AceShowbiz -

Pairing up the two great martial art-specialists, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, apparently is a great decision to be made as the action film "The Forbidden Kingdom", which sees the two theps as the stars, debuted strongly at the North American box office. After the three days weekend screening until Sunday, April 20, the box office revenue tracker, Box Office Mojo, estimated that the Lions Gate Films' movie has proved to be the best by raking in approximately $20.9 million.

Previewed in 3,151 theaters across the U.S., the film directed by Rob Minkoff managed to bring in more than expected and is listed among the biggest opening martial art films. In fact, it is the highest selling kung fu film since the release of Quentin Tarantino's 2004 "Kill Bill Vol. 2" which garnered $25.1 million. The film also marked Chan's best opening film for a non-"Rush Hour" tidbit as well as Li's finest debuting movie since the 1998's "Lethal Weapon 4".

Though beating up its strongest competitor "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" in nailing the top spot, it doesn't mean that "Kingdom" dominated the revenue as "Marshall" is only a bit shy from the champion in terms of the ticket sales. Screened in just 2,798 theaters, the Universal Pictures' film featuring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis and Paul Rudd which debuted at the runner up position pulled in an estimated $17.3 million.

Slipping two spots to the third position, last week champion "Prom Night" faced a 56.3|percent| decline in sales and only nabbed about $9.1 million. Since its theatrical opening on April 11, the Brittany Snow's horror thriller has collected $32.6 million. Following the Screen Gems' slasher movie in the fourth place was Al Pacino's action drama "88 Minutes". The Jon Avnet's movie gathered around $6.8 million in its commencing weekend.

The next two slots see a tight competition from "Nim's Island" and former two-time topper "21". According to the estimation made, "Nim's" which landed on the fifth place slightly pushed aside "21" to the sixth position as it brought in about $5.7 million, whereas "21" took in about $5.5 million. In the meantime, the seventh spot went to Keanu Reeves-starrer cop drama "Street Kings" with an estimated $4 million.

Further, though "Horton Hears a Who!" slowly fell down to the bottom of the top ten box office, the Dr. Seuss' adaptation film still managed to remain on the eighth position. In its sixth week previewing, the Jim Carrey's movie added another $3.5 million to the total cume of about $144.4 million. Rounding up the top ten were newcomer "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" and George Clooney's sport comedy "Leatherheads". Each of them grossed about $3.2 and $3 million respectively.