LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Sci-fi action flick Rampage topped North American box offices over the weekend, taking in an estimated US$34.5 million (S$45 million) to barely beat out horror film A Quiet Place, industry tracker Exhibitor Relations said.
Rampage stars Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson in a plot perhaps better seen than described.
He plays a primatologist who befriends an albino gorilla which grows to enormous size after a rogue experiment and teams with Johnson to stop invading monsters.
While the three-day take for the new Warner film was said to be one of the best ever for a video game spin-off, its US$120 million budget means the movie will need to have strong legs to make its money back.
A Quiet Place, in its second week, took in a healthy US$32.6 million, buoyed by rave reviews. The almost wordless Paramount production stars actor/director John Krasinski and real-life wife Emily Blunt as a couple silently struggling to protect their family from invading aliens who are blind but can track their prey by sound.
In third place over the Friday the 13th weekend was yet another horror film, new Universal/Blumhouse release Truth Or Dare, which took in US$19.1 million - more than five times the movie's minuscule budget.
The supernatural thriller stars Lucy Hale and Tyler Posey as spring breakers caught up in an innocent game that turns deadly.
Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One - a futuristic homage to films of the 1980s - took in an estimated US$11.2 million to cling to fourth place in its third week out.
And in fifth was Blockers, a raunchy comedy from Universal starring John Cena and Leslie Mann, which netted US$10.3 million.