'Gulliver's Travels' tops UK box office

The 3D update of Jonathan Swift's 18th century satire on human nature "Gulliver's Travels" gave the British box office a storming start to the year, despite having failed to make much of an impact in North America.

The story of travel writer Lemuel Gulliver taking an assignment in Bermuda but ending up among the little people of Lilliput made a high 7.02 mn pounds (USD 10.9 mn) on its opening weekend, according to Screen International on Wednesday. That was more than double the opening take of the previous week's Christmas chart-topper "Little Fockers" which was down in second place. "Love and Other Drugs," with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway finding romance in the world of pharmaceutical sales, made its debut at number three. "The Way Back" was new at four with a factual story centred on soldiers escaping from a Siberian gulag in 1940. "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" was down three at five, just above another former UK chart-topper "Tron Legacy." "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" slipped three places to seventh while "Megamind," was down at eight from six. Ninth, down two, were Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in Venice-based caper "The Tourist", and animated 3D movie "Animals United" was also down two, at 10.