A photo from the film " Jackass Number Two"(File Photo)

Young male moviegoers kicked butt at the box office and drove "Jackass Number Two" to No. 1 in North America despite critical praise from major media outlets that had the film's producers worried men under 25 would be turned off.

"The thing that really flipped us out ... was that it got good reviews," said Van Toffler of MTV Networks.

Described by a studio director as "the Three Stooges on steroids," "Jackass" earned 28.1 million U.S. dollars during its first three days to beat a studio target of about 23 million dollars, distributor Paramount Pictures said.

Young dudes also showed up for "Jet Li's Fearless," a martial arts film from Focus Features' Rogue Pictures unit that earned 10.6 million dollars in its first week to grab the No. 2 box office slot.

Last week's No. 1, "Gridiron Gang," brought in 9.7 million dollars in its second week, dropping 33 percent to take the third slot in this week's box office.

Ticket sales year-on-year were up 6 percent and attendance was up 2.9 percent over last year's totals.

Box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations said the top 12 films earned 81.9 million dollars, up 51.7 percent from last weekend, but down 6.8 percent from the year-ago weekend.

Moviegoers stayed away in droves from new releases -- World War I flying adventure "Flyboys," distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Sony Pictures' "All the King's Men," a remake of an Oscar-winning 1949 film based on Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

"Flyboys," the first film released under MGM's new plan to distribute films from other studios instead of investing in its own, finished fourth with 6 million dollars in ticket sales. Producer Dean Devlin had hoped for a 10-million-dollar opening weekend for the film, which cost about 80 million dollars to make. 
   
A disappointing seventh-place was the best "All the King's Men," starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet, could manage after a less-than-enthusiastic reception at the Toronto Film Festival this month. The 3.8 million box-office take was far below industry expectations of an opening gross in the 8 million dollar to 10 million dollar range.

Baseball cartoon "Everyone's Hero" dropped to No. 5 with 4.8 million dollars, and director Brian De Palma's 1940s true crime mystery "The Black Dahlia," distributed by Universal Pictures, plunged from No. 2 last week to sixth place with 4.4 million dollars, a 56 percent decline over last weekend.

Supernatural thriller "The Covenant" slid from No. 4 to No. 8 with 3.3 million dollars. The film was released by Sony Pictures and Screen Gems.

"The Illusionist," a dark tale of magic and romance starring Edward Norton and Jessica Biel, earned 3.28 million dollars  for ninth place, and saw its box office sales drop 10 percent.

Indy darling "Little Miss Sunshine," released by News Corp's Fox Searchlight Pictures, fell two slots to No. 10 with 2.9 million dollars to bring the critically praised film to 50.3 million dollars in cumulative ticket sales.

Editor: Donald