"The Bourne Legacy" bested "The Dark Knight Rises" at the box office this past weekend, despite the Batman film's four week reign in the no. 1 spot. Christopher Nolan's third and final film in his retelling of the classic DC superhero's story came in third, behind "Bourne" and the political comedy "The Campaign."

Over the July 20 weekend, "The Dark Knight Rises" opened to a gross of $160.8 million, coming down to $19.54 million this past weekend, reports Box Office Mojo. "The Bourne Legacy" earned itself $40.27 million, down from "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum" opening weekends of $52.5 million and $69.3 million respectively, and "The Campaign" made an estimated $27.4 million.

Box Office Mojo noted that the decline in gross for the latest "Bourne" installment fits the box office standard for reboot opening weekends. "X-Men: First Class" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" dropped by 53 and 30 percent respectively from "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "Spider-Man 3."

"The Bourne Legacy" had a difficult task in making audiences accept Jeremy Renner in the leading role of a "Bourne" film. The three films in the series before it all starred Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, but now the reboot is focusing on others who are a part of the same program.

Marketing teams for the film pushed the notion that this was a continuation of the Damon franchise by showing clips from previous films and mentioning Jason Bourne in the trailer. "There Was Never Just One" became the main tagline for the film.

The strategy worked and the film came in first this week, with a strong lead over "The Campaign." Zack Galifianakis and Will Ferrell's film had a modest draw behind "Bourne" and above Batman, possibly do to the buzz surrounding this November's presidential election.

This year's campaigns are intensifying with Republican nominee Mitt Romney selecting Rep. Paul Ryan as his potential Vice President, last week. The campaign will only get more press as it moves from this point, so this past weekend was an optimal time for "The Campaign" to come out.

If the film follows usual home video trends, "The Campaign" should be released on Blu-Ray, DVD and On Demand services around Election Day. Video ETA estimates a Dec. 2012 release, but the film could easily be pushed to coincide with the presidential election.

Coming in fourth this weekend was "Hope Floats." The romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell and Elisabeth Shue made $15.6 million, just shy of what "The Dark Knight Rises" earned.

Next came "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" with $8.2 million and the "Total Recall" reboot with $8.1 million. "Nitro Circus The Movie 3D" lingered behind with $1.17, only making $2.1 million over its five day theater run.