娱乐英语新闻:"Exodus: Gods and Kings" overs "The Hunger Games 3" ruling North American box office

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Fox's "Exodus: Gods and Kings" debuted in first place this weekend at North American box office, edging out "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1" from the top place.

Playing at 3,503 locations, "Exodus: Gods and Kings" opened to an estimated 24.5 million U.S. dollars this weekend, according to studio estimator Rentrak. Starring Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton, "Exodus: Gods and Kings" is based on the Old Testament tale.

It's received horrible reviews by critics, with 27 percent approval score on Rotten Tomatoes. First night moviegoers gave it a poor "B-" CinemaScore.

The movie's audience was 54 percent male and 65 percent over the age of 25. 3D screens accounted for 44 percent of the gross, which is an above-average result for the format.

"The Hunter Games: Mockingjay, Part 1" had ruled three weeks at number one, but slipped 40 percent to number two with a 13.2 million dollars weekend, bringing its total to 277.4 million dollars in America and Canada. It is now the second biggest movie of the year, behind only "Guardians Of The Galaxy" and its 332.3 million dollars.

DreamWorks' computer animated film "Penguins of Madagascar" got 7.3 million dollars, which was off 33 percent from last weekend. It has now grossed 58.8 million dollars since released.

The Top 12 films earned an estimated 77.7 million this weekend, which makes this one of the slowest weekends of the year.

The remaining seven of top 10 movies this weekend were "Top Five" (7.2 million dollars), "Big Hero 6" (6.1 million), " Interstellar" (5.5 million), "Horrible Bosses 2" (4.6 million), " Dumb And Dumber To" (2.8 million), "Theory Of Everything" (2.5 million) and "Wild" (1.6 million).