NEW YORK (Bloomberg) - Action movie The Fate Of The Furious led the North American box office for the third straight weekend, the last slow stretch before big summer pictures start opening in theatres.

The eighth instalment in the series added an estimated US$19.4 million (S$27 million) in ticket sales in the US and Canada, ComScore said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday.

Of two new films in wide release, The Circle, with Tom Hanks as a Silicon Valley chief executive officer, placed a disappointing fourth with US$9.3 million.

Emma Watson features in the movie as a young new recruit who gets caught up in a nefarious scheme to invade people's privacy.

The other new release was How To Be A Latin Lover, a comedy that placed second with sales of US$12 million.

The May-to-September stretch typically produces about 40 per cent of the industry's annual ticket sales.

It is expected to start strong on May 5 with a Walt Disney sequel to its 2015 surprise hit Guardians Of The Galaxy