Maze Runner outruns Jumanji to lead North American box offices

Actors Ki Hong Lee and Dylan O'Brien attend the Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials New York premiere at Regal E-Walk on Sep 15, 2015. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images/Dave Kotinsky)

The dystopian sci-fi film, the third and final installment in the Maze Runner series, follows the life-and-death adventures of three young Gladers, teens immune to a destructive virus infecting the world.

The film's release had been delayed a year after star Dylan O'Brien was injured on the set.

Sony's Jumanji, which had held the North American lead for three weeks, took in US$16.1 million from Friday to Sunday, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The family film, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and funnymen Jack Black and Kevin Hart, follows a group of teens who find themselves transported inside the video game world of Jumanji.

In third place was Entertainment Studios' Hostiles, starring Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike in a gritty Western about a US cavalry officer who has to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family to Montana in 1892.

The indie film, in limited release since late December, entered wide release Friday, taking in US$10.1 million for the weekend.

In fourth and demonstrating continued drawing power was Fox's The Greatest Showman, with Hugh Jackman as larger-than-life circus impresario PT Barnum. The movie took in US$9.6 million in its sixth week.

And in fifth was another Fox film, The Post, netting US$9.1 million in its fifth week.

The Steven Spielberg film, featuring mega-stars Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham, depicts their tense legal battle to publish the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the lies behind US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

• 12 Strong (US$8.7 million)
• Den of Thieves (US$8.6 million)
• The Shape of Water (US$5.9 million)
• Paddington 2 (US$5.7 million)
• Padmaavat (US$4.3 million)