Steve Martin plays a father of 12 in Cheaper By The Dozen

Martin's film took £1.82m between Friday and Sunday, compared to the £1.67m made by Murphy's feature.

Last week's No 1, Jack Black's School Of Rock, slipped to third place, while Jack Nicholson's Oscar-nominated film Something's Gotta Give fell to fourth.

Martin is also at No 5 in children's film Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

The weekend saw the release of a number of family-oriented films in a bid to cash in on the lucrative half term audience.

UK and Ireland box office 1. Cheaper By The Dozen 2. The Haunted Mansion 3. School Of Rock 4. Something's Gotta Give 5. Looney Tunes: Back In Action Source: Screen International

However, acclaimed movies Big Fish, Lost In Translation and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King all slipped down the Top 10, before their heavy showing at this weekend's BAFTA film awards.

So did comedy spoof Scary Movie 3 and Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai, now at ninth and tenth place respectively.

The only other new entry is British fantasy Tooth, which entered at no 13 having made £209,000 from 322 screens.