GI Joe commands No 1 at US box office G.I. Joe: Retaliation is No.1 at the US box office earning $US41 million for its opening weekend. AFTER a nine-month delay, GI Joe: Retaliation deployed to the top spot at the box office. The action film starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum as the gun-toting military toys brought to life marched into the No. 1 position at the weekend box office, earning $US41.2 million ($A39.64 million), according to studio estimates Sunday. Retaliation opened Wednesday at midnight, which helped bring its domestic total to $US51.7 million. Paramount postponed the sequel to 2009's GI Joe: Rise of Cobra last May from its original June opening date to convert the film to 3-D. The last-minute change came just weeks after Battleship, another movie based on a Hasbro toy, sank at the box office. At that time, Paramount had already begun its advertising campaign for Retaliation. "It certainly vindicates the decision," said Don Harris, the studio's head of distribution. Any time you make those sorts of moves, people always assume the worst. The truth is I'd seen this movie a long time ago in 2D, and the movie worked in 2D. It's not trying to be Schindler's List. This movie is intended to be enjoyed as a big, action spectacle. Internationally, Harris said Retaliation earned $US80.3 million, making it the biggest international opening of the year. The film opened in 53 markets outside of the US and Canada, including Russia, South Korea and Mexico. After debuting in the top spot last weekend, the 3D animated prehistoric comedy The Croods from DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox slipped to the No. 2 spot with $US26.5 million in its second weekend. The film features the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Catherine Keener as a cave family on the hunt for a new home. Among the other new films this weekend, Tyler Perry's Temptation starring Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Lance Gross opened above expectations at No. 3 with $US22.3 million, while the science-fiction adaptation The Host featuring Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, and Jake Abel as characters from the Stephenie Meyer novel landed at No. 6 in its debut weekend with a modest $US11 million.