"The Lego Movie" tops North American box office

Warner Bros. Pictures' 3D computer animated comedy "The Lego Movie" easily secured the first place at the North American box office for a third time, ahead of this week's newcomers "3 Days to Kill" and "Pompeii".

"The Lego Movie" has built a formidable box office record with 31.5 million U.S. dollars, for a three-week total of 183.2 million dollars, according to sales figures gathered by Rentrak. The sales shows that the movie was the most popular one at North America film market.

This week's debuts, "3 Days To Kill" and "Pompeii", opened in the second and third place this weekend, with mediocre 12.3 million dollars and 10 million dollars in sales respectively.

Relativity Media' spy themed action-thriller "3 Days to Kill", starring Kevin Costner as a spy on one last mission before relinquishing his high stake life in order to repair relations with his wife and daughter, opened at 2,872 locations in North America on Friday. However, it only got 27 percent of movie fresh score from RottenTomatoes.

Sony's special effects-heavy "Pompeii", directed by Paul W.S. Anderson ("Resident Evil" and "Alien Vs. Predator"), was about the story when Mount Vesuvius unexpectedly erupted in 79 A.D., it decimated the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

The film had a hefty production budget of 80 million dollars, which indicated that 10 million dollars grossing for the first weekend at 2,658 locations was far more its expectation.

Both "3 Days To Kill" and "Pompeii" earned a lukewarm "B" CinemaScore.

Rounding out the 10 most popular films in North America this weekend, as estimated by studios, were "RoboCop" (9.4 million dollars), "Monuments Men" (8.1 million), "About Last Night" (7.4 million), "Ride Along" (4.7 million), "Frozen" (4.4 million), " Endless Love" (4.3 million) and "Winter's Tale" (2.1 million).