Bridget's v.v. good box office

She has not been treated kindly by the critics, but fans of Bridget Jones clearly beg to differ.

The long-awaited sequel has rocketed to number one at the UK box office, taking just under £10.5million in ticket sales.

Renée Zellweger as the lovelorn Bridget toppled Sarah Michelle Gellar and horror film The Grudge off the top spot. It means Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason is rapidly catching up with the other hit of the autumn, Shark Tale.

One week into its British run, the new Bridget Jones pulled in nearly half of Shark Tale's

£22million UK cinema receipts. It also triumphs over the much-hyped Jude Law vehicle Alfie, which has made £4.5million in four weeks and is languishing in 12th place at the box office.

Working Title's sequel to the hit Bridget Jones's Diary is also topping the

international box office, having taken £14.4 million outside the US. It opened in 36 countries last Friday. In Australia, receipts totalled £2.3 million, a 125 per cent increase on the first film. It was also number one in the Netherlands, Poland and Croatia.

In the US, meanwhile, Bridget entered the box office ratings at number five, with $8.6 million (£4.85 million) in receipts. Pixar's blockbuster animation The Incredibles still triumphs in the number one spot, with more than $1 billion (£540 million) after two weeks.

In America, the Bridget Jones opening was brought forward a week to coincide with its global launch, and to see off competition from the heavily-marketed new Nicolas Cage film, National Treasure. The Indiana Jones-style adventure, opens this weekend, with heavy tie-in promotions from McDonald's and Vodafone. The success of Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason comes despite a panning from US critics after its premiere there last week. The New York Daily News complained: "I can't remember many sequels as redundant and unnecessary."

The Washington Post critic added that Helen Fielding, the creator of Bridget Jones, had, with her co-writers, "turned what I can only believe were Bridget's charmingly human imperfections on the page into a lump of schoolgirl-style boy craziness and corrosive selfloathing".

But the Arizona Daily Star raved: "Edgier than its predecessor, with zippier quips and more irreverence."