The race was on. On Friday, February 27, the sequel to the exciting Steve Martin film and return of inspector Jacques Clouseau, The Pink Panther 2 debuted in Spain. Meanwhile, Brad Pitt held the undisputable lead at the box office in Spain with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The question was, which would the Spanish public choose?

Well, neither the panther nor the man who celebrated birthdays in reverse could pull it off in the end. Thanks to the Oscars, the children of Slumdog Millionaire were the weekend favourites, substantially beating the Hollywood box office receipts. The film by Danny Boyle took first place, earning more than 1.75 million euros (and, up-to-now, 4.76 million) after three weeks showing in Spanish cinemas.

In second place was the debut of The Pink Panther 2, with 1.53 million in ticket sales, followed by Benjamin Button, which after taking in 1.06 million euros over the weekend, has surpassed the ten million mark from Spanish ticket sales.

In fourth place was the Oscar-awarded Kate Winslet with The Reader at 684,343 euros, totalling 2.76 million for three weeks. And, coming in behind that were the snobby little dogs of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which took in 673,010 euros for an accumulated 5.17 million in four weeks.

Push fell to sixth place, in its second week since release, with 602,401 euros over the weekend, followed by In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, the film version of the video game "Dungeon Siege", which debuted at 523,632 euros.

Finally, the second part of the biopic of Che Guevara, Che: Part II premiered in eighth place, with 381,552 euros, followed by Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler with 192,318 euros and Tom Cruise in Valkyrie with 181,600 (5.83 million in five weeks).