The Girl on the Train tops weekend box office

Los Angeles

THE Girl on the Train, Universal Pictures' maiden release from a new distribution pact with Steven Spielberg, topped the box office on its opening weekend.

Based on the best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins, the feature collected an estimated US$24.7 million in theatres in the US and Canada, researcher ComScore Inc said Sunday in a statement. It easily beat The Birth of a Nation, a Sundance Film Festival prize winner, which placed sixth with sales that missed estimates. The other debuting film, comedy Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, came in seventh.