Ethan Cohen (L to R), Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Joel Cohen, Tilda Swinton and George Clooney pose at the red carpet of the Film Festival in Venice August 27, 2008. Pitt, Clooney and Swinton star in Ethan and Joel Coen's movie "Burn After Reading" which is opening this year's Venice Film Festival. - Xinhua/Reuters File Photo

Oscar-winning directors Cohen brothers' dark comedy "Burn After Reading" opened with an estimated US$19.4 million this weekend, edging out three other new releases to become the number one at the box office in US and Canadian theaters.

The Universal-release film, starring Brad Pitt and pal George Clooney, satirically tells a worthless CIA operation that results in a series of accidental killings. Pitt plays a fitness club employee who tries to extort money from a former CIA analyst when he finds his divorce documents and mistake them as classified intelligence.

"Burn After Reading" is Joel and Ethan Cohen's first film in theaters since their "No Country for Old Men" won Academy Award for best picture earlier this year.

The other three new films followed at the weekend box office, according to Los Angeles-based box office tracking firm Media By Numbers yesterday.

Prolific filmmaker Tyler Perry's latest domestic saga "The Family That Preys" was number two with 18 millions, "Righteous Kill" starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino was in third with US$16.5 million, and "The Women," the remake of a 1939 classic, was in fourth with US$10.1 million.

Sony Pictures' campus comedy "The House Bunny" took in US$4.3 million at No. 5 in its third weekend in release.

The top-selling 12 films this weekend grossed about US$86.6 million, up 72 percent from last weekend and 35 percent from the same weekend last year. Hollywood saw the first up weekend in nearly two months after the Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" debuted in mid-July with a record-setting 158 million dollars.