Low-budget horror film "The Purge" jumped to the top of the North American box office in its opening weekend with $34.1 million in ticket sales, figures showed Monday. With a budget of only $3 million, Universal's feature stars Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey as parents fighting off a home invasion during a night when all crime is legal in an America of the near-future. It raced straight into the lead ahead of "Fast & Furious 6," the action sequel starring Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez that scored $19.6 million for a total of $203 million over three weeks in theaters.

By Belinda Goldsmith LONDON (Reuters) - British actress Helen Mirren had no trouble transforming herself from monarch to menacing creature for the new "Monsters, Inc." animated movie, but said she's not so frightening in real life. The 67-year-old veteran of stage and screen made headlines last month when she stormed out of a London theatre dressed as Queen Elizabeth to berate a group of drummers playing noisily outside in an expletive-riddled tirade. She later apologized.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - The psychiatrist who opened the doors of the Oregon State Hospital to filming of the 1975 Academy Award-winning movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has died. Dr. Dean Brooks died May 30 at a retirement home in Salem at age 96, family members said. He had been in declining health for several weeks after a fall.

Los Angeles, Jun 6 (EFE).- Actress Esther Williams, known as "The Mermaid of Hollywood," died Thursday at her home in Beverly Hills, California, her publicist announced. She was 91. The star of classic films such as "Ziegfeld Follies" (1945), "Neptune's Daughter" (1949) and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1949), but above all "Bathing Beauty" (1944), Williams was one of the great stars of MGM Studios.