"Cars," tops "Nacho Libre"

"Cars," the latest animated feature from Pixar, held off Jack Black's new comedy "Nacho Libre" to retain the number one position at the North American box office, bringing in $31.2 million during its second weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.

The Jack Black comedy ``Nacho Libre'' earned $27.5 million. Among other new films, ``The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' was third with $24.1 million and ``The Lake House'' was fourth with $13.7 million, box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. said today in a statement.

Paramount Pictures' ``Nacho Libre'' stars Black as an orphanage cook who dreams of becoming a ``luchador,'' one of the masked professional wrestlers popular in Mexico. Desperate to raise money to provide better food for the orphans, he secretly joins the wrestling circuit, performing at night and returning to his kitchen duties by day.

The film, made for about $25 million, was directed by Jared Hess, the director and co-writer of ``Napoleon Dynamite,'' a surprise 2004 cult hit that brought in $44.5 million for News Corp.'s Fox Searchlight unit.

``The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' stars Lucas Black as a speed freak who gets caught up in Japan’s illegal racing scene.

“Speed� co-stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock reunited for the Warner Bros. romantic drama “The Lake House,� the time-bending tale casts Reeves and Bullock as pen pals corresponding with each other two years apart reports MSNBC.

The weekend’s other new wide release, 20th Century Fox’s “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties,� opened weakly with $7.2 million, coming in sixth. The live-action and animated sequel features the voice of Bill Murray as the comic-strip fat cat.

``Cars,'' the first movie from Pixar since Disney completed the $8.06 billion purchase of its former partner last month, has taken in $114.5 million since opening June 10.

The second week at No. 1 provides a boost to Disney Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger's effort to revive his company's animation unit reports Bloomberg News

"Cars," features the voices of Owen Wilson and Paul Newman

Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. President Paul Dergarabedian, whose box office tracking firm released the studio estimates, said the new films "Nacho Libre" and "Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties" were aimed at the same young audience as "Cars."

"I don't think the drop-off says anything particular about the movie, just that there is a lot of competition out there," he said. "It was a pretty crowded field."