‘No Good Deed’ knocks ‘Guardians’ from top of box office

LOS ANGELES – It took a murderous Idris Elba and a pair of dolphin buddies to defeat Guardians of the Galaxy at movie theatres.

The thriller No Good Deed, which stars Elba as an escaped convict and Taraji P. Henson as the innocent he terrorizes, opened on top of the box office with $24.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The feel-good film Dolphin Tale 2 debuted in second place with $16.5 million. The family-friendly story stars Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd reprising their roles from the 2011 original.

Guardians slipped to third place with $8 million in ticket sales. The space adventure, which held the No. 1 spot for four weeks, is the top-grossing film of the year domestically, collecting more than $300 million in North America and $600 million worldwide.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles finished fourth with $4.8 million, followed by the comedy Let’s Be Cops, which collected $4.3 million.

Crime drama The Drop, which stars Tom Hardy and the late James Gandolfini, opened in sixth place with $4.2 million — an impressive showing given it only played in 809 theatres.