The top dog at the box office faces competition from two Hollywood heavyweights Friday, as Warner Bros. bows the political thriller Body of Lies, featuring Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The latest from director Ridley Scott, opening on 2,500 North American screens, will be hard-pressed to generate the same opening-weekend grosses as his previous project, American Gangster, which rang in US$43 million last November.

In addition to Beverly Hills Chihuahua — with a box-office total of US$31 million after one week — Lies is up against other wide U.S. releases including the Columbia horror Quarantine, on 2,300 screens, and Universal’s sports drama The Express, opening on 2,700 screens.

Reviews for Lies have been mixed, with Variety calling it ‘contrived phony-baloney,’ while The Canadian Press says ‘it’s a joy to watch DiCaprio and Crowe verbally sparring.’

Meanwhile, KinoSmith Films will release the documentary All Together Now, about the collaboration between The Beatles’ late George Harrison and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté on the Las Vegas show Love. It opens in markets including Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Vancouver.

Alliance Films’ Blindness will hold 91 of its 98 screens going into its second weekend. Despite mixed reviews, the film had a per-screen average of $3,000 in its opening weekend in Canada.

In home entertainment, Maple Pictures will release Martin Gero’s buzzed-about relationship comedy Young People Fucking on DVD Tuesday. The distributor declined to reveal units shipped, but a spokesperson says it’s a larger than usual order for a Canadian release. The DVD contains extras including commentaries by the director and writers.