'Exodus: Gods and Kings' tops North American box office

Fox's "Exodus: Gods and Kings" debuted in first place this weekend at the North American box office, edging out "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1" from the top place.

Playing at 3,503 locations, Exodus opened to an estimated $24.5 million this weekend, according to studio estimator Rentrak, Xinhua reported.

Starring Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton, Exodus is based on the Old Testament tale.

The movie's audience was 54 percent male and 65 percent over the age of 25. 3D screens accounted for 44 percent of the gross, which is an above average result for the format.

The Hunger Games had the number one position for three weeks, but slipped 40 percent to number two with $13.2 million dollars this weekend, bringing its total to 277.4 million dollars in America and Canada. It is now the second biggest movie of the year, behind only "Guardians Of The Galaxy", which had a collection of $332.3 million dollars.

The remaining seven of top 10 movies this weekend were "Top Five" ($7.2 million ), "Big Hero 6" ($6.1 million), " Interstellar" ($5.5 million), "Horrible Bosses 2" ($4.6 million), " Dumb And Dumber To" ($2.8 million), "Theory Of Everything" ($2.5 million) and "Wild" ($1.6 million).