LOS ANGELES, Sept 5 — Crazy Rich Asians has ruled at the North American box office for the third weekend in a row, raking in close to US$30 million (RM124 million) over the Labour Day weekend, industry watchers said yesterday.

The Warner Brothers adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s best-selling novel of the same name took in US$28.6 million for the Friday-through-Monday period, dropping just 11 per cent from the previous weekend, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.

The film, which has a mostly Asian cast, follows a Chinese-American economics professor as she meets her super-rich boyfriend’s family in Singapore in a story about the clash of love, family and great wealth.

Warner Brothers scored another hit with shark-thriller The Meg, in the No 2 spot again with takings of US$13.8 million. Jason Statham stars as a rescue diver trying to save scientists trapped in a submarine being attacked by a huge, prehistoric shark.

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In third spot was Tom Cruise adventure film Mission Impossible — Fallout from Paramount, which took in US$9.3 million. Globally, the action blockbuster has earned nearly US$650 million, the best performance of any of the MI films to date.

Fourth went to MGM’s new Operation Finale, at US$7.9 million. Oscar Isaac plays an Israeli Mossad agent who tracks Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley) to the Buenos Aires suburb where he is living under a false name.

And in fifth was Searching from Sony, at US$7.6 million. Written and directed by filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty, it tells the story of a Korean-American man’s desperate effort to find his teenage daughter after she goes missing in California. It stars John Cho, Michelle La and Debra Messing.

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Rounding out this weekend’s top 10 were:

Christopher Robin (US$7.2 million)

Alpha (US$6 million)

The Happytime Murders (US$5.4 million)

BlackkKlansman (US$5.6 million)

Mile 22 (US$4.8 million) — AFP