6:36pm UK, Tuesday June 01, 2004

The Day After Tomorrow has swept aside Troy to go straight to the top of the UK box office.

The $125m epic, in which the world is gripped by a new Ice Age, took £7.3m in its first weekend in Britain and Ireland.

Brad at Troy premiere

The film stars Dennis Quaid as a climatologist who warns that global warming will melt polar ice, raise sea levels and push freezing arctic air south.

The resulting chaos sees tornadoes wreck Los Angeles, melon-sized hailstones batter Tokyo and tidal waves engulf New York's Statue of Liberty.

The computer-generated action scenes won over many critics and helped the film take $86m (£47m) in North America in its opening four days.

Troy, starring Brad Pitt as the Greek warrior Achilles, slipped to second place after taking £2.4m, Screen International said.

Vampire thriller Van Helsing fell one place to third, while quirky romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind dropped to fourth.

La Mala Educacion (Bad Education), Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's dark story of child abuse and the Catholic church, was steady at number five.