven weeks in the top five films.
In fourth place is Madea Goes To Jail, Tyler Perry's crazy tale of a little old granny sent to the clink - starring none other than The Cosby Show's resident little person Rudy Huxtable a.k.a. Keishia Knight Pulliam - which despite dropping down three places in the chart, still took $5.1 million bringing the four-week total to $83.2 million.
Other movies continuing to hold their own, were Slumdog Millionaire, which added $5 million to its $133 coffers; Paul Blart: Mall Cop which took another $3 million this week - bringing its total since January to $137 million; and Coraline which returned to 3D cinemas which brought its total to $69 million with a $2.6 million injection this week.