Los Angeles, California - Animated comedy Despicable Me 4 held on to the top spot in the North American box office this weekend with an impressive $44.7 million take, movie industry watcher Exhibitor Relations estimated Sunday.

That brought total ticket sales for Universal Pictures' latest Minions-universe release to $211.1 million in the US and Canada since its release last weekend. Will Ferrell joins the voice cast this time as aptly named supervillain Maxime Le Mal.

Overall, the Despicable Me/Minions franchise has crossed the $5 billion mark in global ticket sales, the Hollywood Reporter said.

Meanwhile, Longlegs from indie studio Neon rode excellent reviews and a potent viral marketing campaign to an unexpectedly strong second-place opening.

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The horror mystery took in $22.6 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, a "phenomenal" opening for the genre and Neon's best-ever result, Variety said.

Critics compared the marketing campaign for the film to the highly successful launch of 1999 cult hit The Blair Witch Project. Neon crafted a 1990s-style website and offered fans a phone number to call to hear a creepy message from Nicolas Cage, who stars in the tale of an FBI agent tracking a serial killer.

Last weekend's number two film, Disney and Pixar's Inside Out 2 slipped a spot, with ticket sales of $20.7 million. The coming-of-age film has now taken in $572.6 million domestically and an additional $777 million globally.

In fourth, also down one spot, was Paramount's apocalyptic horror film A Quiet Place: Day One, at $11.8 million. This third installment in the series stars Lupita Nyong'o as a seriously ill woman in New York invaded by extraterrestrial creatures with frighteningly keen hearing.

And in fifth was new Sony rom-com Fly Me to the Moon. Its $10 million take was considered disappointing for a big-budget film starring the likes of Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson – who play a NASA official and a marketing guru during the Apollo 11 mission – but Apple TV+ expects a boost when it streams the film.