Four new releases scramble weekend box office in North America

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Four movies that premiered this weekend cracked the top five list on a lackluster President's Day weekend at the box office in U.S. and Canadian theaters, preliminary box office figures showed Sunday.

About 20 percent less tickets were sold at the box office this weekend over the same President's Day weekend last year, although year-to-date Hollywood sales have been a bit higher this year than in 2007, according to the Los Angeles-based box office tracking firm Media By Numbers.

"Jumper," a 20th Century Fox action-thriller, was in the number one position with 27.2 million dollars in ticket sales over the three-day period, followed by "Step Up 2 The Streets" and "Spiderwick Chronicles."

Disney's "Step Up 2," a sequel to its 2006 dance flick, took in19.7 million dollars at No. 2 in its opening weekend, while family fantasy "Spiderwick Chronicles" released by Paramount debuted at No. 3 with 19 million dollars.

Another new release, Universal's romance-comedy "Definitely, Maybe," was at No. 5 with 9.7 million dollars, as last week's box officer leader, Warner Bros.' adventure-comedy "Fool's Gold," remained relatively steady with 13 million dollars at No. 4.

The preliminary box office numbers were for the Friday-Sunday period, although Monday is a legal holiday in the United States, the President's Day, according to Media By Numbers.