Los Angeles, Sep 14 (IANS): This weekend's box office race took place between two new opened thrillers, Sony's "The Perfect Guy" and Universal's "The Visit".

"The Perfect Guy" opened in the number one spot at the American box offices this weekend, Xinhua news agency reported.

The $12 million low-budget thriller "Perfect Guy", which starred Sanaa Lathan, Michael Ealy and Morris Chestnut significantly exceeded expectations with $26.7 million in three-day weekend ticket sales.

It is the third film in a row featuring the African American leading cast to take first place at the box office in five weeks started by "Straight Outta Compton" and followed by "War Room".

"Perfect Guy" received an "A" rating from its opening day audience on CinemaScore, while the critics gave it a 31 percent positive rating on RottenTomatoes.

"The Visit" opened in a close second with an estimated $25.7 million weekend premiere, according to studio estimates gathered by industry analysts at Rentrak.

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, "The Visit" cost $5 million to make. The first-night movie goers gave it a "B" rating on CinemaScore.

Audience for "The Visit" skewed towards female moviegoers (60 percent) and slightly towards moviegoers 21 years and older (52 percent). Critics gave it a 62 percent approval rating on TottenTomatoes.

Last weekend's number one film "War Room" was in third place in its third week of exhibition, with a $7.4 million estimated weekend take.

Rounding out the rest top 10 movies in the US were "A Walk In The Woods" ($4.7 million), "Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation" ($4.2 million), "Straight Outta Compton" ($4 million), "No Escape" ($2.9 million), "Transporter Refueled" ($2.7 million), "90 Minutes In Heaven" ($2.2 million) and "Un Gallo Con Muchos Huevos" ($1.9 million).