Sony's sci-fi production "The Dark Tower" led ticket sales in North American theaters this weekend, but its estimated three-day take of a modest $19.5 million fell on a notably sluggish August weekend.

"Tower," co-produced by independent film studio MRC, had the lowest box-office-leading weekend take of the year, HollywoodReporter.com noted. 

The film, based on a series of best-selling novels by horror and fantasy master Stephen King, stars Tom Taylor as a boy who finds himself in another dimension where a gunslinger (Idris Elba) helps him try to save the world from enemies including a Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey). The film garners a paltry 18 percent approval on the Rotten Tomatoes review site.

Second in the box-office race was war movie "Dunkirk," slipping from the No. 1 spot it occupied at its opening a week earlier. The Warner Bros. film had a three-day take of $17.6 million, according to industry website Exhibitor Relations. 

Starring One Direction singer Harry Styles in the retelling of the heroic 1940 evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Allied troops from a beach in northern France, "Dunkirk" has been hailed by many critics as a masterpiece. 

In third spot was Sony's "The Emoji Movie," a computer-animated comedy based on -- yes -- those expressive little symbols on cell phones. With an all-star voicing cast including James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Christina Aguilera and Sofia Vergara, the movie netted $12.4 million -- not so bad for a film that scores a dismal 7 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Fourth place went to "Girls Trip" from Universal, at $11.4 million. The raunchy comedy, about the misadventures of a group of lifelong friends who travel to New Orleans for a music festival, stars Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith.

In fifth was Aviron's thriller "Kidnap," at $10.2 million. Halle Berry plays a mother who will do anything to get her kidnapped son back. 

Rounding out the top 10 were: 

"Spider-Man: Homecoming" ($8.8 million)

"Atomic Blonde" ($8.2 million)

"Detroit" ($7.2 million)

"War for the Planet of the Apes" ($6.0 million

"Despicable Me 3" ($5.3 million)

Source: AFP