LOS ANGELES, July 17 (Xinhuanet) -- "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" found sweet success at the box office in North America, grossing an estimated 55.3 million US dollars in its weekend debut, preliminary figures out show Sunday.

    The children's black humor flick, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, tells a weird story in which a boy from a poor family under the shadow of a giant chocolate factory wins a candy bar contest and is given a tour, along with four other children, of the amazing factory run by its eccentric owner Willy Wonka.  

    "The Wedding Crashers" -- with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn -- opened in second place, earning about 32.2 million dollars, and last week's leader "Fantastic Four" fell to third with an expectedtake of 22.7 million dollars.

    Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" (15 million dollars) was fourth and "Batman Begins" (5.6 million) took the fifth spot. Final weekend box office figures are due out Monday.

    The top 12 films in the North American market grossed some 151.3 million dollars over the weekend, up 7.5 percent over the year-ago weekend, according to Los Angeles-based box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.

    Final weekend box office figures are due out Monday.

    "Fantastic Four" helped stop the 19-week consecutive slump of Hollywood's box office over the previous year's last week. The streak was the longest for the US movie industry since 1985. Enditem