July 30 (Bloomberg) -- ``Miami Vice,'' Universal Pictures' new take on the hit 1980s TV show, opened as the top movie in U.S. and Canadian theaters with an estimated $25.2 million in ticket sales.

Director Michael Mann's film, starring Colin Farrell as James ``Sonny'' Crockett and Jamie Foxx as Ricardo Tubbs, pushed aside ``Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,'' which had led the box office for three straight weeks, film tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. said today in a statement.

``Miami Vice'' cost about $125 million to make, according to the Internet Movie Database Inc., and is the summer's first big-budget, R-rated action movie, following PG-13-rated titles such as Warner Bros.' ``Superman Returns'' and Walt Disney Co.'s ``Pirates.'' Farrell and Fox play Miami police detectives working to break up a murderous drug-smuggling ring.

``It's the only hard-core action film released this summer and we expected it to be tracking that high,'' said Jeff Bock, a Los Angeles-based film analyst at Reel Source Inc. ``The reviews were somewhat negative but that market is bulletproof. The action movies -- people will go no matter what the reviews say.''

``Pirates,'' a sequel to a 2003 Disney film with Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, took in $20.5 million over the weekend, falling to second place and bringing its total to $358.4 million since the July 7 debut.

``Pirates'' and Sony Corp.'s ``X-Men: The Last Stand,'' the summer's other blockbuster, have increased ticket sales and attendance over last year, when revenue fell 5.2 percent for the biggest drop in two decades. As of July 30, sales this year rose 6.3 percent to $5.67 billion, according to Encino, California- based Exhibitor Relations Co. Attendance is up 3.1 percent.

`Big Surprise'

``John Tucker Must Die,'' from News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, debuted at third place, taking in $14.1 million. The film follows three teenage girls who plot to get even with a philandering former lover.

``It's the big surprise of the weekend,'' Bock said. ``The underserved teen market was just ready for a film that catered to them.''

In its second weekend, Sony's animated ``Monster House'' dropped to fourth place, with $11.5 million. The film, from Sony's Imageworks unit, follows children who try to save the neighborhood from a malevolent house that comes to life. Steve Buscemi, Jon Heder and Maggie Gyllenhaal provide the voices. Since opening July 21 the film has grossed $43.9 million.

`The Ant Bully'

``The Ant Bully,'' a computer-animated film from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., opened in fifth place with sales of $8.1 million. The movie tells the story of a 10-year-old boy who is magically shrunk by a colony of ants. It features the voices of Nicolas Cage, Lily Tomlin and Julia Roberts.

```The Ant Bully' was lost in the shuffle of `Monster House','' Block said. It ``was surprisingly low.''

The Nos. 6 to 10 places were the following: ``Lady in the Water,'' the fantasy from director M. Night Shyamalan distributed by Warner Bros., with sales of just over $7 million; ``You, Me and Dupree,'' from General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures, with $7 million; ``Little Man,'' from Sony, with $5.1 million; ``The Devil Wears Prada,'' from News Corp., with $4.8 million; and ``Clerks II'' from Weinstein Co., taking in $3.9 million.

Sales for the top 12 films rose 2.5 percent to an estimated $114.8 million from the year-earlier period, Exhibitor Relations said.

Next weekend will usher in the psychological thriller ``The Night Listener'' from Disney's Miramax unit that stars Robin Williams, and Sony's ``Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,'' a comedy starring Will Ferrell.

``Talladega Nights'' may have sales in the low $30 millions, analyst Bock estimates.

The following chart has figures provided by studios to Exhibitor Relations. The amounts are based on actual grosses for July 28 and yesterday, and estimates for today.

    Movie      Rev    Screens   Wks  Average/  Pct    Total
               Mln                   Screen    Chg    Mln
1. Miami Vice $25.2   3,021     1   $8,342     --     $25.2
2. Pirates     20.5   3,834     4    5,345    -42     358.4
3. John Tucker 14.1   2,560     1    5,498     --      14.1
4. Monster     11.5   3,553     2    3,237    -48      43.9
5. Ant Bully    8.1   3,050     1    2,670     --       8.1
6. Lady         7.0   3,235     2    2,165    -61      32.1
7. Dupree       7.0   2,850     3    2,456    -45      59.0
8. Little Man   5.1   2,175     3    2,345    -54      50.2
9. Prada        4.8   1,778     5    2,686    -35     106.7
10. Clerks II   3.9   2,150     2    1,835    -61      18.5

To contact the reporters on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net; Cecile Daurat in New York at cdaurat@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 30, 2006 16:48 EDT