'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' tops North American box office  

北美票房：《忍者神龟》战胜《银河护卫队》登顶

Poster of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" broke out in a big way this weekend with 65 million US dollars, outpacing last weekend's winning film "Guardians of the Galaxy."

The Paramount's high-profile franchise re-launch had been widely expected to be in a close battle with "Guardians of the Galaxy" for the top spot this weekend. But it ultimately won this weekend's box office race, delivering the fourth largest opening weekend performance ever in the month of August.

The film opened a massive 168 percent stronger than the 24.26 million dollars debut of its 2007 version, and has already out-grossed the 54.15 million dollars final domestic gross of that film.

"Guardians of the Galaxy" held up well to the second with an estimated 41.53 million dollars, down 56 percent from last weekend's break-out debut. With a total box office of over 175 million dollars since its debut on Aug. 1, the film is expected to become the highest grossing release of 2014 domestically.

Warner's "Into the Storm" debuted in third with an estimated 18.02 million dollars. The modestly budgeted disaster film opened 74 percent stronger than the 10.34 million dollars launch of its fellow disaster film "Pompeii" earlier this year.

"The Hundred-Foot Journey" also opened in line with its modest expectations this weekend, with an estimated fourth place debut of 11.12 million dollars. The drama from Disney and DreamWorks received a strong A rating on CinemaScore, and is expected to hold up well throughout the month of August.