'21', the fact-based movie about six brainy college students who figure out how to fleece Las Vegas, took the top spot at the North American box office this weekend, preliminary industry figures showed on Sunday.

Directed by Robert Luketic and starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and Laurence Fishburne, '21' raked in $23.7-million and bumped Fox's animated version of the bestselling children's book 'Horton Hears a Who' to second place with $17.4-million, according to Exhibitor Relations.

Opening in third place was superhero spoof 'Superhero Movie', from the creators of 'Scary Movie' and 'The Naked Gun', took in a disappointing 9.5 million dollars for distributor MGM Dimensions Film.

'Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns', the love-and-family drama from writer-director-actor Tyler Perry fell from second to fourth place at the weekend taking in $7.8-million at the boxoffice.

In fifth place with $5.8-million, followed comedy 'Drillbit Taylor', about three kids who hire a bodyguard — played by Owen Wilson — to protect them from a playground bully.

Dropping three spots to sixth place this week was 'Shutter', a remake of a Thai horror film about a hit-and-run ghost haunting her killer starring Joshua Jackson and Rachael Taylor that made $5.3-million.

Special effects-laden Stone Age epic '10 000 BC', the tale of a young mammoth hunter's quest to preserve his tribe's way of life, took seventh place, reaping in $4.9-million.

Coming-of-age comedy 'College Road Trip', featuring a father's antics as his daughter prepares to go off to university, was in eighth place with $3.5-million.

'The Bank Job', based on a real 1971 London robbery in which neither the thieves nor the cash were ever found, earned $2.8-million, taking the ninth spot.

Rounding out the top 10 was the Karate-Kid style, rite-of-passage movie 'Never Back Down', about a tough kid drawn into the world of mixed martial arts, which took $2.4-million.

AFP