Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- “Couples Retreat,” a comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, opened as the top film in U.S. and Canadian theaters this weekend, with ticket sales of $35.3 million for General Electric Co.’s Universal Pictures.

Last week’s No. 1 movie “Zombieland,” a horror-comedy from Sony Corp., dropped to second place with $15 million, researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office said today in an e-mailed statement.

“Couples Retreat” is Universal’s fourth top debut this year. The studio ranks last among the six major ones in U.S. ticket sales this year with $841.8 million as of Oct. 8, according to Box Office Mojo, a California-based researcher. Last week, Universal replaced its top two executives, naming Adam Fogelson chairman and Donna Langley was named co-chairman.

“It was a very strong opening for that type of picture,” said Brandon Gray, editor at Box Office Mojo. “Even though it didn’t do as well as ‘The Breakup’ (a previous Vaughn film), it still finished within that range. It would be hard to expect from it much more.”

The comedy tells the story of four couples on an island resort involuntarily subjected to marriage counseling. Vaughn and Favreau, who also wrote the film together, previously collaborated on the 1996 movie “Swingers.”

‘Paranormal Activity’

“Zombieland” is an R-rated horror-comedy about the last human survivors in a world overtaken by the living dead. It has made $47.8 million for Sony in two weeks of release.

“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” dropped to third place from second with $12 million. The 3-D animated comedy about a scientist’s experiment that causes spaghetti to fall from the sky has earned $96.3 million for Sony in four weeks.

The double bill of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2,” re- issued in 3-D by Walt Disney Co., came in fourth place with $7.7 million. Disney took in $22.7 million in the limited two-week run for the two films.

Finishing fifth was “Paranormal Activity” from Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures. The film made $7 million playing in 160 theaters -- a $44,163 per-screen average -- and a record for a film playing in fewer than 200 theaters, according to Hollywood.com.

“It’s unprecedented to see a film in so few theaters earn $7 million,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst at Hollywood.com. “It’s pretty amazing.”

‘Blair Witch’

He said its popularity is similar to 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project,” fed by word of mouth and, in this case, Internet “buzz.” The film tells the story of a couple who move into a suburban starter home that is haunted by a demonic presence.

Sales for the top 12 films rose 11.3 percent to $96.4 million from a year earlier, Hollywood.com said. Year-to-date receipts total $8.1 billion, up 7.5 percent from a year ago. Attendance is up 3.6 percent this year.

The following table has figures provided by studios to Hollywood.com. The amounts are based on actual ticket sales from Oct. 9-10 and estimates for today.

                    Rev.             Avg./    Pct.  Total
Movie              (mln) Theaters   Theater    Chg.  (mln) Weeks
================================================================
 1 COUPLES RETREAT   $35.3    3,000  $11,780    --    $35.3   1
 2 ZOMBIELAND         15.0    3,038    4,937    -39    47.8   2
 3 CLOUDY WITH CHANCE 12.0    2,992    4,011    -24    96.3   4
 4 TOY STORY/TS 2      7.7    1,752    4,380    -39    22.7   2
 5 PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 7.1      160   44,163  +1228     8.3   3
 6 SURROGATES          4.1    2,992    1,375    -43    32.6   3
 7 INVENTION OF LYING  3.4    1,743    1,933    -52    12.3   2
 8 WHIP IT             2.8    1,738    1,611    -40     8.8   2
 9 CAPITALISM          2.7      995    2,714    -39     9.1   3
10 FAME                2.6    3,110    0,822    -45    20.0   3
11 THE INFORMANT!      2.2    2,202    1,004    -40    29.9   4
12 I CAN DO BAD        1.5    1,313    1,173    -41    50.4   5


Top 12 Films Grosses

   This Week     Year Ago      Pct.
     (mln)         (mln)       Chg.
===================================
     $96.4         $86.6      +11.3


Year-to-date Revenue

     2009          2008
      YTD           YTD        Pct.
     (mln)         (mln)       Chg.
===================================
    $8,096        $7,534       7.5


Year-to-date Attendance:      3.6%

To contact the reporters on this story: Inyoung Hwang in New York at ihwang7@bloomberg.net To contact the reporters on this story: Halia Pavliva in New York at hpavliva@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 11, 2009 14:49 EDT