Paltrow and Law first acted together in The Talented Mr Ripley

The sci-fi film stars Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow and its entire set was produced using computer graphics.

It sees the two lead stars battle giant robots which threaten to destroy 1930s New York.

The film took $16.2m while another new release, baseball movie Mr 3000 took $9.2m and Resident Evil took $9m.

Sky Captain's publicists said the film did as well as expected, despite September historically being a slow month for sales and hurricanes on the East Coast dampening sales.

US/ CANADA TOP FIVE 1. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow 2. Mr 3000 3. Resident Evil: Apocalypse (above) 4. Wimbledon 5. Cellular Source: Exhibitor Relations

But Resident Evil's sales were down 61% from last week, while romantic comedy Wimbledon, starring Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany as tennis players who fall for each other, came fourth with $7.8m (�4.3m).

Cellular, a thriller starring Kim Basinger, fell three places to number five, with $6.9m (�3.8m) in takings.

The other films had relatively modest sales, with male-bonding comedy Without a Paddle falling three to number six with $3.7m (�2m) and Chinese martial arts tale Hero was just behind with $3m (�1.6m).