Hero of the US box office!

The dazzling martial art drama Hero slew the opposition to become the box office champ in North America over the weekend.

Though its release was postponed several times over the last two years and some people thought the historical adventure could be inaccessible to Americans, the Chinese film enjoyed a warm welcome with a $17.8 million gross.

Hero, starring Jet Li, revolves around an unnamed warrior who stands up to a ruthless and greedy monarch.

The $30 million film was directed by Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern, Jou Dou), three-time Oscar nominee for foreign film.

The costliest Chinese film ever, it has grossed over $100 million abroad, most of it in China, Japan and South Korea.

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Exceeding expectations, the jungle adventure Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid opened with $13 million in second spot.

If it does well abroad, the movie could be profitable.

The Ben Kingsley starrer, Suspect Zero, was dead on arrival in 10th place with a puny $3.4 million gross.

The comedy Super Babies: Baby Geniuses 2 also opened with a poor $3.3 million gross. It was 11th.

With its robust opening, Hero could earn at least $50 million in North America, less than half of what Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon harvested four years ago. But given that the new film is more complex than Ang Lee's movie, whatever it earns in North America is a solid achievement.

A raft of strong reviews helped Hero straddle the box office coast to coast. Writing in The Boston Globe, Wesley Morris declared: 'Martial-arts poem Hero is an exemplary feat of filmmaking, a movie so pretty, popular (in its native China, anyway), colour-coordinated, and willing to have fun that you could probably ask it to the prom.'

Hollywood Reporter called it a 'spellbinding silk and sword epic.'

But The New York Times had a few reservations: ' (Hero) is easy on the eyes, but it's too segmented to gather much momentum and too art-directed to convey much urgency.'

Though it was expected Anacondas (right), the sequel to the 1997 reptile thriller, would be stoned by the critics, some reviewers grudgingly welcomed it.

In The New York Times Dave Kehr wrote the film 'has no pretensions and gets its little job done effectively, providing some small-scale laughs and chills for the late summer season.'

The low budget comedy aimed at young audiences, Without A Paddle, did not sink in its second week. Coming down by a moderate 36 percent and taking the third position on the box office charts, it is on its way to make a tidy profit.

The audience-pleasing Princess Diaries 2 has a lot more life left. In the fourth position, it made about $8 million, taking its total to $75 million.

Last week's box office leader, Exorcist: The Beginning, came down predictably by about 62 percent, and in fifth place.

Even without Hero, which is expected to have a stronger hold on the US box office in the coming weeks than many martial arts films, the new Exorcist seems to have no chance at the box office.

While Collateral, at number 6, is a medium-sized hit, The Bourne Supremacy, at number 9, continues to make money. With about $157 million in just about six weeks, expect the Matt Damon film to end its North American run with a terrific $170 million. Not many suspense thrillers reach that altitude.

 The box office this week: