Affleck Cashes His Paycheck

Ben Affleck's new movie Paycheck made almost as much on its American Christmas Day release as his flop Gigli did in its entire cinema run.

The relieved movie star returned to form in the John Woo-directed action film, which took in an impressive $5.2 million in its first day of release - just $800,000 short of the paltry $6 million Gigli earned in it's entire run.

The film was one of four Christmas Day releases that had fans flocking to the cinema - all four entered the top 11 festive releases of all time. Steve Martin's Cheaper by the Dozen became the third biggest Christmas Day opening in history with an $8.2 million one-day haul, while Cold Mountain opened with $4.4 million and Peter Pan claimed the 11th spot with $3.7 million.