According to The Hollywood Reporter, In a surprisingly strong late-summer showing, Miramax's Hero conquered audiences in North America and easily captured first place this weekend with an estimated $17.8 million at the boxoffice. The debut for the Jet Li starrer, from writer-director Zhang Yimou, was the second-biggest opening of all time for a foreign-language film after Newmarket's The Passion of the Christ.

Slithering into the second spot was Screen Gem's Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. The relatively low-budget sequel from director Dwight Little wrapped up an estimated $13.2 million in its debut, in the area expected and slightly less than the $16.6 million of the original film.

The frame's only other wide releases were Paramount's Suspect Zero and Sony's Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 from Triumph -- both films opened unspectacularly to less than $4 million each.

"Suspect," a crime thriller starring Ben Kingsley, Aaron Eckhart and Carrie-Anne Moss and directed by Elias Merhige, which cost less than $10 million, was in the 10th spot with an estimated $3.4 million. While "Superbabies," a family-aimed comedy helmed by Bob Clark, that also carried a low budget, placed 11th with an estimated $3.3 million.

Hero was released August 27th, 2004 and stars Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang, Daoming Chen, Donnie Yen, Liu Zhong Yuan, Zheng Tia Yong. The film is directed by Yimou Zhang.