Affleck's Argo tops North American box office

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Argo, based on a true story about six Americans spirited out of Iran during the 1979-80 hostage crisis, was the top movie in North America this weekend with US$12.3 million (S$15 million) in tickets sold, industry estimates showed on Sunday.

In its second week of release, the film directed by and starring Hollywood actor Ben Affleck jumped from the second to the top spot, earning a total of US$60.8 million.

Second place went to the animated film Hotel Transylvania about an overprotective vampire dad intent on guarding his adolescent daughter against a budding romance with a human boy. The movie earned US$9.4 million.

The third spot went to the debut of the genre-busting, time-traveling Cloud Atlas, in which Tom Hanks and Halle Berry each play six different roles set across a 500-year span. It earned US$9.4 million.