"The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," the latest in the teen vampire film franchise, sank its fangs into a hefty 83-million-dollar box office share to snag the top spot over the long holiday weekend, final figures showed Tuesday.
The teen goth romance flick, which opened last Wednesday, so far has racked up ticket sales of 176 million dollars in North America, benefiting from the four-day July 4 weekend, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
In second place was the debut of "The Last Airbender," based on a popular television series in which beings are endowed with magical powers allowing them to control air, earth, water and fire.
Despite poor reviews, the movie sold 51.8 million dollars in tickets over the four-day weekend period.
Last week's box office champ, "Toy Story 3" -- the biggest-ever opener for animated filmmaker Disney/Pixar -- raked in 43 million dollars, for a total of 301.8 million dollars over three weeks.
Fourth place went to "Grown Ups," the Adam Sandler and Chris Rock comedy about a reunion of high school friends, which took in 26 million dollars.
In fifth was "Knight and Day," an action comedy starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, earning 14.1 million dollars.
"The Karate Kid" fell two notches to sixth place, selling 11 million dollars in tickets, while seventh place went to the action comedy "The A-Team," a remake of the 1980s television series about four rogue soldiers of fortune, which took in 4.4 million dollars.
Eighth place went to raunchy comedy "Get Him To The Greek" about a heroin-addicted rocker attempting a comeback in Los Angeles, with 1.7 million dollars in ticket sales.
"Shrek Forever After," the fourth and final installment in the movies about the lovable green ogre, came in ninth place, with 1.2 million dollars in receipts, for a grand total of 232.6 million dollars in tickets sold since its opening seven weeks ago.
The 10th spot went to the offbeat romantic comedy "Cyrus" with 1.09 million dollars in ticket sales in its third week of release.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
