Different weekend, another sequel, "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" debuts on the top spot at the office cashing in $57.4 million, according to studio estimates from box office trackers Nielsen EDI.

Despite all the mixed reviews the movie got, Twentieth Century Fox’s big-budget superhero sequel, "Fantastic Four," outperformed not only its predecessor, but also last week’s No. 1, "Ocean’s Thirteen" which dropped to second place, taking in $19.1 million from 3,959 locations. The third in the "Ocean’s" franchise dropped 47.1 % from last week’s opening.

With the "Silver Surfer" movie, "we did fantastically, pun intended," said Chris Aronson, Fox's general sales manager.

"You have to believe this did well for mainly two reasons: it's PG and the surfer. It felt more like a new movie than a sequel. He was what the fans wanted to see.

"The silver lining is that it outperformed the first one. It worked from Fairbanks to Fort Lauderdale and everywhere in between. It worked in big cities. It worked in small towns."

In July 2005, "Fantastic Four" grossed $56 million in its first three days for 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corporation.

"We made a concerted effort to make this one PG to cast a wider umbrella and make it family-friendly," he added, "These aren't the brooding superheroes of the 'X-Men' or 'Spider-Man' films."

Surprisingly, Universal’s comedy, "Knocked Up" placed third with $14.5 million in its third weekend, while Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" slipped to the forth with $12 million in ticket sales.

"Knocked Up is holding really well," Paul Dergarabedian of Media by Numbers - the company which compiles the box office chart - told Reuters.

"It only dropped 26% in its third weekend. That's really incredible.

"Usually movies drop more like 50% this far along. That means it's getting very strong word-of-mouth. It's an alternative to the summer-style blockbusters."