Mel Gibson crop circle chiller Signs has returned to the top of the North American box office over the weekend, after three new releases failed to make an impact.

Signs, the latest film from Sixth Sense director M Night Shyamalan, stars Gibson as a clergyman whose family is plagued by crop circles and other unexplained events.

It took $14.4m (�9.5m) this weekend, bringing its overall total to $173.2m (�112.6m) in four weeks on release.

The Vin Diesel action thriller XXX, which has spent the last fortnight in pole position, and which originally knocked Signs from the top spot, fell to number two with $13.7m (�8.9m). It has made $106.7m (�69.4m) in total.

Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams rose to number three, while surprise hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding climbed to number four, its highest position in the top 10 so far.

US/Canada top 10

1 Signs - $14.3m 2 XXX - $13.7m 3 Spy Kids 2 - $7.8m 4 My Big Fat Greek Wedding - $7.5m 5 Blue Crush - $6.5m 6 Serving Sara - $6.0m 7 Goldmember - $5.6 8 Undisputed - $4.7m 9 S1mone - $4.0m 10 Blood Work - $2.8m Source: Exhibitor Relations

The low-budget comedy was released 19 weeks ago and has made over $64m (�41m) - more than some of the summer's high profile blockbusters.

The highest new entry in the charts was Serving Sara, a romantic comedy starring Liz Hurley and Matthew Perry, which debuted at number six with $6.1m (�3.9m).

A spokesman for Paramount, who made the film, admitted the studio was "disappointed" with its performance.

The week's other two new releases also struggled to make an impression.

Boxing drama Undisputed, starring Wesley Snipes, made $4.7m (�3.0m), while S1mone, a comedy about a film producer (Al Pacino) who casts a computer-generated actress in his latest movie, made just $4.0m (�2.6m).

However, both fared better than the Eddie Murphy comedy Pluto Nash which dropped out of the top ten in its second week at cinemas.

Although it cost around $100m to make the film has made just $3.8m (�2.4m) to date, making it one of the biggest flops in years. It opens in the UK this Friday.

XXX knocked Signs off the top of the box office

With no major new releases scheduled for next week, Signs and XXX are likely to maintain their grip on the box office.

September and October are traditionally quiet months, before the winter blockbuster season begins in November.