Fahrenheit 9/11 breaks UK records

Following on from massive success in the US and Canada, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" has also wreaked havoc with UK records.

15:31 12 July 2004

Following on from massive success in the US and Canada, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" has also wreaked havoc with UK records.

In its opening weekend the controversial film took 1.3 million - a record for a documentary.

In the US, the film became the first ever documentary to top the US box office, as well as beating Moore's last offering "Bowling for Columbine" to become the highest grossing documentary in America's history.

In the UK, that record is held by mountaineering epic "Touching the Void" with 2.58m.

But that record looks set to fall as Moore's anti-Bush diatribe marches ever onwards.

So far the film has taken $80 million (45 million) in the US and Canada and won the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival.

In the UK it opened on 132 screens and its climax was greeted with applause at some showings.

The film examines the links between the Bush family and influential Middle Eastern families and oil barons.