BEIJING, August 1 -- The "Miami Vice" speedboat overtook the "Pirates of the Caribbean" juggernaut to capture the top spot at the weekend box office in North America.

The film, which pairs Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx as the iconic TV characters Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, took in US$25.2 million, compared with US$20.5 million for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," according to studio estimates Sunday.

"It's nice to be No. 1," said Nikki Rocco, president of distribution at Universal Pictures.

The gritty, dark action film was directed by Michael Mann, who created the 1980s TV show. The movie was especially attractive to older audiences, with 62 percent over 30, according to the studio's exit polling.

The audience was pretty evenly split between men and women.

"It's what our expectations were," Rocco said. "We tried to do something different. There has been a lot of criticism regarding unoriginal product. We took a TV series and made it very different."

The news was not necessarily bad for Disney, which produced "Pirates."

In its third week, "Pirates" has earned US$358.4 million to become the highest-grossing film in Disney's history, passing the US$339.7 million earned by the Pixar Animation Studios film “Finding Nemo.”

"After posting the biggest opening weekend of all time, it is living up to the promise created that opening weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations.

"Pirates" is on track to break the US$400 million mark in the coming weeks, Dergarabedian said.

The Pixar film "Cars" has also raked in US$234.6 million to date. And while the film is no longer in the top 10 at the box office in North America, its cumulative gross makes it the second-highest-grossing film of the year, giving Disney the top two spots so far.

The teen flick “John Tucker Must Die” from 20th Century Fox debuted in third place with a respectable US$14 million.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)