Two Oscar winners and a teen heartthrob failed to bring down last week's champion, as Bringing Down The House laughed loudest with an estimated $22.4 million gross over the weekend.

Next week will be another story as moviegoers rush to see two high profile releases.

The chiller, Dreamcatcher, based on a Stephen King novel and directed by Lawrence Kasadan, will play on over 2,500 screens. The comedy, View From The Top, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and featuring Christina Applegate and Mike Meyers, will have a high profile release as well.

This week, Bringing Down... stood firm despite reasonably decent openings for the teen movie Agent Cody Banks ($15 million) and the adult drama The Hunted ($13.5 million).

Antoine Fuqua's Tears Of The Sun, a movie celebrating Americans rescuing a group of black Africans trapped in a civil war, is limping at the box-office. Fuqua's Training Day had not only fetched Denzel Washington his first Oscar as leading man but also received better reviews and grossed about $80 million in North America.

After a so-so start last week with about $17 million, Tears... came down by about 50 per cent, grossing $8.8 million. If the steep attrition continues, the Bruce Willis starrer could end with $50 million. The same producer's military drama, Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, on the other hand, had grossed about $110 million over a year ago.

The 13 Oscar-nominated musical Chicago went up by 20 per cent, without adding any new theatre to its 2,600 theatre count. After a $7.7 million gross, its total now stands at $125 million. Its American gross is now twice that of Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge. It has to be seen if it will overtake that film's $100 million gross abroad.

Despite the looming competition next week, Bringing Down the House, which has grossed about $69 million (and lost a reasonable 30 per cent of its box-office) is on its way to the $100 million club.

Co-producer Ashok Amritraj had predicted the film would revive Steve Martin's career; he had firmly believed that getting the actor back in a physical comedy would draw fans in significant numbers. By casting popular African-American actress Queen Latifah (whose high profile Oscar nomination for Chicago also helped), Bringing Down... enhanced its appeal to black audiences.

African-Americans constitute a strong movie audience and came out in significant numbers to embrace the feel-good film.

Agent Cody Banks, MGM's low budget movie, with its $15 million gross, adds to the continuing streak of comedies winning at the box-office (Only a few comedies have failed in the last 12 months. Ironically three of them -- I Spy, Adventures Of Pluto Nash and Showtime -- starred Eddie Murphy, generally considered to be a powerhouse comic.)

His friends and family see Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) as a typical teen. But he has a secret -- he is actually part of a secret teen CIA programme. He seems to be living many a young boy's dream: he can drive like a stuntman; he owns an arsenal of gadgets; his agency mentor, Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon), is a bomb.

Cody faces a big challenge when he is sent to pose as a prep school student and befriend fellow teen Natalie Connors (Hilary Duff) to gain access to her father, who is unknowingly developing a fleet of dangerous nanobots (tiny robots) for an evil organisation.

Reviews for the film were mixed, mostly negative. While the trade publication Hollywood Reporter called it 'a wholly uninspired Spy Kids knockoff', Entertainment Weekly thought it was a 'clever and lively action-adventure with a warm sense of humour and smart dialogue.'

Many reviewers complained the violent action in the movie is not suitable for young viewers, but People magazine found it 'amusing and semi-exciting.'

Frankie Muniz came for special praise in the USA Today review, which said the movie 'features one of the more likeable young actors around.'

Veteran director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, French Connection) offers a few scary moments and good performances from Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones (Best Supporting Actor, The Fugitive) and Benicio Del Toro (Best Supporting Actor, Traffic) in The Hunted. The movie, which has some of the more gripping and gory scenes in recent times, received mixed reviews. It revolves around a tough martial arts agent out to hunt a renegade pupil who has become a serial killer.

Calling the movie a 'Rambo rehash,' Peter Travers, in Rolling Stone magazine, acknowledged the power of the knife fight scenes in the movie.

Roger Ebert, who loved the film, wrote in Chicago Sun-Times: 'This is not an arm's length chase picture, but a close physical duel between its two main characters.'

The Miami Herald complained, 'The movie is so openly, defiantly derivative of First Blood, you figure there has to be a copyright lawsuit brewing right this very minute.'

But the audiences in the first weekend did not seem to mind. If it does not alienate the audiences over the coming weeks, it should end its run with a decent $50 million in North America with a stronger gross in video and DVD stores.