'Eagle Eye' soars to No. 1 at box office with $29M

The Paramount-DreamWorks release was the second No. 1 premiere for LaBeouf and director D.J. Caruso, who also teamed on 2007's hit "Disturbia."

Opening in second place with $13.6 million was another reunion, the Warner Bros. romantic drama "Nights in Rodanthe" featuring "The Cotton Club" and "Unfaithful" co-stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane.

The previous weekend's top flick, Sony's thriller "Lakeview Terrace," slipped to No. 3 with $7 million, raising its 10-day total to $25.7 million.

The Samuel Goldwyn release "Fireproof," a Christian drama starring Kirk Cameron as a firefighter who turns to God to help save his marriage, premiered in fourth-place with $6.5 million.

"Eagle Eye" helped pull Hollywood out of the box-office doldrums that have lingered the last two months. The top 12 movies took in $87.8 million, up 15 percent from the same weekend last year.

"You put a summer-style movie in the heart of the fall, and you can take advantage of the marketplace," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

Spike Lee's World War II drama "Miracle at St. Anna" opened weakly with $3.5 million, coming in at No. 9. The Disney release features Derek Luke in a saga of four soldiers from an all-black unit stuck behind enemy lines in Italy.

Two other movies--Fox Searchlight's "Choke" and Lionsgate's "The Lucky Ones"--opened in narrower release of about 400 theaters each, compared to 3,510 cinemas for "Eagle Eye."

"Choke," starring Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston in a quirky tale of a sex addict who feigns choking in restaurants to get money for his mom's psychiatric care, opened outside the top 10 with $1.3 million.