'Zombieland' top stop for moviegoers

(AFP) -

Tongue-in-cheek comedy "Zombieland" stormed the North American box office to win first place with a 25-million-dollar opening, preliminary industry figures showed Sunday.

The gory, zombified world starring Woodie Harrelson beat projections and crushed the two-week dominance of children's animated food-fest "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," which dropped to second place with 16.7 million dollars.

The top two films fended off rivals by a striking distance, although four other new releases made it to the top 10.

A 3-D re-release of popular Pixar cartoons "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" entered the fray in the third spot with 12.5 million dollars.

The films came ahead of the much-anticipated "Toy Story 3," due out next year.

"The Invention of Lying," featuring British comedian Ricky Gervais kept audiences laughing to land in fourth place at 7.4 million dollars, just ahead of "Surrogates," which was in theaters for its second week.

The sci-fi flick with Hollywood action man Bruce Willis about people living their lives through sexy robot replicas of themselves raked in 7.3 million.

New releases "Whip It," featuring Drew Barrymore's directing debut, tied with controversial documentarian Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" for 4.85 million dollars in ticket receipts each.

But "Whip It" played in 1,720 theaters, compared to a paltry 962 theaters for "Capitalism."

Coming in number eight was MGM's "Fame," a remake of the 1980 musical about students at the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. It earned 4.75 million in ticket sales. The Manhattan school is now known as Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School.

Steven Soderbergh's dark comic tale "The Informant!" pulled in 3.8 million dollars in its fourth week on the silver screen. Matt Damon stars in this film about a top FBI mole at a major multinational company seeking to end a worldwide price-fixing conspiracy.

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Rounding out the top 10 was chick-flick "Love Happens," with Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston earning 2.8 million during its seventh week of showings.