Los Angeles  - A comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as a couple trying to avoid their families at Christmas debuted in first place over the weekend at North American box offices, according to preliminary studio estimates issued Sunday.

For Friday to Sunday, Four Christmases had ticket sales of 31.7 million dollars to top the box-office rankings for the three-day weekend.

Marking the start of the traditional Christmas holiday weekend, it was one of four major films to debut.

Australia, the romantic epic from filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, could reach only fifth place with a three-day gross of 14.8 million dollars, despite the star power of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

The other new films were Transporter 3, the action sequel starring Jason Statham, which was seventh with a haul of 12.3 million dollars, and Milk, the bio-pic about the first gay major of San Francisco, Harvey Milk, played by Sean Penn, which had 1.4 million dollars in revenue. (dpa)