'V' stands for victory at US box office

LOS ANGELES, Mar 19 (Reuters) The futuristic terrorist thriller ''V For Vendetta'' blew up its rivals at the weekend box office in North America, according to studio estimates released today.

The film, based on a comic book about a masked man who destroys landmark buildings in a fascist England, sold about tickets worth some 26.1 million dollar across the United States and Canada in the three days beginning March 17.

The film's distributor Time Warner Inc.-owned Warner Bros.

Pictures, said the opening was broadly in line with expectations.

Hugo Weaving stars as the masked man, V, and Natalie Portman as his sidekick.

It was produced by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the brothers who directed the ''Matrix'' movies, in which Weaving co-starred.

Last weekend's champion, ''Failure to Launch,'' a romantic comedy starring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker, slipped to No 2 with 15.8 million dollars, taking the 10-day haul for the Paramount Pictures release to 48.5 million dollars.

It was followed by the Tim Allen comedy ''The Shaggy Dog,'' with 13.6 million dollars, also down one in its second weekend; the total for the Walt Disney Co remake rose to 35.9 million dollars.

The top-10 contained one other new entry, Paramount's teen comedy ''She's the Man,'' which opened at No 4 with 11 million dollars, in line with the studio's expectations. Amanda Bynes stars as a schoolgirl who poses as her twin brother to play on the boys' soccer team, The Viacom Inc.-owned studio inherited the project as part of its recent purchase of DreamWorks SKG.

The cannibal thriller ''The Hills Have Eyes'' fell two places to No. 5 with 8.1 million dollars, taking its 10-day total to 28.8 million dollars. The film was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures, a unit of News Corp.

The art-house division also opened the acclaimed satire ''Thank You For Smoking'' in limited release. It earned an impressive 260,000 dollars from five theaters in New York, Los Angeles and Washington D C It will add cities over the next two weeks before opening nationally on April 7.

REUTERS VJ RAI0032