LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Ride Along," a buddy cop comedy starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, collected $41.2 million in ticket sales to top the weekend box office charts, leaving another new release, political thriller "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit," in the dust.
Last week's box office winner, the Afghanistan war tale "Lone Survivor," was second with ticket sales of $23.2 million, according to studio estimates provided by tracking firm Rentrak.
"The Nut Job," the first animated release from Open Road Films, collected $20.6 million in ticket sales to claim third place.
Starring Chris Pine as the late author Tom Clancy's fictional CIA analyst, "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" collected ticket sales of $17.2 million over the first three days of the Martin Luther King holiday weekend for the No. 4 spot.
"Ride Along" and "Lone Survivor" were released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp. Viacom's Paramount Pictures released "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit." Open Road Films, a joint between theater giants AMC Entertainment and Regal Entertainment Group, released "The Nut Job".
(Reporting By Ronald Grover and Chris Michaud)