Queen Latifah's comedy Bringing Down the House leads the box office for the third straight weekend - but numbers have dropped significantly as a result of the war in Iraq.

The top 12 films grossed an estimated $83.9 million at the weekend - a 29 per cent drop from the same weekend a year ago.

Miramax's Rick Sands says, "I think the war has impacted people's desire to go out to the movies. I think people were at home with their families, they were watching the news and not a lot of movies did a lot of business."

Bringing Down the House - which sees Latifah starring alongside comic Steve Martin - topped the box office with $16.2 million, pushing its total take to $83.4 million.

The Stephen King adaptation Dreamcatcher, starring Morgan Freeman, opened in second place with $15.3 million and Agent Cody Banks - Frankie Muniz's teen-spy flick - dropped from second to third place in its second weekend, taking $9.3 million.

And it wasn't a good weekend for Hollywood stunner Gwyneth Paltrow - her new movie View From the Top, a slapstick airline comedy, could only debut in fourth.