‘Green Lantern’ box office champ this weekend

Canadian heart-throb Ryan Reynolds stars as superhero Hal Jordan, a.k.a. Green Lantern, lights up the box office. AP PHOTO

LOS ANGELES – Superhero comic book adaptation “Green Lantern” was the box-office champion this weekend, with $53.2 million in North American ticket sales as it debuted at number one.

Canadian heart-throb Ryan Reynolds stars as superhero Hal Jordan and Blake Lively as love interest Carol Ferris in the $200 million live-action movie in which Green Lantern Corps warriors try to defeat supervillain Parallax.

One foe “Green Lantern” did defeat this weekend was “Super 8,” which marked its second box office week with $21.5 million at the number two spot. The J.J. Abrams sci-fi thriller had debuted at number one last week.

“Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” starring comedian Jim Carrey, waddled into the number three spot in its first weekend and brought in $18.4 million.

In fourth place, “X-Men: First Class” spent its third week at the box office raking in $11.9 million. The Marvel comic superhero film has brought in more than $120 million domestically and more than $150 million internationally.

But so far this summer the highest grossing domestic release is “The Hangover: Part II,” which refuses to let the party die. In its fourth week it earned an estimated $10.1 million, for a total $233.1 million, in fifth spot.

Globally “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” has grossed $220 million and $952 million around the world, making it the 11th biggest box office hit ever. It took eighth spot at the weekend with $6.6 million in ticket sales.

Just above and below it in the top 10 were “Kung Fu Panda 2,” at number six with $9 million, “Bridesmaids” in seventh with $7.1 million, and Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” in ninth with $4.9 million.

Rounding out the top 10 during its second week was “Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer” with $2.1 million in earnings.