"The Game Plan" went off without a hitch.
Walt Disney Co.'s PG-rated comedy, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as an NFL quarterback who discovers he has a 7-year-old daughter, topped the weekend box office with an estimated $22.7 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, the studio said Sunday.
"The movie has played across all audience groups -- not just families and little girls," said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion picture group. "The release period also helps, because all the other top films in the marketplace are rated R."
About two-thirds of the audience for "The Game Plan" was families, while teenagers and unaccompanied couples accounted for the other one-third, Disney said.
The film's stronger-than-expected opening left Universal Pictures' thriller "The Kingdom," starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, second with $17.7 million. Last weekend's top movie, the science-fiction saga "Resident Evil: Extinction" from Sony Pictures' Screen Gems division, plunged 66% to finish third with $8 million.
"The Game Plan" and "The Kingdom" had both been expected to open in the high teens, vying for the top spot.
"The Kingdom," about an FBI team investigating a bombing in Saudi Arabia, is rated R, as are "Resident Evil" and the next three pictures on the box-office chart this week. A number of other smaller films with the restrictive rating are also being rolled out by studios and specialty distributors in hopes of attracting adult customers and awards consideration.
"The Kingdom" posted a "solid number" considering its "challenging subject matter," said Nikki Rocco, Universal's president of domestic distribution. The big-budget thriller played to an adult audience, with two-thirds of customers over age 30.
Though reviews from critics have been mixed, more than 95% of moviegoers rated it "excellent" or "very good" in the studio's surveys, Rocco said, which bodes well for its prospects in the coming weeks.
The success of "The Game Plan" further establishes the retired pro wrestler Johnson as a box-office force with broad appeal. Though he has a background in comedy, the beefy Johnson has been best known to film fans for his action pictures such as "The Scorpion King."
The star's relentless efforts to promote the new movie on talk shows and through other interviews helped it break through, Zoradi said.
