Jackie Robinson biopic '42' hits box office home run

AFP - Jackie Robinson biopic "42" hit a home run at the North American box office in its debut weekend, easily besting its box office rivals, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The film, starring Chadwick Boseman as the ground-breaking African American baseball star and Harrison Ford as the Brooklyn Dodgers exec who signed him, raked in $27.3 million in ticket sales.

"Scary Movie 5," the latest installment in the horror comedy franchise, opened far behind in second place at $15.2 million, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Stone-age cartoon "The Croods," DreamWorks Animation's latest family crowd pleaser, held on to third spot with $13.2 million, followed by action sequel "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," with $10.8 million.

"Evil Dead," a reinvention of Sam Raimi's cult 1981 film about a group of friends hunted by demons in the woods, dropped from first to fifth place in its second weekend with $9.5 million.

In sixth place was the 3D re-release of Steven Spielberg's 1993 dinosaur classic "Jurassic Park," which took in $8.8 million.

Action thriller "Olympus Has Fallen," a tale of terrorism and a kidnapped president in the US capital starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman, slipped two places to seventh with $7.3 million in box office receipts.

In eighth, Walt Disney's 3D fantasy adventure flick "Oz the Great and Powerful" earned $4.9 million. This was the blockbuster's sixth week in theaters, for a grand total topping $219 million so far.

"Tyler Perry's Temptation," a sultry thriller starring Vanessa Williams and Kim Kardashian, dropped from sixth to ninth place, with $4.5 million in ticket sales.

And rounding out the top 10, from 15th place a week ago, was "The Place Beyond the Pines," starring Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper as a motorcycle stunt-rider turned bank-robber and an ambitious rookie cop. The film earned $4.1 million in ticket sales.

Final figures are due out Monday.