LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Baseball drama "42," the story of Jackie Robinson's entry into the big leagues more than 60 years ago, took home a win at the movie box office with $27.3 million in weekend ticket sales in the United States and Canada.
The film about the Hall of Fame player who broke baseball's color barrier topped industry forecasts for a three-day opening around $20 million. It defeated new horror movie spoof "Scary Movie 5," the second-place finisher that pulled in $15.2 million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates.
Animated family film "The Croods" took the No. 3 slot. It rung up sales of $13.2 million in its fourth week for a total of $142.5 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, released "42." "Scary Movie 5" was distributed by the privately held Weinstein Co. "The Croods" was produced by Dreamworks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine and Andrea Burzynski; editing by Jackie Frank)