Celebrity Gossip's

Sex and the City," the long-awaited romantic comedy based on the HBO series of the same name, opened in the top spot at the box office in North America with better-than-expected weekend sales of $55.7 million, distributor Warner Bros. Pictures said on Sunday.

Coming to theaters four years after they ended their six-season run on the small screen, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and pals unleashed a frenzy among the show's fans, who organized "girls' nights out" to catch up with their heroines' exploits.

Going into the weekend, the Time Warner Inc-owned studio had expected the film to earn $25 million to $35 million for the three-day period.

The picture crushed "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which observers had assumed would whip up a second weekend in first place. Instead, the Paramount Pictures adventure was a distant No. 2 with $46.0 million; it has earned $216.9 million since opening on May 22.

The Rogue Pictures horror film "The Strangers" kicked off at No. 3 with $20.7 million, also surpassing predictions.

Paramount is a unit of Viacom Inc. Rogue is a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal.