Family film The Game Plan has beaten Middle Eastern terror thriller The Kingdom to become the weekend's biggest box office success in North America.
The Disney movie took $22.7m (£11m), leaving its rival - starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner - trailing in second place with $17.7m (£8.6m).
Last week's number one, Resident Evil: Extinction, suffered a 66% slump in ticket sales and fell to number three.
Cinema takings dropped for a second weekend following a record summer.
'Pent-up demand'
The top 12 films made a total of $76.7m (£37.4m) - down 11% compared to the same weekend last year.
Paul Deragabedian, president of Media By Numbers who assess the US box office, said: "It would be really difficult to maintain three, four months of 'up' box office, so this was kind of inevitable."
NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE
He added that last autumn was strong, "so we're having a little trouble competing".
The Game Plan is about a footballer whose life is distrupted by the arrival of a daughter he never knew existed.
Its star is former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, better known as an action hero.
"There was definitely pent-up demand for people who don't necessarily want to go to the heavy 'R-rated' films," according to Chuck Viane, the head of distribution for Disney.
Elsewhere, the only other entry in the top 10 was Beatle-themed musical film Across the Universe.
It climbed to number 10 on its third week of release.
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