The top-grossing movie for the past weekend was not a newcomer, but no one expected that it would be. Walt Disney Co.’s (NYSE: DIS) “Guardians of the Galaxy” won the box office sweepstakes for Buena Vista Studios for the weekend with estimated ticket sales of $17.6 million. The movie is now the second-highest earning movie of the year, behind only “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” from Disney’s Marvel Studios.

“Guardians” is expected to pass “Captain America” in total receipts later this week. So far the Buena Vista picture has grossed more than $251 million, compared with about $260 million for “Captain America.”

The second-best grossing film of the weekend was “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” from Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB) and Paramount Studios. The turtles hauled in an estimated $16.8 million for the weekend and have posted a three-week total gross box office of $145.6 million.

“If I Stay” was the top-grossing new movie, and it finished at number three with a total of $16.35 million. The Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) film from Warner Bros. studios was expected to post box office receipts of around $21.5 million. Box Office Mojo expects the young-adult film to top out its theatrical run with about $40 million in ticket sales.

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The number four ranked movie for the weekend was “Let’s Be Cops,” which sold an estimated $11 million in tickets on its second weekend. The Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NASDAQ: FOXA) production has earned $45.25 million in its first two weeks of release.

Rounding out the top five was the second new weekend movie, “When the Game Stands Tall” from Sony Corp.’s (NYSE: SNE) TriStar studio, which grossed an estimated $9 million on its opening weekend. The high-school football movie opened on 2,673 screens and hit its pre-opening ticket-sales estimate right on the nose.

The one big disappointment for the weekend has to be The Weinstein Company’s “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” which managed just $6.5 million in ticket sales. The nine-year delay between the original movie and its first sequel was simply too long to get any benefit from the glow of the original.

Two movies are scheduled to open this week for the final summer weekend: a thriller from Comcast Corp.’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Universal studios called “As Above/So Below” and “The November Man” from Relativity Media, starring Pierce Brosnan, which opens on Wednesday.

Receipts are estimates from the studio. Official totals are due out Monday afternoon.

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