"The Day The Earth Stood Still," a remake of the 1951 sci-fi film, opened as number one at the box office in North America this weekend, with some 31 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales, including strong performances at the big-screen Imax 3-D theaters.

About 3.8 million dollars of tickets were sold over the three-day period for Imax theaters, a "great" opening for a sci-fi remade based on the industry standard, said the Los Angeles-based box office tracking firm Media By Numbers Sunday.

Meanwhile, the special effects-filled film, starring Keanu Reeves as an alien who comes to Earth trying to save the planet from the dying humans, grossed about 39.5 million dollars overseas this weekend, bringing its worldwide take to over 70 million dollars.

Warner Bros.' holiday comedy "Four Christmases" proved to be the gift that keeps on giving in this pre-holiday season. The box office leader for the past two weeks was in second place this weekend with an estimated take of 13.3 million dollars.

The remaining top five films included Summit Entertainment's vampire romance "Twilight" with 8 million dollars, Disney cartoon "Bolt" with 7.5 million dollars and Fox's historical drama "Australia" with 4.3 million dollars.

The 12 top-selling movies took in 83.3 million dollars in the United States and Canada this weekend, down 45 percent from the same period last year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2008)