Gordon Gekko returned to a commanding position in North America as Fox opened Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps at number one on approximately $19m.

Oliver Stone’s sequel to his 1987 crime drama beat out Warner Bros’ family animation from Zack Snyder, Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole in second place on $16.3m.

Warner Bros Stablemate The Town slipped two places to third and has amassed a solid $49.1m after ten days, while Screen Gems’ high school rom-com Easy A fell to fourth and stands at $32.8m after the same amount of time.

Beuna Vista launched You Again, a rom-com directed by Andy Fickman that stars Kristen Bell and Odette Yustman, in fifth place on $8.3m.

Overall box office combined for just over $100m, which according to reports was roughly 4% ahead of the same weekend last year.

In limited release, Lionsgate’s Sundance acquisition Buried starring Ryan Reynolds in a coffin grossed $104,500 from 11 theatres; Paramount’s Davis Guggenheim documentary Waiting For ‘Superman’ – another Sundance 2010 entry – took $141,000 from four for a terrific $35,250 average; and Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger launched through SPC in six theatres for $163,00 and an excellent $27, 167 average.

Sony released The Virginity Hit, a documentary produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, on $300,000 from 700 venues.

Next weekend’s wide releases are David Fincher’s Facebook film The Social Network through Sony starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake; Overture’s horror remake Let Me In with Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Richard Jenkins; and finally Paramount will release Paramount Vantage’s horror tale Case 39 starring Renee Zellweger.

Estimated Top 10 North America September 24-26, 2010

Film (Dist) / Est wkd gross / Est total to date

1 (-) Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Fox) Fox Int’l $19m –

2 (-) Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Warner Bros) WBPI $16.3m –

3 (1) The Town (Warner Bros) WBPI $16m $49.1m

4 (2) Easy A (Screen Gems) SPRI $10.7m $32.8m

5 (-) You Again (Buena Vista) WDSMPI $8.3m –

6 (3) Devil (Universal) FilmNation $6.5m $21.7m

7 (4) Resident Evil: Afterlife (3D) Sony (SPRI) $4.9m $52m

8 (5) Alpha And Omega (Lionsgate) Lionsgate $4.7m $15.1m

9 (6) Takers (Screen Gems) SPRI $1.7m $54.9m

10 (9) Inception (Warner Bros) WBPI $1.2m $287.1m

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