Four movies that premiered this weekend cracked the top five list on a lackluster President's Day weekend at the box office in US and Canadian theaters, preliminary box office figures showed yesterday.

About 20 percent less tickets were sold at the box office this weekend over the same President's Day weekend last year, although year-to-date Hollywood sales have been a bit higher this year than in 2007, according to the Los Angeles-based box office tracking firm Media By Numbers.

"Jumper," a 20th Century Fox action-thriller, was in the number one position with US$27.2 million in ticket sales over the three-day period, followed by "Step Up 2 The Streets" and "Spiderwick Chronicles."

Disney's "Step Up 2," a sequel to its 2006 dance flick, took in US$19.7 million at No. 2 in its opening weekend, while family fantasy "Spiderwick Chronicles" released by Paramount debuted at No. 3 with US$19 million.

Another new release, Universal's romance-comedy "Definitely, Maybe," was at No. 5 with US$9.7 million, as last week's box officer leader, Warner Bros.' adventure-comedy "Fool's Gold," remained relatively steady with US$13 million at No. 4.

The preliminary box office numbers were for the Friday-Sunday period, although today is a legal holiday in the United States, the President's Day, according to Media By Numbers.