Box Office: 'The American' triumphs with $13M

Anton Corbijn's drama "The American" topped the North American box office this weekend, proving lead actor George Clooney even manages to pull large audiences for a slow-moving film with a simple plot.

"The American" is not exactly your action-packed thriller, but it scored an average of $4,650 per theater at 2,83 locations, enough for first place this weekend. Heck, it even beat the utterly explosive "Machete."

"Machete" is definitely the more fast-paced flick of the two, but it only came in second with $11.4 million rom ticket sales at 2,670 locations. Not the worst result, but it could have been a tad better, for sure.

Meanwhile, "Going the Distance," the week's third wide release, only debuted at No. 5, earning a mere $6.5 million. The Drew Barrymore comedy failed to finish high despite a release at 3,030 sites.

Previous box office winner "Takers" slipped to third place, bagging $10.9 million for a total haul of $37.3 million. "The Last Exorcism" followed at No. 4, taking $7.4 million to lift its cume to a solid $32.1 million.

Also, sylvester Stallone's "The Expendables" finished sixth with $6.6 million, reaching a total gross of $92.2 million, while "The Other Guys" pulled $5.3 million at No. 7 (for a total of $106.7 million).

"Eat Pray Love" dropped to No. 8 (weekend earnings of $4.8 million for a cume of $68.9 million), while "Inception" took the No. 9 spot with $4.5 million and a domestic total of $277.1 million.

Finally, "Nanny McPhee Returns" rounded out the top 10 with $3.5 million ana cumulative gross of $22.3 million. (Source: Box Office Mojo: www.boxofficemojo.com)