The Jackass jackpot

It was made for a fraction of the cost of its rivals and involves nothing more than mindless masochism.

But Jackass: The Movie - based on the cult MTV and Channel 4 series of outrageous and dangerous stunts - has stunned critics by topping the US cinema charts. The film, which sees Johnny Knoxville and his team pole-vaulting into walls, defecating in mock toilets set up in DIY stores and munching on snow laced with urine, raked in almost £15million in its opening weekend.

Perhaps not surprisingly, two-thirds of audiences in the US and Canada were men - half of them aged from 17 to 24. The film was not screened for critics in advance of release, as producers wanted it to be driven by word of mouth - a gamble that paid off. MTV president Van Toffler summed it up, saying: 'We produced a good, mindless escape for the weekend.'