`Ride Along` drives N. American box office

Los Angeles: Cop comedy "Ride Along" led the North American box office for a third weekend in a row, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The action flick starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube easily outpaced its rivals, earning $12.3 million in the United States and Canada, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations reported.In second place with $9.3 million was Disney`s smash hit "Frozen," a loosely-based retelling of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. A frontrunner for best animated feature film at the Oscars, it has earned more than $360 million in North America since its release.New arrival "That Awkward Moment," starring Zac Efron in a romantic comedy about three friends who pledge to remain single only to fall in love, opened in third place with just over $9 million in box office receipts. In fourth place, children`s movie "The Nut Job," a tale about a squirrel forced to survive in the big city after being banished from his park, earned $7.6 million. That pushed "Lone Survivor" -- the Afghanistan war drama starring Mark Wahlberg based on the true story of a disastrous Navy SEAL commando raid targeting an extremist fighter -- to fifth, with $7.2 million in earnings. Lagging in sixth with $5.4 million was "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit," the action adventure prequel starring Chris Pine in the fifth film based on author Tom Clancy`s Jack Ryan thrillers. Romantic comedy "Labor Day" starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin took seventh spot with $5.3 million, ahead of con-man caper "American Hustle," which took in $4.3 million. Starring Christian Bale and Amy Adams as grifters who team up with an FBI agent played by Bradley Cooper, "American Hustle" is up for 10 Oscars at the Academy Awards. Another Oscar-nominated movie, Martin Scorsese`s "The Wolf of Wall Street" starring Leonardo DiCaprio as disgraced financier Jordan Belfort, was in ninth with $3.6 million And rounding out the top ten was was "I, Frankenstein," based on a graphic novel reboot of Mary Shelley`s famous 19th century tale, starring Aaron Eckhart. The film, which opened with a disappointing $8.6 million, took in just 3.5 million in its second week.