A remake of the 1978 horror classic Halloween has gone straight to number one in the US box office chart.

The slasher movie took over twice as much in takings as its nearest rival geek comedy Superbad, which slips down a place to second.

Ping pong comedy Balls of Fury starring Christopher Walken is the highest new entry, debuting at three.

The top ten movies in full:

1. (-) Halloween (2007) -$26,503,000
2. (1) Superbad - $12,200,000
3. (-) Balls of Fury - $11,605,000
4. (2) The Bourne Ultimatum - $10,183,000
5. (3) Rush Hour 3 - $8,560,000
6. (4) Mr Bean's Movie -$5,930,000
7. (6) The Nanny Diaries - $5,108,000
8. (-) Death Sentence Fox $4,180,000
9. (5) War - $3,610,000
10. (8) Stardust - $3,008,000