Moviegoers in North America voted for a big-budget movie featuring buried treasure and an assassinated U.S. president this weekend, making it the runaway champion over competing openers including a high-profile war film and a critically acclaimed murderous musical.

Nicolas Cage's adventure sequel, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," took in an estimated 45.5 million U.S. dollars to lead Hollywood to its second straight bang-up weekend on the eve of a potentially lucrative Christmas and New Year's span, box officer tracker Media By Numbers said Sunday.

The Disney release is a sequel to 2004's "National Treasure" -- the latest hit franchise from "Pirates of the Caribbean" producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The film stars Cage as a treasure hunter re- opening the ultimate cold case: the 142-year-old assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

The number-two and number-three spots were held by sci-fi thriller "I Am Legend" starring Will Smith, and the family- friendly "Alvin and the Chipmunks." "Legend" is predicted to clear 34.2 million dollars this weekend for an impressive 137.5 million dollars take over two weeks.

The chipmunks movie should sell 29 million dollars over the three-day weekend, for an 88.9-million-dollar haul for its distributor 20th Century Fox.

In the next tier down, "Charlie Wilson's War", a sexy political romp starring Oscar winners Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman, opened at the number-four spot with an estimated 9.6 million dollars in ticket sales.

And the R-rated horror-musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" debuted in fifth with 9.4 million dollars. The screen adoption of the Broadway musical stars Johnny Depp as a murderous British barber.

The dozen top-grossing films took in a combined 153.5 million dollars at the box office over the three-day period, up about 41 percent over the amount generated by the top movies during the same period a year ago, according to Media By Numbers. Ticket sales were up for the second straight time after a five-weekend stretch of year-over-year declines, helping Hollywood end the year on a high note.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2007)