‘Think Like A Man’ tops N. America box office

LOS ANGELES – The romantic comedy “Think Like A Man” topped the North American box office for the second weekend in a row, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The ensemble date movie based on the best-selling book by actor and radio talk show host Steve Harvey made $18 million in its second week despite mediocre reviews, according to Exhibitor Relations.

That brings its two-week total to $60.9 million, the box office tracker said.

In second place was “The Pirates! Band of Misfits,” a children’s stop-motion animated film from the studio that produced the “Wallace and Gromit” series that earned $11.4 million in its opening weekend.

Next came another date movie, the tearjerker drama “The Lucky One,” an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks book starring Zac Efron as a US soldier back from Iraq. The movie made $11.3 million in its second weekend.

Smash action hit “The Hunger Games” fell to the fourth spot in its sixth week on the big screen. The movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence, earning $11.3 million but has raked in $372.5 million total since its opening.

Legions of fans have flocked to see the movie, based on a book by Suzanne Collins, in which a teenage girl played by Lawrence fights to win a deadly television reality show featuring children in a post-apocalyptic world.

“The Five-Year Engagement,” starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segel, opened in fifth place, pulling in $11.15 million.

In sixth place was another opening, the Jason Statham action flick “Safe,” which pulled in $7.7 million.

It was followed by yet another debut with mediocre reviews, “The Raven” starring John Cusack as 19th century American author Edgar Allan Poe, which collected $7.3 million.

“Chimpanzee,” a true-life, child-friendly adventure about a special chimp in the jungles of Ivory Coast, sank to eighth place, pulling in $5.5 million.

Ninth was the Farrelly brothers’ comedy “The Three Stooges,” in its third week. The tribute to the legendary US comedy trio brought in $5.4 million, and a total of $37.1 million since opening.

Rounding off the top 10 was “The Cabin in the Woods,” a horror movie co-produced by Josh Whedon of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame. The film, which plays with stereotypes from teen slasher movies, pulled in $4.5 million.