The action comedy starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum stormed the citadel to dominate the weekend, some way ahead of Universal’s The Lorax in second place which has reached an excellent $158m after three weekends.

Disney’s sci-fi adventure John Carter followed up a dismal opening weekend with a $13.5m and has grossed $53m after two weekends. Worldwide it stands at $179.3m driven largely by international.

The only other new release in the top ten was Nala Films’ Case De Mi Padre, a telenovela spoof starring Will Ferrell and produced through his Gary Sanchez Productions. It placed ninth and grossed $2.2m from 382.

Paramount Vantage opened Jeff, Who Lives At Home in 16th place on $840,00 from 254 theatres while Anchor Bay release Seeking Justice, the Roger Donaldson thriller starring Nicolas Cage and January Jones that was formerly known as The Hungry Rabbit Jumps.

The Dardenne Brothers’ The Kid With A Bike opened through IFC On $51,000 from three sites. Tribeca Film opened the Tony Kaye drama Detachment starring Adrien Brody on $11,100 from two sites.

Next weekend’s wide release is The Hunger Games, Lionsgate’s greatly anticipated sci-fi adventure adaptation starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth and Woody Harrelson.

Estimated Top 10 North America Mar 16-18 2012
Film (Dist) / Est wkd gross / Est total to date

1 (-) 21 Jump Street (Sony-MGM) SPRI $35m –

2 (1) Dr Seuss’ The Lorax (Universal) UPI $22.8m $158.4m

3 (2) John Carter (Buena Vista) WDSMPI $13.5m $53.2m

4 (3) Project X (Warner Bros) WBPI $4m $48.1m

5 (6) A Thousand Words (Paramount-Dwks) PPI $3.8m $12.1m

6 (4) Act Of Valor (Relativity) Relativity $3.7m $62.4m

7 (7) Safe House (Universal) UPI $2.8m $120.2m

8 (10) Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (Warner Bros-New Line) WBPI $2.5m $95.1m

9 (-) Casa De Mi Padre (Lionsgate) Lionsgate $2.2m –

10 (9) This Means War (Fox) Fox Int’l $2.1m $50.5m