'Social Network' beats 'RED' at Aus box office

The Social Network has held off competition from Bruce Willis's latest action movie RED to take first place at the Australian box office.

David Fincher's Facebook drama, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake, debuts with $2.6 million in box office takings ahead of RED's $1.7 million haul.

Last week's number one Paranormal Activity 2 falls to third spot, while Katherine Heigl rom-com Life As We Know It is at number four. Saw 3D, the final instalment in the horror saga, completes the top five.

Elsewhere, the Sally Hawkins-led drama Made In Dagenham - about women fighting for equal pay at a Ford car plant in the '60s - is the chart's only other new entry at number nine.

The box office top ten in full (figures in Australian dollars):

1. (-) The Social Network - $2,687,927
2. (-) RED - $1,739,643
3. (1) Paranormal Activity 2 - $1,486,704
4. (2) Life As We Know It - $1,277,034
5. (-) Saw 3D - $930,808
6. (3) The Town - $813,902
7. (4) Eat Pray Love - $690,643
8. (5) Resident Evil: Afterlife - $391,119
9. (-) Made In Dagenham - $230,930
10. (7) Despicable Me - $150,936