LOS ANGELES: Spying on the neighbours paid off handsomely at the North American box office for Shia LaBeouf, the former Disney child star being groomed by Steven Spielberg as the next big thing.
LaBeouf, 20, is the star of Disturbia, a low-budget version of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window for teens, which opened at No. 1 with three-day ticket sales of $US23 million, distributor Paramount Pictures said.
It's about a teen who becomes convinced his neighbour is a serial killer. After two weeks at No. 1, the Will Ferrell comedy Blades of Glory slipped to No.
2 with $US14.1 million over the weekend and a total haul of $US90.2 million.
Both films were produced for Paramount by DreamWorks, the studio co-founded by Spielberg. The filmmaker plucked LaBeouf from relative obscurity he made a name for himself in the Disney Channel TV series Even Stevens by casting him in Disturbia, DreamWorks' upcoming action movie Transformers and as Harrison Ford's son in the fourth Indiana Jones film, which Spielberg will direct in the summer. Two other films opened in the top 10 with disappointing results: the Halle Berry-Bruce Willis thriller Perfect Stranger at No.
4 with $US11.5 million and the period action adventure Pathfinder at No. 6 with $US4.
8 million.
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