The remake of 1957’s western "3:10 to Yuma" starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale took over the No. 1 spot of the North American box office with $US14.1 million.

Directed by James Mangold, the low-budget movie from Lionsgate finds Crowe playing an outlaw in the custody of Christian Bale's one-legged rancher.

The 1957 Hollywood original starring late Glenn Ford is considered a classic, based on an Elmore Leonard short story.

The film marks Crowe’s first number one opener since "Gladiator," for which he won the Best Actor Academy Award. The actor’s previous "Cinderella Man" and "A Good Year" benefited from bigger budgets and higher expectations resulting in huge disappointments. The performance of "3:10 to Yuma" thrilled Lionsgate executives, who chose this weekend to position the film for Oscar consideration.

Soon, "3:10 to Yuma" will be competing with Brad Pitt’s western "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," which is scheduled to open in U.S. cinemas on September 21.

The well-reviewed flick placed ahead of MGM's Rob Zombie directed "Halloween," another remake of the 1978 horror classic, which slipped to the second place with $10 million bringing its total to $44.2 million.

Third place was taken by teen comedy "Superbad" which seized $8 million ($103.7 million overall) becoming the 16th summer release to pass the $100 million mark while "Balls Of Fury," a parody of the martial-arts genre in its second week in cinemas, took over the fourth place with just $6.1 million.

The third installment of the Bourne franchise, "The Bourne Ultimatum," which opened five weeks ago, wraps up the top five with $5.5 million raising its earning to $210 million.

Despite numerous positive reviews, "Shoot ‘Em Up," starring Clive Owen, had quite a disastrous opening, slipping from fourth spot on Friday to the sixth one on Monday, with just $5.7 million.

Number 7 was New Line's "Rush Hour 3" which grossed $5.1 million for anew total of $128.9 million.