Action movie GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra debuted¹ at number one on the North American box office chart, taking $56.2m (£33.8m) in its first weekend.

动作电影GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra在北美市场首次公映，第一周末票房收入达到562万美元。

GI Joe is hot on the heels of another toy-based film, the Tranformers sequel

The film, based on the US version of the toy figure Action Man, stars Dennis Quaid and Sienna Miller².

Meryl Streep film Julie and Julia entered the chart at number two, with box office receipts（单据，进款） of $20.1m (£12.1m).

Last week's number one, Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan's Funny People, dropped to number five.

G-Force held firm at number three, while Harry³ Potter and the Half-Blood Prince dropped to four from number two.

Paramount⁴ decided⁵ not to allow critics to see GI Joe before its general release, mainly because of the poor reviews for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earlier in the year.

Despite that, it went on to make over $400m (£240m) at the North American box office.

"The thing we saw from Transformers is that with these kind of movies, at times critics have a hard time getting their arms around them," said Rob Moore, Paramount vice⁶ chairman.

"But the audience got exactly what it was. A fun summer movie."

Julie and Julia, based on two memoirs⁷, stars Streep as celebrated⁸ chef Julia Child and Amy Adams as a woman who uses Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking to improve her life.

The only other new entry was thriller⁹ A Perfect Gateway¹⁰ starring Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich at number seven.

Summer box office receipts are down by 1% on the same period last year.