Box Office: G.I. Joe: Retaliation Wins, Tyler Perry's Temptation Goes Big, Stephenie Meyer's The Host Gets Lost

Action sequel, yanked from 2012 summer season, saves face with $41.2 million Friday-Sunday; The Host left buried behind Perry's bigger-than-expected drama

G.I. Joe: Retaliation saved face at the weekend box office, grossing an estimated $41.2 million from Friday-Sunday, and $51.7 million since opening Thursday.

Tyler Perry's latest, Temptation, got off to big start, as did Ryan Gosling's and Bradley Cooper's indie drama The Place Beyond the Pines, which debuted in limited release.

The Host, the first post-Twilight tale from the library of Stephenie Meyer, disappointed with an $11 million start. 

For Retaliation, which featured Channing Tatum, who headlined the toy-based franchise's first film, but stars Dwayne Johnson, the debut avoids the John Carter and Battleship belly flops its studio seemed to be fearing when it yanked the big-budget sequel from the Summer 2012 movie calendar, ostensibly to retool it in 3-D.

With an additional $80.3 million coming in from overseas this weekend, Retaliation posted the year's biggest worldwide debut, per Hollywood.com: $132 million.

Domestically, Retaliation remains a step down from its 2009 predessor, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which took in $54.7 million in three days, and without 3-D-boosted ticket prices.

Temptation, meanwhile, was a step up for Perry, who needed a boost after the thriller Alex Cross and his own Good Deeds.

With a bigger-than-projected $22.3 million debut, Temptation is Perry's second-biggest opening non-Madea movie after the sequel Why Did I Get Married Too?

Gosling and Cooper scored big in New York and Los Angeles, where their Place Beyond the Pines averaged a whopping $67,546 at four theaters.

Elsewhere, last weekend's No. 1 film The Croods held great even as it slipped to No. 2. Meanwhile, Oz the Great and Powerful neared $200 million domestically, and The Host got buried, debuting in sixth place, failing to meet modest expectations and earning a soft B-minus CinemaScore from opening-weekend audiences.

Meyer remained a booster of her sci-fi romance. "The Host…," she tweeted Saturday. "I loved the entire production… The film: is perfect."

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday studio estimates and stats as compiled by Exhibitor Relations.

1. G.I. Joe: Retaliation, $41.2 million
2. The Croods, $26.5 million
3. Tyler Perry's Temptation, $22.3 million
4. Olympus Has Fallen, $14 million
5. Oz the Great and Powerful, $11.6 million
6. The Host, $11 million
7. The Call, $4.8 million
8. Admission, $3.3 million
9. Spring Breakers, $2.8 million
10. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, $1.3 million