Dan's Media Digest

Well, we're in the midst of the summer blockbuster season, so what are the charts telling us? It seems the Americans have gone ga-ga over transforming robots and cooking rats, Bruce Willis remains a strong draw for crowds, but Evan Almighty has been a disappointment (particularly considering its near-$200m budget!), while nobody seems to care about Michael Moore's documentary critique of the US health care system, Sicko...

US TOP 10

1. Tranformers $70.5m
2. Ratatouille $29m
3. Live Free Or Die Hard $17.7m
4. License To Wed $10.4m
5. Evan Almighty $8.72m
6. 1408 $7.09m
7. Knocked Up $5.22m
8. Fantastic Four - Rise Of The Silver Surfer $4.24m
9. Sicko $3.6m
10. Ocean's Thirteen $3.53m

UK TOP 10

1. Shrek The Third £5.04m
2. Die Hard 4.0 £5m
3. Fantasic Four - Rise Of The Silver Surfer £658k
4. Ocean's Thirteen £460k
5. Pirates Of The Caribbean - At World's End £366k
6. Hostel: Part II £282k
7. Apne £120k
8. Mome, La £108k
9. Tell No One £64k
10. Vacancy £57k

In the UK, we're currently swamped by sequels, with Shrek 3 reigning supreme (despite negative reviews), and Bruce Willis sprinkling his magic on Die Hard fans here too. We're not so keen on Hostel 2 (it was similarly ignored in the US), while the chart's bottom half is dominated by little-seen foreign-language flicks (in the chart, despite only taking a hundred grand in takings).

UK RELEASES THIS WEEK

HARRY POTTER & THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
Harry faces ridicule by proclaiming the return of Voldemort, as Hogwarts is taken over by an authoritarian bureaucrat. Fantasy sequel starring Daniel Radcliffe, Gary Oldman and Michael Gambon.