Clint Eastwood's Jersey Boys fails to top box office

Eastwood chose a largely unknown cast for Jersey Boys

Clint Eastwood's film adaptation of hit musical Jersey Boys has only managed to debut at number four at the North American box office.

Kevin Hart comedy Think Like A Man Too topped the box office chart.

Eastwood's film, about Frankie Valli's group, based on the Tony award-winning musical, took just $13.5m (£7.9m) over the weekend.

It featured a mainly unknown cast aside from Christopher Walken and got mixed reviews.

Las Vegas ensemble movie Think Like a Man Too took $30m (£17.6m) in a slow weekend, narrowly beating 22 Jump Street, which took $29m (£17m) in its second week of release.

Dreamworks' animated sequel How To Train Your Dragon 2 slipped to third spot with $25.3m (£14.8m), ensuring that the weekend's top three were all sequels.

Think Like A Man Too only managed to get a 22% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes review site but that did not stop fans flocking to the cinema.

Kevin Hart has been box office gold this year

Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak, said its success was down to Hart, despite the fact it is an ensemble film.

It is the comedian's third film this year to open with $25m, following Ride Along and About Last Night.

"He's a bona fide movie star," Dergarabedian said.

"He's versatile, he's so well liked and he's super funny. Talking about what actors are bankable and consistent, he's right there in that group."

Jersey Boys won the Tony award for best musical in 2006, and productions of it have played all over the world, including in London's West End.

'Contrived, cheesy and cliched'

Nearly three-quarters of the first-weekend audience for Jersey Boys were over the age of 50, so producers will be hoping the film will be popular for a few weeks - older audiences tend not to rush out to catch a film on its opening weekend.

Time's Richard Corliss called the film "a turgid botch," while Claudia Puig of USA Today wrote: "What was blandly charming on stage - characters addressing the audience, ultra-broad jokes and showbiz patter - feels contrived, cheesy and cliched on screen."

But it had a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so fared better with critics than Think Like A Man Too.

Angelina Jolie's live action fairytale Maleficent, rounded out the top five.

It passed the $500m (£293m) over the weekend at the international box office, making it Jolie's highest-grossing live-action film of all time, not accounting for inflation, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Her previous box office record was Mr & Mrs Smith opposite her Brad Pitt, who is now her fiance, which took $478.2 million in 2005.