George Clooney and his partners-in-crime enjoy their opening week at number one in the US box office chart.

The Warners film, starring Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, took a spectacular $40.8m this weekend. This makes it the fourth highest-grossing December release ever, behind the Lord of the Rings films.

The film's predecessor, Oceans Eleven, opened in 2001 with $38.1m and went on to take a total of $183.4m in the US.

In second place was latest instalment of Wesley Snipes' vampire yarn, Blade: Trinity, which took just $16.1m. This figure is a fall from its predecessors, with Blade opening in 1998 with $17m and Blade 2 debuting in 2002 with $32.5m.

These newcomers left previous chart-topper National Treasure in third place, taking $9.9m.

The full estimates from Exhibitor Relations:
1. Ocean's Twelve - $40.8m
2. Blade: Trinity - $16.1m
3. National Treasure - $9.9m
4. The Polar Express - $9.7m
5. Christmas with the Kranks - $7.6m
6. The Incredibles - $5m
7. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie - $4.3m
8. Closer - $3.7m
9. Finding Neverland - $1.6m
10. Alexander - $1.4m