‘Sin City’ flops; ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ still top

NEW YORK - “Guardians of the Galaxy’’ became the summer’s top-grossing movie at the North American box office with a $17.6 million weekend that narrowly bested the young adult melodrama “If I Stay,’’ while the long-delayed “Sin City’’ sequel, “ Dame to Kill For,’’ flopped.

With an estimated $17.6 million in its fourth weekend of release, the Marvel space adventure passed “Transformers: Age of Extinction’’ to become the summer’s biggest domestic hit with a cumulative total of $252 million. The film, released by Disney, was an unlikely August sensation (late summer is usually an afterthought in Hollywood’s lucrative summer season) that helped the box office rebound somewhat after big-budget sequels like “The Amazing Spider-Man 2’’ and “How To Train Your Dragon 2’’ failed to ignite the multiplexes.

“This movie just couldn’t have come at a better time,’’ said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak. “When we were really down and out in the summer box office - at one point down 20 percent from last year - `Guardians’ came along and injected life. What is surprising is that it was a film launched in August.’’

The Warner Bros. tearjerker “If I Stay’’ failed to top the box office with a weekend haul of $16.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. In the film, a co-production between MGM and New Line Cinema, Chloe Grace Moretz stars as a teen in a coma after a car accident. It came in third place behind Paramount’s reptile reboot “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,’’ which made $16.8 million in its third weekend.

Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., said the studio was pleased with the performance of “If I Stay’’ considering its $11 million production budget.

AP