LONDON: Comedian Rowan Atkinson took the British box office by storm over the weekend, bringing in 6.4 million pounds with “Mr Bean’s Holiday”.

The total, from Screen International, includes 1.9 million pounds from two days of previews but still makes the story of the bumbling Bean on holiday in France one of the biggest-grossing UK debuts over the past year. It pushed down to second place last week’s chart-topper “300”, the story of the bloody battle in 480 BC when 300 Spartans faced the huge Persian army.

New at three was more mutant cannibal horror in “The Hills Have Eyes II” sequel, while unchanged at four was the computer-animated story of an orphaned boy genius in “Meet the Robinsons”. Fifth down from second was Sandra Bullock in “Premonition,” glimpsing tragic events in the future and trying to stop them coming to pass.

Down three at six were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, back again after two decades and reduced to just their initials as the computer-generated heroes of “TMNT.”

At seven, down two, was the story of William Wilberforce’s fight against the slave trade in “Amazing Grace” while down four places to eighth was Eddie Murphy in “Norbit”.

Ninth, down three, were the comedy cops of Hot Fuzz while new at 10 was “The Last Mimzy,” an ET-style story of strange powers conferred on two children by a “toy” rabbit.—Reuters