The animated adaptation of a beloved children's book by Dr Seuss hit big screen this weekend in North America with an elephant-sized box office, and became the strongest-opening movie this year.

A poster of 20th Century Fox's "Dr Seuss' Horton Hears A Who."?The animated adaptation of a beloved children's book by Dr Seuss hit big screen this weekend in North America with an elephant-sized box office, and became the strongest-opening movie this year.? (File Photo)

"Dr Seuss' Horton Hears A Who" is on track to sell 45.1 million U.S. dollars in tickets at U.S. and Canadian theaters over the three-day-period, according to preliminary figures released Sunday by box office tracking firm Media By Numbers.

The 20th Century Fox release, with voices of famous comedians like Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, is the third big-screen Seuss adaptations, after 2000's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and 2003's "The Cat in the Hat."

The new film was earlier expected to have a huge weekend, possibly breaking the 55-million-dollar, but its performance of over 11,000 dollars per theater was nothing to sneeze at.

Its opening was still a good 10 percent higher than thriller " Cloverfield," the surprise box office hit that opened with a 40- million-dollar weekend earlier this year, according to Media By Numbers.

Fox officials now expect Horton's box office appeal would extend through the coming Easter weekend and beyond, as students are out of school for the spring break.

Two other movies that debuted in the top ten this weekend were "Never Back Down," in third place with 8.6 million dollars, and number-seven "Doomsday," with 4.7 million dollars.

Last week's box office leader, "10,000 BC" slipped to No. 2 with 16.4 million dollars over the weekend, while Disney comedy " College Road Trip" and Sony Pictures' anti-terror thriller " Vantage Point" were at No. 4 and No. 5, with 7.9 million and 5.4 million dollars respectively.

Meanwhile, overall box office revenues in North America were estimated at 127 million dollars over the weekend, up some 8.5 percent from the same weekend last year.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2008)