The weekend box office title landed securely in Denzel Washington's hands as his thriller, “Safe House,” beat love story “The Vow” over a long US holiday weekend. “Safe House” took in $28.4 million at US and Canadian theaters from Friday through Monday, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters. That lifted the movie to No. 1 from its second-place finish when it opened a week earlier. “The Vow,” last weekend's winner, slipped to second place with $26.6 million over the four days. The strong performances helped bring Hollywood another winning weekend as 2012 has bolted to a fast start following a 3.4 percent slump in domestic box office receipts last year. North American (US and Canadian) ticket sales for all of movies rose 10.5 percent from the same weekend a year ago to $192 million, according to the box office division of Hollywood.com.
