Who says you can’t have a big hit movie come out in the middle of January? Traditionally a graveyard for films, unless they’re in the running for an Oscar, Paramount’s Cloverfield – produced, of course, by JJ Abrams, and reviewed here – swept up an incredible $41m opening weekend, leading the weekend box office in the States by some distance. We still don’t got the film until the start of February over here, sadly. It’s worth waiting for, though.

Elsewhere in the States, romantic comedy 27 Dresses has shot out of the gate at good speed, too, with the Katherine ‘Knocked Up’ Hiegl starring movie earning $22.4m in its opening weekend.

Further down the chart, Oscar hopefuls such as Juno and The Bucket List have $42m and $85m respectively, while the National Treasure sequel has ably recovered from qutie a slow start to now sit on $198m.

That keeps it just ahead of Alvin and the Chipmunks, now on a gob-smacking $196m, and set to cross $200m next week. In the all-time box office, that now moves it ahead of Gladiator, Toy Story, Grease, Mission: Impossible and Top Gun in the US. Next in its sights? It should overtake the third Indiana Jones film, Gone With The Wind (non-inflation adjusted, natch), Armageddon, Terminator 2 and possibly even Back to the Future by the end of its run. That’s depressing.

Elsewhere, I Am Legend now sits at $248m, Sweeney Todd at $48m and The Golden Compass looks like topping out at $70m (although its $245m overseas take should turn it into profit – whether it’ll be enough to warrant episode two remains to be seen).

Next week in the States sees the release of Stallone’s latest, incidentally, the new Rambo film. It’s not now called Rambo IV, or John Rambo. It’s just called Rambo. And, against all our better judgement, we have high hopes for it…