LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Oblivion, a post-apocalyptic action flick starring Tom Cruise, obliterated the competition in its debut this weekend, taking in about $38.2 million, industry estimates showed yesterday.

The film earned more than a third of this weekend’s box office revenue — about 37.41 per cent of ticket sales, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations — as it jettisoned last week’s winner 42 from the top spot.

42, a biopic about trailblazing black baseball star Jackie Robinson, which stars Harrison Ford as the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who signed him, this week came in second place, with $18 million in ticket sales.

Stone-age cartoon The Croods, from DreamWorks Animation, was third with $9.5 million, followed by Scary Movie 5, the latest installment in the slasher-comedy franchise, which earned $6.3 million.

Action sequel GI Joe: Retaliation, was fifth, with $5.8 million.

In sixth place was The Place Beyond the Pines, starring Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, which earned $4.7 million.

Action thriller Olympus Has Fallen, in which terrorists capture the White House and hold the president hostage, was in seventh place with $4.5 million.

Evil Dead — a reinvention of Sam Raimi’s cult 1981 film about a group of friends hunted by demons in the woods — came in eighth with $4.1 million.

The 3D re-release of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 dinosaur classic Jurassic Park took in $1.7 million for ninth place.

Rounding out the top 10 was Walt Disney’s 3D fantasy adventure flick Oz the Great and Powerful, which this weekend earned $3 million for a seven-week total of $224 million.